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Jan.1 HAPPY NEW YEAR!!!!
Jan. 3: I am very busy working on the projects I need to finish before I write the exam for my Personal Trainer certification. So I might be scarce for a couple of weeks.
Jan.6: My little pet rat called Ben died today. Ben was a little over two years old which is old for a rat. She was a true fighter. She was destined to be snake food. She and her sister Geri were bought as lunch for a Tegu, but were then given to me for my birthday two years ago. Right after I got her, little Ben developed pneumonia and a middle ear infection that destroyed her middle ear and caused her to have severe balance problems. She survived a second bout of pneumonia and slowly regained her balance. She learned to adapt and by the 2nd year of her life she could almost hold her head straight. Her growth was stunted and she remained much smaller than her sister. Ben turned out to be a very smart and affectionate pet. She knew her name and came when called, she was always first to explore new toys and layouts in their cage. Ben loved super worms, climbing, and being cuddled. I'll miss my little brown and white furry friend.
Jan.20: Wow, went to a huge start of racing season party and got hit on by a 25yo HUNK. Still got it!!!! He actually wanted to date me even after he found out how ancient I am. But I prefer intelligent conversation to hunk adoration so I had to pass. Bummer.
Feb.6: Well, I have lost a few pounds. I didn't need to, but I must use my new found knowledge to see how easily the pounds come off if you stick to a specific caloric intake as is your life depends on it. Since all calculations stated that I needed 2400 cals to maintain my weight, I dropped by 200 cals per day to 2200 and did aerobics three times a week (for 20 minutes)and I lost just over 2 pounds per week. I plan to drop 2 more pounds but I am upping my cals to 2300 per day and monitoring the drop. I want to loose the last 2 pounds slowly so I can guesstimate my average normal daily caloric requirement. That way I can maintain my weight at 118 pounds without loosing any strength and without 'dieting'.
I am happy to report that estimating portions and calorie content quickly become second nature and if you eat the right stuff, you can eat all day. (trust me, I live to eat)I used to eat a whole half gallon of ice cream in ONE sitting. Now, since I know that I can't just take one scoop out of the box, I empty the ice cream into many little half cup containers and allow myself one little glad-ware per day as a treat last thing at night. I have a terrible sweet tooth and one bite leads to many. This way I can have my sweet goodies and go to bed. No temptation if I am asleep. You just have to work around your weaknesses so they don't sabotage you. Somethings I have cut out completely. No french fries. Beef only once in a blue moon as a lean steak or as 90% lean ground in a sauce. Lots of fish, fruit, veggies and smoothies. I make great skim milk with frozen fruit smoothies. I think I will have some good, tasty, low cal meals for my potential clients once I get some. OK enough of that.
We had our first winner down here. Trust the slowest, most cripple horse in the barn to win first. AND, I went to a party to celebrate the opening of the race meet and got seriously hit on by the most handsome 25yo hunk. He called for days asking me out. He didn't seem to care that I could be his mother. Of course the fact that he kept calling after my 8pm bedtime killed any interest on my part. I need a boring older person who can quietly watch TV while I sleep. Not some rowdy teenager, I already have one of those.
Feb.15: I think the online calculator I used was seriously flawed, I used one from a more sophisticated site and it came up with me needing over 3000 cals per day with all the galloping I do. So I have upped the intake to 2600 cals and still not gaining. So I will add 100 cals per week until I start to gain. That way I will have a pretty good idea what my base metabolic rate is at this time.
I am running Monday, Tuesday, Thursday, and Saturday. I run until my body starts to twinge and then I alternate walking and running till I reach my distance for the day. I am hoping to strengthen the ligaments to the point where I can actually go running for real. I am running on a flat treadmill until I am happy with the my joints and ligaments coping with the new type of exercise.
Mar.1: Well, I have changed strategies now, since I continued to loose. So now I eat about 2600 to 3000 cals per day just guesstimating. I weigh myself everyday and as long as I sit between 118 and 120 I will continue this way. If I find myself over then I will restrict to 2500 cals for as many days as it takes to get back to my range. I have totally modified my eating in general and eat much healthier options. That way I can eat much more for much less. The running is going well. I am running all my daily miles non stop now with no problems. I am only up to 12 miles a week but I intend to add 10% per week. I hope to run a 5k at Keeneland after I get home. There is a half marathon during Derby Festival, but I wont be ready for that unless I walk most of the way.
Mar. 18: I am home. Great to be back. A little sad since one of my favorite horses, Western Territory, died yesterday. I hurt my foot rather badly last Saturday, so the running is off for a while. Cycling instead for a week or two.
April 18: Back at Keeneland for the meet. As usual it is wonderfully beautiful here this time of year. Sadly, I must tell you that my other dear little rat, Jerri, had to be put to sleep yesterday. She had developed tumors. They were not causing her pain, but had grown so large that she could no longer get around. It was horrible to see how suddenly, and rapidly, cancer can develop. No more dear little ratinski's.
I Hate to say that another of my favorite horses died needlessly on the race track. Dance Daily was a lovely Grade 1 winner and could have had many expensive babies had she ever been given the chance. It is so sad that the price of amazing success, is the death of so many beautiful animals. I wonder how many horses have died, needlessly, in Wayne Lukas's pursuit of his quarter billion dollar's worth of races won. I have decided to leave racing when this meet is over. I am going to move to Washington to be near my dear friends, Jolene and Mark, and my brother Jason and his wife Hope, and their son Dean.
