It’s June 1 as I write this entry, and there’s no question that summer has arrived in North Carolina.
I just finished mowing the lawn in 94 degree heat, with relatively low humidity. The entire job took me an hour and fifteen minutes, not including a couple of quick water breaks.
What I find interesting (though not surprising) is that at age 61 and weight 176.2 pounds as of this morning’s weigh-in, our lawn is no longer difficult for me to mow.
This time last summer when I weighed something like 205 pounds, mowing the lawn took more out of me than I had to give, so I hired someone to do it for me.
I told my wife last summer, “I’m just too old to mow lawns anymore, I guess.”
Wrong.
Reality Check
Last summer I was TOO FAT to continue to mow our lawn.
This year I’ve been cutting the lawn every third or fourth day since March, and each time I get my slimmer (and slimmer) ass out there the work becomes a little easier.
Why?
Because each time I’m out there I weigh a little less and consequently the job is a little easier and I feel a lot younger and more powerful.
Duh.
I mean, seriously, it doesn’t take a beer cooler of brain cells to realize that it’s going to be a lot easier to mow a lawn without 30 extra pounds of lard around your waist, does it?
So, I guess what I’m babbling about here is that I’m actually having fun mowing our stupid lawn because each time I go out there and work up a good sweat, I come in having burned off 329 calories.
Additionally, I created some great Vitamin D in the old body from being in sun.
And, yes, it goes without saying that the exercise from pushing that mower up and down the sloped side of our yard in particular has helped lower my resting heart rate to a very satisfying 68 beats a minute with a textbook blood pressure reading this evening of 112/72.
Whoa, I truly am rebuilding this body for the third time in my life.
Okay, enough of that.
Oh, one more thing.
For those of you who are wondering just how I’m proceeding with this latest weight loss adventure, in the not-too-distant future I’ll reveal the details of Drop 52, the long-term, healthy weight loss program I’ve created and am currently using to unload within one year at least 52 pounds of excess blubber that I packed on the past decade from spending most of my waking hours either sitting at a computer working (skipping breakfast and lunch) or couch potatoing in front of the boob tube eating non-stop every evening before going to bed.
Anyway, I’ll have a lot more to say in future entries here on the blog about how to rejuvenate aging boomer bodies.
And that’s a good thing to do at our age, right?
I mean, seriously, losing weight and rebuilding your body sure beats ending up in a hospital with tubes stuck in various orifices, doesn’t it?
I want to get in line for a copy of Drop 52 line, so please keep us apprised.
I want to lose fat and not muscle. I have a good amount of muscle. I probably should get one of those fat/muscle ratio tests done so i can know how many lbs of fat i have and how many i’d like to shed.
My spouse usually mows the lawn. I work in the garden or weed the flower bed. We have a push mower as well as a ride-on model. The latter needed a new belt, so DH was fixing it on Saturday. I had missed my chance for a morning walk and felt kinda cranky, so i took the push mower, started it up, and started mowing the spots that are too tough for the ride-on. DH told me the spots he usually does by hand, and some of it was on a slope. We have a 2-stroke engine, so we needn’t worry about slope wreaking havoc with it. I pushed back and forth, up and down.
I don’t remember the last time i mowed, and it took me a little less than 1.5 hours, but i couldn’t believe how good i felt afterwards. No wonder why DH likes to do it. I had a wonderful feeling of accomplishment when i was done. I’m thinking i ought to push mow more often.
Megan, pushing my mower around my yard is seriously one of my favorites activities these days.
I’m planning on having the Drop 52 program up and running as soon as possible, since it’s a natural follow-up to the revised 21 Days to Health & Beyond detox program that I’m wrapping up in the next several days.
The best program I know of for losing fat is by a natural bodybuilder named Tom Venuto. His program is very comprehensive. It’s called Burn the Fat, Feed the Muscle. If you want to read my review of Tom’s program it’s at http://chetday.com/burnthefatreview.htm
Anyway, enjoy that lawn mowing!
Chet
Nice writeup, lawn mowing is great exercise no matter what your age is.
I agree, when you do something you enjoy doing it is much easier to do.
I find that what works the best for myself to stay in shape is to do things that are enjoyable like taking my dogs for walks every day, which is something that they really enjoy also. My other ways to keep my self in shape is working around the yard and then there is always not so enjoyable good old hard physical work.
Believe it or not selecting the appropriate lawn mower can make your life a whole lot simpler and cut your lawn chores at least in half, pardon the pun. Really the sort of lawn mower you choose will all depend on your lawn and the quantity of jobs that you want to do to that lawn.