I’ve also managed to drop nine pounds! It’s been quite a while since I’ve seen 143 on my scale. For the past week, however, I put most exercise on hold as my back decided it wanted to remind me that I actually have one. I threw my back out in January and I’m here to tell you, I’d rather go through labor than experience that again. A very sweet friend of mine, Michele, who happens to be a massage therapist agreed to try to help relieve some of my pain with a deep tissue massage. While the massage felt wonderful (Thank you so much, Michele!) my back still hurt. It has started feeling better. I was even able to go out for a full day of auto detailing with Chris on Thursday. It still let me know it was there, but at least I got up and moved around for the day.

As I’m typing this post, Brownie has her head laying in my lap. This dog loves people. I think she was deprived of human contact before we had her, so she makes up for it now. She and Mango get along great. They love to play together. They will play fight for hours. It’s funny to watch, because they both open their mouths and bare their teeth, but yet are very gentle with each other. Every once in a while, someone will bite a little too hard somewhere, and we hear a small yelp, but ever since the second day, they have never once gotten in a fight. You can tell old lady Shadow sometimes wishes she could join in, but her hips can’t handle the playful antics of the two youngsters. Other times, Shadow lets out a small growl just to let them know to leave her alone. Brownie and Mango comply. Shadow could easily get hurt by these two dogs in a fight, yet she maintains her alpha status even at her advanced years.

This past week, a woman in Pinellas County was attacked by a Pit Bull. In the article they show the dog, an unneutered male, and mention that he was kept chained up outside, but broke loose from his chain. Instead of placing the blame where it belongs, on the owner, people want to blame the breed. While Pit Bulls are a very powerful breed, if you raise them with love and proper discipline, you will have  a dog that is perfectly safe around anybody, including children. Unfortunately for this breed, they seem to attract low-life people who intentionally want them to look and act vicious. To that end, they will abuse the dogs and train them to attack. What I find amazing is that we know Brownie was neglected and most likely abused, yet she has the sweetest temperament. All she wants is to lick you, sit next to you, play with Mango, sleep and eat. Yet, there are people out there that don’t like her simply because of her breed.  They are missing out on a truly wonderful breed.

]]> http://fitforapit.wordpress.com/2010/09/11/time-to-make-the-donuts/feed/ 0 sandals30 Brynn-denim dress Brownie and Spice http://fitforapit.wordpress.com/2010/08/20/losing-more-than-just-weight/ http://fitforapit.wordpress.com/2010/08/20/losing-more-than-just-weight/#comments Fri, 20 Aug 2010 21:32:50 +0000 sandals30 http://fitforapit.wordpress.com/?p=64 ]]>

Brownie looking stylish in her Body Glove shirt.

I mentioned in my very first post, that I would lose my heart to the Pit Bull we rescued. I was not wrong.  

 Little Brownie has been with us for a week now and is as sweet as her name. She loves to follow us around and has made fast friends with Mango. Her first visit to Dr. Christy at Timberlane Pet Hospital in Plant City went very well and included many doggie kisses. She weighed in at 52.7 lbs, which is up by 5 lbs. since her first vet visit in June. She likes to eat! We are teaching her the sit command, which she is doing well with, but aren’t having much luck with any other commands yet. It will just take some time. We got word back that she was positive for whipworms, so she’ll have a little something mixed in her food for the next three days to kill those off, then we repeat that in three weeks. Dr. Christy said her “doolaps” (as Chris calls her drooping dog teets,) will most likely shrink up some, but it may take a long time. I’m actually getting kind of used to them, but when we take her out in public, we put a shirt on her for modesty sake. We wouldn’t want the other dogs to make fun of her.   

 It was weigh in day. Brynn is now at 144 lbs and I am at 147 lbs. I am so proud of her. With her schedule, she’s found it impossible to workout this past week, but she has stayed active and continued to eat right, so she is down by 8 lbs. in two weeks. I’ve done a few exercises and helped Chris on some details, which I’m sure has managed to sweat out a few pounds, since this heat won’t quit. I still find myself craving sweets, especially chocolate, but I have stayed away from all sugary drinks, with the exception of Gatorade when we are detailing cars. I never thought I would see the day that both Brynn and I chose unsweet tea over Coke or even sweet tea. Let me tell you, Lipton cold brewed tea is awesome! You can make it in three minutes and it tastes so good. To top it off, it has no calories and anti-oxidants that can help the body. I had found Twinings cold brewed mint green tea, but now everywhere I look for it, it’s gone. If anyone see’s it, let me know where.  

