For now I’m gonna let Leslie help me.  She’s a kinder, gentler fitness trainer.  I don’t know how far she can take me.  I haven’t been that driven… until now.

I am drowning in my own sea of fatigue.  And I hate it.  I’m tired when I get up in the morning.  I’m tired mid-morning.  I’m tired in the afternoon.  I’m tired after supper.  The only time I’m not tired is when I’m actually sleeping.

I don’t think I’m sick.  I do have allergies, but I live in Texas, home of the year-round allergens.  I am over-weight.  Doctors would call me morbidly obese, another reason to hate doctors (just kidding, a little).  Anyway, the answer to my problems is to get off my giant, round, duff and exercise.

Lord, help me.

I’m motivated… again.  So, I started with T-Tapp.

Let me just give you my personal, comprehensive review of the T-Tapp exercise system.

OUCH!!!

Now lemme give you my personal, comprehensive review of Leslie Sansone: Walk Away the Pounds.

REALLY???  THAT’S ALL I HAVE TO DO?

I think about the issue all the time.  I mean, how can I not think about all the extra effort it takes to do stuff because I have the equivalent of an entire extra person I have to lug around with me everyday, all the time.  What a relief that will be to get that person off of my knees and feet!

John told me about the lady who lost 300 pounds in 3 years thru good old fashioned diet and exercise and that was a real help to me.  Just reading about her and her efforts has inspired me to, ahem, get up and do stuff.  She started off at 589 lbs and has lost 300 pounds!  Go Shannon!

Here’s my plan:

• Walk with Leslie  M – S  in the mornings.
• Swim with my kids  daily for 30 minutes in the afternoons.
• Eat like Shannon – pretty sound ideas there – also adding some brown rice, but limited serving sizes.
• Stop buying ice cream.  <sigh>

Let’s see how far that takes me.

Here are a couple of recipe links, Spanish Rice, and Brown Rice Pilaf.

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The kids were in the library folding laundry, I was in the boys room folding laundry, Blaze was napping on a cushion in the family room and Maggie was enjoying fresh air and sunshine outside on the tie out.  Or so we thought!

Caleb says to me, “Ma, Maggie isn’t on the tie out.”  <insert elevated blood-pressure here> “She’s actually sitting at the front door!”

I run for the door and can already see her through the window, sitting calmly on the door-mat, waiting for her doofy owner to let her in.  I open the door and try to appear calm while she just saunters in, relaxed as can be.  Doesn’t she realize I can’t take the stress of wondering if all the chickens are still right side out?

Then, of course, we add the heart-pounding realization that I just let THE GIANT EXERCISE MACHINE, I mean to say, my big dog, into the same room as the itty-bitty fluff ball doggie (Blaze) who can’t defend herself against THE INCREDIBLE HULK!  <insert even higher blood-pressure here>

See?  What happened is, while you weren’t looking Maggie acquired a bunch of nick-names having to do with her size, strength, and general rambunctiousness.

Here’s a short list of a few of those names.

• THE LIMB-INATOR
• COW-BARK-AHOLIC
• THE DOG THAT ATE THE OTHER DOG (this one is based on legend) (so far)
• WALKIN’ GIRL
• DOGZILLA
• SHE WHO JERKS MY ARMS OFF WITH A LEASH
• 9 LORDS-A-LEAPING
• THE MOUTH OF THE SOUTH
• LIVE FREE OR BARK LOUD
• And latest of all – HOUDINI

Yes, we have some behavior issues to deal with.  The biggest of those is that Maggie could injure Blaze just from enthusiasm, so we don’t let them together unsupervised and without Maggie on the leash.

I called our vet to get some advice.  She was very helpful, but really, we’re already doing all the things she suggested.  I was happy that she had some info on a dog trainer close by.  I phoned him and spoke to him for a good while about his classes and our dogs and their assorted difficulties.  I was pretty impressed with what he had to say and we’re now looking forward to getting started with his obedience classes.  The man’s name is Clark Young and his website is DoggyBootCampSA.com.

Here is my list of doggy difficulties that are going on right now that I hope to resolve through obedience training.

