Life`s a garden dig it.

               On this blog I often talk about aspects of fitness and health. Eating is included in these broad categories. Do you know where your food comes from? I mean really have any idea? I have been worried when I hear children answer the question of “where does milk come from?” with “a carton”. People don`t know remotely where their food is coming from. Now to be fair I wouldn`t expect most people to know with absolute detail where all of their food comes from. But one sure fire way to at least build an appreciation for farming, food and get a little bit of exercise is to grow your own fruits, vegetables, herbs. Now I know that not everyone lives on some form of land with soil and space easily accessible. That though is no excuse, many options are available from pots/window gardens, community gardens or just using the ground that you live on.

                Gardening has a variety of benefits and yes the possibility of saving money is one of them. For my partner and I we like to get to grass roots in many different ways and gardening is one of them. We try to grow a variety of our own vegetables. For some reason growing your own food just seems to taste better and no I don`t mean the organic vs non organic debate. The reason the produce tastes better is the X factor flavour, I think that flavour should be called satisfaction. It is more satisfying to put in the work and have even a moderate payoff. Gardening also seems to be good for mental wellbeing and I think it relates to satisfaction of seeing something you have put the work into giving you something back.

                Gardening though isn`t all sunshine and butterfly`s it takes a bit of work. Working in the garden especially if you choose to use limited machines and chemicals can be a bit of hard work. I think though it is important to note many of the cultures of the planet that live the longest farm with some methods from the past. They still get out there and pull up their sleeves. As you will see below the picture is of our garden, not huge but it`s ours. You can see the before we have left it to over grow a little bit.

                The during shot is after I have taken a shovel and turned the soil to aerate it a little bit after pulling out all the old plants. I have also raked up the weeds and spread the soil a bit more even.

The final shot is after I have seeded the garden with peas and alfalfa. I have done this because both return nitrogen and other nutrients back to the soil. I will turn them into the soil again after the peas and alfalfa has grown. I then added horse manure and raked that evenly and then added sugarcane mulch to help protect the soil/seeds and slow weeds growing. This took me about 90 minutes in the rain. The important thing to remember is the preparation pays off with better harvests. Quality soils lead to quality produce. So get to it start a garden you will appreciate farmers and where your food comes from much more.

Breaking the habit.

            Recently I read a piece of information that I found interesting but unsurprising. Our days are affected by habits by up to 40%. This is according to New York times bestselling author Charles Duhigg. I am not overly surprised though, although I am not sure how he came to this conclusion and I haven’t read his book yet to find out yet. But it did get me thinking that`s nearly half of our day controlled without thinking. Habits can rule our lives and they can be for better or for worse. This relates really well to something I have working on. 

We need to understand that leading a healthy lifestyle often is based on habits. What we do, how we do it, why we do it. Now you notice that I say lifestyle not diet or exercise because I believe that to be healthier you need to let new habits reach every corner of your life. Not just diet and exercise but also during everyday activities. I bet some of you are reading this and are saying “Yeah I have a good diet and I have a healthy lifestyle sometimes”. Most people will share this opinion. When I talk to them about this they immediately begin to rattle off the foods they eat and list the exercise they do. I nod and listen and usually ask “what did you eat 3 days ago for dinner” often the person stops and thinks and says tentatively what they had or answer they don`t know. Humans have a remarkable way of remembering things differently to the way they actually happened. Be it a trait of the brain that doesn’t see reason to remember every detail, or possibly it’s a defence so you don’t remember exactly how bad it really was. Either way I find the only way to get a clear picture of you everyday life is to put some old fashion pen to paper. 

I tell everyone to track their food and exercise daily. Not only does it give you a clearer picture of your everyday lifestyle but it is also an integral part of creating good habits. Once you identify the bad habits you can change them to good ones or even remove them completely. A good habit could be anything as simple as carrying around a water bottle to get you into the habit of drinking more water. And habits like these cost you nothing and can be sustained long term. I have had many clients tell me they have read so many books and done so many “diets” but they never developed habits. When they hit an obstacle or lost motivation old habits rear their ugly heads. Which brings me to what I have been working on. 

                Weight loss and healthy living is not rocket science it should be simple providing that you haven’t got any medical complications. That is right ,simple I put that out there. Books and programs often are based on buying further products to make the company more money when what you really want is to be told how to do things right. You want steps to achieve an outcome. Well now I have developed a daily checklist for you. Things on this list are based on improving aspects that you may not be aware of. To give an example when you go to the shopping centre where do you park? I would bet you try to find the closet park to the door. Well in the checklist there is information to help you improve your N.E.A.T (non- exercise activity time) Doing things everyday like parking further away is a way to do this. By the way did I mention that this list is FREE. Yes FREE, I would like you to give it a go and see if you have some improvement in the way you feel, look, act and think. How do you get this list? Simply subscribe with your email and first name to the subscription box on the blog http://therandomandthefit.blogspot.com.au/ Go now get the list print it out and use it daily to create new better habits.