talkhealth Blog

The neddies are all safe and sound in their new field…and I am safe and sound(ish) at home trying to warm up after a day spent on windy hillsides!

I woke up early and a little apprehensive as a conversation with my Dad last night had me anticipating the worst for today…torrential rain, my horses misbehaving and not loading, having to walk them individually to their new field down in the field…

So after a quick breakfast I headed to the stables with my other half and lined Freddie Freelander up with the trailer. I then decided to feed the horses, but had to worm them first and take a sample of poo to send off for analysis. The wormer ended up in the general direction it needed to go in – they usually spit it out all over me, but this mornings endeavour was successful enough! So the poo was packed up and they were fed.

I then hooked up the trailer and connected the electrics and pulled it out of the barn. The tyres needed pumping up, so my other half got the wonderful job of manning the foot pump whilst I dealt with the ramps and safety bars inside. Once this was done, I called my Dad who asked if I had tried loading them. Hmmm…I hadn’t had a practice run yet!

My youngest horse has only ever been travelled once. That was a bit of an affair as the lady we bought him off wanted him gone as quickly as possible it seemed and so she scared him by herding him on with gates and shouting and waving arms etc…this is not at all my style! So with the trailer parked in front of his stable, my youngest lad watched as my other half danced up and down the ramp of the trailer to ‘show’ him that it was all okay and quite good fun. My – probably more sensible – option was to take our Shetland up the ramp, through the trailer and off the ramp at the front a few times. My youngest was watching this process intently!

With a pocket full of treats I put his head collar on and we calmly and confidently approached the trailer. He stopped at the bottom of the ramp where I gave him some reassurance. He then put a hoof on the ramp and got a treat, another hoof on and got another treat, and so on until he was on the ramp and walking into the trailer. We then stood calmly on the trailer for a fuss and further treats, before calmly and steadily walking off the ramp – which of course meant more treats and more fuss. After doing this five or six times I put him back in the stable with a bucket of his favourite food. Yes…I use food bribery with my horses! And sometimes with my other half too!

Then it was the turn of my most experienced traveller – my Welsh Cob. However, he is a jealous arse at times and had taken the hump with me for loading and unloading the other two before him. So his way of expressing his displeasure was to stand at the bottom of the ramp rearing up on his hind legs and being a plonker. Then, once he was on the trailer, he decided that it would be excellent fun to jump off the ramp instead of walking off it! Half a tonne of horse sailing past you in the air is not fun…especially when you still have hold of the lead rope!

I had to laugh! My other half really does not like handling the horses…and his face was getting whiter by the second at witnessing this. So I took the Welsh monster on and off a few times before coming to the conclusion that he was just being a big eejit. He went back in his stable to calm down!

The plan had been to move my Shetland and my youngest (a big Spanish Norman) first, and then to take my Welshie as he is normally calm and loads well. This behaviour obviously made me think again, and so when my Dad arrived ready to help me negotiate some tricky turns in my trailer (I am going to be booking my trailer test soon as I don’t have a license to tow it yet…even though I am pretty nifty with it!) I put the Welsh monster on first and we headed off to our new field.

However, we couldn’t drive directly to the field and had to negotiate a really tight turn into a car park up the road. We couldn’t do this without drama though and came across an old livery yard buddy of mine on her horse who was being a bit tricky and was all over the place really. I eventually managed to unload my lad, who was very calm when coming off the ramp and excited to see his new surroundings. He grew taller it seemed on the walk to his new home and he was a bit concerned about the horse eating monsters in the field next door to him…you and I would simply call them ‘sheep’!

Once he was in the field it was a quick dash back to get the others. Before this though I helped that lady get back on her horse and had a quick catch up with her. She told me that she could see I had lost loads of weight, which was rather nice…but a bit of a distraction too! I was there to focus on my horses, not on the fact that I am looking much more fabulous that the last time she saw me…hahaha!

My youngest loaded like a perfect gent. The Shetland followed him. This is the moment that it could have gone awfully wrong…as the Shetland can get under all of the safety bars and thought that the best place for him to stand was underneath my youngest chaps stomach! There were a few tense moments when legs and hooves were all tangled up…but they righted themselves and I got bossy with everyone and we quickly departed before any further drama could ensue.

They both unloaded well too. My young lad seemed huge walking down the road. He is normally a very docile and gentle chap but it was his first walk out really. So we had to go from the carpark, past some cottages and a big churchyard and through a small field into our field. His eyes were on stalks and he was snorting at everything and walking right on top of me – which is his way of asking for reassurance! And then he saw them…those horse eating monsters I mentioned. The look on his face was priceless! After some snorting he spotted my Welsh lad and followed our Shetland nicely into the field before they all had a bit of a trot round and a roll.

