CSA: Community Supported Agriculture

A while ago, I heard about a service where you can get local produce delivered to your door. I had forgot about this until now. I have been doing a lot of grocery shopping recently. A lot of unsuccessful grocery shopping, I should say. I have been so frustrated. It seems the produce isn't very good and trying to find organic is sometimes a struggle in stores!

I like buying organic, and local organic would be even better! There are a few grocery stores in the Madison Area that support local and/or local organic produce, but it isn't convenient for me to get there.

After searching on the internet for a while, I realized I was looking for a CSA, community supported agriculture, program. I found the Madison Area CSA Coalition! Tons of farms and all organic! Great! I finally discovered that they don't deliver to your home, but there is a site basically down the road, within 10 minutes of my home, which is great! I decided to email April's Garden CSA for more information. This is definitely something I am interested in. Here is a link to Madison's CSA website: http://www.csacoalition.org/

Are you currently part of a CSA? What do you like about it? Do you live in the Madison area and have a CSA that delivers to your home? If so, tell me about it please!!! That is what I would prefer!

Once I hear back from April's Garden, I will post on what I learned!

I did make it to the gym today and burned 700 calories! 1640 calories left to burn! Did you get your workout in yet today?

Walking versus Running

Walking and running are both great forms of exercise. Running burns calories more efficiently, creates more impact on your joints, and covers more distance in less time. Walking doesn't burn calories as efficiently as running, but it is much less impact on your joints, making it less likely for injury.

I use to be a runner, but due to continual injuries, I started to enjoy walking much more. When I want to burn calories more efficiently I get to the gym and hop on the elliptical where I can work hard without causing a flare up!

Running isn't for everyone. If you love to run, great! If not, don't sweat it. Go for nice long walks around your neighborhood, on a bike trail, or other nature trails! While it may not burn calories in the fastest manner, you are still burning calories and doing something healthy for your heart.

I took Nora for a long walk around our neighborhood this morning. We walked and walked and walked, totaling 80 minutes! I burned about 300 calories, making my remaining 270 calories I needed to burn! Yay! So finally for the first time in a while I have met my 3500 calorie burn challenge! I may not have burned as many calories as I would have on the elliptical or if I had been running, but then again I probably would have stopped long before 80 minutes too! So here is to the endurance of walking, allowing me to make my goal by just stepping outside!

Here is a look at comparing calories burned when walking and running. Remember, how much you burn is related to the time, the pace, and your weight. In the example below we are using a time of 30 minutes.                      

Weight  (lbs)	Walking (3miles/hour)	Running (5miles/hour)
100	99 calories	192 calories
110	108 calories	211 calories
120	118 calories	230 calories
130	128 calories	249 calories
140	138 calories	268 calories
150	148 calories	288 calories
160	158 calories	307 calories
170	168 calories	326 calories
180	178 calories	345 calories
190	188 calories	365 calories
200	198 calories	384 calories

I got the calories burned from this online calculator: http://www.healthstatus.com/calculate/cbc