I’m a little more excited about my diet today than I was last week.  It helps when there are results!

Weight Loss

I actually lost a pound this week!   I understand that it is better in the long run to go at a moderate pace. I’ll try to get on board with that plan!

Exercise

I only exercised walked one time last week.  We’ve been very busy with the un-clutter project and I’m using that as my reason excuse justification.  And while being active is good, and while un-clutterring and doing housework in general is quite active, it really only burns about 200 – 250 calories PER HOUR! And y’all,  I’ve been very busy with the un-clutterring, but not 15 hours a day worth of busy.  On the other hand, I have played quite a few games of very competitive ping-pong. That’s exercise!

Diet

Fail.  The sugar isn’t giving me fits anymore.  But, pizza?  Yes, I succumb.  And fried chicken?  I’m sorry to say,  if I’d have met the Colonel before I met Hubs… my Cowboys would be sportin’ little white goatees!  Get behind me, fried chicken!

Now it’s your turn.  I hope you’ve had some success this week, because nothing succeeds like success!

If you need instructions on how to link up, you can read my instructions here.

Please feel free to use my banner in your post and you know it would make me smile to see my button in your sidebar!

Momma Bug is so right!  I have no idea how to accomplish a good bloggity break.  So, apparently, a break of less than a week is all that is called for every few weeks.

I’ve been blogging in my head on a daily basis.  I figured I better put some of it in print before it gets lost in there.  Sometimes I think I should write this stuff down on paper so it won’t escape into the hinder regions of my Dory-esque brain, and then the practical part of me takes over and screams at me – “WHY?  WHY ON EARTH WOULD YOU BLOG ON PAPER AND THEN TRANSFER THE SAME INFO ONTO THE WWW?  Big waste of time and effort!”

So, all that to say, I’M BA-A-A-ACK! And boy do I have a lot to tell you!

I’ve planned THREE, count ‘em, THREE new weekly features for the Ranch!  And they’re all interactive.  That means you gotta play along! I hope you’ll participate!

#1

First is the fitness and weight-loss Linky I’ve been hemmin’ and hawin’ about for a few months.  I’m gonna call it “Fit as a Farmhand” and I’ll post it every Tuesday (actually it’ll go live every Monday night around 10 p.m.)  Starting next week.  You know, new year – new me!

All you have to do to participate in that one is post about your fitness/weight-loss program, progress, plan, whatever ya got along those lines.  Then come here to the Ranch and link up on the Linky-do.

If’n ya don’t know how to link up on one of those Mr. Linky/McLinky dealies, FEAR NOT!  It’s easy and I’ll give ya detailed instructions.  If you can blog, you can link-up!  And if ya don’t blog, you can tell us about your progress/program/plan in the comments on the “Fit as a Farmhand” post!  See?  Everybody can play!

#2

My second BIG IDEA is not even my own idea.  Hubs asked me to do this one.  You long time readers of my blog may recall that the Cowboys frequently buy books and other items from the Clearance Store in the Vision Forum warehouse and offer them for sale at a huge, HUGE, huge discount.  I’ll be writing a weekly FOR SALE post offering an assortment of these items.  The items find their way to the Clearance Store (which is different from the clearance section of the V.F. website) due to (usually) minor dings and dents or insignificant smudges.  If you’ve been wanting to pick up some Hentys or Ballantynes (and many other items) from Vision Forum for your kids, but can’t bring yourself to fork over the mucho dinero, this might be a wonderful opportunity for you to get the books you want at a great discount and help my Cowboys earn a bit o’ dust in the process.   Look for the FOR SALE posts on Wednesdays or Thursdays.

#3

The third new feature has been niggling around in the back of my mind for several months.   I’ve been wanting to start this and have finally worked out the details.  It’s been a complete and total secret this whole time.  It’s another weekly Linky-do.  I’m gonna call it “Sally Mae Cooks” and will star my darling 6¾ year old daughter.  We’ll feature one newly learned kitchen skill or newly mastered recipe every week, complete with photos (I can’t resist taking her picture, she’s a cutie!  And the boots!  They’re to die for!).  If you have a child who is ready to learn to cook, or who is continuing to learn new skills in the kitchen and want to post about it on your blog, I insist hope you’ll link-up here at the Ranch every Friday on my “Sally Mae Cooks” posts!

I’m hoping to be ready to kick off all of these new features next week, the first full week of the year.  Tex is gonna be real busy makin’ me some smart buttons so y’all can plaster ‘em all over the www use ‘em to decorate your posts that you promise to link-up. You  promise to link-up, right?!?!

There ya go!  Time to get ready!

I found a great resource for helping sons to learn  manly behavior.  It’s called The Art of Manliness.  Give it a read.  It’s not written from a Christian perspective, but it is a wholesome, family oriented work.

Today we enjoyed reading a post about physical exercise, specifically push-ups.

Boys need encouragement from other men and boys.  I love that my boys get this encouragement from their Dad, each other, the men and boys of our church, and the men and boys they work with.

But we have to understand that our culture bombards their senses with feminist propaganda from all directions.  So we have to fight back at every opportunity.

I guess it’s been a while since I said much about the weight-loss/fitness plan.  Let me start off by saying THERE IS NO SUCH THING AS INSTANT GRATIFICATION where weight-loss is concerned.  Fitness is almost the same.

Sorry for all the shouting, but it took me about 10 years to pack all this weight on and I really need to get it through my thick head that it ain’t all gonna come off this Summer!

However, I am seeing progress.  I started my simple plan on April 26, 2009.  The plan is just to exercise using the Walk Away the Pounds DVD as much as I can without causing injury.  I am currently doing the 2 mile walk 3x a week.

The only dietary change I have implemented is I have given up processed sugar.  And I have cheated on that one several times.  I keep giving it up again, right away.

Now, for the PROGRESS!

• My ankles are not chronically swollen.
• My energy is at least tripled.
• I have lost 11 lbs.  One of those is since Monday, yeah, 2 days ago.

I have been rather inconsistent with both the exercise and the sugar.  I’m very encouraged that I’ve had impressive progress even while being so lackadaisical about it.

This week I determined to start being more diligent with both.  Also, I started reading Sugar Busters to find out what else I need to change.

I am so happy to have more energy.  The whole family has noticed and it just makes such a big difference in our lives.