We left them to settle in and headed back to our old yard to put the trailer back in the barn. It was then that the rain started and so we decided upon a trip to the pub. I think that my Dad was quite pleased with this. I have mentioned before that he was really worried about me hiding away from people, so he loves to see me getting out and about in public. We had a lovely afternoon and he was amazed at how restrained I was with my food. My food choice was a grilled chicken salad. The other food choices included 3-bean cheesy nachos and chicken fajitas with dips (my other half), battered fish, chips and mushy peas (my Dad and my Mum) and a share starter of a fish selection all battered or breaded, garlic bread, onion rings and wedges (my Dads partner)…so I guess I was rather restrained really!

News then arrived that our mare was ten minutes away, so my other half and I headed to the new field to unlock the gates and get the waters all topped up for her arrival. She was wormed on the lorry upon arrival and a poo sample taken too – no need for her to miss out! Due to the size of the lorry and the width of the lane, they parked in the pub carpark and walked down the road. It was so bloody windy and we had the joyous task of trying to get a new rug on her in high winds. Once we had put that on, it was time to get her in the field.

The boys were so excited to see her. My Shetland came racing over, shortly followed by the others, and it was a bit of an ‘eek’ moment trying to get her in the field and get her bridle off without being trampled on! It was done though, and they all trotted off, squealing, to get reacquainted. I can imagine her telling them all about her bootcamp…”Guys, do you realise that we are not here just to eat grass…they actually sit on our backs and make us work a bit!”

We left them to it. No great pictures today as my hands were frozen! They were all so cute though – sniffing her to check she was okay, squealing in excitement, and grooming each other. I think they will have a fabulous night exploring their new field!

It was then off to post the poo – sorry Asda, we left shite in your postbox! – and to grab some food for dinner. A night of thawing out and Prison Break is on the cards.

No real weight loss related moral in the story today…but I can safely say that this time last year I would not have been able to hook my trailer up alone, or load and unload the horses, or walk them down the road. I would have been watching other people do this for me…frustrated and angry and upset that I couldn’t do it myself. It is on days like this that I can see the pride in the faces of my family and the glint of a tear in my other half’s eyes. They are so proud of what I am doing and that is the cherry on the cake for me!

Breakfast: Banana porridge (5 syns and 1 x HEA).

Lunch: Chicken salad.

Dinner: Cajun salmon with roast butternut squash and veggies – no picture…my Dad called just as I was sitting down to eat and I had forgotten that I hadn’t taken one – sorry! It was just a bit of salmon with some slightly charred veggies!

Snacks: Two spinach and onions rolls (2 x HEB) and two packets of crisps (8 syns).

How annoying is it when you plan on eating something and then realise that you haven’t got it in the fridge?! I was planning on some lovely cheese toasties for my Saturday evening snack…only to find I hadn’t got any bloody cheese. So I ended up drinking the dregs of the almond milk to make my little breakfast amount up to a HEA…but didn’t quite make it. I really missed my cheese – it is one of the food items that I cannot do without and would throw a major tantrum if I was told that I had to miss out on it. My cheese toasties became onion and spinach rolls…strange but okay, just not quite good enough without melted cheese! Other than this my food was lovely today. Brekkie was nice and kept me going through all of my horsey activities until lunch. Lunch was good and I was pleased that I stayed on plan…I gave the bread and butter that it came with away, and ditched the dressing that came on the side too. Dinner was lovely – salmon with some Cajun seasoning and a pile of superfree veggies thrown in the Tefal…courgette, butternut squash, red onion, mushrooms and pepper…it is so easy to find quick and healthy meals that taste good.

Exercise: Quite a lot of trekking around with the horses – way more than my 30 minutes today!

Thank you for reading,

Weight Loss Bitch xxx

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WeightLossBitch

On a health and fitness driven journey to lose over 32st / 448lbs / 203kgs – yes, it is a considerable amount – I am committed to losing my excess weight without the aid of weight loss surgery, diet pills, or quick fixes…as there aren’t any! Changing my eating habits and building up my fitness levels, along with addressing the ‘head issues’ will be crucial in order for me to achieve my goal. Living in England as a 31 year old super morbidly obese woman can be challenging to say the least. I have been shouted at in the street and verbally abused far too many times to mention; hence the name ‘Weight Loss Bitch’…the day I am just called a ‘bitch’ instead of a ‘fat bitch’ will be the day that I know I have cracked my weight loss! With many reasons to lose this weight I am documenting my journey for a number of reasons. Firstly, I would like to keep a record of the ups and downs, the highs and lows, and the challenges I face with such an enormous task to tackle. Secondly, I would also like to inspire and encourage other people who are in a similar situation and to show them that significant amounts of weight can be lost naturally…with a bit of motivation, hard work, dedication and will power. Thirdly, all of the blogging, Facebook-ing, Tweet-ing, Pinterest-ing and YouTube-ing keeps me occupied and keeps my fingers out of the fridge!