WOW! Just WOW! Monday Morning PSA...



NOT the enemy, although it bloody well feels that way some days.

 Ugh, I still have a bit of a travel hangover brought on by my business trip from last week and the whirlwind weekend of riding, soccer, and lacrosse combined with the lost hour of sleep didn't help. Damned Spring Ahead.  How 'bout we skip the springing ahead and just fall back in bed? Blech.

Anywho, had all kinds of things to share about the offspring, my first jumping lesson in over a month (Madame Mare was QUITE excited!) but have had very little time so that will have to wait.  Instead, I will share with you a very thought provoking post by my blogging buddy Emme, over at I Pick Crazy!

Many of us adult ammie riders struggle with our fitness, jiggly bits, and a habit of eating too much and exercising too little (who has the time and energy, what with careers, kids, and whatnot?)  We know too much weight and not enough fitness is bad for our health, and we know it affects our ability to be the effective partner we want to be for our horses.  It's the doing something with that knowledge that's the hard part.

My barn mate and lesson buddy Tamsin and I were joking about this very issue at our lesson this weekend, and then my buddy Libby and I were talking about it over lunch after we left the barn.  The irony here was that we were gorging on a Mexican orgy of burritos, Mexi-fries, and tacos while discussing the additional sub-cutaneous adipose tissue we'd accumulated and it's caseous appearance under our breeches.  Libby's a DVM/scientist/brilliant person, so if you'd like the layman's version, we were discussing our added winter layer of fat and the lovely cottage cheese-like ripples one sees under one's breeches.

Which is, of course, why I came home, got on the treadmill, and then made fried chicken, southern fried corn with bacon and cheesy mashed potatoes for dinner.  Followed it up with a sleeve of Do Si Dos and a sleeve of Thin Mints. Drat those Girl Scouts and my feeble willpower!  DUH!

So it was a VERY GOOD THING that I read Emme's post this morning, as I needed a bit of a shove back onto the path of healthy living.  I'll excerpt a bit here, and then you can link on over for the rest.  While we may not look like the one picture in the scan, it's not hard to connect the dots and deduce how the extra weight can affect our quality of life.  Again, there's no judgement here at AWIP.  I'm a product of Eastern European Sausage Snarfing genes, and have had eating issues my entire life.  Nobody is advocating thin = aesthetically pleasing, either for humans or horses.  My point, and I think Emme's as well, is that the best health you and your horse can achieve is good for both of you, and should be a goal for all of us.

Thanks, Emme, for the assist!

FATTY DEPOSIT SCAN BRINGS IT HOME

Recently an associate has had some unfortunate medical news, and the need for surgery has been proposed by doctors. Unfortunately this person is quite heavy, and with that comes several health factors. During a previous surgery complications arose, and so surgery at this point could be risky. Weight loss is imperative, might even effect the need for surgery in the first place, but will at minimum make surgery less dangerous.

This scan is of a 250lb female on the left, and a 120lb woman on the right.


Shocking right? Click here to read more.


Your's truly again.  Looks like I'll be having a salad for lunch.  Sigh.
Have a happy, healthy Monday.

My New Favorite Fitness Regime...

I injured myself 5 months ago and fell off the workout wagon for a good long time. Now I'm much better, albeit a bit "poofier," and should really be getting back on the dang wagon instead of watching it continue to roll on past me whilst I sip a class of Sauvignon Blanc. Problem is, when you fall off the wagon, you tend to lose motivation and get to a point where you think, "Wagon? What wagon? I don't need no stinking wagon. Pour another glass of that wine!"

Alright, I may be carrying that a bit too far, but you get my point. Once you stop, it's hard to get started again unless there's a significant motivator. (If memory serves, there's a law in there somewhere -- something about inertia? What is that one? An object at rest stays at rest, unless acted upon by an outside force.)

