If you’re doing your best to eat a whole foods diet, you may notice you spend a good deal of time in the kitchen.
The vegetable chopping alone can become a time suck as bad as social media. 
And then there’s the dishes – our kitchen can have a formidable pile that screams, “You won’t have time to watch the telly tonight!”
It really does that. In a mean voice.
With all the time invested, sometimes whole food cooks have to get creative with their multitasking.
For example, how about exercising in the kitchen?
While rolling out homemade tortillas and kneading bread dough definitely gets your muscles moving, you can also make a conscious effort to add value to your time at the cutting board and kitchen sink.
Do your dishes ab routine.
Dishes cleanup is the perfect time to do what my mom calls “vertical sit-ups.”
Basically that just means keeping your abdominal area tight and pulling up toward the chest cavity. Anytime you’re standing at a counter working, focus on your core and straighten everything up as if there’s a string pulling the crown of your
head to the ceiling.
I also try to do one of two things with my feet, more to avoid back pain than to tone.
1. When I did a yoga class a few years back, the teacher explained that when you stand up, you want to balance the “four corners of the feet”. When I do dishes, if I concentrate on making both balls and heels of my feet flat and evenly balanced, about shoulder or hip width apart, it helps the rest of my posture all the way up to my neck.
2. The other posture option I use is one that was on my prenatal exercises sheet, and my friend who is a physical therapist confirms that it is a helpful, ergonomic posture. Open the cupboard door and put one foot up on the ledge of the cupboard.
I like to switch feet from time to time to stay balanced. This one makes my hips feel better if I’m doing a lot of standing.
You’d be surprised at the tone you can gain just by good posture, and the kitchen counter is a great place to practice!