Living Life In Balance

For a few days over the Memorial Day holiday, I tried to step away from my normal daily life a little. No blog posting or reading, no emails, very little Twitter and Facebook... and cleared my mind a little!!

I some great quality time with Katie and Don. We were lazy when it was cloudy and raining watching movies and LOST repeats on Apple TV and we spent some time with Lakota and did some summer shopping, read some books... it was a simple but wonderful long weekend.

And I came to a conclusion through some reading... to be a happy cowgirl, a true cowgirl, we all need balance. Balance in the saddle, balance in parenting, balance in relationships, balance in business and work and basically all the amazing aspects that make our lives what they are including nutrition and health.

Through balance, we can find ourselves content. We also find ourselves inspired.

So whether you find peace in long rides through a pasture, going on an adventurous trail ride, playing with your kiddos and animals or even by shopping, remember to sprinkle in some home cooked dinners, some Twitter and texting with friends... or pick up the phone and give a loved one a call, paint your nails, get down on the floor and play a board game with your family or watch an old movie and imagine what it was like to live in that time...

Cowgirls are the perfect combo of glamor and hard workers. We work along side the boys on the farm, bond with our fellow cowgirls and friends, and have an appreciation for something not seen to often in today’s society, SIMPLICITY... or at least for me - an extreme desire for it!!

The past few days has made me more focused than ever to honor the life I love and be inspired by all of you who support my many projects and endeavors... ie: my upcoming ETJHA Show Photo Shoots... WAAHOOO!! Can't wait... nervous but excited!

My first shoot is this Saturday and I've been working hard to get ready for it! I'm excited and can't wait! I also have my first wedding on June 20th. It's a friends wedding... but it's on a farm and there will be horses, boots and glamor and love... what a perfect combination!!

Stay happy and blessed!!

I Love That Having A 10 Year Old

makes it okay to think that this is cool...

One Of The Best Days Ever

Yesterday started off with Katie heading to school for a very short last day!!  I of course headed to the farm!!  I had planned to ride but we started having pretty heavy intermittent showers and I also don't want Lakota to think every time he sees me... that I'm gettting on his back.  So, I just groomed him and actually played with him in the field.  He has such a personality... we were actually playing games.  Spending time with him always lifts my spirits in the BEST way!!

Headed home and got cleaned up and Don and I picked Katie up at 11:15.  Katie was sad to say goodbye to her friend Anna (who she will hopefully get together with during the summer) and her teacher Mrs. Fox.  She will have Mrs. Fox for 4th grade more than likely so Katie is happy about that.  She is wonderful and she really got attached to Katie pretty quick this year when Katie made the move to West Hills.So, after getting Katie, we headed to Dollywood.

We got season passes to Dollywood because we are hoping to make several trips up there this summer.  We are going to try and make Friday's our fun family day unless Don has early rehearsals.  By the time we got through the line to get our season passes, it was already 1pm so we grabbed some lunch and headed to the County Fair section of the park.  That's where we spent the afternoon.  It wasn't terribly crowded there and some of our favorite rides are there.  We did the dizzy disc, the scrambler, bumper cars, the swings, the ferris wheel, etc.

Katie always has to stop and look at all the merchandise that is setting out in front of the stores!  She is such a shopper!!  I hope when she is grown and has what ever career she's going to have with animals... it's something that is lucrative because the girl can SHOP!!!  I enjoy shopping but I'm more of a hunter!!  I go looking for specific things.  She can take all day just browsing and looking!!

Don will be 45 this October and something is happening to his spunk and sense of adventure!  He wouldn't ride the farris wheel with us and when he did finally ride the swings on our 3rd go round... I was kicking his swing before the ride started and he was flippin' out on me...LOL!   Something about him hanging from a chain and it only being secured with a bolt...

It really got warm yesterday and Katie was getting pretty hot in the long lines so we cut it short since we plan on going back several times and headed to diner at Logans.  We miss there being a Logans in Knoxville!!!  Don loves their chicken salad and I love the grilled chicken and Katie loves the atmosphere and as long as she can get fish or chicken... she's good!! 

After diner, we decided to do a little shopping!!

Katie was wired and talking up a storm!!!  She talked more yesterday than I think she did all week.  So we went to the Circle E Western Store.  When we walked in, there was this odd, 40ish blonde lady working there that just kept staring at us... I mean really staring!  Not in a very friendly way either!!  They were having a BIG sale on boots so I wasn't about to let her sway me from shopping... neither was Katie.  Although, Katie was oblivious to her staring!

