Fun at Sharkarosa Wild Ranch with our Girls

Just sharing some fun pix from an outing we took on Saturday when my husband and I took our granddaughters to a Wildlife Ranch.

                          Here is Hanna (age 4) getting ready to feed a goat.

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Hanna feeding a goat

Can you tell she had a great time?  : )

Gigi and Hanna waiting to ride the Safari Tram

Grandma, Gigi, Hanna and Grandpa in the Safari Tram

watching a dromedary camel feed himself

Hanna, after a long day at the wildlife ranch

The "Rules" of Blogging

      Today, I'm borrowing an excerpt from The Pioneer Woman:  
      http://thepioneerwoman.com/blog/2010/09/ten-important-things-ive-learned-about-blogging/ 

      I would like to focus on #5.  5. Allow your boundaries to set themselves naturally.

Don’t feel like you have to sit down and set rules about what you will and will not blog about from day one. Just blog, and see what feels comfortable for you.   

Up to now, my blog has mostly been about weight loss and becoming healthier.  However, there is "holistic health" which includes not only our eating lifestyle and physical fitness but also our overall spiritual, mental and emotional health.   After all, doesn't  our every day life and level of happiness affect our overall health?   So without changing the title of this blog,  I'm going to continue to explore and express myself on other topics of every day life.  I'm especially excited as we've moved to another part of Texas which has brought about major changes in our lifestyle.   We now share a 1.6 acre property in the country with our children and grandchildren rather than living in a large city on our own 500 + miles away from our family.   I admit I had some concerns about taking on such a change of lifestyle - but I find that the more I expérience in regard to our new home and new life, the more I like it!   Of course, I expect that there will be ups and downs as we adjust to our new lives.  Hopefully, this blog will encapture our new life and adventures here in North Texas.

So what are THE RULES OF BLOGGING?   It turns out there really aren't any hard set rules.  What it boils down to is this:

Sounds like just the "rules" I need to follow!   And so  "my journey" continues - and along with it, the twists and turns of my everyday life!    

Settling In Our New Home

It has once again been weeks since I last wrote in my blog.   Needless to say, the process of moving has been both tiring and chaotic.  Living amid a slew of boxes is the part that I find the most chaotic!   It also took us two trips within a week of each other - both of which were over 600 miles each way - to bring everything from our fomer home to Argyle.  We did fly back to El Paso for the 2nd trip, but then dragged a U-Haul trailer - which made the trip even longer - about 12 hours!

We still have plenty to do before I can say we are truly settled - but then we've only been here a little over two weeks.  Nevertheless, our little bungalow is shaping up nicely.  We even have a small patio!

  Below is our living room.  No pictures on the wall yet but a very comfy room nonetheless!   We're still working on our kitchenette which is the other half of this room. We've also worked on our bathroom - bought a standing linen closet,  and two other small cabinets - all made of oak, and then replaced sink faucets, bought new shower curtains, shower  organizers, and hung up towel bars.  Our bedroom/office  part of our home is still a work in progress!  More pix will be forthcoming as we continue making improvements in each room.   

I am enjoying the creative part of re-designing our small home.   We also have to be innovative as we have downsized compared to the home we had - so it's all about maximing space!  At the same time, we have been sharing the large house with my daughter and her family and helping them to get settled as well.  (see pix in blog entry below)

We have not yet returned to juicing though I am having my green smoothie most mornings - with occasional alternative breakfasts such as scrambled eggs or omelets, or Fiber One muffins and fruit.  My exercise has consisted of lap swimming in our pool - 30 minutes at a time.  I also want to begin adding long walks in our neighborhood, and eventually I will add workouts with our fitness equipment which is as yet unaccessible as it's in the garage amid dozens  of as yet unpacked boxes!

I've felt very content since arriving here, partly because of the positive changes I've experienced after living in a large city in the desert for so long!  I love the peacefulness and quiet of the countryside as well as the lovely green trees which surround our area!   The following photo is taken from the road which leads right up to our neighborhood:

 I also love sharing our lives with our children and grandchildren - yet still having our own "space" to retreat to!   I'm also enjoying the bit of exploring we've done in the area - just getting to know the nearby communities and towns.   It's a very different life for us - but  I was more than ready for a change!

