Presenting the newest fad in exercise: gardening

Ok, it's not new.  It's in fact likely the oldest form of exercise this side of walking but it is in fact new for me to be doing it on a regular basis.  And when I go outside in a little bit I will be on my 5th straight day of at least 30 minutes of gardening (see: weeding) in my yard.  A little about my yard:  We are renting a sweet little house next to a highway with a view of a local mountain and a great commute to my work (1 exit on the freeway, 1 exit off) and the lady that owns this house has some form of OCD.  I like to say I have OCD but it's nothing like Judy's.  When we met her and her husband she was in the midst of cleaning the house from the last renters - and she was stretching the carpet after having it cleaned.  I had no idea you could/should? do that.  So she lived here before she got married and she made her yard into a beautiful little putting green of a lawn and surrounded the lawn with decorative flowering bushes (rhododendrons) and flowers (tulips, daffodils) and japanese maple trees.  It is adorable. And it takes a LOT of work to keep it looking pristine.  And I/we have not been out there doing the work that would need to do to keep it free of weeds.

The first year we lived here when spring came so did all these little green shoots.  Like soft little tiny fir trees.  All across the flower beds.  And we didn't know what they were but thought they were supposed to be there so we let them grow.  And they kept growing.  By the summer we realized that they weren't in any sort of order and were probably NOT supposed to be there.  By fall we were trying to figure out why we couldn't get rid of them.  This was my introduction to horsetail.  One of the oldest known plants and the current bane of my existence.  Far and away ahead of the blackberries that are coming through the side bushes from the highway, these little nasty weeds are EVERYWHERE.  Except for on the lawn.  That has about 3 types of grass that are steadily being out-grown by clover (which while pretty is actually a grass-killing weed).

All of these things culminated (throw in a visit next month by my dad and step mom) in a frenzy of yard work that began 2 weeks ago and will (crossing fingers) end sometime this week.  I have found that I can wear out the ends of my gardening gloves in 3 days (doing serious damage to the newly manicured nails...) and that after 4 days of bending, pulling, stretching, hauling, kneeling for no less than 30 minutes at a time and (so far) no more than 4 hours at a time, the only thing that doesn't hurt is my hair and my eyelashes.

But it has been daily work.  Daily EXERCISE!!!  WOOHOO!!!  And it appeals to the instant gratification part of me that wants to see results NOW.  I ate all the salads that I bought last week from Trader Joe's and need to go buy stuff to make my own this week so I'm not tempted to go buy fast food.  Doing better at drinking more water but this week has been focused on MOVING.  So we'll keep going and see if I can make it a habit.

One day.  One pound.  One step at a time.
~N