Anyway, Katie got a cute, cute pair of Tony Lama pink cowboy boots for $19.99.  I didn't know that Tony Lama allowed sales of his products so low...  I got a fun pair of Dingo boots with harness charms!!  Can't wait to wear them!!  Then this really nice teenage sales clerk helped Katie pick out a cute western looking ring and I got a ring with horse shoes.  Katie and I both wear a size 5 1/2.  How funny... I never would have thought our fingers were the same size.  Don got into a very long discussion with the store manager about the Florida Keys!  Not sure where that really came from but the whole time... odd blonde sales lady was still staring at us.  Argghh!!

So, we finished up there and headed across the street to Stages West!  Now, I had never been in there... but for a girl who has learned that she can spend and hour browsing in the clothing section at Tractor Supply... this was shopping heaven!!  They had a HUGE Brighton section of handbags, glasses, jewelry and EVERYTHING Brighton!  I found a handbag that I loved that was like FIVE times the sane amount to pay for a handbag so it is still at Stages West!  They had awesome clothes... western has really come back into style so it would have been fun even if we weren't into a horse themed lifestyle!  Don got a cool John Wayne TShirt that is actually made by a company called "Cool Old Guys".

They were having a big boot sale too!!  I guess boots have taken a hit with the economy.  So, Katie got a pair of Dingo's kinda of like the pair I had just gotten... only one size bigger than she's wearing now so she could grow into them in the fall and winter.  Don got a great pair of Ariats and the nice, nice man working there stretched the ankle areas so they fit perfect and I got a pink pair of Road Wolf boots.

We all got two shirts, Don got two belts and Katie got a cowgirl hat.  Everything was on sale so it wasn't too bad but we left there with several bags.  I so wanted to go back to Circle E and walk in with the bags and go up to strange staring lady and have a Cowgirl Pretty Woman shopping moment.... "Big Mistake"...  lol!!



Anyway, we headed home and the entire way home, Katie chatted and sang... the whole way home!!  Best day.... one of the best days in a long time!!!

Today will be a dedicated work day!  Lots to do to our backyard and have to get the pool ready to go for the summer.  It is Memorial Day weekend after all!  Hopefully we can run out to the farm late today and give Lakota a bath!!  He is one dirty horse and it's gotten to the point where grooming him doesn't do anything!!

Have a happy Saturday!!

Zippers, Calories & Bugg's - Oh My!

That was suppose to be a take on "Lions & Tigers & Bears, Oh My!" Anyway...

Thank God for zippers because all of my Size 16 pants started getting tight on me!  I had become so complacent and I'd stop weighing weekly.  Yikes!  There was NO WAY I was going back up in sizes.

I've been working hard this week to get back on track with taking care of myself.  I did not start a diet!

I almost got myself in big trouble by "dieting" again!  Diets are bad, bad, BAD!!!  I had started that pattern that I began when I was 16 years old... starting a diet... loosing five pounds... feeling deprived and going off the diet and then "making up for lost time" and gaining 6-7 pounds.  It doesn't take a math genius to figure out that slowly but surely... this is the way to put back on weight!

The thing that I am sure that will work for me long term is being vigilent about counting every calorie that goes into my mouth.  If I can't find nutritional data on the food - I'm going to do my best to steer clear of it!  My family doctor said that she wanted to see me get to 160 and we'd re-evaluate.  That means I should not be eating more than 1600 calories a day.  Simple math again... Goal weight x 10... 160 x 10 = 1600.

Wearing the BodyBugg helps me keep in mind that I'm not only logging every calorie but I'm also keeping track of my minutes of moderate activity level, my calories burned and steps taken.

I'd like to try to loose 2 pounds a week which means that daily I need to have a calorie deficit of 1000.  Again with the math... 3500 calories is 1 pound.  1000 calories x 7 days is 7000 calories lost.  7000 calories /2 is 3500.

I'm trying to walk 5 miles a day MINIMUM!!  That typically is right about 1 hour of walking.  I'm also trying to do the elliptical every other day and build one minute per session.  Then, there is the farm... I usually burn calories at a higher rate when I'm at the farm.

The only thing I don't like about the BodyBugg heading into summer is, I can't wear it while swimming and it's VERY obvious on your arm with short sleeves or sleeveless tops.  But, oh well!  It's the price of knowledge and accountibility!

Simple math and hopefully I'm at my goal by January 2011... or sooner.

Here is an older video describing more about the BodyBugg by Bodymedia.



If anyone has questions about the BodyBugg, please email me at spunkycowgirl@comcast.net.

Modern Day Definition of Cowgirl

Main Entry: cowgirl

Function: noun

Language:  English

Definition: a better-looking cowboy with brains

This made me laugh out loud!!  Funny for the day!

Are You Ready? I AM!

