Is this considered a workout?

I was looking through my previous posts and realized that I have not really been keeping all you loyal readers (cricket...cricket...) updated on what exercise I have been doing lately AND how I feel about it.

So here goes nothing:

On Thursday, I helped my parents pack up their entire house; they're moving. It was very, very hot outside and most of the boxes were extremely heavy. I did this non-stop for about three hours. I considered this a good enough exercise for that day. Granted, helping your parents pack up their house is not a traditional form of exercise, but I felt like I got a really good workout all over. The only thing that makes me think that it really wasn't much of a muscle workout is that I didn't really experience any muscle fatigue.

According to the post from this guy from  my class, I won't gain any muscle from lifting heavy boxes if I did not experience any muscle fatigue. Will I add a "super-set" to my next gym workout now? Maybe. Don't know what I'm talking about? Read his blog. That's what the link is for, duh.

This idea of muscle fatigue intrigued me, so I pulled out my "Fitness..." book. Unfortunately, I could not find anything that specifically talked about muscle fatigue. However, in the section of the book titled "Part III: Building Muscle and Strengthening Bone," I did find a tiny little mention that in order to become as big as you ever will be, you should do less reps with the heaviest weights you can handle. This does not mean that I should do this every day. The book also recommends, like everywhere else I've looked, that I constantly switch up my routine in the gym.

The weekend after helping my parents pack up, I was supposed to help them drive down to their new house and unpack, so I did not have any exercise planned for that weekend. Lucky for my, unlucky for them, the closing on their house was pushed back a couple of days and I suddenly had a completely free weekend. I spent some time in the gym at my apartment on the treadmill on Saturday. I'm still pretty intimidated by the other gym attendees and the machines. I really have to get over this fear and work at my "work out every day" pact I made a couple of weeks ago.

Exercise grade for myself: D-
Weight lost since beginning: 5 pounds. (Don't get excited, it's mostly due to my wisdom being pulled out near the beginning of this project)