Best of both worlds.

As the good weather comes in, I am going to be burning some extra calories and getting fit in new ways with the help of my yard.  That’s right, landscaping.  I have a pretty big yard and a landscape plan that encompasses all of it.  It has been requested by some that I post pics of the work that I am doing so every now and then I will do so.  Today is one of those days.  I know it is a bit off topic but the simple fact is that yard work is fantastic for our bodies and it produces a result that improves our lives and the communities that we live in.  So having a nice yard doesn’t just affect me, it affects all the people who see it.  It has the potential to bring peacefulness and inspiration to those who pass by or visit.  This is not about impressing others or keeping up with the “Joneses”.  I truly believe that creating a beautiful scenery is a help to the surrounding community.  Landscaping is the best of both the exercise and community improvement worlds.  Here are some pics.

This is the plan on paper

 All in all, there are many neat things that I will be doing with my landscape.  Many wonderful native plantings as well as ALOT of lawn removal.  I have created all the planting beds now and with the amount of lawn that I removed I have reduced lawn mowing time from about 3 hours to about 1 hour and 15 minutes.

This is th flagstone path that I built

 This is the main flagstone path the I built that runs from my driveway to the rear of the house.  I did this all myself after work in one week.  This was really hard work but not near as hard as creating the beds by removing sod.

This is three of the six 10' cedars for screening

 These trees will provide screening of the neighbors for more privacy.  All in all there will be 29 new trees of various types planted.  I have planted 26 so far.  Trees add structure to a landscape.

This is my back lawn with additional flagstone paths that I built coming off the deck and through the trees on the right.

This is a view of my back lawn from almost the property line.  It is a vary nice and relaxing atmosphere which is my goal for the plan.  Providing beautification and peacefulness to my home is the desired outcome.  Oh yeah, and fun too.  I am hoping that it will be a great place for my future children to play and frolic.

I will keep updating pics as I move along.  My wife takes these pics as you can tell they are of a much higher quality as compared to when I take them. HAHAHA  HAve a great day

Not all calorie burning activity is “Exercise”

I recently built about 250 feet of flagstone path in my backyard.  My wife was going to be gone for several days and I wanted to surprise her by building this path.  I wasn’t sure how I was going to get my exercise in during this time because I work a lot and would have to do the path after work.  Well I was in for a big surprise, but I learned a pretty good lesson too.

Not all calorie burning activity needs to be “exercise”.  I found out that working in the yard (especially building a flagstone path) is a great way to burn some calories.  It is also a way to break up the monotony of the normal exercise routine.  It took me 42 hours to finish the path.  I worked until 10pm every night my wife was gone.  

Here is how it started:  

No points for this part.  I got the rock delivered.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Here is step two, excavation: 

WW Activity= Gardening/digging  13 hours= 52 points or around 3100 calories.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 Here is step three, stones to the finish:  WW Activity= Gardening/digging

29 hours= 116 points or around 6900 calories.

I accomplished this over a 12 day period.  I did no other exercise other than work on this path everyday after work.  It was WAY harder than I ever thought it would be, but my wife loved it and that made everything worth it.  And it was an eye opener learning that other things, things that actually need to be done or I just want to do, can help keep me fit and strong.

I may not be exact on the points.  Gardening/digging doesn’t exactly fit what I was doing, but that was the only thing I could find on my online WW stuff.  These points are also based on me being a guy at my weight.  Hopefully this post wasn’t too boring.  I just wanted to share the insight that I got that not all good calorie burning activities have to be “Exercise”.