I'm carrying a brick in my backpack now.

Haha, not sure about lugging around a car, but I think I can manage a 2nd or 3rd brick if I keep walking every day until the extreme cold hits.

Day 2 of walking with my brick, legs semi-sore, feet sore, but my shoulders feels great. No neck pain. I think it's tougher on my legs because i am still overweight and my brick is kinda adding to the weight. So I guess I'll just stick with the one brick for a good few months. I'm also sweating a lot especially in my back.

You can sneak those squats in at the store, checking out the stuff on the bottom shelves as that is where they put less expensive stuff. Name brand goes at eye level.

Oh hey, that sounds good, I'll do that! (just as long as I don't rip out a fart, though! )

Oh, I do take some breaks, like I'll take it off and carry it in my hands when I'm in a small store, or in the grocery cart at the grocery store, even it's it's just a few items I"m picking up. That's a good idea, to stop and do a couple of squats - I'll do that when I'm walking through the wooded pathway so that nobody would think i'm a lunatic

If you do go down that route you might have a really sore neck (the back part) plus sore shoulders for the first month or so, but it'll be easier. My body is used to carrying weights as I been lugging around heavy books in school, then groceries to my backpack brim from time to time while walking at least a kilometre, and when I was single and going to food banks, I had a really hard time carrying my food home in a backpack and a duffle bag. My body's naturally stronger than average anyway, so that's probably why I can tolerate it more.

Hmm...I might even pretty up my brick, too, make a lovely fabric covering for it :-D hehehe

That's really encouraging to hear that you got stronger as well. I hope that I'll also get stronger so that my husband would actually notice it. :-)

I been doing it on a regular basis, but I took a small break yesterday so that I can let my muscles rebuild. Plus it was super-hot yesterday, too. I think I'll put the brick back into my backpack today

Hi, thanks for the warning, but I'm wondering if you can elaborate on how it can cause complications? My brick is only about 2kg.

I try to walk every day to my destinations so that I can become fit yet accomplish my errands at the same time.

Yeap, I just came back home and I'm sweating like a pig! Hubby says it's a good sign that my back is sweating, that means i'm burning off the fat, which is good. Hmm, sore? I know I used to sleep a lot and I'd get headaches from sleeping too much, I mean that's what happened to me especially in my deep depression period. But where are you sore? I also was very sore in my lower back, to the point where I was bedridden for a day at a time, sometimes 2 days, and was on prescription painkillers and muscle relaxants. I got so fed up with the medication putting me to sleep artifically that I spoke to my doctor and asked her if I could do something else, and she referred me to physiotheraphy. It turned out that my stomach muscles were quite weak, and that my back muscles were strained from doing all the work of supporting my whole trunk.

To be honest, the conveniences in the western world tend to make us lazy and unfit/unhealthy, and I'd rather do more work than most people here in North America like you Easterners do. I just came back from a round trip to the bank and back to home, and found it isn't very heavy at all, as I thought it would be. I did sweat a lot in the back, though, which Hubby said it's a great sign I'm the way to weight loss.

Might not be a bad idea to use it for protection! But no, it's not allowed in Canada to carry a concealed weapon. But anyway, you do have a point, and I should use Hubby's dumbbells - they're 5kg each, which is good for my strength. I'm pretty strong anyway, but it's good to tone up my flabby muscles :-)

Actually, it's funny that you said that because I was thinking of the same thing. I just came back from a round trip to the bank and back home again, I was sweating in the back a lot, which is a good sign for weight loss, but I didn't find the bag as heavy as I expected it to feel. I know I'm going to have to find another old brick somewhere soon.

Thanks for the advise, I know to keep a variation in my movements, but it is working my leg muscles as well as my shoulder muscles. I'm also doing some Pilates, but will be doing Pilates every day my kids go to school when school begins again in September. I definitely won't be carrying my brick while biking, though.