LC,

I, too have been reading about Nat's BFL. I log in on an exercise forum where people talk about it quite a bit. Also following what TrainerDan has been telling Missydog about CKD. Am learning a lot, but some of the info's all mushing together, and I'm getting Info-overload sometimes. I'm a KISS (keep it simple stupid) person I guess, probably cause I'm gettin' too old to remember all this stuff.

Want to read BFL and more on CKD, but with trying to re-learn French(a promise to myself) and my kids schedules (my 15 1/2 yr. old 'baby' is taking drivers ed, and the boys have numerous activities), and this being the Christmas season, well....

Read your story in the success section! Very inspiring. I'm an ex-smoker myself (quit 24 yrs. ago) and that was the start of the yo-yo dieting that got me at this weight. Glad you wised up so much quicker!
YB

LC,

If anyone wants to buy a Body for Life book at half price, I've got one in perfect condition that I don't want anymore (I'm totally happy with my CKD regime).

And YogaBuff, I can't believe this new coincidence, but I too am trying to relearn the French I've forgotten from when I lived in Paris 25 (!) years ago. It's one of those "promise to myself" things for me, too. I actually got a degree in French from UCLA, but have lost touch with it for many years.

Missydog

Yoga Buff - kill 2 birds with one stone - get a weight training book in french I'm also a KISS person - a video or television exercise program to follow makes my life so much easier. I have a stretch lady who comes on at 6:00 and a weight training lady who comes on at 6:30 - so a good workout for me is stretch from 6:-6:15, treadmill from 6:15-6:30 and then weights from 6:30-6:45 - then get ready for work.

Missydog - I am just going to dig out some of my old weight training books and work on my own schedule. I find that reading these books, there is no *new and improved* way to do a bicep curl so why invest the money? I looked at the BFL book ($40 up here) and decided that I'd rather have a new quilting book.

Have a great day both of you.

Spongey, I just found this webiste www.half.com they have everything; and it's all... well at least half off (if not more). They're advertising protein power for .75 cents.... I'd imagine they'd have BFL pretty cheap too.

Nat

LC,

Good for you for going with the tried and true methods of working out. I recently came to the same conclusion myself about investing in one new exercise/diet book after another! There are probably very few new things to be said, once you've read DANDR, Protein Power, The Zone, Schwarzbein, The Glucose Revolution, all the myriad websites pertaining to these, and on and on. And those pretentious HARDCOVER books really put a dent in my pocketbook. So you can't blame me for checking to see if you'd be enough of a sucker to want my BFL book (one of my biggest wastes of money). It would have been enough just to read it while standing up in the bookstore and then to put it back on the shelf, LOL!

Have a great weekend.

--Missydog

Nat - thanks for the tip - you, my dear, are a "specialist" when it comes to your program and that's amazing . I totally respect the dedication and intricate and intimate knowledge you have about lowcarbing and body building. Anything you set your mind to, better WATCH out !!

Alas, I am a generalist (Missydog can relate).

When generalists compare things the identify the similarities, where a specialist identifies differences. It's not a matter of 1/2 full or 1/2 empty, as there is no right or wrong.

Missydog - (when I *say* your name in my head - I say Missah-dawg - hope you don't mind - I have said on more than one occassion - there is only ONE low carb way of eating - with many, many angles. When any topic becomes HOT (read 'money-making'), there will be copycatters out there all over the place. Not that they are misled or misleading, just that they have hooked their lowcarb twist onto the lowcarb STAR and are getting rich - quite frankly - and more power to them. I'm waiting for the first bag of low carb dog food.

Takes all kinds to make the world go round doesn't it?

PS - Missah-sly-dawg - HA "sell" me your used book?? LOL You can't kid a kidder - If I'd wanted it, I'da convinced ya to send it to me free and postage paid. Hang onto it, you may luck into a table with one short leg.

LC,

Wait no longer. I recently saw an advertisement for a low-carb cat diet food-- how to make your feline go low-carb!

Missydog

*lmao* You're also the consumate diplomate, Madame Sponge.

Nat

{{{{courtsey}}} Why thank you, your highness Queen of the bench press - comes from working for the government.

Missydog!! That is way too funny - cats are carnivores. They eat low carb anyway.

Putting "low carb" on a can of beef-by-products, is like slapping a label on prune juice: "Now Comes In Black!"

I want to start keeping track of my dressage training sessions.

I've had 2 so far, my schedule is currently 2x per week (Wed and Sat). I consider those days to be lower body workouts so skip any other workout other than cardio (if that) on those days. Worked primarly at walk and posting trot. General dissection of position part by part and rebuild correctly. Analysis of what I do and how to correct.