Speaking of "being ready for a change", I've also changed the background of my blog. Since I now live in an area surrounded by trees,  this new background seemed very fitting!  I had also thought of changing the title of my blog - but then I realized that our move and new home does qualify as a "A New Beginning"!   : )

Moving is Not for the Faint of Heart! :)

After posting 37 Reasons to Stay Motivated in my last entry, I can say my motivation has gone out the window - but then we are in the midst of packing and moving - and this is by no means a small move!   We're moving from West Texas to North Texas, to a small town named Argyle, which is located off of I-35W, less than ten miles south of Denton, and 30 miles north of Fort Worth - but from where we live now, it's over 600 miles away!

I have to say packing is very physical!  There MUST be WW Activity Points associated with moving as I can say I've probably developed muscles where I didn't know I had muscles!  Lifting boxes, bending over boxes while packing, reaching for articles on shelves at all levels...and those are only a few of the calisthenics attributed to packing a household on a cheap budget!  :)    Yep, we're moving in style - with U-Haul!  We're now exactly six days away from loading the truck, and seven days away from our departure date from El Paso...still lots to do before d-day arrives.

What's kept us going is "keeping our eye on the prize" - as we're moving to a lovely 1.6 acre property which we will be sharing with our daughter and her family, including two of the most precious granddaughters a grandma could possibly have!    We are looking forward to this new chapter in our lives which will no doubt be filled with lots of challenges, but lots of new adventures, as well!

Here are a few photos of our new home-to-be:

37 Reasons to Stay Motivated!

 
Wow!   I love this!  We all have our "lazy" moments so this will be my reference point when I start stagnating and/or making excuses. In fact, just so I do have it handy, I'm downloading it to my desktop!  

Motivation + Habit = Success!

I could not have said it better!   We were motivated in February by watching a documentary by Joe Cross, and here it is three months later, and it's definitely become a habit!  We continue to have a spinach/berry/banana yogurt smoothie and/or veggie juice nearly every day.  For variety, we also make big salads as a main meal.  We eat meat a few times a week - mostly chicken and fish.  Our dairy only consists of feta cheese and yogurt - and we have eaten light Laughing Cow cheese on occasion.  We often have veggie omelets or oatmeal for variety in the mornings.  We now only drink coffee on the weekend - otherwise, we have herbal teas.  As for breads, we have home-made bread occasionally.  When we eat out, we try to make healthy choices.   All of this has become our "norm" and both of us have felt healthier and more energetic since we've made these changes in our eating regime.

Overcoming those Vacation Indulgences - or Taking Off the Fluff!

It goes without saying that unless one is going to a health spa for vacation, weight gain when is nearly inevitable - and for me, that meant a three pound gain!  I will say that I indulged more than once - my downfalls were huckleberry ice-cream!  What saved me from gaining more weight is the fact that we often prepared our own meals in the condo where we were staying - and tried hard to fix only healthy and low calorie meals - soups, salads, etc.  We also splurged by eating out - especially during our travel excursions, but didn't do too badly in our food choices.  In fact, we ate twice at a cafe in Flathead, Montana because the vegetable soup was "to die for" - but then we also had their home-made sour dough bread!

Now that we're back home,  it's time to get the "vacation fluff" off.   We found that we actually missed our daily Juicing and were more than happy to return to our healthy nutrient-rich veggie juices.   We are also back to eating light meals - soups, salads, veggie omelets, etc.   As a result, I've lost 1.5 pounds this week, and expect to lose the other half of my weight gain quickly.

I've also made a "monumental decision" in my own program.  I decided to cancel my WW online subscription as I've found that WW doesn't jive well with Juicing as a way to lose weight and keep healthy.   This is not a "program" for us as it's become our eating lifestyle, or maybe we should just call it our new "norm".  We enjoy it, it keeps us healthy, and it's helping us lose weight.  We've decided to continue having our veggie juices and/or a smoothie along with one light meal each day during the week, and have one juice per day and two meals on weekends.  We also plan to continue this "norm" with our kids when we move together to North Texas this summer - as they are in agreement that this is a healthy lifestyle. In fact, it was my daughter who first introduced me to Juicing last summer although I didn't actually adopt this lifestyle until I watched the film by Joe Cross, "Fat, Sick and Nearly Dead" in February.  I am now reading a book by Jason Vale entitled "Juice Yourself Slim:  Lose Weight Without Dieting".  It has given me a lot of motivation as well as ideas for adding healthy soups and other meals along with Juicing.

I will end this with a quote from Jason Vale:
True transformation to a healthy eating and juicing lifestyle is going from "what you want but can't have" to being grateful for what you now have (i.e a healthier body, etc).  It's also changing one's mindset to "what you can have but no longer want".   


EDITED (just two days later!):   I lost 2.7 of the three pounds I put on during our vacation within the first week home - YAY!!!!