Thanksgiving may be the biggest cheat day of the year so we can't feel too guilty. The exercise gods, and by this I mean Cosmopolitan, have answered our prayers by providing 10 activities you can do on Thanksgiving Day to help burn calories. Although they may seem silly these activities are mindless and don't involve any heavy cardio. So reach for that second helping and incorporate some of the following calorie-burning activities into your Thanksgiving day.
1. Yogic Stretching
Gather your family members and engage in some simple yogic stretches that can burn up to 149 calories in 30 minutes. This is a great way to ease the food coma and let your body digest.
2. Walking The Dog
At a brisk pace take a 30 minute walk with your dog to beat the November cold and walk off some of the food you've eaten. Walking your dog can burn up to 167 calories every 30 minutes.
3. Sleeping
Why do we get so tired after we eat? The post-meal feeling known as a "food coma" is actually your body working to digest, oxygenate your blood and keeping your heart beating. Sleeping burns approximately 23 calories every 30 minutes.
4. Watching TV
"Get off your butt you couch potato!" Not this Thanksgiving. Watching parades, football or those embarrassing old home family videos can help you burn 28 calories every 30 minutes.
5. Reading
Working your muscles as you turn the pages an hold your book up can help you burn calories. Approximately 42 calories every 30 minutes, keep turning those pages.
6. Cooking
There are so many benefits to cooking: 1) Food comes out faster 2) Lending a helping hand 3) Burn calories (92 every 30 minutes). Constantly moving around, walking and lifting pots and pans gives your body a small workout.
7. Playing with little cousins
Little kids are so cute but also so exhausting. Playing games like tag, hide-and-go-seek, or braving the brisk weather outside is a great way to get some exercise in on Thanksgiving. Calorie burn depends on the amount of activity you are doing but it is estimated you will burn 192 calories in 30 minutes.
8. Lifting and rearranging furniture to fit everyone
Do you even lift Uncle Brian? Rearranging, lifting or moving chairs or tables is a mini workout that can burn 292 calories every 30 minutes. (Again, this activity calorie's burn is dependent on the amount of work you do.)
9. Cleaning the house
Whether it was scrubbing and vacuuming to prepare for all your guests or wiping cranberry stains off the table, cleaning is a great way to be active and burn calories on Thanksgiving. If you're an avid "cleaner upper" you're burning about 167 calories in 30 minutes.
10. Scrolling through your phone
Perhaps the most mindless activity of all, scrolling through your phone requires the use of your wrists, hands, and fingers for a grand total of 51 calories burned in 30 minutes. So definitely post that cute family pic on Instagram.