Resolving to stop breaking myself

Last night, as I stepped out of the house to walk the dog, the popper on my trousers burst open.

Of course I knew that the festive weeks of unhealthy food and daily (sometimes day-long) drinking would be taking their toll. The audible ‘pop’ simply confirmed it.

I’m not worried. The biscuit selection box will be empty soon, the chocolates will be finished or stored at the back of the cupboard, and Mr MBaF and I will have a dry January as usual. And as soon as I start working in the allotment again, everything – mind, body and blog – will get back on track.

It wasn’t until this break from gardening – caused by winter wet and Christmas build-up – that I realised quite how active it’s been keeping me. I’ve been steadily shedding weight all year, even though I’m really greedy and love cake, and it must be down to the weekly hours spent digging and weeding.

But it’s not all good. My back is painful, and my right knee has a bursitis, which makes kneeling uncomfortable (and unadvisable).

So I’m resolving to garden more sustainably for my body this year. That means, not spending hours and hours doing the same task, but to break up the physical work so it doesn’t break me.

Too many times in 2014 I got tunnel-vision about a task. Planning to do a bit of couch grass clearance, standing up to go home, and then “…maybe I’ll just do that patch before I go…”. Over and over, until actually it’s easier to keep scrabbling about in the dirt than to unfold my painful scrunched-up body and drag it home.

So Happy New Year, let’s raise an unbuttered wholemeal toast to health and happy gardening in 2015.