30 days later

Many of you know that my husband and I have begun a new excercise and diet program called P90X. We have converted our garage into our P90X room. All you need is dumbbells and pull up bars. When you take on this 90 day challenge it becomes a big part of your life. It's a whole program. The word diet usually implies cutting down on eating. That is not the case with this program. One thing I've learned is that you cannot do the excercise without the diet. I skipped dinner one night because I was so busy being in charge of a ward activity. The next day I could not get through a single set of 25 of anything. I felt so dizzy, I had to stop in order to not fall over. In this program you start to view food as fuel rather than as something that your mind wants but isn't good for your body. When you fill your gas tank nobody ever thinks, "Maybe it would be better for my car if I only put in half a tank."

The results are mostly in strength, muscle tone and energy level. I have lost only 4 pounds. We measure 8 different places. I have lost one half inch everywhere, except one whole inch in my hips. My husband has lost 4 inches in his hips. I considered including before and after pictures and I may still after 90 days, but even though I see a big difference in the pictures, I am still not ready to post bikini shots of myself on this blog. The best results are that my body fat percent has gone down 5 percent, from average range to athletic range. My goal is to go down at least 8 more.

My Brilliant Scheme

Lydia was having difficulty adjusting to a new school. She began to act out in class, hoping that the result would be that she return to her old school. I told her she needed to try harder to like this school. I promised her that if she behaved well in class and recieved a sticker from her teacher every day of the week, she could give me a makeover on the weekend. She chose that out of many offers to take her out for a special day with me. As you can see, the plan worked beautifully.

Home On The Range

For those of you who have not visited us, these are some pictures of our home and yard. We have plenty of yard for large gathering, so reunions are welcome. These pictures were taken in the spring when our flowers were in bloom. Since these pictures were taken, we have purchased and planted 23 trees on our property. We often spend vacation time working in the yard rather than actually going on vacation, because we still have several large projects that are now only drawings and ideas, including a playground and a large barn. I don't think any animals are in view in these pictures, but there are about 30 cows and about a dozen horses roaming around behind that barbed wire fence. They belong to various people in our extended family.