• pulling on leash – Maggie (Really, Maggie, this is h.u.r.t.i.n.g. me!)
• mouthing – Maggie
• rowdy in house – Maggie
• whining about Blaze while in her crate – Maggie
• jumping on people – Maggie
• Dare I add?  chicken chasing – Maggie
• sock stealing – Blaze

Writing it down puts things in perspective.  I thought there were more items to go on the list, but it must be that a few of the items are so very trying.  The pulling on the leash is really wearing me out.

And isn’t it cute that Blaze’s name appears by only one item?  She is a cutie, but she’s going for the obedience training anyway!

She’s actually in the process of jumping down from the footstool.  A little sit/stay will go a long way here.  But, behold the cuteness, it is intense.

Speaking of the chickens, (we are speaking of chickens, right?) we’re already up to about ½ dozen eggs a day!  Hallelujah!

Jake was huffin’ and puffin’, but Maggie was just about warmed up and ready for a run!   I’m adding MAGGIE, THE PERSONAL TRAINER to the list o’ nick-names.

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I have never been so excited to get on the scale as I am these days.  Now I can’t wait for Monday mornings to roll around.

Atkins diet is kinda difficult since I am only supposed to eat 20 grams of carbs per day right now, and I do miss the carbs.  But there is so much incentive to stay the course that I can muscle my way through all the cravings.  I just think about my beloved bathroom scale.  (Trust me, I never called the scale that IN MY LIFE!  ’Til now!)

I realize that Atkins is not for everyone, but if you are doing Atkins or any other low carb weight loss plan,  Here’s a cool web site for ya.   It’s called Low Carb Luxury.  Very helpful site!  There’s even a recipe for cheesecake!  (I love this diet!)

Weight

Lost 8 lbs this week!  That’s a total of 15 lbs on the Atkins plan!  Loving this!  Remember, it’s only been 16 days!

Exercise

Still not 100%, I exercised 3 times during the past week.

Diet

The diet is pretty easy to stick to.  The thing I’m finding to be a real challenge is not automatically licking my fingers when I’m making something for the rest of the family.  That sounds kinda gross when I say it out loud, but, you know, when I’m pouring store-bought salad dressing on their salad and there’s that bit you wanna wipe off before screwing the lid on?  I use my fingers for that.  And it appears that my habit is to just pop that finger right in my mouth.  I know there’s only a tiny bit of badness in that drip of salad dressing, but sometimes I’m making peanut butter and honey sandwiches and it’s a drip of honey…  That’s a few more carbs than I need.  Anyway, I’m tryin’ real hard to be a good girl and stay under the 20 gram limit every day.

Now it’s your turn.

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

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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.

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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!

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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.

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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.

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Why, yes, I do have cows on my skirt.

My New Shoes

I actually got them about 2 weeks ago.  My hubs insisted that good tenny-shoes would make my knees and hips feel better.  

He says I’m not as young as I used to be and I need better shoes.  He even used the phrase, “of a certain age” when referring to my knees and hips which, as I understand it, are just about the same age as the rest of me.  What a sweetie!

Guess what!  He was right!  About the shoes, not the “certain age” thing.  I mean, he’s the one who was at the Social Security office the other day.  I don’t think that’s what I set out to write about though.

The shoes!  My knees had been hurting so much that I could barely stand to rub them myself, and I would cringe when anyone else got within bumping-my-knees distance.  Uncanny how quickly you can learn these limits when spurred on by pain.  

But here’s the deal.  The knees hardly hurt at all now.

We were watching Pirates of the Caribbean: At World’s End yesterday and I had my feet up, just enjoying the movie and I (out of habit) reached down to rub my knees and not only did they not hurt enough to bother with, they didn’t hurt to touch ‘em.  

The hips are a little slower with the progress, but they’re coming along, too.

I couldnt’ be happier!  I feel so much better all over!  

I’m sure some of the credit goes to having lost a little weight and getting off the vile, deceptive killer that y’all might still call sugar.  

But I am so much more energetic and I just plain feel good!

Oh, the shoes?  New Balance.  I hesitated to pay $60 for shoes, but now I know just how wise (if tactless) is my hubs!

The Solar Oven

I have no news.  We have had clouds for days and days and rain for days and days before that.  I haven’t used the solar ovens in quite a while.