Brynn showing off her "Death Eater" tattoo.

Brynn and Sarah- gym buddies

Friday the 13th: the bearer of bad news and bad luck. Not so fast! This Friday the 13th brought good news and good luck to the Showalter family and a certain Pit Bull. First off, on the weight loss/fitness front- Brynn lost 7 lbs. and I lost 5 lbs. Woo Hoo!!! Brynn worked very hard for those seven pounds and finding the time to exercise last week wasn’t easy for her. Although school doesn’t start until August 24, she went back to school last Monday because of E-board (Student Government.) At Brandon High School their E-board returns two weeks before the start of school to get ready for Freshman orientation, plan their calendar for the year, work on homecoming and help the administration get ready for the first week of school. Monday thru Thursday she went in at 8:30 and stayed until 3:30, then Tuesday thru Thursday, she had to work at her part-time job after school. Friday was her one day off from both school and work and instead of using that as an excuse to slack off, she went to the gym. Although she thought about staying home, with a little encouragement she and her friend, Sarah chose exercise over lying around. Her dedication to eating healthier and exercising paid off with her weight loss and her clothes fitting better.     

 Brynn is not the only one whose clothes feel looser. My shorts that fit well just a week ago, are starting to bag on me. I can’t say that I mind that. I didn’t join the gym, but I have done some video-on-demand workouts and aerobic housework. Instead of just pushing the vacuum around, I turned up the music and did some “Salsa vacuuming.” If the neighbors were looking in through the sliding glass doors, they probably got a chuckle out of watching me dance around the living room like Jennifer Gray in “Dirty Dancing”, except my dance partner sucked (ahh, yes, the bad pun!) and wasn’t nearly as handsome as Patrick Swayze.     

As I said in my Motivation! post, we already started searching for dogs. Brynn contacted Dogma Rescue about a Pit Bull named Adrianne. They told us she was still available, so we went ahead and filled out an application to get the ball rolling so that we could meet her. After they checked us out, we set a date for a home visit so that everyone could get together and we could test out how well Mango and Shadow would get along with Adrianne.      

On Friday the 13th, Anne-Marie from Dogma and Robin, the lady fostering Adrianne, arrived at our house at around 5:30. We did the human introductions first. Adrianne is a very sweet, loving, energetic chocolate-brown Pit Bull who has had a very hard life. Whoever owned her before put her through the torture of home-cropping her ears. I can only imagine the pain she must have gone through when that heartless butcher cut off her ears almost to her scalp. She was obviously used as a breed dog, to bring in more Pit Bulls for an already over-populated breed, which makes up the majority of all breeds found in animal shelters. Robin’s boyfriend is the one that found Adrianne at a gas station one night. Anne-Marie and Robin let us know that when she was found she was skinny, had large, swollen teets, that were hard and crusty, a lot of the fur on her back was missing probably from her chewing because of fleas and her skin was riddled with Pyoderma, a skin infection.  As with many street dogs, she also tested positive for heartworms, so Dogma had her treated. Life had beaten her up, but she managed to remain a sweetheart, quickly fitting in with her foster family, who had two young children.     

The human meeting went well, so it was time for the animals to have their turn. Shadow, our 13-year-old German Shepherd went first, as she has a very calm temperament. Shadow went out front and promptly ignored Adrianne. Adrianne sniffed at her a bit, but took her cue from Shadow and basically ignored her too. Now it was time for Mango’s turn. After an initial show of aggression on Mango’s part, which we expected, the girls started sniffing each other vigorously. It was immediately evident that Adrianne took the submissive role and let Mango lead the meeting. We took them on a short walk and then out in the back yard, to let them get to know each other better, while we weren’t holding their leashes. They got along great! One last test for Adrianne: Spice, the cat. Although Adrianne was intensely curious about Spice, with a few verbal warnings we stopped her before she could chase or before Spice could swat.     

With all the animals getting along and our desire to adopt, we went ahead and brought Adrianne into our family. Anne-Marie was so pleased, because she thought Adrianne wasn’t likely to find a forever home, due to her extremely cropped ears and her “udders”, which are admittedly not the prettiest things. Since she wasn’t used to her name, we decided to change it from Adrianne to Brownie, because of her deep chocolate color and her sweet demeanor. Our family is adjusting to having a new dog, and Mango and Brownie did have a small skirmish, which Chris quickly broke up. We have found that both Mango and Brownie are attention hogs and want to compete to see who can wash your face the most.     

