My "workout" this weekend is what I like to call chain gang duty. I have felt exhaustion to point of passing out and have had NO problem hitting my Water goal, blowing thru it actually. But so much drinking meant meals were liquid too but I was too tired to tell.

Here in northern Virginia it is hot and swampy like a moist version of hell. This weekend is hell-lite because not too terrible. But hot sun, heavy lifting, digging, digging in rain, excavating boulders....it's a lot. We were going to pave small patio after unearthing one boulder, we found more, and I think and ancient burial ground, old parking lot, and possible mastodon. So we scrapped that and decided to put down pebbles in rest of unpaved area. Now it is small, but 15 lb bags, lining, spreading, moving crap.

All I can say is last night I felt muscles I forgot existed and I expect they we will wake up other friends tonight and scream at me.

Boss is calling break is over! I better lose some inches or pounds and not just my will to landscape!

I love this feeling! Being exhausted and powering through difficult physical activity, and knowing your body can handle it now and also knowing that physical activity actually will make a difference in your weight. I love it.

Nothing like "real labor" to get the blood flowing and muscles burning! I know where you are at. I started a fairly good sized garden thinking it would be an "easy hobby"....not even close! When I moved what seemed to be an endless supply of wheelbarrows full of dirt from the curb to the back yard I thought my arms were going to fall off! Luckily I have a 13 year old son to help, although I think even he was feeling it the next day!!

It gets easier the more you do it, as everything does, and it is very therapeutic when you can actually see the fruits of your labor...it's very fulfilling and certainly good exercise!

Congratulations and best of luck!

I am 3 years post-op RNY gastric bypass. One of my projects after surgery was to construct an underground shelter. As a result I moved a lot of gravel and cement landscaping blocks. So a couple years ago I moved 100,000 pounds of gravel by hand along with around 60,000 pounds of concrete blocks and then last year I moved about the same amount. After surgery, I found that I had a lot more stamina [ability to perform physical labor] than before surgery. I am 67 going on 68 years old and I developed the stamina of when I was in my 30's.

@@chycky Thank you for a much needed laugh.

Thank you all! Definitely harder than the elliptical and weights!

James all I can say is you must be part robot, that is impressive!

@@chycky Your story gave me flashbacks to 2013 and 2014, when we lived in NoVa and decided to add on to an existing deck on the home we'd just bought. It seemed like it was 105 degrees and 100% humidity every single day. The more we tore down and dug out, the more issues we found. We love the house and kept it to rent out, but I'm SO glad to have escaped to the Pacific Northwest last summer! All I have is a little vegetable garden here, and the high was 64 today!