My shopping list for my lower body at the walk is:
Learned behaviour of turning toes out and using heels as the leg aid. However this opens up the knee and contact is lost, whole leg is shifted forward. To much emphasis on heels down. Leg shoots forward in transition to halt.
Correction: Leg aid is the calf and should not be seen from the ground. Consider my heels to be pointing straight back (not down) and out the rear end of the horse. Flare heels out. Sit on my sitting bones in the middle of the saddle. Lead with the sternum. Aid to walk from stop is inside leg only. Quiet with lower leg in all transitions.

My shopping list for my upper body at the walk is:
Learned behaviour of breaking wrists to shorten reins. Alters position of arm, shoulder and stick.
Correction: Follow the horses mouth with my shoulder, not hand. Elbows, shoulders and fingers flex, wrists don't. Hand, arm and shoulder position is likened to holding a bale of cotton in front of me. This will keep thumbs on top and stick across upper leg. Aid to slow speed is outside rein only. Draw hands to diaphram to maintain line to mouth.

Overall at walk: keep the straight line from ankle, thru hip joint, and shoulder.

My shopping list for posting trot is:
Learned behaviour of posting outside horses' motion. Defeats purpose of posting trot being energy saving for rider. Tendancy to lean too far back when trying to stay "straight". When left behind, wrists break to catch balance.
Correction: Moving smoothly in transition up and down. Posting big to avoid that multiple "beat". More forward sitting. Hold hands higher. Practice posting with a prop (stool or chair)- feet on ground, knees touching prop - post without moving knees away from or bumping prop. Quads are used to post.

Overall at trot: overcompensate by putting weight on left side, shift entire balance to left side - don't just lean, think of right stirrup as non-existant or spagetti. More difficult for me to work going to the left. Horse doesn't bend as well (me or horse?)

Overall general: Think in the NOW, don't think ahead. What is the horse doing NOW. Ride him in the NOW. Memorize how things FEEL not how I think they LOOK. Get my body organized. Strengthen lower leg front and ankles. Strengthen abs and back. Concentrate on having NO effect on the horse when no communication is necessary. Never give a second aid (and certainly not in the same intensity) if the first was ignored. Use a different aid. Click or stick.

Learned you can pick out all four hooves from the same side of the horse. Cool.

Hand positions under scrutiny! So important to lock thumbs on top of rein. Didn't break my wrists tho. Gee is it possible I only have to be told "once"? Must hold my hands higher and together. Somewhere along the learning road, I was never graduated from still hands in front of the saddle, to hands that can prove they will work independently from the rest of the body. So it's coming to me fast. Have to work on keeping the horse from falling in and falling forward. Bit contact, equal rein length, hand position, half halts, propulsion from behind, and proper bending is important here. Love the "look" of hands held high in classical dressage.

Told to read everything, question everything.... "Until you can tell your instructor to %&$* off, you are nothing."

Another point is to allow my upper arms to work away from torso. Further is to not allow the horses gaits to deteriorate. That as soon as I sense it, a correction (not aid) is necessary. Mostly a problem in the walk on the buckle end.

Worked on circles and bending at posting trot. Primarily for hand position. Executing enough inside rein aid to tell the horse to turn, but not so much as to cause him to fall in. Outside rein aid should "think" about turning left to keep the horse balanced and not over-bent. Ride with whole body, can't let the overall communication break down and focus just on the rein aids.

Leg position was near perfect the whole time. Better on my transitions, only had to be told once to 'live in the now' going from trot to walk. Walk to trot is perfect. Body position didn't favour right side. I ended the session without ever feeling overly tired on one side (right) of my body.

Funny story tho, my jacket and vest, not well hung on a jump standard, (live and learn) slid off and startled my horse. As he shyed sideways and my seat became unbalanced, my first thought was 'quick - assess do I fall or not'. What a cool thing when, even after years, the correct response kicks in. My instant decision was that the horse was not so unbalanced and neither was I, that I couldn't correct the situation and stay on - and without "hanging on his back teeth" as my coach so well put it. If I had fallen, the blessing was that it would have been to the right (whew) the bad news is that the horse is 16.2.

Next session will be spent on riding the rear end of the horse. Chris says that even tho my hand position is not yet habitual, that we need to get the hind end engaged in order to help my hand position and 'keep Marlow's spotty nose from dragging in the dirt'.

Intersting discussion with Chris about Monty Roberts.

Another interesting dicussion, horses are now backed and started but the walk is only on a long rein. No rein contact at the walk is done until the horse is 5 or until after the canter is well underway. Contact at the walk, causes a horses gas pedal to become blocked.

Today was a 6 lightbulb day.

Proper upper body position. First, imagine my 6 inch collarbones, being 7 inches long - not 8, 7. Then imagine standing with my back against wall. Bottom, shoulder blades and head all touch the wall. Now, make the pocket of space between my neck and the wall - smaller. Realize that to do so, I have brought my chin in, and the place on my head that is now touching the wall, is lower than the initial spot on my head that was touching. It has also affected my rib cage and how it "sits" in my torso. Remember this position and practice this vitual positioning in reality and in my mind. It is the correct position for classical dressage. Long in the neck and relaxed in the arms, not overly straight in the back.

