New Year’s has long passed, and your resolutions have gone the way of the dinosaurs (too bad you can’t blame that on a giant meteor). Why? It’s really hard to stay motivated during ice cream season. That’s why we’re giving you 100 creative ways to help you shrink your muffin top. Do five of them a day and you can lose half a kilo a week. Hey, you’ve already burned eight kilojoules reading this far. See how easy that was?

1. Slather on lip balm 765 times.

2. Relive the Eighties. Lip-sync George Michael’s “Faith” 16 times.

3. Record an episode of The Office and watch it advert free. (Ten straight minutes of laughter can burn 170kJ – no joke.)

4. Watch the documentary An Inconvenient Truth. (Serious stuff doesn’t scorch as many.)

5. Wiggle while you watch for 40 minutes: fidgeters burn up to 1 500 more kilojoules a day than couch potatoes.

6. Get off your ass 33 times to change the channel.

7. Use the remote to channel surf for 68 minutes.

8. Surf for real for 34 minutes.

9. Fly a kite for 20 minutes.

10. Play beach volleyball for 13 minutes.

11-20 ways to cut kilojoules

11. Bounce the ball on your knee 600 times.

12. Spend 17 minutes wrestling the beach ball away from your boyfriend.

13. Carry a cooler bag stocked with three bottles of water, a six-pack, four sandwiches, two oranges, a bag of chips and 12 servings of salsa for 22 minutes.

14. Find the perfect teeny-weeny polka-dot bikini: try on 16 suits (one every three minutes).

15. Polka for real for 23 minutes.

16. Do the horizontal polka missionary-style for an hour and seven minutes.

17. Spice things up with 35 minutes of foreplay and 45 minutes of sex in different positions.

18. Ride him like a cowgirl for 26 minutes (straddling requires more kilojoule-burning leg work).

19. Swing a lasso over your head 375 times.

20. Milk a cow for 34 minutes.

21-30 ways to cut kilojoules

21. Shear three sheep (six minutes per sheep).

22. Fish for 41 minutes.

23. Make like a fish and swim at a leisurely pace for 17 minutes.

24. Do 250 breaststrokes (about 10 minutes).

25. Indulge your inner dork and do 27 underwater handstands.

26. Doggy-paddle for 17 minutes.

27. Walk a toy poodle for 41 minutes (at three kilometres per hour).

28. Let a Great Dane walk you for 13 minutes (eight kilometres per hour).

29. Learn to “walk the dog”: yo-yo for 25 minutes.

30. Alternate between cat pose, cow pose and downward dog 13 times, holding each for 30 seconds.

31-40 ways to cut kilojoules

31. Walk up and down 33 flights of stairs.

32. Strap on your 10cm stilettos and you only have to climb 25 flights.

33. Hit the stair climber for 11 minutes.

34. Push a trolley for 45 minutes.

35. Put a 20kg four-year-old in the child seat and it’ll only take half an hour.

36. When checking out, wait in line for seven minutes, do calculations in your head, then guess the total cost, for another 10, bag your own grub and load up the car.

37. Carry five shopping bags from the car to the kitchen and put the food away, take out the rubbish, wash the dishes and wipe down the kitchen counter.

38. Eat chilli for a couple of days: research shows that chilli peppers boost your metabolic rate, burning 200 more kilojoules a day.

39. Chew kilojoule-free gum for nine hours.

40. Wash, halve and seed two squash, then watch them bake for 30 minutes.

41-50 ways to cut kilojoules

41. Play squash for eight minutes.

42. Play “Chopsticks” on the piano incessantly for 41 minutes.

43. Eat four meals with chopsticks instead of a fork: slowing down can help you consume about 100 fewer kilojoules per meal.

44. Lift and lower a soy sauce bottle 170 times with your right hand and a wok 170 times with your left.

45. Take a leisurely walk in the park for 51 minutes.

46. Walk backward in the park for 43 minutes. (For every 33kJ burned walking forward, walking backward burns 42.)

47. Walk with hiking poles for 22 minutes – you’ll burn 20 percent more kilojoules.

48. Pole-vault for 17 minutes.

49. Sing the Grease original soundtrack from start to finish.

50. Degrease by scrubbing in the shower for 15 minutes, then spend seven minutes shaving, three minutes towelling off, four minutes moisturising and 20 minutes blow-drying and styling your hair.

