In honor of Earth Day I’ve calculated the calories you burn while preparing your garden. If you really want a workout choose a patch of grass to clear for a new garden bed. You’ll be exercising today and ostensibly in the future you’ll have low calorie edible vegetation for your new healthy diet.

 

Shoveling something or digging burns 340 calories per hour.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I was creating a new bed so I had to scrape off a layer of sod. Many were repurposed in brown areas of my lawn. Others were flung into the woods. This is akin to shotputting and it burns 363 calories an hour. Caution: There’s a risk of dropping your spleen in the back yard while hurling things. Make sure to take note of where it drops so you can tuck it back up there. I don’t know what a spleen does but I think I need it.

 

Raking burns 292 calories per hour. Now you might have some back pain after all this garden preperation but before you put a fist full of Ibuprofen (not recommened) in your mouth consider letting the lower back throbbing continue for a while. It seems like pain burns calories. When you  ad writhing and moaning to your workout you’ll be shredded in no time. 

Happy Earth Day!