Having spent a small fortune on various pieces of exercise equipment only to watch them gather dust, laundry and pet hair, I’ve decided I’m not spending a dime on that sort of stuff this year. Not one dime. Instead, I’m hopping on the “re-purpose, recycle, re-use” band wagon by turning household junk into exercise equipment. Sure, it makes my exercise area look a little junky, but so do the piles of potato chip wrappers that sat on my treadmill over the holidays.

Some of the stuff I’m using:

• Old water bottles – Although I stopped buying bottled water, I hadn’t yet taken the empties down to the recycling center. Last week I grabbed a pair and filled them with rice for instant 2 lb. hand weights which comfortably fit my hand.
• A hard-sided suitcase – After reading that I can burn close to 500 calories while watching TV by doing step exercises, I decided to try working step exercise in throughout my workday, too. So I grabbed my old Samsonite suitcase — which is currently filled with books — and have been using it as an exercise step in my office. (Of course, this won’t work if you’ve got soft-sided stuff like Swiss Army luggage).
• My son’s beach ball – Five minutes squeezing this thing between my knees while working at my desk gives a major inner thigh workout!
• My cat – As anyone owned by cats knows, they want to be in the middle of whatever you’re doing. After nearly hurting myself hurdling over my cat repeatedly, I decided to work with this habit of his, particularly when I’m doing more challenging yoga poses. Just knowing that I’m likely to squash my furry best friend, who loves to lay on the floor beneath me while I do the bridge pose, gives me a serious incentive not to wimp out.