Saturday, March 28, 2009

March 25th 2009, Day 17 of 90

Day 17 in my 90 Day Action Plan.

My plan for this 90 day action plan hasn’t gone exactly the way I had envisioned it. No surprise there I suppose.

I am probably 1/3 of the way through the tax work that is a must do. Little frustrated there, wanted to be completely done with it by now. But am making progress.

On the fitness front. Yes I am making progress. Bumpy road but progress. The biggest bump in the road is the pain in my left leg. Working in the blizzard, climbing through snow drifts, yes falling off the top of them, etc. Did a number on it yesterday. Yes I’ve been bathing in liniment. Yes it is helping.

All the Hairballs (poms) are inside. Not so much room to run, but warm and dry. I woke up in the middle of the night thinking I’d missed one of them. I hadn’t, it was just a nightmare. The guard dogs were barking and the coyotes were howling, geez they were in close. My husband and I piled more straw in the guard dog’s houses. Makes me nervous having the electric fence buried in the snow.

The coyotes and cougar don’t come past the electric fence when It’s on. I will be VERY GLAD when this snow melts. It would have been wonderful if the wind hadn’t blown so hard. There are big stretches of no snow at all, then monster drifts.

We need another layer of snow fence to help catch it and keep it out on the range. The shelter belt tree row we put in is buried under snow but it wasn’t enough to keep it back out of the dog yards.

Looks like the roads are clear enough to get out with a 4 wheel drive. Weird storm. It was between 70 and 80 degrees the day before the blizzard. It started as a driving rain, then turned into a wet sticky snow. I found one of our hens sitting on a fence yesterday encased in snow. I picked her up and took her into my dog house to melt the snow off. Then took her over to the chicken house and put her inside. She must have gotten confused in the blinding snow and wind and just hung onto the fence. I’ve never seen a chicken snowball before.

I bet ranchers lost calves out in this mess.



Life is a journey, some travels are in blinding snow
Mary E. Robbins & the Hairballs
Robbins Run Ranch: Living the Dream With Our Pomeranians
Independent Beachbody Coach: Feeling Flabby?
307.788.0202

Monday, March 16, 2009

Beauty Salon chairs, movie theatre seats, airplane seats, office chairs with arms, bucket seats in some cars, all were a; what do I say.

An absolute embarrassment, misery; truthfully the words that come to mind are considerably stronger! It was one of those, take a look at the chair, estimate whether my fat rear would fit in it, then ease myself down into the chair one butt cheek at a time. Then pop! The butt cheeks stick out on each side through the chair arm loop. When you get up be very careful to ease out of the chair, or you are standing with a chair stuck on your butt.

Frankly I avoided this situation whenever possible. Sometimes it was unavoidable. The last time I flew to a business conference for example. The flight from Denver to Los Angeles. Cheek to Cheek to Cheek all the way. Fortunately the guys sitting on either side of me were skinny. Had all three of us been rather large in the rear it would have been something out “Saturday Night Live”. I couldn’t get the plane seat arms down over my rear, so I rode with them up under my arms.

Frankly I doubt if it was any more pleasant for the two guys, but to their credit they didn’t say anything, at the time. It’s not that the seats, chairs, etc are too small. It’s that my butt is to frigging big!

Denying it doesn’t change it. The chair is not too small; the rear end trying to wedge itself into it is too lardy. No, that was not a misspelling. Lardy as in large filled with lard-FAT.

Yesterday one of the things on my list as I blasted my pickup truck into town for supplies was to get my hair cut. I printed out a picture of the hair cut I wanted, grabbed my supply lists, climbed into my trusty truck and headed down the gravel road preparing myself for the “infamous butt-chair wedge”.

I arrived at the salon, chatted a bit and we headed for the torture chair. I looked at it, got ready to squirm and twist to get into it, and WOW! I slid right in. I stood up. Turned around and looked at it again. Then slid right in. No pinching, no twisting, no chair stuck on my butt!

Then we went to the shampoo station, and slid right into the seat. My butt fit in the salon chair. My Butt fit in the salon chair. My Butt fit in the salon chair! Gee suppose I said that enough?

I am one happy camper, lol. I still have a long way to go to my healthiest size, but I am on my way. I am losing inches. Yes I know I can tell that by a tape measure, but sometimes that doesn’t really sink in. Now, my but not having to be wedged into a salon chair, that makes a major impression in my mind.

Good by Jabba the Hut butt! As in a butt as big as Jabba the Hut.

Day 8 in my 90 Day Action Plan.
My workouts for today are elliptical and Hip Hop Abs: fat blasting cardio.

Oh, by the way, my haircut came out great!


