How To Improve Your Health By Gardening

• Organic Gardening For Beginners
• Companion Planting Guide
• Seed Saving Tips & Techniques

After a long time working for a big company, I quit my job and started my own consulting business. I loved not having to wake up to an alarm clock, not having to commute, and having the freedom of making my own schedule. After awhile, I started to notice that I had put on a few pounds. I told myself it was no big deal, I would get into a workout routine after my business was up and running.

Two years and fifty pounds later, I knew I really needed to do something drastic. But what? My business had taken off, and I never had time to work out! The freedom of being in control of my own schedule became an inability to stop working. I was fat, tired, stressed and starting to think about going back to an office job.

So, as a final effort to get control of the situation, I convinced myself to join a gym. I figured the commitment of the contract and the money would force me to follow through and go to my workouts. I was even considering an expensive gym so the guilt would be even worse if I skipped a day.

Then, one very stressful day, I made a cup of coffee and went to the back porch to try and settle down. It was a bright and sunny day, and this made me even more frustrated. I started a lot of very negative talk about how my own business was no good if my life was a total mess. I never even got to be outside anymore! To distract myself, I picked up a book from the side table. It was a gardening book.

I had always loved everything about the idea of gardening and had always wanted to start a big one of my own. I could picture myself plunging my hands into the warm soil, watching the little seeds come up, getting to harvest my own fresh vegetables. For years I collected gardening books and articles, reading them and stacking them up for the one day I would finally be able to do it.

That’s when it hit me. Why join a gym and literally force myself to get exercise? I could spend the same amount of money on supplies for my garden. Instead of trudging along on a treadmill and staring at a wall, I could be hauling soil and hoeing rows. Instead of forcing myself, I could treat myself. I could do something to help myself live longer and be happier at the same time!

So I went for it. And though I won’t be getting into skinny jeans any time soon, I have lost some weight. But even better, I found an effective way to manage my stress while realizing a dream. There is nothing more soothing and satisfying to me than to take a basket outside and fill it with fresh vegetables from my garden. On a hectic day it is so easy to give myself permission to shut the door to my home office and go out in the garden for a half hour to recharge. When I crave a snack I graze in my garden or treat myself with a gardening article. My garden taught me being healthy is not just about weight. It’s about finding out how to be happy.