I'm reading and re-reading this book!!  It's helping me so much to get motivated, get to the root of the problem and get going!!  I love Bob Harper!  I think he truly has his heart in helping others!!

How to Break a Bad Diet Habit—Forever!

How to Break a Bad Diet Habit—Forever!
Jillian Michaels on taking the neural pathway less traveled.
By Jillian Michaels

Get this: Research has shown that behaviors like what you eat and whether you exercise are deeply set into physical neural connections in your brain. All of your beliefs, your habits, everything making up your mental reality, is contained in physical neural-pathways. So in order to make real changes to your lifestyle and slim down, you've got to learn how to get in there and change your brain! (Great, turns out I do need brain surgery after all...)

The first time you have an experience or learn something new, chances are a new pathway is created. Then the next time you have that experience, your brain will search to see if you have experienced it before. If you have, it'll follow the same pathway. The more often you have that experience or think that thought, the stronger that neural pathway holding that thought or behavior will become. This is how a thought or action becomes a habit.

By repeating a pattern, we strengthen the neural pathways being used for this behavior and essentially reinforce our propensity to be "stuck in a rut"—literally. Here's an example: Let's say that you have been binge eating late at night in your home off a certain set of plates and now you have decided you want to stop that behavior. But, every time you eat off those plates you have been hard-wired to overeat, making it exponentially more difficult to break that destructive habit.

You cannot rationally "think" these physical networks away. But you can change them in two ways:

1. You gradually force the pathway to weaken and atrophy over a period of time by not using it.

Every time you resist the urge to eat an extra cookie when you're upset, or use the ranch dressing at the salad bar, you're allowing those old patterns and pathways to die away so that you can slim down and get healthier. You can do this by pausing and thinking through your choice. Ask yourself what the consequences of that choice will be. That allows you to move from the impulsive part of your personality to the part of your brain that can reason before automatically reacting.

2. Override the old pathway by wiring in a new behavior.

Let's say you've been going to the same supermarket for years—and buying garbage foods that don't support your efforts to lose weight. Try a new supermarket! It seems strange, but simply being in a new location will help you not fall into old patterns of grabbing your same-old old junk food from the same old shelves. Then repeat. Something that will help create a strong neural pathway is repetition. It's not as complicated as the term "neural pathways" makes it sound: Just know that you actually can create physical changes in your brain, hard wiring yourself for success.

Okay, now what old habits are you going to break? And what will you replace them with?

Jillian Michaels is the author of the new book Master Your Metabolism and the motivation coach for the Body by Glamour shape-up program. She's helped dozens of people get slim and healthy as a trainer on "The Biggest Loser," and has helped thousands of others through her DVDs and books.

Enough is Enough, Damn It!

My friend Lisa said right after the holidays "Enough is Enough" and that was it!  She put eating crap in the past and has since lost quite a bit of weight and looks phenomenal!!  Her willpower has been steadfast and her exercise routine has been reliable!!  I remember thinking "I'm just not there... I want to be there... but I just can't yet!!!"  What the heck!!?  Why not!?  Because I was enjoying eating lunch out with Don while Katie is in school and we were eating takeout while watching our favorite shows after Katie goes to bed... ARGGGHHHHH!!!

I did not go through what I went through to loose 142 pounds to slowly watch it come back on!!  Every piece of clothing I own is a 14/16 or a 16 and my 16's are tight!!

I have said for several years that nothing makes me more aware of my weight than riding!  Everytime I get on Lakota's back, I'm very aware of my weight!  My weight which has slowly crept back up to 210!!  I can't believe it!!  I was furious at myself this morning but I have to move past it!!  Beating myself up about it isn't going to fix it!  Never has, never will!

There is just shame involved when you've gone through so much to loose weight, been successful and then have it come back on!!  Any of it!!  I felt ashamed when I regained FOUR pounds but now it's time to STOP!!!

I'm still 123 pounds lighter than I was in December 2006... but I am determined to get to my goal weight!!

So, Body Bugg's are back on Don and I both this morning!  I'm going to count every calorie that goes in and log every calorie I burn!!  That's the only way that works for me... I have to be accountible other wise... "oh, this is only 200 calories... it won't make that big of a difference" and then BAM!  It does make a difference!!

So, we haven't watched this past season of Biggest Loser other than the first episode.  I know Helen won but it will hopefully still be inspirational to watch every day... we downloaded it on iTunes and there are 19 episodes if we start over from the beginning.  It takes 21 days for something to be habit so surely if we are determined, watch Biggest Loser every day for 19 days... by then we will be well on our way to staying on track!!

I plan to walk 3 miles every morning and then try to be as active as possible the rest of the day.  On days when I've sat on my but in front of the computer, I will do the elliptical or some other exercise in the evening!

