Weight Loss?

After my last trip to Australia, I foolishly stepped on the scales in our bathroom to reveal the horrifying truth.  I was 2kg heavier than when I left home.  2kg.  That's a lot.  And it's all down to the fabulous amounts of food and drink I enjoyed with my dear family and friends when I was back visiting.

However, 2kg is not the kind of souvenir I really want to hang onto for too long, so I had to try to lose it fast, before it decided to stay permanently.

Different kinds of weight loss work for different people - some people diet, some people run, some people do juice fasts and cleanses, some people have calorie controlled meals delivered to home, some people do Weight Watchers (I've done WW and it works for me, but I needed faster results).

The quickest (and healthiest) way I've found for me to lose weight is to stop drinking alcohol and to start cleaning stables.  Yes, cleaning stables.  My lovely friend Judith has seven horses and very kindly (giggle) lets me clean her stables for a while if I need to cut some weight.  In fact, she's thrilled to let me do it!

Archie "helping" by laying in the doorway and keeping an eye on everything.

I've found this works much better in summer time when it's really hot and you can work up a sweat - let's be honest, when you're cleaning stables, the smell of sweat isn't really a consideration!

To clean four stables out properly takes me at least an hour, more like 90 minutes, and it needs to be done twice a day.  Every day of the year.  It's real physical work - scooping up poop, forking dirty bedding (heavy!), scraping the concrete with a shovel, wheeling heavy barrows to the muck heap and then restocking the stables with straw and hay.

Before I even start cleaning, I take Archie for a brisk 45 minute walk through the forest around the barn, and then he "helps" me with the cleaning.  "Wow!  He's such a good dog, he can even help with barn cleaning!"  I hear you say.  No, he doesn't - he rolls in the dirty straw, makes smiling faces at the ponies and occasionally eats some poop.  He's classy like that.

So, if you want to lose weight on the "Kristy Method", find your local barn and ask if you can clean some stables.  After they've finished laughing hysterically that anyone would want to do such a yucky job without some form of payment, they'll quickly hand you a fork and point you at the barn.  Do it, it works!  It does stink a fair bit, but us horsey people don't mind that at all.

Cleaning the barn?  It's hard work for dogs!