Gardening for fitness and weight loss

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If you're like me, and most people, doing boring repetitive exercise for fitness and weight loss is just awful. Walking on a treadmill is something that I'd only do if it was some type of punishment, and I had no choice. Someone would have to stand next to me, forcing me, saying something like "we have a failure to communicate". But getting your body moving is the best thing that you can do for fitness and weight loss, and one of the things that I dearly love to do is to take care of my garden.

Now calm down here, I'm not running laps around my garden, I'm just doing the regular small maintenance that it needs. I'm not chopping down redwoods, or hauling firewood, I'm simply moving gently. Today I trimmed some fountain grass, and it meant sustained movement for about a half-hour, including bending, stretching, and some carrying. I filled two large garbage bags. In addition to the movement, it got me away from the computer, where I'm sitting right now, and spend WAY too much time on. And of course it gave me something to think about instead of my next meal. Hmmm... some eggs sound good!

In a longish life I've seen mostly people always jump to extremes. They're either "couch potatoes" or they've taken up bungee jumping. Those extremes have never been for me. I get bored too easily to be much of a couch potato, and I have too much of a fear of death to go bungee jumping. There's a LOT in between!

After this particular workout, I'm evaluating how I feel. The sustained movement was the key, so I'll give myself credit for aerobics (most people call it cardio nowadays, but it's really the same thing in practice). My heart wasn't racing, and I wasn't gasping for breath, but after I was finished, I felt like sitting down, and having some coffee. I can feel it a bit in my lower back (of course), and my legs.

I can't measure how much weight I lost while trimming my fountain grass, it's just part of a total that adds up, and improves my fitness. It's good to keep moving! A beautiful garden is a side-effect. Or maybe it's the fitness that's a side-effect? It doesn't matter to me.

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