When most of us decide to focus on healthier lifestyles we’re dreaming of more energy, fewer aches, less weight, decreased medications and better sleep. Once we gain a little courage we broaden our goals to races, family outings, competitions and helping those around us live healthier lives. While those are all awesome (and worthwhile!) goals, it’s frequently the unintended consequences of our new choices that end up meaning the most to us.
I was reminded of this today as I was sweeping our yard. Yes, that’s a thing. 🙂 You see, we live in the country with a loooong gravel driveway. Each time the snow piles up out here a wonderful man in a snow plow shows up to dig us out…and pushes all that gravel on to our yard. When the snow melts we’re faced with the substantial chore of moving all that gravel back onto the driveway so it doesn’t kill our lawn mower. Even with a rented yard sweeper machine it’s a big job and one that, until recently, I wasn’t strong enough to help with. That machine takes some serious grip and upper body strength to maneuver over this bumpy country ground! Today I got to spend 4 hours sweeping our lawn so my husband didn’t have to do it after work, giving me time to think about the fact that I never set a goal to get this strong…it just happened one step at a time. Over the past 5 years I’ve purposefully worked on running a couple half marathons, countless shorter races, working out 4-5 days a week with weights, eating more vegetables and less junk, making more of our food from scratch, growing some of our food, getting more sleep and carving out daily Bible time….but I’ve accidentally also:
- Gained enough upper body strength to lift a 40 gallon trash bag FULL of diapers out of the trash can.
- Gained enough core strength to cart 30+ wheelbarrow loads of wood chips around our acreage (and race the kids back to the mulch pile between loads) when it’s time to mulch the flower beds.
- Learned how to make yogurt, kombucha, marinara, ice cream, mozzarella, all of our bread, granola and bone broth.
- Realized I can recreate almost anything we eat in a restaurant for a fraction of the price or stress of taking 5 kids out to dinner.
- Gotten my kids hooked on eating food right out of our garden. We have a 4yo who waits all year to be able to pick the sugar snap peas she grew and bigger girls who will eat my pepper, tomato and raspberry plants bare if I let them.
- Developed the ability to go farther on the monkey bars than our half-monkey daughter! This one took a while and I’m seriously proud of it. 🙂
In the end, I’ve found far more value in knowing I am able to pick up heavy things, be creative with healthy food and teach our kids how to grow and enjoy real food than from any medal I’ve earned or meal plan I created. But I had no idea I could do any of these things when I started. And I have no idea what I’ll be able to add to that list in another 5 years.
What unintended consequences could you uncover if you made 1 healthier choice today? Wouldn’t it be fun to find out? 🙂
