If you noticed the phenomenal weather in and around St. Louis this weekend, you may be dreaming of all the shorts, sandals and sun in the upcoming weeks. I spent Sunday playing tennis and going for a long walk before I chained myself to my usual Sunday cleaning. Our gym has been overcrowded the last two months and I’m looking forward to it weeding out as the weather continues to warm up and people start getting their physical activities done outside, rather than inside under artificial lights.

I also have found that a lot of people don’t understand the importance of being physically active. Other than burning calories and helping maintain weight, physical activity generally puts me in a good mood. Physical activity doesn’t have to mean running or playing basketball though. Raking leaves, planting in a garden, and just running around the yard with your kids (or dogs) burns plenty of calories. Here’s a look at how to burn calories in without the traditional workout.

According to the 2008 numbers from the National Center of Health Statistics, the average American woman is just over 5’3″ and weighs 163 pounds. These statistics were taken for women ages 20 and older, so there are no highly active teenagers in there to throw off the averages. Using the average American woman’s weight, here’s what you can burn while doing the following activities for 40 minutes:

Leisure croquet: 145
Fishing: 149
Frisbee catch: 149
Carrying an infant: 182
Paddle boating: 195
Playing with kids: 195
Raking lawn: 195
Push mowing the lawn: 215
Washing your car: 221
Leisure canoeing: 221
Kayaking: 247
Cleaning gutters: 260
Gardening: 267
Hiking: 293
Rearranging furniture: 326
Backpacking: 345
Jogging: 345
Jump Roping: 495

Depending on who you talk to, it’s generally recommended for people to do 30 to 40 minutes of cardio activity daily to stay fit. As spring cleaning starts to approach (cleaning for 40 minutes burns around 150 calories!) and as we start going outside, there are plenty of ways to burn off calories without setting foot in a gym and while enjoying the fresh spring air.

Around St. Louis, you could paddle boat at Forest Park, hike at Castlewood State Park, or start working in your garden and get your cardio activity in while getting outside of your house. Maybe even steal your kid’s jump rope for a 20 minutes and toast off 250 calories and feel like a kid again. Hey, 250 calories is equivalent to 3.3 Samoas.

Keep in mind that the more you weigh, the more calories you burn during any kind of work out because your body is working harder against its own weight. These counts are all estimates and will more than likely differ for everyone. As always, it’s smart to consult with your doctor before you start a new work out routine. But, I bet you didn’t realize you were burning close to 200 calories while carrying your 8 month old around Target!

Image Credit: Prevention.com

Annie is the Sports and Fitness Editor for Girls Guide. She writes about all kinds of sports related topics and then really goes out and plays sports almost every evening. You can contact Annie by emailing her at annie [at] girlsguidetothegalaxy [dot] com, and we are still trying to talk her into getting a Twitter account – no success yet.