Lawn Mowing Made Fun? Believe It!

Hey blog buds!

Wow it’s been a busy bee sort of day.   I am ready for some chill time, perhaps with my Kindle after I post. 🙂

Today’s FitFeature came to me while doing the weekly mowing. We used to pay a local company a small fee to come do a quick cut of our lawn once a week.  I took on that job myself beginning in May to save some money and the first few times I ran the weed whacker (which I guess is called a ‘trimmer’ – huh, who knew?) and the push mower, I was surprised at how much energy it seemed to take.  We don’t have a huge yard by any means – we live in the suburbs on a corner lot.  But the front and back yards do have a bit of a slope to them.  So after a few weeks of this, I decided to wear my heart rate monitor to determine how many calories I was burning and where my heart rate was.  I was burning about 300 calories in 40 minutes yardwork with a heart rate in the mid-150s! I’d call that worthy of ‘exercise’ status.  After that, I started thinking of my lawn day in terms of a cardio workout rather than a ‘chore’ which made it much more enjoyable for some reason.

Do you have any physical chores that you can turn into CARDIO? Drop me a comment!

My exercise for today consisted of weights, “wogging” the dogs, and the yard work.  Here’s the routine:

Weight Training (Hi-Rep Legs, Rear Delts)

• TM warmup for 5 minutes followed by 3 sets of 20 rep ball squats for a muscle specific warmup.
• DB Step-Ups 3 sets of 15 reps each leg
• Rear Lunges on ValSlide holding KB 3 sets of 15 reps each leg
• DB Rear Delt Flyes 3 sets of 15 reps
• Hamstring Curls on Ball (single leg) 3 sets of 15 reps each leg
• Wide Upright DB Rows 3 sets of 15 reps
• Russian Twist on Ball 3 sets of 20 reps
• Frog Legs on Ball 3 sets of 15 reps

Followed weights with the brief jaunt around the neighborhood with the dogs for light cardio (only 1.75 miles today).

Wednesday’s Eats:

You know it – COFFEE!  First thing everyday 🙂  I was hungry straight out of bed this morning so I also had a piece of Ezekial sprouted grain toast with raw almond butter and raw honey.   And yes, that is a Christmas mug from Starbucks.  It does get used year-round.

After my workout, it was time for my blended green yummers in a cup!  I must have subconsciously used more spinach today to make up for forgetting it yesterday, because it had a bit TOO much spinach flavor and tasted less like a green smoothie and more toward grass clippings.

Lunch was yet another use of my remaining Chipotle from Sunday.  This time instead of a bean bowl, I smeared a small corn tortilla with the Rosarita green chile & lime non-fat refried beans, sprinkled a bit of 2% cheddar, the remains of the veggie bowl from Chipotle and topped with leftover sauteed green pepper.   Voila!  A MexiPizza…

Afternoon snack was simple GORP, except minus the P and plus the A.  (For you non-hikers, GORP is “Good Ol’ Raisins and Peanuts”.  My “A” is soaked almonds.) 😉  Washed it down with a cup of herbal mango tea.

Neither of us could decide what we were hungry for tonight for dinner so we went the easy route and made eggs.  I made one into an opened faced sandwich with egg #2 on the side.  Ezekial toast, smear of Tofutti faux-cream cheese, tomato slices and sprinkled with nutritional yeast for a cheesy flavor. Easy peasy 5 minute meal.  I admit, it’s not the prettiest presentation of food.

My eyelids are drooping now, so I better scoot!  We’re headed toward Colorado Springs early in the morning to get our hike on!  Hope to have some fun pics to share!  Have a great night!

— Shari B. =)