This Friday the 13th brought the welcome news of Brynn and my weight loss and good luck for a Brownie pup. Brynn still has 8 more pounds to lose and Brownie is continuing to adjust to her new home. Tune back in for updates on Brynn and Brownie.

Fresh Salsa

For a great tasting, healthy treat make up a batch of salsa.

Whenever I go to a party I’m always asked to bring one thing: my salsa. It’s bursting with flavor and has a zing you don’t find in any jar, or even at many restaurants. Since Brynn, Chris and I are a bunch of wimps, you also won’t find any heat in this salsa. This low-calorie and low-fat recipe is great as a dressing on salad, to put over chicken or pork, to add to a baked potato or as a snack with tortilla chips. Just remember, tortilla chips can have lots of fat and calories, so read the label.  Since I’m not a nutritionist or have any way to measure calories for my personal recipes, I can’t provide calorie counts. Usually when I make this I don’t use any kind of measuring instruments and just throw in some of this and some of that, but for this batch, I actually measured most of the ingredients. A few I leave up to you, because you’re the one eating it, so you’ll need to add it to your taste.

Ingredients

7-9 Red ripe tomatoes (Roma or on the vine work best)
1/2 large onion
1/2 green pepper
cilantro
1 Tablespoon minced garlic
1/2 cup vinegar (white or balsamic)
1 Teaspoon lime juice
salt
pepper

Cut tomatoes, green pepper and onion into smaller pieces and place them into the food processor.  Cut some of the cilantro off of the bunch and add it to the food processor. Blend ingredients. Pour all the mixture into a bowl. Since this makes a large batch, you may need to repeat these steps.  I use the pulse option to get the right consistency. We like ours a little chunky, but with lots of juice. The riper the tomatoes, the juicier the salsa.

Next add the vinegar, garlic and lime juice to the bowl and stir. Now add salt and pepper to taste.

In the batch I made in the pictures, I used balsamic vinegar. I think this adds a little more zing than plain white vinegar and makes it darker in color, but it also adds calories and sugar. If you are watching your carbs and want the lowest calories possible, use the white vinegar.

As I stated before, we are wimps, but if you are not, feel free to add jalapeno peppers to kick up the heat level.

Allow me to introduce myself. My name is Sandi Kelly Showalter. I am a freelance writer with a passion for animals, television, reading and, of course, writing. I started this blog for my daughter, Brynn and her efforts to get fit.

As a little girl Brynn loved to play outside, jump on the trampoline, swim, do gymnastics and figure skating. Her favorite food was salad, and her Dad and I limited her consumption of soda and snacks. As she grew older and started asserting her independence, her eating habits started to change and her physical fitness lessened. With an active school, work and social life, she found it much easier to grab fast food and was often too tired, or just not motivated, to do any kind of exercise. Now, at 16-years-old, ready to enter her Junior year of high school, she finds herself at 5’3″ and 152 lbs. She doesn’t like being the same weight as her 5’4″ Mom.

I don’t like being this weight either. For years I weighed in at 112lbs. Two weeks after Brynn was born, I was back at that weight. As happens in life, though, age slips upon you and brings with it gray hair (easily colored), fine lines (add some make-up) and weight (not-so-easily fixed.) I look around at my friends from high school and see many of us that were svelte at 18 are now pushing the pudge or downright fat at 40. Some of them are still disgustingly fit and thin, but I believe they do work at it.

It is never easy, at least for most people, to get motivated to get fit. There’s always that bowl of chocolate ice cream calling or that bag of chips chirping in your ear whispering sweet nothings. The couch appeals much more after a long day than dragging your butt to the gym or even going for a walk around the block. My husband, Chris and I, really started to get concerned not so much about her added weight, (she doesn’t like that) but about her health. She complains often of fatigue and upset stomach. We would talk to her about eating better and exercising, but although she would agree that she should do those things, she never did. So, the question is how do you motivate a teenager to get fit? Bribe her!

For Brynn, money can be a powerful motivator, but as we found out last year by offering to pay her to clean the house, it’s not powerful enough. Threats and pleadings don’t particularly work either. Since she has a part-time job at Chick-fil-A and is vice-president of a very active student government, it’s not practical to take away her car to force her to walk. That’s where emotional blackmail and bribery enter the picture. Please imagine me gleefully rubbing my hands together and letting out a hearty, Bwah-ha-ha-ha-ha! Actually, the idea came to me quite unexpectedly.

