A Cowboy's Fitness Program

I started a post on "Health and Fitness" and I was going to give what I have gathered from web sites, magazines, and journals. I figured between that and what I've learned in the Marine Corps and from friends into Bodybuilding over the years, I'd have some pretty good information to pass on to you.

Well on Monday, I washed my wife's horse Tango, moved a few pallets, cleaned out water barrels, painted new boards for the barn, painted some chewed up boards with a no chew mixture, worked our Mustang mare, dug a couple of post holes, and mucked out stalls.

That was all before going over to the American Legion at 4pm to open up the post.  Being the Post's 2nd Vice Commander means that I'm supposedly in charge of the bar, the kitchen, and the post's building maintenance.  Mostly these days I run the bar, because luckily I have fallen into the position while there are still others who want to keep doing the other jobs.  It also means that for the first time in my life, I now have to bartend once a week or when one of "my" bartenders can't make it.

So showing up at a quarter to 4, I opened and worked behind the bar at the Post until 8 that night.  After I came home, I fed the second feeding for my horses and then came in to sit in front of this computer to write a post about something happening in the world.

Instead of a blog post, I started a Short Story and started re-writing an old Cowboy Poem that I've been working on.  So guess what?  No Blog Post!

On Tuesday, I was determined to write something and again I decided that I wanted to write something about "Health and Fitness."  I thought maybe something on workout schedules, using weights or a cable machine, on reps and sets, and the importance of intensity and length of workout. Instead I went out to my barn and fed the animals for my wife.  We actually share the feeding these days and she does the morning feeding and I catch the evening feeding.

After feeding the animals, I moved some twelve foot panels, drilled a few holes into wood post for gate hangers, installed the gate hangers, and enlarged a pen.  Then my wife and I went to town.  She took her women's club Newsletter to the printer and off we were for lunch.  After lunch we drove over to pick up a load of road-base gravel, and yes I was a little concerned how much a ton of road-base droped the back end of my truck.  Then off to buy a couple of bags of post hole cement, a stop at the printer to pickup her Newsletter, and home again.
Once we came home where we put in the two posts in the ground using the post hole cement that we had picked up, and I was off to the house to clean up so that I can get over to the American Legion to open at four.  It was one of those nights where one of my bartenders couldn't make it.

Today I was certain that I was going to write about staying busy and trying to stay fit, but the Internet was down in our area.  Here in Glencoe, with a population of 189, we are used to some things not being available.  It's just that way living in the country.  And unlike most folks in the city, most of country folks just take things in stride better.  Once I found out that the local Internet provider was down, I was happy that that was the problem and not my computer.

So instead of writing about fitness, I shoveled a ton of road-base out of the back of my truck to fix our driveway.  Yes, there was a lot of pot holes in our driveway from the rains this year.  Once my wife and I were done, we both head for the house.  For me, I was beat.

As for my wife?  She had a full day. See it was only after she went to town for a Line Dancing Class this morning that she came home to help me get that load of road-base on the driveway. Mostly she drove the truck while I shoveled.  But friends, she walks up on down our 600 foot driveway every time we needed anything from the house.  That means our driveway is at least two football fields long, and she walked it at least six times or more today alone.  And now, actually just a few minutes ago, she left for a game of canasta with her lady friends while I got on here to write.

So about my fitness program?  Well because of the steroids that my doctors have had me on to treat prostate problems, I have gained a lot of weight.  Actually I am heavier than I've ever been in my life, so my friends my fitness program is always evolving.

Yes, we have a small Home Gym that we found in the local Buy & Sell and it's great.  That is, it's great when I'm up to using it.  See I figure that my fitness program is one where I stay busy, sometimes busier than others.

Right now the weather is great up here. In Jackson and Valley Spring and down below, they are socked in in fog and cold.  Up here at an elevation of 2800 feet, the sky is blue and almost like Spring.  So like everyone else who lives in the country, we get busy when the weather's better.  And since the weather is good right now, my fitness program is in full steam.

Tomorrow I will fix fences, pound in t-posts, bath two horses and work three.  According to our bathroom scale I've lost four pounds this week since the weather's been nice and I've been able to get things done around here.

This ranch, farm, country sort of fitness program. Oh heck! How about I just call it a cowboy's fitness program.  It's working by us working.  

It's a great program and easy to stick to.  All you have to do is want to clean up around your home, do your chores, garden, plant, enjoy being outside, and keep things up.

If you look around your home, I'm sure you too can skip the gym membership and find enough activity to keep you busy.  So far for me, the pounds are coming off and I'm feeling pretty good.