Winter Cardio Workout

In an effort to stay sane I've made myself look maybe just a wee bit crazy for the past few months. A lot of stress had been piling up on me for, oh, about a year or so. My doctor suggested doing a cardio workout 4 times a week. He said it would help me feel better to work off the stress. The thing is I've never gone to a gym. I don't think it's where I'd feel comfortable. I really prefer being on my own.

Then it dawned on me. . . There's a ton of snow in the yard, why don't I shovel it? So I did. I started shoveling and heave-ho'ing snow several days a week for 30 minutes. The looking crazy part is because the only snow I could shovel was on the lawn. LOL. My impression is that most people, or possibly nobody else, in Michigan shovels snow off their lawn into a gigantic mound for exercise. But hey, it was convenient, free, and it worked. My resting pulse of 70-72 went up to 102-107 beats per minute after just 30 minutes of shoveling and on sunny days it helped me make Vitamin D!

I mentioned to friends I was creating a "Snow Mountain." Not sure if they realized how big it was so here's a picture. I cut steps into the back of my pile and asked Fred to take a picture of me. The weather has gone over 50º (F) the past two days and will continue being warm next week so I figured now was the time to capture an image of possibly my favorite part of my first winter in Michigan.

I think when the weather really warms up I may start digging ditches that I can use to expand last year's garden. It's another great way for me to work out, cheap, and on my own so I'm looking forward to it :)