We currently have two dogs. Shadow is a 12 or 13-year-old beautiful German Shepherd that we rescued in November of 2008, when her owners moved and decided to put her to sleep rather than take her with them. Mango is a 4-year-old Pit mix that we saved from the Hillsborough County Animal Shelter in May 2009. She was so sweet. She turned out to be heartworm positive and we know if we hadn’t taken her, she would have been a dead dog the next day. Before adopting Mango, I was like many other people, very wary of getting a dog with Pit Bull in her. I quickly learned just how wrong public opinion surrounding pit bulls can be. Part of the reason we adopted Mango was so Shadow would have a companion. As it turned out though, Mango is still very much a puppy and Shadow is an old, mature lady. They get along with each other, but Mango’s energy and exuberance are often times too much for Shadow, who would prefer to lay in her favorite spot in the yard. After seeing that Mango and Shadow were mismatched in energy levels, Brynn and Chris wanted to add to our pack. I, on the other hand, had no desire to have three dogs in the house.

When we adopted Mango, we started learning more about the Pit Bull breed. We already watched “Dog Whisperer”, but also picked up “Pit Bulls and Parolees”, “Pit Boss” and watched shows on the Michael Vick dogs. The more we watched, the more my husband and daughter pressed me to get a Pitty. My thoughts were still “Three dogs? No way.” Brynn and Chris would regularly show me extremely cute dogs on Petfinder.com, but my mind was set. She would promise to take care of the new dog, to walk it and feed it and every other thing, which I knew wouldn’t last past the first week of two. Then one night we were sitting around and Brynn and I were trying to find ways to get motivated to exercise. All summer long we kept saying we were going to start a diet and exercise program, but it kept getting put off. Imagine that. An idea struck me. I turned to her and said, “If you lose 15 lbs, then we can get a Pit Bull.” She didn’t hesitate, she jumped at the chance. Chris looked at me and said, “I think she might really do it. Not only will this get her healthy, it will save the life of a Pit Bull.”

Brynn is not known for sticking to diets or exercising, but that next day we set out for Play It Again Sports and picked up some light weight dumbbells and an exercise mat. We also hit the grocery store and added more fresh vegetables and fruits to our choices we had at home. She found out that Lifestyle Family Fitness offers a free two month membership to teens during the summer, so we signed her up. She talked her friend, Sarah into signing up with her, which is important for Brynn since she is a very social person and hates doing anything alone. She’s also planning out her meals and making healthier choices. At work, instead of getting a sandwich, a waffle fry and a Coke, she’s going for grilled chicken salads with light dressing, sides of fruit and an UNSWEETENED iced tea. Brynn giving up soda is truly a big deal. She has already hit the gym three times in a week and also done some workouts at home, thanks to video-on-demand. One night after work, she went out and slipped and had cheese sticks, but what she noticed was after eating them she felt sick to her stomach. She is starting to realize that her food choices from before may have caused a lot of her health issues.

After one week, I am proud to say that she has already dropped 4 pounds and is feeling pretty good. Now, I can’t stand hypocrites, so I decided I have to walk the walk and not just talk the talk. Although I am not exercising as much as she is, I am getting some and have also improved my own eating habits. I’ve added steamed vegetables to my diet and am trying my best to stay away from my nemesis: chocolate. Brynn and I do allow ourselves one treat a day, but we try to go for lower calorie and lower fat options. I noticed that some of my shorts are feeling a bit looser.

I hope you will join us on our journey as Brynn and I get fit in order to save a Pit. As her excitement and enthusiasm grows for her goal, she has already started her search for the perfect Pit. She found Adrianne, aka Girlie, on Petfinder.com from the Dogma Rescue organization. Since she has shown dedication and indicated a desire to continue keeping a healthy lifestyle, we have already submitted our application to adopt this adorable Pit. Although we still have the home visit to get through and Brynn has another 11 lbs to lose, I can’t help but think that this is a win-win-win situation for all involved. Brynn wins because she gets healthy and gets another dog. Adrianne, or perhaps another pit, wins with a loving, forever home with two other animal companions. Chris, who wanted a Pit just as much as Brynn wins, because he doesn’t have to do anything other than support us and he gets his dog. Finally, I win, because I will get healthier, my daughter will get healthier and I will lose my heart to another Pit Bull.