• Family Matters,  fighting the fat gene,  fitness,  gardening,  the sticks

    Working out at Earth Gym

    a perfect day for gardening

    Here I’ve been complaining about how much I miss my old beach town and how I used to walk all over the place to burn calories and I’ve got my very own gym to work out in right in my back yard! I’m so dense sometimes. All I needed to do was pick up a shovel and hack at the ground for a few hours and I got the best workout I’ve had in years! My arms hurt, my legs hurt and I went to bed with that tired-muscle feeling that lets you relax into your pillow like butter melting on a hot summer day. There is nothing better than a good hard tired. And I didn’t even have to pay an astronomical gym membership fee to get it!

    setting up the stakes working out at Earth Gym

    the garden grows

    Really, I should be paying my mom for this workout. It’s all her fault. She keeps buying plants for me even though I protest over the money she’s spending. She sets them right in plain view of my desk and as soon as I clock out for the day from my freelance projects I can’t wait to hit the backyard and plant them. It’s the best incentive ever because I can’t just let them sit there in their packages wilting. They must be planted! Nothing gets me bothered more than a poor sad plant dying because it needs some water and some soil to rest in. So thank you, Mom. Do you know how much money you could be making as a personal trainer?!!

    Gardening

    Seriously though, not only is a workout at Earth Gym good for the body, it’s good for the soul. My mom and I probably spent four hours together planning and digging and daydreaming about what our garden will look like come summer. I’m so excited. It’s the best mood lifter ever.

    digging digging digging

    We had wanted to put in raised garden beds but we just couldn’t figure out a way to make them inexpensively. I’m not very good with a hammer and nails and lumber costs a fortune. So in the end we just figured we’d spend more time weeding and do it old-school style in the ground. I mean, really, we have all this dirt to work with, it was a shame not to plant in it. So what if we can’t afford fancy garden boxes? What we’re short on in money, we make up for with time!

    fishing out the grass

    At first I was intimidated by the rock-hard dirt and the foxtail infested grass that grows so rampantly out here but after hosing it for an hour it finally gave way to my willpower. I just imagined I was on a elliptical machine and somebody had pushed the “hill mode” button to challenge me. You think you got the best of me, rock-hard dirt? Have some hose water and eat my sweat!

    hiding

    seedlings

    It doesn’t look like much so far but I think if I keep putting in regular workouts every other day, it will probably be the best-looking garden around. Who knows, maybe I’ll have to charge admission and start taking on other customers who want to get a good work out.

    watering

    Of course I’m the one who will be paying the water bill this summer so I might be paying for this workout in the end but I will be eating fresh fruit and vegetables knowing where they come from and that they have not been treated with chemicals, so there’s that. Not to mention the hours and hours of child care this backyard has provided. That’s a huge savings.

    moats

    Bug and the neighborhood kids had a blast digging “moats” around the tomato plant “castles.” Shoot, I had a blast too! I love playing with mud and water! It takes me back to my childhood years when my brother and I used to spend whole summer days making rivers and dams and massive cities in the runoff water in the ditch in front of our house. There is nothing more fun than water management.

    wheeee! we're done for the day!

    And then to celebrate a long hot workout, we sprayed water in the air and got everybody wet. It was like champagne without the calories.

    Garden Girl

    I kinda like this healthy Garden Girl look on me, I think I’ll be back at Earth Gym tomorrow!

  • Bug,  coffee!coffee!coffee!,  fighting the fat gene,  fitness,  Funny Fashion,  illos,  the dogs,  the sticks

    Exercising with Bug

    This is the post I was going to post when my blog went down last week.

    3 coffees

    This is me at two in the morning. I have very weird sleep habits. I go to bed at eight pm. Why? Because I’m tired! Bug and the day wear me out. So when I put Bug to bed, I read her a few stories and before I know it my eyes are closing and it’s night night for me too. I really want to stay up until ten or midnight like the rest of the adults but I don’t know, I’m just too much of a morning person and I run out of steam when the sun goes down.

    However, my body doesn’t need 12 hours of sleep like Bug’s does so I pop back awake at two in the morning. This is especially bad when I drink too much coffee and get no exercise. When I lived at the beach I walked everywhere so I was physically exhausted and could stay asleep until at least five in the morning. Out here, not so much. I’m cutting down on coffee (of course) but I’m also trying to figure out how to fit in exercise. It’s been a challenge. The neighborhood is not really the walking kind and well… it doesn’t take much to discourage me when it comes to working out.

    Cool

    I thought I had a plan. I was going to take Holly, the dog, on a long long walk early in the morning. That would be great for her (we usually take her on short walks just down our street) and for me because she’s a big scary black dog who will scare all the bad guys away. I called my mom and was all ready to send Bug over to my mom’s house to watch cartoons while I got some exercise.

    ready to go

    Except Bug didn’t want to be left out. She loves working out. You know she does The Shred, right? She does it more than I do.

    Shredding

    my kid shreds

    She puts me to shame.

    So anyway she was having none of this walking dog business without her. Before I knew it she was off in her room changing into a workout outfit to match mine. I gave in and let her come with.

    WANNA GO HOME

    {click to enbiggen}

    Biggest mistake ever. Never take a kid on a long morning walk BEFORE breakfast. She might be shredded and spend two hours a week doing ballet and gymnastics but she does NOT like to keep up with me when I’m walking, especially when she is hungry, tired and bored. We walked about a half hour and I spent nearly all of it trying to get her to keep up with me. It was mental workout not a physical one. I miss my stroller. (I left it at the beach with Toby. It doesn’t travel well.) So I’m back to square one.

    Jump rope anyone? Or maybe some shredding in the Pink Princess room?