My family doctor set my goal weight at 160 and said we'd re-evaluate when I got to that point.  That means that I have 50 pounds to loose... instead of the 29 I had to loose in January 2008 when I was at my lowest weight of 189.

I'm an emotional eater and having WLS didn't cure that!  I'm reading Bob Harper's book "Are You Ready" and he talks so much about getting to the emotional core and finding other things to replace it with... so that's what I have to do!!  That's what I must do to stop this horrible cycle!!

So, no more beating my self up... just "Enough is Enough!!"  Time to do it and stop making excuses.

My family and friends helped keep me encouraged during 2007 when I struggled a lot after complications from the WLS.  I'm counting on ya'll to help keep me encouraged this time too!  Also, Don!  It's so CRUCIAL for him... he's turning 45 this year and his father died at 47.  I do not want to loose him to something that could have been prevented!  Food is a tool... not a reward or something!!  We need to start looking at anything other than healthy foods as poison!!

Totally in love with my Lakota and I know he'd appreciate me getting serious and getting to my goal weight!!  So would my friends and family so I'll stop whining about it!

Enough!!

Sometimes You Gotta Make A Change

And sometimes change can be hard!  I've been unhappy with my old blog for a while... in part because the blogger address didn't fit me anymore.  It was ebaygaltn.blogspot.com... I no longer do anything on eBay becuase of the miserable changes that took place and the passions in my life are my family, time with our horses, time with friends and family, travel and photography!

I wanted a new blog that would reflect that and my personality so I'm going to play with wordpress and see if it's a better fit.  So this might be a work in progress but my life is a work in progress... isn't it for all of us!?  :)

Katie's Love For RB

Katie has developed a special bond with the horse, RB that she's ridden for several sessions at STAR. Yesterday when we got to STAR, we were in the waiting room but could see RB in the cross ties and he was throwing a little bit of a horsey temper tantrum. He was throwing his head and hoofing at the ground...

Don and I looked at each other a little worried. We'd never seen RB show any attitude. Katie didn't notice... she was wrapped up in books.

But, the minute Katie left the waiting area and headed toward RB, he lowered his head and then this is what happened.







Katie's instructor(s) at STAR are talking about the fact that she has the potential to be an accomplished horsewoman and rider.

They want her to ride a different horse next session because RB is very rough in his trot and Katie isn't too happy about that... she says that she doesn't mind bouncing at all.

xxooxxoo
LA :)

Holy Cow - My Baby Girl is TEN YEAR OLD!!!

That old expression about "the older you get, the faster time flies..." Well, living it is believing it!!

I can't believe that Katie turned 10 yesterday!! Katie has been with us since she was exactly 6 months old and it's been an amazing 9 1/2 years! She's turning into an incredible young lady and we are blessed every day to have her in our lives!



We had a lovely weekend in North Carolina visiting my mom, MomMom and Uncle Ronnie and Aunt Linda. Ronnie and Stacy were out of town so we didn't get to see them unfortunately. I had not been there since November and they hadn't seen Katie since late July. This wasn't on purpose but between Don and Katie having pneumonia, MomMom having mono and pneumonia and the craziness of life in 2009... this was the first chance we actually were able to make the trip without it being canceled.



Katie stayed with Mom and MomMom, which is what we typically do now. She loves it and it gives Don and I some much needed alone time! :) We stayed at the Hampton Inn this time and I think we've decided that is our favorite hotel. It actually has a comfortable bed, unlike the Sleep Inn, Country Inn & Suites and the Holiday Inn Express!!

I asked Katie last night when we got home and she was eating her favorite food on the planet for her birthday evening dinner (Outback Buffalo Wings) "what her favorite part of her birthday weekend was".... she thought for a second and said "spending it with Grandmom, MomMom, Aunt Linda and Uncle Ronnie".



That was cool!! For the past several years we've done Disney or big birthday parties. It was nice to have a low key birthday with family this year!! And it was even better that being with family was her favorite part!!

Hopefully we will get some good quality time with Kim and Sarah when they are home this July!! We can't wait!!



Katie told Mom and MomMom when we got there that "she was so happy to see them. She thought she was never going to see them again!!" NOOOOOO Katie! Don't say that! Now Mom will really never let me live it down that it's been 10 months since they've seen their grandaughter/great-grandaughter!!" :)

It's always nice to get away for a few days but always good to get back home too!

My riding lesson got rained out this morning! Shoot! I have missed Lakota AND Arthur!!! Arthur is quickly becoming an extended family member and everyone knows how I feel about Lakota.

xxooxxoo!!
LA :)