I have finished the certification and did a CPR course. So I am going to give the personal trainer thing a bash I think. I might die of starvation so all donations are welcome. The tortoises, by the way, are now well over 20 lbs a piece. I have had a few foot injuries due to incorrect shoeing. I never realized how important the 'right' shoe was to running. I have found a great pair that don't cause any problems and I am back on track, so I can start increasing my mileage again. I am running in a pair of Ryka Elements. It is a very cushioned shoe with medium support. Perfect for my odd combination of high arches and collapsed ankles that pronate.
July 2: Oh dear, where to start. Sooooo much has happened since April. Fate stepped in and helped me make the change I was planning for after the Keeneland meet. I have been wanting to make a major change for a while, hence the course in Criminalistics last year and all the personal trainer stuff. Anyway, just after my last update, my landlord sold the house I was renting in Louisville. He promised we could have a year to find a new place but the new owners said get out by the end of the month so now I couldn't change my mind about moving. I got them to agree to let me stay until the 10th of May. In the mean time I rented a truck, packed up the family, animals and all, and set of for Kennewick, Washington. My good friend Jolene had just moved there and it seemed like a great place to start afresh.
On May 10 we set off on our journey. First one of my rescued cats went missing at the last minute. We tried in vain to find him to no avail. (Since then friends found him and took him in) So I was crying as we left Louisville. We had to drive at night so that the animals would not overheat in the back of the rental. We got to our first stop in Iowa, where the temp was 32 degrees and the wind 60 miles per hour. The poor tortoises were not happy. We put them under lights in a friends barn, and sat in the Jacuzzi to thaw.
That night we set off for the next leg. The winds were howling and the truck and tow-dolly with my car on rocked back and forth like a ship at see. The tow dolly was defective and in South Dakota we lost the car off the dolly. God was watching and some how my poor little car did not roll over the edge of the 40 foot drop that it came to rest near. The cops found us after finding the car and took me back to fetch it. We reloaded and continued. The car had stayed on for over a 1000 miles but now I was paranoid and bought the ratchet tie downs to tie it to the tow dolly.
Once again the temperatures were below freezing and I was very worried about the tortoises. I stopped at Walmart and bought some of those stick on heat pads for back pain and we stuck them to the tortoises shells to keep them warm overnight. We decided to take a look at Mount Rushmore since we were passing so I foolishly took the rental truck UP the mountain at zero miles per hour. After looking at the presidents we found a camping spot next to a lake for the day. That evening we started DOWN the mountain. Oh joy in an automatic rental. The brakes were smoking and stinking by the time we made the bottom.
We only made it to the border of Montana and Idaho before we had to stop for another day. It was too hot to travel We were so close yet so far. We spent the heat of the day next to the Bitterroot River and at 4pm we set off for Kennewick We were at our new home around 8:30pm. Oh what a dump. Rented unseen it was worse then I imagined it could be. But beggars can't be choosers and with all my animals, we were going to have to stay there for a while.
We tried, unsuccessfully, to get hold of my brother, Jason, and his family for a few days. Mom tried hard to track them down and was horrified to find that they had been arrested by the FBI and that my poor nephew was in foster care. Jason was released, but poor Hope has to stay locked up. It would seem that the company Hope worked for all those years in Florida has been accused of fraudulent practices. Hope is named a co-conspirator, since Hope appears to have earned a ton of money while she was there, and put it through Jason's company bank account.
So to cut a long story short, we moved again (to the Olympic Peninsula)so that we can be here with Jason to help look after Dean, help Jason with his business, and lend moral support until this is over. Unfortunately, my absolutely beautiful cat Puddin 'n Pie was killed three days after we moved here and I don't even have a photo of her. I will let you know how things are going.. Dec. 17: Sorry it took so long to get back on. Dean and I had some awesome camping trips this summer. We hiked an 18 mile coastal trail that had us going up and down steep cliffs. We stopped to eat fresh muscles off some rocks at high tide. On Our 22 mile Seven Lakes Basin hike we got right up to a bear. We camped above 5500 feet and it was freezing. I have terrific photos to upload. Unfortunately, Max and Norman were killed in a fire. It was very sad. I went to work for the Washington Department of Prisons.
In November we had a horrible flood and had to be evacuated. Lots of stuff ruined or lost, Mr Moray, our beautiful spotted moray, died. We just had too many power failures to keep him warm. We had to move and are currently in a temporary rental. Hopefully, we find just the right place to rent or buy. Dean is doing Tae-kwon-do, Byron is on the Basketball team, and both boys are doing well in school.
Hope appears to have very bad legal representation, and has been intimidated into accepting a plea bargain. Of course she never did pay taxes during her time with Parker and I warned her that she was being stupid. So she has plead to tax evasion, which she did do, but I'm positive not to the extent they allege.
I, however, absolutely thought that something was fishy. I never got involved however much Hope tried to talk me into it. Just seems a little fishy when you get paid cash all the time. Plus I lived with them for months each year and saw how screwed up Hope had become. Even she was convinced something wasn't quite right but she was too messed up to make any sense.
Byron is going to South Africa over the December holidays. So now I am all caught up. Happy Holidays and Happy New Year!!!