17 May, 2010
Know More Do More Mondays: the veggie stash
Posted by andrea tomkins in: - Know More Do More
This past week our task was to:
Have fresh veggies and fruit in the fridge for ready-to-eat snacks.
I can’t believe how many veggies we consumed – especially me. I really didn’t see myself as the beneficiary of this particular tip. But wow … raw asparagus! Celery! Carrot sticks! Green beans. Oh my. We ran out of veggies. Note to self: I need to be better at replenishing the stockpile.
A helpful side benefit: the washed-raw-veggies-in-the fridge trick was ideal for preventing certain small humans from annoying us with that high-pitched ear-splittin’ head-hurtin’ call of: “MOOooooMMMMM I’m Huuuuuunnnngreeeeeee!”
Well dear, why not have some veggies?
Are you laughing? It works! Why not have an accessible veggie pile instead of a self-serve box of granola bars?
Anyway, this week’s tip is another one I made up, JUST BECAUSE:
Do 30 minutes of gardening every day.
Did you know that gardening is good for you? If you are busy in the garden you can probably stop renewing that gym membership you never use, because yard work involves muscles you never know you had. Gardening is almost entirely about lunging, twisting, stretching, lifting, yanking and squatting. Throw in some pushups and a walk around the block and it’s a workout and a half. YOU WILL FEEL THE BURN.
Speaking of which, you may be interested to know that a 150 lb person will burn about 270 calories doing general gardening. This is the equivalent of one Grande Starbucks (made with whole milk), or one Snickers bar, or 1.3 cans of Coke, or 0.4 Big Macs. (via this site).
The benefits for kids are numerous, and they go beyond just physical/calorie-burning. Kids can learn about plants (first teach them how to distinguish a weed from a plant!), bird-watch, and enjoy nature. They can help by raking, picking up stray sticks and rocks. Younger kids love to dig and look for bugs. I even saw our little kinder-aged neighbour mowing his lawn with a reel mower yesterday!
What say you? How about doing this challenge with us this week? And if you don’t have a garden of your own, how about helping a neighbour? Or coming over and helping me with ours? :)
Just kidding.
I am already looking forward to how great our garden is going to look next week. Woot!
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This post is part of the Know More Do More initiative spearheaded by the Champlain Cardiovascular Disease Prevention Network. KMDM is about empowering parents and inspiring them to take charge of their children’s health by taking easy steps to increase activity levels and improve eating habits. I’m one of two champion families who has been asked to take this challenge. You can join too. Check out the official website for more information. You can also get healthy tips by following @knowmoredomore on Twitter. If you’re blogging about your participation, please let me know so we can cheer each other on!
