Yard Work

Well what a weekend. I did not one minute of structured exercising. Nope, nodda… not one single minute. That is so unusual for me. Normally I’m working my butt off. But this weekend I did it outside in my yard. If anyone tells you that working on your lawn, gardening, etc., is not exercising, well they just haven’t tried it out.  Because of my lovely little Katie, my lawn looks like a patch work quilt. So I took the good ole rake and raked my entire lawn of all the dead grass. I even wore my HR monitor to see how much I was burning. It worked out to about 500 calories an hour and considering I worked on it for hours and hours, well I think I burned quite a bit J It’s tough work and I have to admit my back is sore today. I thought for sure my arms would be as well but other than being tired at the end of both days, they are not muscle sore today. But it looks so much better now and will look even better if the seeds take root.

I also got my Square Foot garden box all set up as well. Mixing different types of compost, peat moss, and vermiculite and putting it in my box – well that was back breaking work as well. This week I’ll be planting already started plants for some and from seeds for others.  I do enjoy working in my yard and gardening and since moving to the city, I’ve missed the garden part.

Saturday afternoon we were invited out to our friends who have the brother to Katie and they came to Mazatlan with us last year (and the year before). So we have a very nice visit and Katie had a very fun time with her brother. We live in the city, they live on an acreage and she gets to freedom to run to her hearts content. However, I noted this weekend, she is becoming a Mama’s girl and hung with me most of the time.  We slept over there and on Sunday morning, Katie went for a swim in their pond and a short time later, her tail was not normal. She wouldn’t wag it, and this is very abnormal for this girl, she is a tail wager of a 100 mph – but not on Sunday.  Our friends called it “cold tail”. Their dog has it as well. Something about the cold water and their tails getting too cold and it becomes very painful for them. I feel horrible for her. She is slightly wagging it today but again she still isn’t normal. I don’t like it when my little girl is hurt L

Sporting dogs may be more prone to this injury due to the way they use their tails during hunting and swimming. Studies that are being done are showing this syndrome to be similar to muscle fatigue and the overworking of the muscles in the tail. The syndrome can effect both male and female dogs and effecting dogs ranging in ages from 6 months to 9 years.

When we got home from our friends on Sunday, Kim and I left right away to go to a Kidney March information session. We got to see the tent we will be sleeping in. It ain’t going to be big enough for us two big girls. Fortunately it has a door on both sides of the tent so we don’t have to crawl over each other. And after they were doing a 5K walk, but we didn’t stay for that because I just had TOO much to do at home and wanted to finish what I had started the day before in my yard. It was such a lovely weekend, I didn’t want to waste anymore of it. The 5K would have been good for us to experience a bit of the comradeship we will experience during our 3 day walk but ….  There will be more group training sessions that we will join up with.

Today I am starting my elimination phase of clean eating. I am eliminating the following for the next two weeks:

FOOD GROUP			EXCLUDE
Fruits			All citrus fruits: oranges, grapefruit, banana, melons. Any sweetened fruit drink and dried fruit
Starch			Wheat, corn, oats, barley, spelt, kamut, rye, and all gluten-containing products.
Meats			Beef, pork, cold cuts, sausage, canned meats, egg, shellfish
Legumes			Soy and soy products
Nuts & Seeds			Peanuts, pistachios, peanut butter
Dairy Products			Milk, cheese, butter, cottage cheese, yogurt, ice cream, frozen yogurt
Vegetables			Canned vegetables or creamed casseroles
		* If you are experiencing inflammation avoid: tomatoes, eggplant, red/green/yellow bell peppers, potatoes (except yam/sweet potatoes)
Fats				Margarine, butter, shortening, processed oils, spreads, salad dressing (except those specifically allowed)
Beverages				Soda pop, alcohol, coffee, tea, all caffeinated beverages (green or black tea, coffee, etc)
Spices				Cayenne pepper, paprika, curry powder containing cayenne pepper
Sweeteners				White or brown refined sugar, maple syrup, corn syrup, high fructose corn syrup

It is going to be interesting as there is going to be a LOT of ingredient/label watching to see if I can have it. I’ve already messed up today because I LOVE to have green tea first thing when I get to work and I sip it all day long (I even like it cold).

I hope you all have a FANTASTIC day!

Ttyl

Sandra