Former “chubster” Martin Cizmar offers these tips on How to Work Out Without Looking Like a Tool:
Always take the stairs. “It’s pretty easy to commit to never riding an elevator or escalator again.” He also recommends volunteering your help when your friends move, becoming the office go-fer to pick up off-site coffee, walkng the dog and energetically cleaning your residence (including the windows) once a week.
Walk whenever you can. “Always an easy, low-impact way to go. Also, it doesn’t really look like you’re in the middle of a sweaty workout, so you can get some exercise in while wearing jeans, leaving the people you pass to think you’re simply in a hurry to get somewhere,” he writes.
Stand at concerts. “You would probably burn 200 calories over the course of a four-hour concert. Not bad, right? So stand for the show — it’s more rock ‘n’ roll, anyway.”
Fidget. Cizmar endorses the nervous tics that drive everyone else crazy: Pacing, tapping your toe, wiggling a foot, slicking your pen. He cites endocrinologist James Levine’s Science magazine article on non-exercise activity thermogenesis: Fidgeters burn an extra 350 calories a day.
Claire Martin
