Gardening, fitter. Part Two
Setbacks and rough roads ahead, but valuable experiences. The power of The Pause. Strength gains. The carry over into mental health and gardening.
I was feeling very pleased with myself. Quite frankly, I was staggered by just how well things were going and how easy it was! By early June 2023, I had lost a whopping 18kg or 40lbs! My mission to a healthier lifestyle was perfectly on track.
Then, LIFE, in its ineffable wisdom, decided it was time for me to take a ‘break’ from the gym. On a glorious June morning, while happily watering new plantings in the Flower Garden, I tripped over the garden hose! Ooof! I fell backwards onto the stone terrace steps and smashed two ribs, narrowly missing my spine. Ouch!
It was absolutely gutting, but the experience was also a mini-triumph! Yes, weird, I know, but I’ll explain. Before the new medication regime and change of lifestyle, this kind of event would have triggered a crushing depressive episode. This time, intense pain aside, I worked through it positively and seized upon the unfortunate event as an opportunity to rest and recoup.
I’d started to feel a little beaten up anyway. My confidence (ok, my ego!) had been rapidly outpacing my true strength. So, the time-off would allow all that connective tissue to fully repair. I also accepted that a little body weight would return, because I would naturally console myself with extra food. I am an emotional eater after all!
As I’ve come to appreciate, the ‘pause’ is actually a highly undervalued tool. For example, if you have a lot of ‘fat weight’ to lose, setting incremental goals, with ‘diet breaks’ can keep you on track in the long term. Losing a lot of weight quickly, usually results in an immediate rebound and significant weight gain.
My plan has always been to hit an initial target, then take a break, maintaining that target weight for a year or more, so my metabolism adapts and settles. Meanwhile, I can relax. When I feel ready, I will attack the body fat again, with each fat-loss cycle requiring less weight to lose.
It’s worth bearing in mind that as you approach a lean bodyweight, each cycle will be incrementally slower/harder. I guess, in the end, it becomes a question of reaching a state of contentment, focussing on a healthy weight versus that wholly imaginary ‘body beautiful’ physique.
Honestly, I was happy just to fit into my clothes and not have moobs or super-sized love handles, but that’s as far as aesthetics go. I am focussed on strength, improving my cardiovascular health, and reducing visceral fat… that nasty, harmful, troublesome fat that congests around your organs.
One step forward and…
By late summer, as the dahlias bloomed, I felt ready to return to the gym. I had a quick check-up with my Osteo, just to make sure my ribs were fully seated and healed. Thankfully, I got the ‘OK!’ I was finally back in the gym! Hoorah!
Then, for some insane reason, I thought it was a brilliant idea to make up for lost time and charged ahead like a man possessed. I ramped up the weights too aggressively and almost immediately developed a painful shoulder impingement.
Seriously! What the hell was I thinking?!
Again, rather fabulously, I turned this setback into an opportunity. I decided to focus all my efforts on my chicken-legs! I could no longer press or pull with my arms, so every session was a lower body or leg day! Squats, Romanian deadlifts, glute thrusts, back extensions, leg press, leg extensions, leg curls, Bulgarian split squats, dumbbell lunges, calf raises, hanging leg raise, hip add/abductions… Plus lots of cardio.
This was the 3x day/week regime for the next three months, until the pain in my shoulder subsided. The extra volume (how many sets per week) made a huge impact to my leg and core strength! I will always use this as a fallback plan when shoulder impingement flares up again, as no doubt it will, because I’m really just an overambitious idiot.
Mission accomplished!
Two years on, despite a few setbacks, I hit my original mission goal. It was August ‘24 and I was unquestionably stronger in mind and body. Actually, I was considerably stronger in body!
Strength
A few examples… When I began, my shoulder press was with 4kg (9lb) dumbbells and that was a real struggle. Two years on and I was pressing 20kg (44lb) dumbbells. My dumbbell bench press went from 8kg to 28kg (from 18lb - 62lb). My legs press increased from 30kg to 140kg (from 66lb - 308lb). Overall, when all the increases of all the exercises are totted up, I’ve gained over 400% in measurable strength and that is something I am proud of.