Anyway, this particular object has been at rest, but a desire to improve my riding and a fear of needing to purchase bigger breeches (or Spanx)has motivated me to get back into physical activity. Well, that and a few good friends, otherwise known as "outside forces" (Allison, you know I mean you!) who are very good evangelists for the healthy lifestyle.

Thus, I got back to work. Or working out. Whatever. So far it's been some yoga, a little bit of cardio, and light weights.

However, I've come across a workout program that I think will be a wildly successful one for me, as it combines a good core workout with one of my favorite things in life. Consider it the ultimate anti-inertia core workout! Thanks to my good friend Sarah for passing this along!!

Confession Time: Fell Off The Wagon Already...

I TOTALLY Want To Find This In A T-Shirt!

And by that I am referring to the fitness wagon.  Or, rather, treadmill.  I suppose that's a more accurate metaphor.  I'm not sure.  I'm not thinking too well at the moment.  Sigh....

I have a good excuse.  Don't we always have good excuses?  Rationales?  Reasons?  I have a doozy.  See, my Dad had himself a mild heart attack on Thursday and I've been spending most of the last several days at the hospital.  He's doing well now, thankfully. Doctors found a 99% blockage in one artery, an 80% blockage in another, and 50% blockage in a third, and decided to perform an angioplasty to insert a balloon tipped catheter into an artery in his groin.  They snaked the catheter up through the veins to his cardiac artery, used the balloon tip to widen the clogged artery and then inserted a stent (kind of a mesh frame that looks like the spring in a pen) to act as scaffolding to keep the vein open for blood flow.

Pretty cool stuff, huh?  Way more than I ever wanted to know about this kind of thing, really.  Anywhoooo,  with all the excitement, there wasn't a lot of time for serious exercise. I did manage to hop on the treadmill for a bit each day, but there was no time for riding, weights, or anything else.  I'm pretty sure trips to and from the last possible parking spot and up and down the cardiac wing's stairs don't count.

Not only did I NOT exercise like I wanted to, I ate darn near everything in sight.  Including most of my daughter's birthday cake.  At one point I made a family member hide it.  Really.  I'm a compulsive stress eater.  Thank God there were no Oreos in the house.  Add a couple glasses of wine (liguid de-stresser!) a night to the all the crap I was eating, and let's just say I'm gonna be climbing out of a big hole!

And believe me, even though this fitness thing started as a way to gain strength to ride better, after seeing what my Dad went through, and what others in the cardiac wing were going through, it's become much more.  Maybe I'm having a knee jerk reaction, but seeing how much a poor diet, lack of exercise, and excess weight has compromised my father's health, I'm a little scared of my own bad habits.  We have similar demons that way, Dad and I.

The good news is I did get some exercise in.  The "other" news (I'd rather not look at it as bad news) is that, like my Dad,  I need to get a more organized fitness plan in place, and coping mechanisms other than food for when things get rough.

Am not 100% sure what those will be, but I'll be thinking about it while I'm doing my 5 minutes of two point, up-up-down posting, and posting without stirrups tomorrow.

On Rider Fitness...Or Lack Thereof

My Rule of Thumb:
If My Tush is Smaller Than My Horse's Tush, Life Is Good!

Recently a couple of people I respect have told me that my riding would probably improve if my fitness improved. One of the more memorable moments came during a clinic I participated in. I'd been cantering my mare in circles for what seemed like forever, trying valiantly to get her to elevate more as well as engage her hind end enough to find that magical bouncy canter that would make one feel like one was capable of jumping a 5 foot vertical with no reservations.


Add strenuous work to the fact that I've been known to hold my breath when concentrating, and I was red-faced and blowing like a bellows when we were finally allowed to walk. The clinician, who happens to be someone I've worked in the past and whose dry sense of humor I greatly appreciate, mentioned that I'd do well with a little time spent on the treadmill. I burst out laughing, and told him I already spent 45 minutes at least five days a week on the treadmill. If memory serves, "Try 60, and go faster," was the response.

