Humor is healthy … and laughter burns calories.

Runners and other endurance athletes may not count calories as closely as those who try to maintain or lose weight without such rigorous exercise. After all, we’re burning an average of 100 calories per mile. When we complete difficult trail races, obstacle runs, or marathons, we often don’t even care about calories. We’re simply replenishing.

But we still consider calories most of the time, even if we’re not keeping precise calculations. Most of our mathematical focus tends to be on our mileage, time splits, and quests for personal records.

I just returned from a marathon weekend with a wonderful bunch of running teammates / friends. Our races were difficult. The race courses were extremely hilly, and the weather was wintry (especially for April). But we all PRed. That was awesome.

During the course of the weekend (including the travel to and from the race city), we easily did as much laughing as running. Maybe more.

Just for fun, I looked up how many calories a person burns while laughing. It’s about as much as a 10-minute-per-mile runner burns by clocking a half a mile. Ten minutes of laughter burn about 50 calories. So that’s a plus.

Now I am hungrier than ever.

And I am playing catch-up for the April A to Z Blogging Challenge. So here’s the “Running Quotes by Non-Runners” citation I picked for H-Day:

 

“Laughter is inner jogging.” Norman Cousins (1915-1990)

Norman Cousins was a journalist, educator, and political activist. He lived a full decade after suffering a heart attack and three and a half decades after being diagnosed his heart disease. Perhaps Cousins knew what he was talking about, when he compared laughing to jogging.

Images:

Title image created by this user with public domain art.

Quotation Graphic created by this user with public domain photo.

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