51-60 ways to cut kilojoules

51. Shop during your lunch hour while carrying a three-kilogram bag (and, naturally, a few new purchases).

52. Have fun when you get back to work: twirl 123 times in your office chair (try not to puke).

53. Email for 68 minutes.

54. Get casual for four days: a study shows that people take 491 more steps and burn 105 more kilojoules on days they wear jeans to work.

55. Go backpacking for 15 minutes.

56. Travel. Strap a parachute to your back and spend 30 minutes skydiving over the volcanoes in Tongariro National Park, New Zealand.

57. Land in the Taupo Volcanic Zone and climb 26 percent of the way up in 18 minutes.

58. Cool down with 20 minutes of white-water rafting in the nearby Tongariro River.

59. Take in the greenery: sit in the lotus position and breathe deeply for an hour and 42 minutes.

60. Drink three cups of green tea in 24 hours: researchers say it can increase energy expenditure by 443kJ.

61-70 ways to cut kilojoules

61. Chug 12 250ml glasses of ice water a day (it has the same effect on your metabolism as green tea).

62. Go 30km/h on your bike for 6.5 minutes.

63. Stay up on a unicycle for 20 minutes.

64. Ride a bike built for two for 12 minutes.

65. Ask your guy to massage you for an hour and 50 minutes.

66. Pay him back with a 25-minute rubdown.

67. Play Twister for an hour and eight minutes.

68. Play the Nintendo GameCube’s Mario Kart for 41 minutes.

69. Better yet, get moving with the GameCube’s Dance Dance Revolution Mario Mix for 24 minutes. (Turn on the Workout feature to see how many kilojoules you’ve burned.)

70. If you’re more sports goddess than cha-cha dancer, play interactive Wii Tennis for 13 minutes.

71-80 ways to cut kilojoules

71. No game necessary: do 780 jumping jacks. Yes, 780.

72. Make like Laila Ali and skip as fast as you can for eight minutes.

73. Jump on a trampoline for 29 minutes.

74. Jog on the treadmill at six kilometres per hour for 25 minutes or at 11km/h for nine minutes.

75. Run five percent of a marathon at a six minute 15 second per kilometre pace.

76. Wait in an airport security line for 15 minutes, walk through the metal detector once, lift and lower a 18kg suitcase twice, then run for three minutes to catch your flight (stupid lines!).

77. Fill out 86 luggage tags.

78. Tag along with a postman for six percent of his route. Postmen are much more active than the average person.

79. Accompany a nurse on her rounds for half an hour.

80. Nurse your newborn for 30 minutes.

81-90 ways to cut kilojoules

81. Nurse a hangover: sleep in for an hour and 53 minutes.

82. Read Capote’s Breakfast at Tiffany’s from start to finish.

83. Kick off your Sunday shoes and dance to the first four songs off the Footloose soundtrack.

84. Spend 29 minutes mopping over any scuff marks.

85. Rearrange your furniture for 17 minutes.

86. Sweep your floors for 15 minutes, then vacuum for 15.

87. Vacuum your car mats for five minutes, then wax your ride for 20.

88. When you fill her up, walk into the station to pay… 23 times.

89. Cut your lawn with a push mower for 17 minutes.

90. Push a power mower instead for 23.

91-100 ways to cut kilojoules

91. Brush your teeth for two minutes, 25 times.

92. Floss and gargle after each brushing and you’ll burn another 418.

93. Smile for the camera: take photographs for 35 minutes.

94. Say cheesy! Hula-hoop for 22 minutes.

95. Crank your iPod as you walk at six kilometres per hour for 23 minutes. (Studies show listening to music makes you torch more kilojoules.)

96. Go retro: roller-skate for 15 minutes.

97. Show off your bowling skills for 34 minutes.

98. Spend 53 minutes learning the French alphabet.

99. Now read 30 pages of Hugo’s Les Misérables.

100. Read numbers 1 to 100 nine more times.

Sources: ACE Fitness Matters, American Council on Exercise, American Fitness, www.caloriesperhour.com, Diabetes Care, Fairleigh Dickinson University, Health, International Journal of Obesity, Journal of Health, The Journal of Sex Research, Medicine & Science in Sports & Exercise, Obesity, The Ohio State University, Oxford Polytechnic, Research Quarterly for Exercise and Sport, Science, Shakaihoken Kobe Central Hospital in Japan.