Life is a journey, enjoy the trip.
Mary E. Robbins & the Hairballs


Sunday, March 15, 2009

Plans and Poetry: March 14 2009

Cheyenne, my senior border collie, drove me out of bed at 4:00 a.m. this morning. What can I say, she is an old lady and had to go potty. Truth be told I was none too happy about it at the time.

It turned out to be a good thing though. Now I am up for the day, getting an early start on a very full day.

Written Much Later in the Day:
Today was a full workout day. Day 6 of 90 day action plan. I am happy to say I am current with my planned workouts. 12 workouts in 6 days. I am tired though, should be better in a couple of weeks. Need to get myself on a consistent sleep pattern. Workouts are good, eating pattern has been inconsistent. Be better tomorrow. No sense in crying over spilt milk. Just pick up from here and go on.

David was called to work, he is sleeping so much I am concerned. Seems like he is always tired.

I decided to wait until April 1st to measure and update photos. Then follow up each month around the first of the month, rather than mid month.





Bits and pieces of life
Snapshots of a moment
Glimpses into another

A Peek into an underlying consciousness
A photo frozen moment
An awakening comment

Notes of a favorite song
Visual blurb in video
A tenuous connection

Exploring new relationships
Reconnecting with friends lost in time
Bits of truth

Something’s missing
Look again
Found a friend




Life is a journey, enjoy the trip.
Mary E. Robbins & the Hairballs
Robbins Run Ranch: Living the Dream With Our Pomeranians
Independent Beachbody Coach: Join the Team Beachbody Club and Get the Body You Want

Heart tells the story: March 13 2009

I noticed something this morning while I was working out on my elliptical. This particular machine has a heart monitor and I decided to see just what my heart rate was while I was dripping in sweat. I noticed It was around 120 bpm.

Then I thought about the heart monitors sounding the alarms incessantly, a while back when I was in the hospital. They went off non stop because my resting heart rate was over 135 bpm.

Put’s a smile on my face. My heartrate while working out on the elliptical was 120 this morning quite the comparison. Even though I have a long way to go to my healthiest size and weight, there is definitely progress being made. Whoo Hoo! Feels good to have a stronger healthier heart!

Life is a journey, enjoy the trip.
Mary E. Robbins & the Hairballs
Robbins Run Ranch: Living the Dream With Our Pomeranians
Independent Beachbody Coach: Join the Team Beachbody Club and Get the Body You Want

Thursday, March 12, 2009

Weigh in Day: Resulting in 90 Day Action Plan

Day 4 of 90 day action plan.

Last week March 5th I weighed myself and found I had gained 2 pounds. This week I stayed the same, didn’t lose didn’t gain. I looked back over the past 2 months and reviewed my eating patterns and activity levels.

I was not happy with what I saw. I was working out about half the days. On days that I workout my eating patterns are healthy. On the days I missed my workouts, my eating patterns were not healthy.

I also noticed that my state of mind is much better when I work out. It would seem there is a direct correlation between working out and a happier healthier me.

When I look at the total amount of fat I have to lose, it can be rather discouraging. As in what’s the point I will never get there. When I think like that it is a self defeating attitude.

This journey is like driving a car, where you look you go. In this case, where I think I go. So what is the solution?

I already have access to excellent workouts, top notch support, and fitness experts thorough Beachbody. However the only person that can actually make this happen is me.

You can have the best trainers, workouts, fitness experts etc available to you but if you do not make use of them then your results are nada.

Rather than beating myself up over a 2 pound gain, I started asking, how can I do this. How do I keep going?

An idea was born. Pop! See the little light bulb light up!

My 90 Day Action Plan came into existence!

The core premise is to workout 2 times a day for 90 days.

180 workouts in 90 day.

Log into WOWy, Beachbody’s online gym for each workout.

Day 1 I followed through. The night of day one I didn’t sleep.
Day 2 I messed up. I didn’t workout.
Day 3 I caught up on the missed workouts. Did 4 in one day. That was a grit it through day by the end of the day. But I felt good about myself even though my muscles were screaming.

Day 4 I am heading for my first workout of the day.


An added bonus to logging into WOWY every day. I am entered into Beachbody’s daily contest every day. Increases my odds of winning something in the daily giveaways… it’s fun to see who won each day and what they won.

What will I do at the end of my 90 day action plan? I will evaluate my progress and format another 90 day action plan. There may be some defeats and setbacks, but my days of failure are over.

90 days, one day at a time, I CAN DO! 90 days at a time to a rockin bod!

Life is a journey, one day one workout at a time.

Mary E. Robbins & the Hairballs
Robbins Run Ranch: Living the Dream With Our Pomeranians
Independent Beachbody Coach: Move it from fat to fit!
307.788.0202

Later tater… I’m logging in and working out!

