Hi Maine Daddy

I'm with you on the muscle work! I make sure to do those as well as calorie burning activities

I do Pilates daily, and that targets muscle development in my abs & back. I also look for opportunities to add lifting, carrying, and climbing to my normal everyday activites. For example, it's not my job to hand stack cases of product on pallets if the overhead conveyors at work go down, but if I'm in the area when it happens, I grab 5-15 minutes of lifting and stacking big heavy boxes. It lightens the load for folks in the area, and gives me a chance to work muscles that I can't normally work during my work day.

My main muscle building plan, though, is to increase my ability to do heavy lifting and carrying on the property. Moving tree trunck sections and log piles, shoveling and hauling compost, hammering things that need to be hammered, and climbing trees are all things where I need to improve my abilities, so that's what I work on. I'm going to learn to handle a big axe to split those tree trunks this Spring. Oh - and we're fencing the land this Summer, so I'm going to get to pound stakes and learn to carry big roll of fencing up the hills! We a lot 45% to 60% grades on our hills, and at my current body mass you can imagine the kind of resistance training impact those have on me! Picking up sticks and taking them to a woodpile is a whole different kind of workout when you're going up and down a 60% grade! I'm so glad that I expanded my concept of beneficial exercise to include all of this instead of just walking and counting steps. Rolls of fencing, even with hubby, are going to be a brand new challenge.

I wholeheartedly agree with you about making sure you have muscle building work in with your lifestyle based calorie burning exercises. One of the easiest ways to sneak in weight lifting is to shop with a basket instead of a cart, or park the cart somewhere and foray out to carry back the items-lifting and lowering them a few times. Then after check out, carry the bags to the car instead of using the cart. You can get a nice mini workout parking your cart two aisles away from the pet care aisle and carrying the cat litter, dog food, and bird seed a little distance before putting it in the cart.

I keep in mind what I'm training for - My husband and I are both training to be old and healthy and to be able to enjoy and work our land into our 90's. I'd hate to be stuck on the porch wishing I was thinner and stronger when I retire! Part of the reason for taking my current job is because the plant is big and I need to cover a lot of it to do my job. It feels soooooooooo good to be doing all of this (weight loss and exercise) as part of your life instead of a time consuming demand separate from the rest of your life.

Lynda