At age seventy-four, having had cancer several times, discovering I could do relatively hard work, day after day, for several weeks in a row surprised me.  This post is about that.

Taking out an old fountain and putting in a new fountain, adding a new paver pathway, moving / adding lots of river rock and taking most of the garden area down to bare ground was not trivial. 

By the time we added edging, planted new flowers and did the mulching, I had built up enough strength and stamina that doing that work felt, well actually, it felt good. 

A garden is never “done”, however, once the mulch was in, I declared this garden is done.  The next day I started another project in the back corner of our yard.  Let us just say it is cleaned out and the grass seed is starting to germinate. 

About a year after my last cancer surgery, not only was there no sign of the cancer having returned, my “other non life threatening issues” were being addressed. My cholesterol was under control, blood pressure was under control and my sleep apnea was controlled.  

Quite literally, I was feeling better than I’ve felt for a very long time.  My oncologist looked at my history / test results and informed me that I’m cleared to do stuff.  She said, medically, I am unrestricted. 

I mentioned that being seventy-three was a restriction.  She said, nope, sorry, age is not a restriction. Medical conditions cause restrictions not age. Her advice was to start slowly and very gradually increase my level of activity.  Think several months, not a couple weeks.

For the record I do not run, do sit-ups, pushups, chin ups and the like. I am still fat. I still get out of bed slowly.  I’ve lost a bit of weight but no one would mistake me for an athlete   

She didn’t even smile at my joke about running a marathon. She said if running a marathon is your goal, start my training very slowly and slowly build up to it. I explained I was joking. She said exercise was a good thing. 

I have never been a runner nor do I ever intend to become a runner. My getting back in shape took the form of lots of walking and a moderate amount of using an elliptical machine at the YMCA.  

The most important thing was to change my mindset about being active. Should I walk now or should I walk later?  The correct answer is do both. My default answer is to prioritize walking. 

When Linda asks if I want to go to the grocery store, my answer is yes. When there, let’s browse around a bit. Being an efficient shopper is not the goal. Being active is the goal.  Going back again to the other corner of the store might not be efficient however it helps the steps. 

Each week doing active stuff became a bit more normal.  Walking around the yard picking up twigs after a windy day felt good, plus the yard looked better. Being  inactive when there was something that could be done felt a bit wrong. 

I really do try to get 10,000 steps a day. Most days it’s 10,000 to 12,000.  The trick is to consistently be on my feet rather than my buttocks.  Google and my experience says there are about 7,000 steps in an hour-long walk. 

There are days when circumstances are such that I only get a couple thousand steps. I just try really hard not to have many of those inactive days in a row.  I also try not to fret over it. 

Back to the landscaping project. So over a period of weeks I was routinely handling 50 lbs bags of materials.   The final tally was: 25 bags of class 5 gravel, 23 bags of river rock, 6 bags of sand and 34 bags of mulch.  

All were heavy and awkward to handle. However, over the several weeks of loading, unloading, carrying, cutting open and pouring them and spreading them, I got in better shape and it got easier.  

Doing hard things is actually fairly rewarding. Not that I want to spend all day, everyday doing hard things. But doing hard things once in a while is kind of its own reward. 

Several times I changed my mind on how the landscaping should look. Move some dirt again.  Move some previously laid gravel, river rock and mulch.  I did my best to look at these changes in plans as an opportunity to continue to be active. 

One side effect of being more active is that I am sleeping better. Sleep is a good thing. My naps are less frequent and if I nap it is shorter. There are still occasional nights where I don’t sleep well, however, only a few.  Which is manageable. 

One negative about being more active is I have less time to think about what to write and less time to write. Having deep thoughts takes lots of time. Walking while in deep thought is dangerous. 

In the past,  I’ve often used my age as my excuse to avoid doing this or that. I’m too old to move a pile of rocks. This project proved my doctor was correct. Age is not my restriction. My age is not relevant to me doing hard stuff. 

So yes the garden looks great. Yes the back corner grass is growing well.  Yes I feel physically better. More importantly, mentally I feel good about myself. 

To be clear, I am still overweight 74-year old with a complicated medical history.  The difference now is that I do more active stuff and less sedentary stuff.  I feel empowered.