“The thing is, it’s very hot these last few days.  95° during the hottest part of the day, which is the part of the day I should be cooking supper and then eating supper, nevermind I’m suffering heat stroke by that time.  So that wise, old hubs of mine says to me, “Let’s buy an oven thermometer, and find out if the solar ovens are getting hot enough to cook food, even though it’s cloudy.”  

He is rather smart.  He married me, didn’t he?

Anyway, today we are keeping a chart of times and temperatures reached in the solar oven.  If we get really ambitious we might test out the other solar oven tomorrow.  We made them almost the same except for the insulation.  In the spaces between boxes in Pete we filled it with scrap cardboard, all the way full.  In Re-Pete we used crumpled newspaper, not packed tight.  Now I’m curious.

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Today he found a bee down in one of his squash flowers, doin’ the job God gave him to do for our squash plants.

This cracks me up, see the green air-soft BB?

I just think it’s really cool that he cares so much about the squash.  He’s always over there checking things out.

On a very different note, my hubs is coming up on a governmentally important birthday and is getting mail about medicare supplements EVERY DAY!  I had no idea there were so many businesses out there that sell that kind of insurance.  I should have started saving all that junk mail from the beginning.  I could have opened my own piñata factory. (get it? all that paper?)  Anyroad, he got one today that was note worthy.  What you need to know about my hubs is that he is the most fit person I know in the over 35 age category.  Only he’s turning 65.  Really, very fit.  He works in a warehouse and is on his feet 40 hours every week, plus a little overtime every week.  Plus all the after work errands (and putting up with me has to be fairly stressfull.)  So, Tex and I had a big laugh when this came in the mail today.

Hubs is about the last person who needs one of those!  

On the other hand, I may need one soon if Richard Simmons doesn’t lighten up!  I keep thinkin’ it’s getting a little better while I’m doin’ it, then afterwards I wanna lay down and die, but I’m just too stubborn!

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I am not going to try to convince you to give up sugar.  I just wanted to explain what I am doing, and a little of the reason for it.

I am overweight, and that is an understatement.  I really don’t want this to continue.  So, as with all habits, the time finally came (last week) when I decided to REALLY AND TRULY do something about it.  I finally care enough.  I don’t really know exactly why now is more real than ever before, but it is.  I think the economy (of all things) has a lot to do with it.  I really feel the NEED to be more fit and more able to do things.  I remember having stamina, it was wonderful, I’m sad without it.  So, off I go, on my fitness journey.

I started out by getting out a book I have had on my shelf for several months, Sugar Blues by William Dufty.  It’s kind of old, 1975, but it spoke to me.  I realized that I have put my health at extreme peril for way too long.

The next step was huge.  I Googled the phrase “how to prevent diabetes.”  I’m tellin’ ya, that is not somthing you do just for grins.  Rather serious stuff.  So, I read and took notes and took notes and read some more until I worked out my plan.

• No processed carbs.
• Cut out all sugar, except in my coffee (for now).
• No carbs after supper.
• Drink 1½ gallons of water daily.
• High protien breakfast.
• Exercise!

In every day language that means I will be eating:

• eggs for breakfast
• sandwich for lunch on freshly ground whole wheat, and a piece of fruit
• regular supper, substituting whole wheat foods for white foods
• no dessert!
• lots and lots of water
• exercise 3x/week~  for now

Y’all would have been so proud of me at Fellowship dinner on Sunday.  There were all kinds of desserts and even some really yummy looking homemade chocolate chip cookies, the really big, gooey kind. I was a rock. I ate a little bit of canteloupe and got up and told my hubby it was time to go home now!  It’s ok, it really was time, but those cookies started murmuring among themselves and I thought they might attack at any time.  I made it out of there without any dessert and my hubs says it’ll be easier next week.  But the thing is, easy or hard, I won’t be eating desserts at all.

That’s the nutshell.  I’ll be giving progress updates from time to time.  Right now the progress is that my feet and ankles aren’t as swollen as they used to be and I already have more energy.  Not a lot more, but enough that I am noticing, and so is the rest of the family.

Here’s a shortcut to a Linky with lots of “anti-sugar” links @ Naturally Knocked-Up.  And another link to more info on sweeteners and lots of links about real food @ Kelly the Kitchen Kop.

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