Similar conversations have come up during my lessons. My trainer has mentioned how my normally lazy mare had been "almost wild" off her leg during a training ride, and she attributed it her stronger leg. She went on to say how you wanted a horse to be"electric" off your leg, even though some horses were more sensitive to leg aids and others (like my phlegmatic mare and my trainer's young jumper) needed much stronger leg aids. Fair enough, I thought, thinking that the only thing that would make Sug electric off my leg is if I attached cattle prods to my paddock boots. In any case, this has gone beyond "I need to keep fit enough to keep my back from going out" to "time for boot camp."

I'm going to take a brief moment to say that this is not a post about the need to be as thin as stick insect in order to ride, or a sizist indictment of anyone who happens to wear breeches above size 2. I'm 5'6", 41 years old, and wear a size that ranges between single and low double digits, depending on the day and the manufacturer. I'm a little below the "average" size for American women, and like to think I fall somewhere between "Step away from the Tastycakes, ma'am" and Demi Moore. Let's just say common adjectives (the printable ones) used to describe me are statuesque, curvy, or voluptuous. To paraphrase my favorite mule, Fenway Bartholomule, I try not to think of it as a hay belly, but rather as insurance against famine. (Thanks, Fen!)

Again, let me be clear: This is about my desire to be a better rider, not a commentary on the size/fitness/weight issues of the American riding public or a "I wanna look good in skinny jeans" rant. The former I'll leave to George Morris, the latter we'll just leave well enough alone.

The (admittedly somewhat vague) plan, which began tonight:

# 1. Ride without spurs. Sug's a lazy beast unless she's got a fence in front of her. No spurs means I don't have my pony prods to use as a crutch. I did cheat a bit and carry a dressage whip because who are we kidding? I'm no martyr! Anyway, the point is, I really had to WORK for any impulsion we had!

#2. Warm up trotting in two point. Start off with 5 minutes and increase. I had the barn to myself tonight, so thankfully no one was there to see the inauspicious start to Boot Camp. I made it through 5 minutes of two point at the trot, although I'll admit I was clock watching from the outset and praying to my Higher Power by Minute Two. (Let's face it, I was praying to all the deities I could think of by the third minute. Buddha, Krishna, Macha; I wasn't picky.)

#3. Five minutes Up-Up-Down posting. Not so bad. Was sweating like a pig, though.

#4. Five minute trot and canter sets incorporating basic suppling work, working on getting her in front of my leg (Leg? What leg?) and maintaining a consistent rhythm. Let's just say both of us were sucking air by the end of this exercise.

Note- both horse and rider benefited from generous walk breaks between sets.

I disagree. The walk breaks were not generous, they were egregiously short. I want to speak to my union representative.

Thanks, Sug. Your opinion is always appreciated.

#5. Just for kicks and grins, I decided to see how many laps I could do while posting without stirrups. I've always entertained the fantasy of doing a month of riding without stirrups. Kind of seems like one of those Holy Grail of riding things. Let's just say this is an ambitious goal, as the last time my trainer had me post without stirrups in a lesson she offered me this feedback, "Um, your ass actually has to leave the saddle." I'm not kidding. My butt certainly left the saddle after that comment, as I laughed so hard I almost came off.

I made it around. A couple of times. With breaks. It wasn't pretty.

I agree. It wasn't pretty. At all. I peeked in the mirrors a couple of times and had to avert my eyes.

Nobody likes a smart aleck, Sug. You might want to remember who buys the carrots around here.

Hummphhhh.

So, a decent enough start to the program, but I can honestly say I'm glad no one was around to see how jelly-like my legs were when I slid off. The good news is there's no where to go but up from here, and the bar is certainly set low. I won't be riding for a couple of days, so will have to do some cardio and weight work in the interim. I've been doing some, but clearly need a more ambitious program. Maybe leave the comfort of my basement and wander over to the gym to get reacquainted with the elliptical machine and the rower?

Dare I throw in some Pilates? More to come...