Fluffy Flowers

Our Lady of Weight Loss

Thank you all for the sweet Lucky Cowdog love. He and I both appreciate it!

One of the things we do when we set out on a new diet and exercise plan is to read everything on the topic we can find. Its one way to feel proactive about the lifestyle change without it being so painful. Because we all know that the start of dieting and exercising are both painful!

In my quest for motivational reading material I ran across the book Our Lady of Weight Loss by Janice Taylor. Actually, I ran across Janice and her book over at Craftsanity. Jennifer's podcast interview with her is completely delightful. Janice shared her story of her 50 pound weight loss through crafting! Yes folks, crafting. I immediately requested the book from the library.

Janice took her journey down an artistic road that led to the weight loss she wanted. And she's kept it off for several years. Its a whole different way of looking at what can sometimes feel like deprivation and exhaustion and turn it into something artistic and beautiful.

Janice's approach to her lifestyle change was so different that I had to share this book with y'all. I won't spoil it for you with the details since you'll probably want to hunt down a copy of this book for yourself.

another twenty pounds

You know there's another person in this household who's lost twenty pounds this year too. Y'all might not recognize this rolly polly character with one ear down but rest assured this is the infamous Lucky Cowdog.

This photo was taken a couple of years ago when he ballooned up to a puffy polar bear. And that ear'd been flopping down for a good long while too. But then a magical thing happened. Most of you probably already read about it. His very smart animal doctor figured out that he was gaining weight because he was sick. And now that he's on the right dosage of doggy thyroid pills he's managed to lose at least twenty pounds!

He also gained back gobs of energy and stopped suffering so much joint pain. Its a miracle I tell you! But the funniest thing of all that happened on this journey is that floppy ear. The ear has been sagging lower and lower the older my Cowboy was getting. Poor doggy! Then suddenly, one day after weeks and weeks of his daily pill, I glanced over and noticed that the ear was no longer flopping down. In fact, the ear was pointing straight up in the air. Yippee! Those thyroid pills fixed my Cow's flopsy ear syndrome!

When I told his vet about this miraculous recovery I could see him try with all his might to suppress a giggle. He didn't succeed, the poor fellow. He tried to explain that there was no correlation between the ear and the pills, but I knew better. I know my animals very well and that sweet Cowman was pointing that ear skyward like he hasn't done in a mighty long time. So thank you Dr. Veterinarian once again for giving my street rescued old man mutt Lucky Cowdog the best quality of life ever.

the secret to weight loss

Howdy folks! Seems like a coon's age since I posted anything to the blog. Time is running away with me this summer and I've gotta say I'm enjoying it. The weather hasn't been too hot, well, not too hot for Georgia anyway, so I've been getting outside a lot.

I've gotten back to my regular power walks. Now that they're a regular part of my life I can't figure out why I ever stopped them. Laziness I guess. Anyhow, its been almost two months now and I've managed to lose eighteen pounds. Maybe I should write that out in whole numbers: I lost 18 pounds. Woo Hoo!

Its amazing how these extra pesky pounds and inches creep up on you when you're not looking. Our advanced, modern society makes it so easy to be sedentary. Its essential that we figure out ways to stay physically active in order to balance out the excessive calories in a typical convenience meal. Sometimes I wish I lived on a farm where physical activity is built into daily chores. But then I think about cleaning out mucky animal stalls and I realize I'm ok with living in a medium sized town.

You hear it everywhere you go, eating right and exercising will help you lose weight. Yes, that is true. That is definitely the formula to success. But what they leave out is the really important part: getting your mind right (paraphrased from Cool Hand Luke). Thats the hardest part.

Figuring out that you want to be healthy rather than sedentary and then remembering that fact nearly ever waking hour until you get there. You've got to remember it when you wake up, when you're deciding what to eat, when you're thinking about shaving five minutes off your exercise, in short, nearly ever moment. Self actualization isn't easy and there seems to be no shortcut around it. But it does produce some amazing results. Plus, you discover just how powerful your mind can be.