Monday, March 09, 2009

Pigeon Toilet or Rolling Stone

I feel a bit better. Knee is still grinding. Still congested, not as bad though.

I need to increase my activity level. Even though I am exhausted. At this point I think it is feeding on itself. The longer I am inactive, the more exhausted I become. So its grit it out and move.

I know that being inactive has a negative effect on my state of mind. Frankly this past week I have been inactive physically and mentally for the most part. I did read an excellent book, 90 Minutes in Heaven: A True Story of Death & Life by Don Piper. But that was devoured in a couple of days. The rest has been thinking about what was in the book and sleeping. It’s been think, a little, eat, and sleep. On auto repeat all week. Truthfully my attitude has been in the dumper as well as my activity level.

The two seem to be tied together. Translated, when I keep myself active, physically, and mentally I am a much happier person. When I am inactive I turn into an exhausted (and not in a good way) depressed angry troll. On the really bad days I can seriously look like one too. Hair sticking out all over the place, snarl on my face, gray complexion, sweaters on my teeth, and total dragon breath, roaring when anyone tries to get near me. Or farther down the line, turning to stone, as in unresponsive lump of rock.

Ok so here we are at the crossroads. Choose, happy healthy successful human, or pissed off lump of depressed rock. Basically, it’s happy or pigeon toilet. Hmm…

Sounds like a simple choice doesn’t it? It is and it isn’t.

Fear can be a huge motivator to stay as a pigeon toilet. With all the crap consequences.

Here’s the thing. When you are in full pigeon toilet mode. You always have the option of doing something. “You Could Be” “You Could Do” and your mind runs off with all the possibilities bright and shiny for the moment. And you think I can be this or that and sink off into the oblivion of sleep, or just staring off into nothingness totally on idle.

The trap is, the longer you are a pigeon toilet. As in a rock that doesn’t move, the harder it becomes for you to move. The less you actually can move, so bit by bit you actually do become immobile. Either, too weak, too sick, too fat, too depressed to move. Then the rock you have become becomes the boxed decaying mass under another rock in a garden of rocks remembering what was or what could have been. I do believe that garden of rocks is called a grave yard.

By that time your what if’s are gone, your could have beens are no longer, your possibilities and potential wasted as a pigeon toilet. On the bright side pigeons always need a place to poop.

Time to brush off the residue and get moving…

Life is a journey, keep moving
Mary E. Robbins & the Hairballs
Robbins Run Ranch: Living the Dream With Our Pomeranians
Independent Beachbody Coach: Helping to transform Pigeon toilets into rolling stones.



Sunday, March 08, 2009

Whine, gag choke snot...

I haven’t written anything for about a week. Not in my journals, message boards, facebook, blogs, articles, nada nothing.

Some kind of bug knocked me for a good one. I am breathing better today. In actuality all I’ve done all week is take basic care of the dogs and sleep. Well, take care of the dogs, gripe, snot, drink throat tea, choke, and sleep.

No my attitude is not the best on the planet today. I am a bit frustrated. My immune system is not what it used to be. But I am stronger than I have been, so that is progress.

I did something to my knee. It was a bit hairy for a while. I had to quit working out altogether to give it time to heal. I don’t think it was the workouts that caused the problem. I need to be careful when I do floor work. As in down on the floor. Make sure there are either good quality knee pads or a thick pad. Like a nit wit I didn’t think about it when I crawled under my desk to repair my computer keyboard tray.

I spaced off my knee pads and just crawled under there and installed a brace. Hey the key board tray is doing great. Then I unloaded a 100 pound bag of grain. I should have dipped half of it out, but I didn’t I just unloaded it. I felt my knee give. Yeouch!

I think I broke off some calcium deposits when I crawled under the desk. Then when I lifted the grain bag I must have wedged the miserable thing in the side of the joint. I am guessing. At any rate the swelling has gone down and the pain has receded. It’s never completely gone from my legs but it’s not making me nauseous now. So that is a good thing.

I messed my knees up in a car wreck years ago. Need to have good solid muscle mass to hold them together. I was feeling better and got ahead of myself. Painful lesson. Two steps up one step back.

After my knee went bats, my leg muscles started spasming in both legs. I must have put too much strain on them favoring the hurt knee. I think I allowed myself to get a bit dehydrated as well. Between my knee screaming, and the pain from the muscle spasms I didn’t sleep much. So of course my stomach just had to dump a boatload of acid and flair up as well. Whoo Hoo. In the midst of all this some kind of respiratory crap jumped on the band wagon. Yech! Thick mucus crud, swelled up throat on both sides of my neck, choking gagging snot.

Yup, that’s it. Pretty well sums up my week.

Gaggingly yours
Mary E. Robbins & the Hairballs

'Daily Affirmation' Video