Yesterday, I decided not to workout, but guilt finally got the better of me so, I decided to rake the leaves in our backyard. I feel that if I don't exercise every day, I start to feel guilty. I have the strange mindset that I have to EARN the calories I ingest. Weird, isn't it? Anyway, I had been meaning to do this for some time, but I wanted to wait until a majority of the leaves had fallen off the trees. Of course, there is always that ONE tree that has to wait for the last minute and then drop all its leaves overnight.Finally, a few days ago the tree lost its leaves and I was ready to venture out and conquer the yard. There were so many leaves on the ground, that you could not see any of the grass. With rake in hand, I ventured out and started to rake. Naturally, the day I pick to do this has to be cold and windy. The temperature was around 48 degrees and the windchill knocked that down into the 30's. Just over an hour and six, large yard bags later, I was finished. I felt that I really had a great workout and I was able to complete a chore that needed to be done. Basically, I felt that I killed two birds with one stone. I went inside to get warm and rewarded myself with a hot cup of coffee.
Today, I woke up and I could barely move. Every muscle in my body was sore. When I do my strength training, I am in the habit of doing very intense workouts. I am used to having sore muscles, but never anything like this. I can only imagine that I was working my muscles and not even realizing that I was doing so. My point: even doing routine yard work is a great source of exercise. So, if you get bored with your routine and you have a yard full of leaves (or any other outside chores), go ahead and skip your routine and hit the outside world. Not only will you get a much-needed chore accomplished, but you will get a good workout as well.
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ReplyDeleteMom remembers raking leaves - we don't have to do that here in Florida!
ReplyDeleteSniffie and the Florida Furkids
I think your mindset that you have to earn your calories is great! Now if I could only convince my mind of this... :-p
ReplyDeleteI think you're right-- yard work is a great way to exercise! When you run out of leaves out your way, come rake mine, will ya! ;) Seriously, I send my kids out to do it. I used to love doing it, but my back injury prevents me from things like this. Oh well, I enjoy reading that others enjoy doing it. Take care!
Hey, I hope your muscles are feeling better by now! :)
ReplyDeletecheneetot: Thank you very much. That is so nice of you. I'll drop by and pick it up:)
ReplyDeleteFurkidsmom: That must be nice. Is it because there is no cold winter that the leaves don't drop? I need to go back and check my science lessons:)
Mrs. Mecomber: I usually just use the lawn mower to get the leaves, and then use the mulched leaves in the garden, but I wanted the exercise. Take care of your back!
Lux: They are, for the most part. My elbow is acting weird though. I'm still going to try to exercise...we'll see what happens:)
WillThink4Wine: That sounds like a much better system then what I am using. I just need to adjust my thinking, which will be difficult. I do the same thing whenever I reach a plateau...it's good to reward yourself for a job well done:)
ReplyDelete:D he he and Koko helped you to take out the leaves??
ReplyDeleteKokoooooooooo
I don't have the guilt problem until someone mentions they work out every day then I feel guilty that I don't!
ReplyDeleteHubby is outside right now picking up nice wet leaves since it's started raining here already in the Pacific Northwest. I'll be nicer to him tomorrow when he starts complaining about sore muscles! Oh, this is probably where I should feel guilty that I'm not helping him. (Glances out the window at the rain). I don't!
Oh, by the way, it's dangerous here when the leaves cover the grass since we have a 100 lb husky!
Gaolga: No, but he did supervise from the warmth and safety of the sliding door:)
ReplyDeleteBeadedTail: Ours were wet too; makes it twice as hard and takes twice as long. I had the cold and the wind, but I was lucky and didn't get the rain. Did you have a nice hot cup of tea while you watched (lol). 100 pound huskey??Wow, that's a lot of dog to be sliding around the yard:)
Yard work in itself is tough work. I did all the yard maintenance through the summer since the hubby is a truck driver and wore me out. We don't have many leaves but the neighbors have a grape vine that is mostly in our yard. Yesterday I cleaned that all up, put away some of the summer toys, raked the front yard, just a few things, and I was exhausted!
ReplyDeleteJenera: The tree that drops all of its leaves belongs to our neighbor. It's amazing how tired you can get from doing yard work. The funny part is, I don't realize it at the time:)
ReplyDeleteWillThink4Wine said...
ReplyDeleteWhen I was trying to lose weight, I found I did better on the Reward System rather than the Guilt Sustem. I had "X" amount of fat grams to spend in a day. Kind of like a daily budget. When I reached a 10 pound plateau, I rewarded myself with something completely decadent from the bakery!
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Comment originally written on...
06 November, 2008 15:47