Bodyweight
My bodyweight has settled at around 80-82kg (176lb -180lb), that’s more than 15kg (33lb) lighter. My physique has also been through a process of recomposition. I now have a higher proportion of lean body (muscle) mass and lower body fat. Another indicator of improved health is my blood pressure which dropped to a perfectly acceptable 126/79, down from 138/88.
Mental health
Another win! I have not had a major depressive episode in over two years. I still sense the hypermania and depressive episodes but their severity is greatly diminished. Hypermania now presents as restlessness, poorer sleep (but still plenty), and irritability. Depressive periods now present as a modicum of fatigue, general disinterest, and social withdrawal. But, compared to how my life was before, these deviations in mood are child’s play and easily managed.
More surprising to me as how much I miss training when I have more than two weeks away. It’s surprising because I’ve never been a fan of exercise. I cycled as a kid and that is about it! I never imagined that I would love this so much, to the extent where I feel it’s essential to my entire well-being. I am better when I exercise. I am happier, more contented, more relaxed, more focussed.
More surprising benefits
The vanquishing of all lower back pain! For years, I’d suffered with an annoying, niggling lower back. Sometimes wondering if somebody had fused my spine and pelvis together in the night. That! That had disappeared entirely!
Sleep patterns, settled! Whereas before I would suffer with insomnia during hypermania episodes and chronic fatigue and lethargy during depressive episodes. I now enjoy a relatively steady 8-9 hours sleep. I sleep particularly well after gym sessions!
Walking, with purpose! I now stride confidently, rather than shuffling along, head bowed, shoulders hunched, feet barely leaving the ground.
Mental wellbeing
By boosting my physical health, I’ve inherently boosted my mental health too. All that lovely oxygenated blood pumping around… not to mention the surge in endorphins, serotonin, and dopamines. Apart from the enormous sense of achievement, I’ve found more subtle benefits to intense physical exercise…
Each time I walk through the gym doors, I take a deep breath and make a point of remembering how lucky I am to be here at all.
Weight training aka lifting executed properly is surprisingly grounding.
I am more aware of my body and my breathing when lifting. More than anywhere else, even compared to mindfulness exercises.
For an hour a day, I think of nothing else apart from moving a weight, from point A to point B, with power and control. No other distractions enter my mind and all cares and woe are literally crushed into silence.
Gardening stronger
Is there a carry over for gardening? Abso-bloomin-lutely!!! Within weeks of training, I noticed the ease in which I carried loads, or dug planting holes. But let’s revisit those movement patterns I described in Part One:
Vertical Pull - The strength to pull your body upwards, the mobility to reach above your head, the strength to pull object towards you when you’re bent over. Example: The action of digging and raking requires you to pull a laden tool towards you while you’re inclined at the hip.
Vertical Press - The strength and mobility to push objects above you. Example: Lifting objects to place on a high shelf. Pushing an object away from you when you’re bent over. Example: Using a hand tool and weeding, while you’re upside down in a border or pruning tree branches.
Horizontal Press - The strength to push an object away from you. Example: As above, digging, raking requires you to drive your hands forward, away from your torso, especially with digging. The strength to support your upper body if you’re weeding on your knees.
Horizontal Pull - The strength to pull objects towards you. Examples: Lifting a bag of compost. Pulling weeds or pruned branches. Combined with pressing you have more strength and endurance for digging, shovelling, carrying, etc.
Squat - The strength to repeatedly crouch down and stand up again, even when carrying heavy objects, like plant pots. This also involves ‘knee extension’ where you would drive your foot down on a spade or fork tread.
Hinge - Combined with the ‘squat’ you have the strength and correct form to safely lift a dead weight from the ground. Example: Lifting bags of grit or compost. Lifting a heavy-laden wheelbarrow. Lifting heavy plant pots. You’re also adding strength and endurance to your posterior chain enabling you to maintain a bent over position without discomfort.
