NEW YORK (CNN/Money) -
A federal judge Tuesday ordered Martha Stewart to report to prison by Oct. 8 to start serving her five-month prison sentence for obstructing an investigation into a well-time sale of ImClone stock.
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 Martha Stewart comments on her decision to serve her five-month prison sentence as soon as possible in order to reclaim her life.
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Judge Miriam Goldman Cedarbaum recommended that Stewart be sent to a federal prison facility at Danbury, Conn., or Coleman, Fla., as Stewart had requested. The U.S. Bureau of Prisons will make the final determination on where she'll be incarcerated.
Last week, the 63-year-old entrepreneur asked the court to let her serve her sentence soon so she could put her "nightmare" behind her and Martha Stewart Living Omnimedia, her home decor company.
"The best word to use for this very hard and difficult decision is 'finality,' and my intense desire to put this nightmare behind me, both personally and professionally," Stewart said at a news conference last Wednesday.
Stewart was sentenced in July to five months in prison and five months of house arrest after being convicted of obstructing justice and lying to investigators during an insider trading probe into why she sold ImClone (IMCL: Research, Estimates) stock in late 2001.
Judge Cedarbaum, who oversaw her trial, ruled at the sentencing that Stewart could stay out of prison pending her appeal.
While Stewart will continue to appeal her conviction -- and her lawyers insisted that she has a good case -- legal experts said last week that her chances of winning an appeal were actually slim, which probably figured into her decision as well.
Martha Stewart Living Omnimedia, the company she founded and built into a hugely successful media empire, has been bleeding money as advertisers fled during Stewart's nearly three-year ordeal.
While her legal problems hit her company hard, its shares have shot up nearly 30 percent since she said she wanted to begin her sentence before her appeal was decided.
Shares of the company also jumped Tuesday on reports that Stewart could retool her television show with "Survivor" creator Mark Burnett when she emerges from prison.
Martha Stewart Living Omnimedia (MSO: Research, Estimates) was one of the biggest gainers on the New York Stock Exchange, jumping 12.5 percent in heavy trading Tuesday. Volume was nearly triple the stock's normal daily average.
Stewart's decision to get her prison term over with came while magazine publishers negotiate advertising contracts for the coming year.
But Stewart and other company officials didn't say whether ad sales, which have plummeted at the flagship Martha Stewart Living magazine, factored into Stewart's decision.
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