Category: Wellness

Gardening is Exercise

Are you one of those people who just can’t wait until gardening season? Are you just excited to see your vegetables and flowers adorning your yard? If you are into digging in the dirt, that alone is enough fulfillment to keep you coming back year after year.

BUT…Can gardening actually be counted as exercise? It is actually really good for us in ways you probably have never thought.

Here’s an alarming statistic: People in the US spend more than 90% of their lives indoors. We are really leading disconnected, sedentary and unhealthy lives. So if gardening is a love of yours, why not enjoy yourself and get some of the benefits? Find an exercise routine that you love and the likelihood is that you will do it more often!

Some of the benefits are:

  • Strengthening your immune system: Oh, vitamin D! Outdoors in the sun you soak up vitamin D, which helps you to absorb calcium. Calcium keeps your bones strong and your immune system working!
  • It reduces stress: Gardening is a well-known stress reducer for those who engage. Planting veggies or beautiful flowers not only relieves stress, but will give you stress-reducing benefits for a long time.
  • It decreases the likelihood of osteoporosis: Digging, planting, weeding and engaging in repetitive tasks that require strength and stretching gives your major muscle groups a workout!
  • Gardening burns calories: Need an extra way to burn calories? Gardening! According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, you can burn up to 330 calories with one hour of light gardening and yard work.
  • Can reduce weight and risk of heart disease: Heavy gardening helps with weight maintenance and can reduce the risk of heart disease and other life threatening diseases. Just 30 minutes of moderate-level physical activity a few times a week can prevent and control high blood pressure.
  • It’s great for MOOD and MENTAL HEALTH: In behavioral research conducted at Rutgers University, the results showed that flowers are a natural and healthful moderator of moods and have an immediate impact on happiness and even make for more intimate connections between individuals.

If you love to dig in the dirt, use this amazing activity to feel better and improve your health! And use it as a way to exercise that you will enjoy! Make sure you get lots of healthy exercise to keep yourself healthy and strong.

Are You a Healthy Weight?
Calculate Your BMI

BMI (body mass index) is based on your height and weight. It’s a way to calculate your body fat to see if you’re at a healthy weight. You can use the Adult BMI Calculator below to see if you are underweight, a healthy weight, overweight or obese.

What is Your BMI?

Underweight: Your BMI is less than 18.5

Healthy weight: Your BMI is 18.5 to 24.9

Overweight: Your BMI is 25 to 29.9

Obese: Your BMI is 30 or higherhttps://www.cdc.gov/healthyweight/assessing/adult-widget/iframe.html

Even if you don’t particularly like the results of this BMI calculator, it’s best to know if you are at risk for more health concerns and to find ways in which to be healthier and happier. Take the first step today.

Certainly, you deserve good health. If you find your weight loss goals challenging, we would love to work with you. We want you to feel good in your own skin! Call Tina Pineiro Life Solutions at (570) 352 3048.

Three Easy Steps to Creating New Habits

Let’s talk about forming new habits. We all have times in our lives where we intentionally want to change our behavior for the better and create new habits for ourselves. This could be getting in the habit of eating healthier and drinking more water. Or it could be moving more and taking the dog for a daily walk. Or it could be work related, or spiritual, or… There are so many areas in our lives that could be improved and made easier if we created new habits.

Getting into the habit of doing something is often easier said than done. We seem to acquire bad habits without any effort, but getting into a “good” habit can be a little more challenging.

Let’s break it down into a three step process that makes it easy to follow until we’ve internalized the new behavior and made it a true habit – something we do automatically without having to think about, like brushing our teeth.

Decide What You Want To Do

The first step is to decide what you want that new habit to be. Be as specific as possible. Don’t just tell yourself you want to exercise more. Instead say something like “I will go for a 30 minute walk every single day”.  Deciding what your new habit will be and committing to when and how you’re going to do it, is half the battle.

Remind Yourself To Get It Done

The next few days should be smooth sailing. You’re motivated and excited to get this done. Sticking to your new habit isn’t an issue. But a few days in you’ll notice that it’s easy to slip back into old habits.

Maybe it’s raining and you don’t really want to go out and walk. Or maybe your day just gets away from you. This is when it’s important to have a daily reminder. Set an alert on your phone or add the new habit to your daily to-do list for a while.

Make It Part Of Your Routine Until It Becomes A Habit

Which brings us to the last step. It takes some time before a new behavior becomes a true habit. Until then, a routine will work to your best advantage. Even before the new behavior becomes automatic, a routine will help you get it done without having to spend a lot of willpower or relying on daily reminders.

Make that daily walk part of your after dinner routine, or change from grabbing a snack at the vending machine at work at 10:00 in the morning to packing a healthy snack.

Congratulations! Decide to create the new habit, practice the routine until it’s second nature and you’ll be well on your way to forming a new good habit.

You can do it! But if you find it a challenge, know that Tina Pineiro Life Solutions has your back. Call (570) 352 3048 or go to the home page and book your session. We offer online, phone and in-person sessions at either Peckville, PA or Honesdale, PA! Contact us here.