enjoy your garden and Improve Your Fitness Level

We are blessed to enjoy a climate that permits us to enjoy the outdoors year-round. Gardening can help you meet fitness goals (without having to pay for an expensive gym membership). All that walking, digging, reaching, bending, and twisting helps keep the body flexible, improves heart and lung function, and burns calories (up to 300 or more an hour)!

A recent study in the British Journal of Sports Medicine found that people who engage in low-level physical activities such as gardening reduce the risk of death from heart disease. Gardening also helps with natural vitamin D production, stress relief, and fostering better eating habits (by enjoying those delicious home-grown herbs, fruits, and vegetables).

Gardening can be great for your social life too. Join a community garden or better yet, consider starting a community program. Such a heart healthy gardening activity could also put healthy food choices on a needy family table.

Win-win!