Down on the Farm…
I am back from visiting my parents and being a farm girl for the last few days. You can take the girl out of the country, but you sure can’t take the country out of the girl! I do love the farm, waking up to a gorgeous sunrise glistening over the dewy pastures and the pond, and the sound of the birds chirping, the chickens clucking, the roosters crowing, cows mooing, and horses whinnying for their feed. We do have quite the menagerie of animals, and they require a lot of care and attention.
My mother is doing very well, and I deeply appreciate all the kind words and well-wishes from many of you. I am still angry that she had to go through a second surgery, but this one was much less invasive and stressful on her, thank goodness. They did keep her overnight at the hospital, but just for observation. She is not able to move her left arm very well. I had to help her put her rollers in her hair. Isn’t that something? She used to put rollers in my hair when I was a little girl, and now it’s my turn. Things do change, and roles do reverse in time. (Although when I was little, I had very long hair, and she used to put those pink sponge rollers in my hair and create these l–o–n–g ’sausage’ curls. Oh, I hated those uncomfortable pink things that I had to sleep on because it took all night for my hair to dry!)
It’s amazing how deeply I sleep after a good day on the farm. It is a lot of hard work, which leaves you tired but gratified. And it’s so peaceful. I dreamt very vivid dreams and slept so deeply.
What did I do while I was there? Well, we cut fallen trees off our pasture fence, and rebuilt the fence. We hauled several dump truck loads of awesome composted cow manure to spread on our garden. (My father just scrapes it up with the front end loader from where the cows feed on hay. I am talking compost over a foot deep! No need for fertilizer for sure!) We tilled up the small vegetable garden, added compost, and planted some beautiful cool-season vegetables–cabbage, kale, chard, broccoli, Romaine lettuce. We checked the cows several times, since they had some cows getting ready to have baby calves. We put out big rolls of hay. We fed chickens, horses, dogs, cats and cows.
Unfortunately, not everything goes well on a farm. I had the unpleasant duty of having to pull a dead calf from its struggling mother. She is a very young cow, and went into labor during the night, and couldn’t deliver the calf. By the time we found her in the morning, she was down, the calf had died, and she needed help to complete the delivery. It took both my dad and me to pull the calf from her. It was so sad, and it affected me deeply. My parents are used to it, as it is not uncommon to happen, but I definitely don’t see that every day, and it is pitiful and heartbreaking.
So did I work out while I was there? Well, not officially, but I sure got a lot of exercise! My parents have my dog on the farm, since I am not able to have him where I live, and I went running with him a couple of times. I love my dog, and I wish I could have him here. He is so big he just drags me along. His name is ‘Fury’ and he is a Timberwolf/Artic wolf/Malamute mix: 83% wolf. He is so cool. He rides in the back of the pickup truck, and heads really turned when we stopped at the grocery store! 
I also got a lot of ‘weight-lifting’ exercise, by hauling brush and limbs, shoveling compost, digging plants, etc. I definitely think I lost some body fat with all the work, plus I was semi-juice-and-green-smoothie-fasting.
Michael and I worked chest and triceps last night, and tonight I worked shoulders by myself, and boy did I bust out a great workout! I didn’t feel like working out, but once I got started I was very strong and felt great!
Chest and triceps;
- Warmup on chest press machine, 4 sets increasing weights, but high reps
- Close-grip incline bench press with dumbbells, 20-lb bells, 8 reps, 3 sets
- Smith machine incline wide-grip bench press, 50 lbs, 15 reps, 3 sets
- Dumbbell incline flyes, 25-lb bells, 12 reps, 3 sets
- Tricep dip machine, 3 sets, increasing weights/decreasing reps
- Reverse-grip isolateral tricep cable pressdowns, 3 sets, 15lbs, 12 reps
Shoulder Workout (includes cardio high-intensity intervals):
- Warmup by rebounding for 10 minutes
- Hammer Strength shoulder press, warmup with 25 lbs each side, then 3 sets with 35 lbs each side, 12, 12 and 10 reps
- Between those presses, I did high box jumps, 12 reps per set
- Seated Arnold dumbbell presses, 3 sets, 10, 10 and 8 reps, 20-lb bells
- Between the Arnold presses, I did step-ups and lateral plyometric jumps on a bench
- Superset of lateral dumbbell raises with concentrated overhead presses (small range of motion)
- Bodyweight Squats and step-ups between sets
- Giant set of Smith machine front presses with 50 lbs, front raises with a 25-lb plate, and upright rows with a 40-lb bar; 3 giant sets to failure on each exercise. No cardio needed between these sets!
- Finished with recumbent bike for extra cardio and then to cool down
As I mentioned before, I have been on a semi-fast or maybe a ‘cleanse’ would be a better term. I have cut down a bit on my sweet fruits and started using more vegetables, especially for juicing. My typical juice is carrot, apple, lemon, celery, and ginger. My smoothies have had fewer bananas and a higher percentage of greens. I have also made some ’savory’ green smoothies, using tomatoes, carrots, cucumber, celery, greens, garlic and onions–kind of a Christy-substitute for V8. (Which has the same antioxidants as ketchup, by the way. NOT a healthy alternative!)
Post-workout smoothies are still very similar, though. It’s important to get the quick-absorbing carbs, so I am still using the same general recipes. Tonight’s smoothie was pineapple, banana, spinach, with Sun Warrior and L-glutamine. Last night’s was apple, banana, spinach, with cinnamon, Sun Warrior, L-glutamine, honey, and parsley.
I started taking Vitamin D3 today. I listened to the latest CD by Dr. Mercola, interviewing Dr. Cannell, who is a renowned expert on Vitamin D. According to him, it is NOT a vitamin, but a steroid pro-hormone that affects over 2000 human genes, as well as enhancing athletic performance and muscle growth. Sounded good to me! I went and bought some today. He says that unless you are a lifeguard, we all are deficient, and need at least 5000 IU per day. The potential of Vitamin D is amazing, including preventing cancers, and even possibly treating cancers and autism. Please research Dr. Cannell and Vitamin D online. It is fascinating and truly breakthrough work he is doing. http://www.vitamindcouncil.org/
Until next time, keep misbehaving and Be Defiant!
Christy
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