It Makes a Difference

3.17

Since I started living a wellness lifestyle about 6 years ago, I've been surprised by what is possible physically, mentally and emotionally, when we feed our bodies with nutrient-rich foods. This weekend turned out to be a gardening and lawn weekend. I cut two different lawns, did the weeding of flower beds, planted a bunch of flowers and put in a boatload of mulch at both.

My Fitbit told me that I had over 260 'active minutes' yesterday, and another 180+ today. (An active minute is measured as a certain level of physical exertion, and starts counting after you've been active for at least 10 minutes) So that's over 440 active minutes between yesterday and today... whew, no wonder I'm beat.

But years ago, I wouldn't have just felt the expected tiredness or stiffness of hours of gardening, I would have been debilitated. I remember episodes of a day of shoveling snow or mulching, when I still ate a standard American diet, and I was a mess afterward, sometimes for days.

Now, with a pantry of great, nutrient-dense foods I can recover simply with some healthy calories and a good nights' sleep. And that's what I did this weekend. I went hard at it yesterday with yard work at one property, and did ours today. And I'm ready to find something to do tomorrow as well.

There are many benefits to keeping a power pantry. Sometimes it's just getting a lot of yard work done on a holiday weekend, and feeling great afterward. No matter what, our bodies will thank us for pursuing nutritious foods and cutting out the junk.

By the Way

One other thing my Fitbit told me is that I burned over 4500 calories yesterday and over 3000 today (the physical activity tracking, combined with the the heart-rate data, gives a good estimate of calories burned.) So breaks included snacks of walnuts and apples, and a great dinner last night of salmon, steamed veggies and rice. Lots of good, tasty calories. Mmmmm...