Lose Weight in the Garden
It's already time for another of these great Top 100 weight loss tips with an article number 76 in this backwards running series.
This time around, it's only fair to tell you that your garden needs you but not as much as you need your garden... to help you to reduce your weight! That's right, you can lose weight in the garden and in this article I'm going to tell you how!
Gardening is a pastime loved and enjoyed by millions of people around the world and so it should be. It's relaxing, productive, healthy and stress busting all in one go.
But did you know that pottering around in the garden can also help you to lose weight? Well it can and it will if you take to heart what you are about to be told...
How to Lose Weight Working in the Garden
The first thing you should know about doing any work in the garden is that if you mean it to be healthy, you should always take certain precautions to avoid accidents and stay safe. There are many garden tools that are, by necessity sharp and pointed and you should always observe caution when using such tools.
Accidents happen as part of life, but if you use some common sense and be careful with certain tools, you can at least minimize the risks. So when using tools such as lawnmowers, strimmers (brush cutters), hedge cutters or any other mechanical powered tools, observe the manufacturers instructions and don't do anything they say not to do.
Similarly, you should take care when digging earth and don't put a lot of strain on your back. The same goes for lifting heavy objects.
Always bend your knees and lift using your legs and never bend over and lift using your back to take the strain. Otherwise you could risk serious damage to your spine and back muscles which will prevent you from exercising at all for several days or even weeks.
Gardening Takes Effort
OK, with that out of the way, the idea of losing weight whilst gardening comes from the fact that most jobs in the garden entail work. Work in the form of your body using its muscle groups to achieve an outcome.
It may be something as simple as weeding, or something heavier such as digging and turning over soil. It could be lifting and moving heavy garden ornaments such as statues, heavy ceramic potted plants, large logs or tree stumps. It could mean building or assembling structures like a shed, an atrium, a summer house or gazebo, pergolas etc.
Any of these or similar jobs that do in the garden will require muscle strength and work to accomplish, which means you'll be burning calories while you work.
As long as you work fairly hard and for longer than 20 minutes at a stretch, you'll be losing weight as you work. That's because your body will have to use up some of its store of fats to turn into energy to feed your muscles as they work.
Another plus point is that you'll also be toning up the muscles and reducing the flabbiness by working in the garden regularly.
Most importantly, do not go undoing all that hard work by drinking a load of sugar laden, fizzy soda or soft drinks or snacking on cakes, pies and other unwholesome foods and piling all the weight back on again!
Gardening should be enjoyable. So what can be more enjoyable than creating something pleasing in the garden while knowing you have burned off a couple of pounds in the process?
100 Weight Loss Tips number 75 follows in the next post!
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Posted on Tue, 21 Jul 2009 in Top 100 Weight Loss Tips | 0 Comments