Open up my line of vision to include horse's withers, neck and head and see these parts as a whole single unit. Once I did that, my aids became second nature. I "saw" the horse as a "whole" and was able to use all my aids to execute 2 perfect half passes at the posting trot. One right after the other. I liken it to standing on the back of a tobaggan and holding the rope so that the front of the tobaggan comes off the snow. The swinging of the tobaggan is much like the motion of the front end of the horse when the hands are used correctly.

Further to that, envision that my hands do NOT move independently of each other, but rather are 2 sections of a single unit. Shifting both hands to the left while going to the left, caused the horse to bend perfectly to the right. Using the inside leg aid as well, put me in the following rhythm: sit + leg, rise + hands = half pass. It was remarkable. I nearly cried.

Metronome: the post is not a 1, 2, beat, it is a 1, 1, beat - like a metronome. Up - down - 1 - 1.

Instead of using the leg muscles to rise for the trot, use them to return to the saddle. By focusing this way, my sit beat became more spongey. I am now using my muscles to help me RETURN to the saddle, not get out of it. I'm gentler in the saddle for it.

My transitions were very good today. I kept in mind that my femur must roll inward for my lower leg to maintain good position. This puts my thigh flat against the saddle and my toes face forward.

To work on: - gotta work my quads more. The stronger they are the better I will post. Also gotta do more yoga. My upper body strength is really paying off. I was more balanced this time too. I am using my left side more and being more concious of being balanced on the horse, and keeping the horse balanced.

Buy the book "The Dressage Formula" by Eric Herbermann - recommended by my coach.

What a great session!!!

Sounds like you had one of those High Points that Bill Phillips talks about. When everything just comes together - almost magically. Hope you can hang on to the lessons learned - sometimes that's the hard part.

Keep it up!

Zen teaches that unless you come to a learning experience with an empty cup, it cannot be filled. No matter how much I "know" about the equestrian art of dressage, I must go to each lesson knowing nothing. Only then will I learn.

Retention is of course, a matter of course, I hope.

Focus tonight was on my hands and seat. Did an exercise called 'waltzing trot' - a trot counted to a 3/4 beat. First you count the posting trot to a 1-2-3-1-2-3 beat, then you descend to the saddle only every 3rd beat. It's to overcome counting to the 1-2 beat and putting emphasis on one or the other and it 'shows' you how you should be returning to the saddle. As before, the trot is really a 1-1 beat with NO emphasis being put on either beat. And because the exercise has you 'standing' in your stirrups for a beat, you return to the saddle MUCH more gently.

Did a second exercise where I purposely raise my hands every time I return to the saddle and lower them as I post. This is to define the disassociation between my shoulders and arms from the rest of my body. Good thing I can walk and chew gum at the same time, I found both exercises fairly easy, and extremely enlightening. He did tell me that my hands were 60% 'there' already.

Half pass at the walk.
Lecture on balancing a jumping pole on its end, and how once the perfect balance point is achieved how only minute adjustments with finger tips are required to keep it standing even tho the pole weighs about 40-50 pounds and is about 14 feet long. I executed a perfect half pass just after (good timing) and was asked to notice now I used only minute aides to get the horse to continue. Chris referred to it as "no aids" riding. And that ALL exercises should be ridden this way. But in order to do so, that perfect balance point much be reached and maintained so that the lightest touches are required to speak to the horse. That way there is no over-correction/under correction being done. Makes good sense.

Dressage is about 2 things - building the horses strength and learning to 'ask' him to do the things he does naturally anyway. The punkiest cart horse, if put in a stall and fed oats for a week, can be released in a paddock and the first thing he will do is put his tail in the air and execute a perfect shoulder in the full length of the paddock. Young thoroughbreds will execute all the airs above the ground when out running lose. The passage is executed beautifully by a young arabian who is paddocked near my house, every time I walk past with the dog. The problem is, that humans never ask for the same thing in the same way on a consistent basis. If our brains were able to ask for and our body deliver EXACTLY the same aids, at EXACTLY the required time, in EXACTLY the same manner each time, a Grand Prix dressage horse could be fully trained in 3 months.

My saddle arrived today. It is gorgeous. Told Chris and at first he looked stricken (who buys a saddle BEFORE they buy a horse?? and WORSE who buys one on e-bay??) but he calmed down when I told him it was a brand new Wintec with the Cair system and totally adjustable gullets. He's heard excellent things about it but has never seen one. I'm taking it in next Wed with all the literature on it. With any luck he might let me use it on Marlow once or twice so I can get the feel of it. I use one of his saddles which is a $3500 (so outrageous!) air bag system saddle, and since he is keen on the air bags, he might let me use my Wintec although it has 4 airbags and is non-adjustable. Which is probably ok since it is totally synthetic.

My next lesson is next Wed since I'm going away.