NEAT!

NEAT: Non-exercise activity thermogenesis:

Commonly defined as "the energy expended for everything we do that is not sleeping, eating, or sports-like exercise."

Recognized by researchers as a key factor in avoiding excess fat gain.

This, my friends, is our CSPP secret for staying so lean and lithe, or something like that, ha ha ha. (Please disregard my currently burgeoning waistline for the purposes of this post. Actually, please just disregard it altogether.)

Think about it: we get NEAT points for running through grocery store aisles, chasing down children as we throw things into the cart! For hauling toddlers around on hips! For washing dishes and sweeping floors! For bending over to secure countless pairs of shoes!

NEAT also helps me understand how the boys at my table can consume such astounding quantities of food and not be part of the childhood obesity epidemic we all hear so much about. They just don't sit still--EVER! And fidgeting is sooo NEAT. Is anyone else amazed at the number of ways a preschool boy, without even trying, can find to "sit" in a chair? (Maybe girls too, but I've got less experience in that department.)