Extras - Arm curls, calf raises, abdominal crunches, etc. - Additional strength to arms, core, and lower legs to improve overall endurance, mobility, and stability.
Almost all of the above exercises will also improve your grip strength over time. With stronger legs, back, grip, and core, your stability and balance improves. It’s so useful when you’re upside down in a border and need to pivot on one foot to carefully step aside and reposition. Not to mention, carrying bags of compost, lifting pots, and pushing a laden wheelbarrows, negotiating your way through a planted border.
These strength improvements will also keep you safe as you age. Something I am more focussed on these days. Increasing leg and core strength will improve how you tackle stairs and uneven ground, giving you the strength to decelerate. Slowing your speed as you descend steps, slopes, curbs, or uneven ground means you’re far less likely to fall.
Live to eat, or eat to live?
It’s a simple question, isn’t it? In reflection, I know I’m an emotional eater. When my mood was cycling between energising highs and terrifying lows, my eating would follow suit. Barely eating in a state of hypermania, binging on huge quantities when I was depressed for weeks on end, desperately seeking comfort.
I lived to eat.
The life-changes I’ve brought about through necessity have, thankfully, reset my relationship with food. I now eat to live. I invest considerable time and effort in the gym. I don’t want to sabotage that effort by binging on junk food. Nor do I want to go back to feeling rough, achy, and tired all the time. I want to reduce cholesterol and the risk of diabetes and heart disease (prevalent in my family).
However, I’m not about to imprison my appetite or blinker myself to one of life’s pleasures. Food, wine, and plant shopping are my only vices. Over the past two years, I’ve naturally arrived at a healthy, balanced, contented, compromise. My diet is, on the whole, healthy and inclusive. I don’t follow any particular camp or trend. I’m not obsessed by ‘clean eating’.
Apart from the occasional restaurant meal, my diet consists of whole foods, home-cooked, with animal and plant-based proteins, eggs and dairy, a wide variety of vegetables, and whole-grains, pulses, etc. The only foods I have excluded are Ultra-processed Foods (UPFs). I don’t eat junk fast food anyway, so no loss there.
I do weigh myself weekly, to keep track. But, more importantly, I go by feel. How do my clothes feel? How do I feel? Right now is a great example. The festivities are over and the New Year is just a few days old. I know I have over-indulged. I feel it physically, but more importantly I feel it mentally.
Even before New Year’s Eve, I knew that I’d had enough. On the big night, I ate a modest dinner and didn’t even drink alcohol. Boring, maybe, but I knew I’d reached my limit and it’s so empowering when you finally learn to say:
“No, that’s enough!”
The onward journey
It’s time to attack my body fat again and I’m starting right now. I’ve spent over a year with a more relaxed approached to food, but I know I am now ready to go again! I’ll apply the same simple method as before:
Snacks removed. Portions reduced. Protein maintained or even increased. Bread and pasta markedly reduced. Bread and pasta are not inherently bad, but they’re like alcohol, in that I will always eat more when they’re present!
The luxury of desserts, wine, or squares of Lindt 70% dark chocolate after dinner are all temporarily suspended. I’ll also be talking (out loud) to my abdomen, literally telling it to: “Shut up! I’m in charge here! Not my stomach or you gut microbes!”
I won’t be going without. Portions will still be plentiful enough, but there’ll be more emphasis on nutrient-dense, energy/calorie poor foods like humble vegetables. I’ll aim for an initial 5kg (11lb) weight loss and then see how I feel. If all goes well, I’ll continue until I hit the 10kg (22lb) target.
Nothing is set in stone. I do not know what LIFE will throw at me this year. All I know is that I must remain flexible and open to opportunity.
Coming up…
We’ll be stepping back into the garden, taking a deep-dive into my (very popular) Courtyard Garden a.k.a. The White Garden. We’ll explore all the elements and how they’re combined - planting, pots and planters, accessories… The works!