Pumpkins and Projects

I have converted my half acre property into an edible garden. I have 12 fruit trees, 14 blueberry bushes, musadine grape vines, cranberry bushes, 6 huge blackberry bushes, two strawberry patches and three veggie patches. The girls and I love to go outside in the morning and pick fresh produce for breakfast, lunch or dinner. There is always something wonderful to discover in the garden!

While trimming my grapevines I learning something interesting. The vines that I trimmed early in the spring are now producing fruit. You are supposed to train a vine by tying it to a post and not allowing any sucker vines to grow along the main trunk. Only let the vines which will carry the grapes sprout at the top of the trunk. The ones that I let grow like crazy with no trimming have lots of leaves and vines but no fruit. That can be like me.

Sometimes I like to try my hand at lots of stuff. Start a whole bunch of projects and not finish them. Lots of energy output but no fruit in the end.

I know a wonderful neighbor and he is a seasoned gardener. He gives me tips on my garden and helps me hone my efforts so I am successful.

When he sees a shoot forming at the base of the trunk on one of my fruit trees he tells me to cut it off. He explains that it will take up unnecessary energy from the tree and you won't yeild the fruit that you could if you had trimmed the sucker off.

I applied this to a pumpkin vine that I have growing. I could have a slew of small pumpkins along a long vine OR I could cut the vine and have two or three pumpkins that will grow very large.

I've also applied that principle to my life. I have figured out three goals that I really want to accomplish and I'm trimming off the events or efforts in my life that suck my energy away from those goals. As I've said, one of my goals in the next twelve months is to accomplish an Olympic Triathlon and drop 30 pounds.

Some trimming looks like this:
I do my best to keep a consistent bedtime.
I turn off the TV two hours before bed.
I've started journaling what I eat
My program on TrainingPeaks.com helps me stick to an exercise plan.
Maybe I'll even preplan my meals. (That will be next. I'm not known for by skills in the kitchen!)

To that effect, I ventured into day two of this training. This morning I finally used my Concept 2 rowing machine that I scored on Craigslist for a fraction of the retail cost. But it's been sitting in my room for a few years now...unused. Today, I got on the thing before eating breakfast burned 250 calories in 20 minutes! That was a great use of time! And when you do cardio before breakfast I've read that you burn 30% more fat that way! It also increases your metabolism for the rest of the day.

I wore my Polar heart rate monitor and watch so that I could accurately know how much I was working. I bought mine at REI, but you can also find them online as well.

I was called in to work today. (I'm a freelance news editor). I really enjoy my work. I love the high energy environment but any job can have it's stressful moments. I usually keep my cool but quietly go to the vending machine and eat a sugary snack to calm my nerves...I call it the dark side of the vending machine. Before I know it, I've downed heaven knows how many calories! Which sabotages all my work out efforts. But today I texted a friend to keep me accountable and it worked! Okay, I did have 415 calories before I texted but at least it wasnt 1500 which I am well capable of...

I also downloaded an app on my phone. It's free and called MyNetDiary.
What a powerful tool! When I wrote down what I ate and the program calulated the fat, carb and protein contents of the food that I put in my body, well, it really helped me stick to my plan. I felt stronger and lighter and more in control!

Okay, off to bed to get the shut eye needed. ( I do include practical links in my blog to connect you to products I acually use. Just passing along what works for me).