Yes gardening is exercise if you are thinking “hmmmm why is it in the exercise category”! However I don’t blame you for questioning whether or not it deserves to be in this section; but during lockdown I certainly learnt it is hard work! 00Steve and I embarked on the back garden project where we entirely redesigned one corner of our garden.
So we went from a lawn that slowly sloped up to holly trees to having two ponds, a rockery, a sunken trampoline, decking, two living walls and a raised bed herb garden! I started off by “supervising”, providing refreshments, keeping him company to actually getting stuck in!
We tried to share the workload, well as best as we could with the fact I am obviously chronically ill and not nearly as strong or fit as he is! Digging is not my forte and I’m glad I had my support vest on as I wasn’t aware of just how much you use your abdominal muscles!
It became clear that I just wasn’t very good at the digging but I could manage shovelling the soil and eventually what turned into clay into the wheelbarrow.
It really is a massive workout for all your muscles and definitely made me appreciate 00Steve’s hard work more!! Let alone has made me look into the whole “no dig” gardening philosophy for the vegetable beds we have in mind for the other side of the garden!
On the days where I couldn’t get out running gardening has helped keep my heart pumping and massively helped keep my mental health in check. Many professionals recommend getting out in nature even just for 20 minutes a day as it can lower your heart rate and blood pressure.
I plug in our Alexa that we use outside (it used to be on the landing so of course the geek in me called it “echo landing” no one said I was cool okay?!) Pop on one of my many, many playlists and dance and sing my heart out as I go.
I’m very lucky my neighbours don’t care and just like hearing happy noises rather than the shouting from around the street! By the time I have finished dead-heading, tieing back, potting or weeding an hour or so could have passed and I’m chilled and probably had a work out after pratting about!
How about you? Do you enjoy gardening? Have you found it easy or hard on your ostomy?
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