A salad's a salad...or is it?

Marci and I worked with the kitchen team yesterday doing some major cleaning and reorganization, .

I was struggling to move a large shelving unit in the pantry to get behind and clean (the result of which today is a very sore back) when Julia walked past me.  She stopped in her tracks, fixed me with a stern gaze, and muttered, "So you're the reason we can't have any more CROUtons!"

Guilty as charged.

After several frustrating forays in our HE-HAW (High Energy Health and Wellness) program, we are once again regrouping and rethinking.

You may (or may not) recall that HE-HAW was established about a year ago at Down Home Ranch to provide a platform for healthy living for our Ranchers by improving their diet and encouraging lots of activity.

The Ranchers are overall way more active at the Ranch than their peers in most other places. Our guys and gals have jobs, and they work hard at them--cleaning stalls, working in the gardens, swimming, jamming to Richard Simmons or just biking and walking around the Ranch in the normal course of their day.

The food front, however, continuesto be a bear of a challenge.  Despite repeatedly providing guidelines we find that within a few weeks, the diet begins migrating back to the Great American Food Pile, where a "salad" may consist of a heap of oversized croutons, a pile of cheese on top, and Ranch dressing poured all over the whole thing.

After all, all those things are found in the salad line, aren't they?

While the above might be amusing,  and its logic unassailable, the overall situation is not.  Women with Down syndrome especially have an inborn tendency to obesity.  They're short, female, and their metabolism runs at about 80% of normal.  It's a huge challenge, and one many parents give up on early in the game.

But we're not going to!  The stakes are too high.

So we decided the only thing to do is to hire a single person who will have authority and oversight over the entire HE-HAW program.  This person will be called the Food and Wellness Coordinator.  He or she will oversee every aspect of the food program, and work closely with other staff to provide guidance in the fitness program.

Although we can use our powers of persuasion and rewards to influence our Ranchers' food choices while dining out or shopping at Wal-Mart, in the end they have the right to buy what they want.

But day-to-day here at the Ranch we can, and we will, assume control of the menu items available, and continue to work on education, portion control, and the lifelong waltz with weight control so many of us--certainly not just our Ranchers--contend with on a day-to-day basis.  It's bound to help, but I don't for a moment assume it will be easy. 

I know better.

HE-HAW, Con't.

Kelly tours around the Village Loop

Well, we're in our sixth month of Weight Watchers.

Each week we have cheers and moans at weigh-in, but we've learned that if you make a decent effort overall, you lose weight over time.  At Jim's memorial on Tuesday a weekend staffer we haven't seen in a few months was here and asked me, "What's going on?  Everybody looks so skinny!"

Well, skinny might be a stretch, but at least is shows we're trying.

And imagine my amazement to discover at our WW meeting today that I'd lost over a pound despite a 7-day cruise and Thanksgiving coming between me and my last WW meeting!

Earlier today I'd had a late lunch and came out of Benedict House just as the exercisers were getting underway.  Each day after lunch the Ranchers head outside for some physical exercise.

About half the Ranchers were doing laps around the Village loop.  Six laps around is two miles.  I first encountered Kelly pedaling along singing at the top of her lungs while listening to her MP3 player.  She was dressed in every article of purple clothing she owns. 

Kyle and his Aggie-decor bike

As we chatted for a few minutes Kyle came tearing around the corner on his bike like the proverbial bat out of hell.  I slowed him down enough to compliment him on the handsome TAMU flag he was sporting.

Natalie moseys along while engaged in a book

Natalie has mastered the trick of reading as she walks.  There's a girl after my own heart!

Crystal and Alan on their walk

Alan and Crystal enjoyed each other's company on their walk.

Mike

Mike stopped by to say hello.

Jim after making a great catch

Jim, Mark, Andrew, Calvin, and Lori opted to toss the football around for a while.

All in all, a beautiful sight to see.

Fields of Dreams

What an amazing April—the best Texas has to offer. Cool nights, warm days, a real spring as opposed to our usual “wham bam thank you m’am” transition from winter to summer.

Don, Phil, Jerry and I went for lunch Friday at the East Side Café in Austin to look at Dorsey’s gardens in the back where she grows herbs and vegetables, all of which are consumed by happy diners in the restaurant. We were on a field trip (no pun intended) to get ideas for our own gardens.

After we got back to the Ranch we walked the fields behind the Learning Center, plotting out where to put the Chicken Hilton, and our own herb and vegetable gardens.

Talk about inspiration! I hectored Jerry into working Saturday morning to clear the spot for the Benedict House garden, replacing the Giant House-Eating Double Palm Plant that had grown to monstrous proportions and ousted to a different location.

Both of us weeded and dug and moved rock on Saturday. We planted Sunday and by evening had 16 squares planted of the “Front 40” (square feet, that is). (Being as we’re officially elderly now we thought we’d jettison the Jeavons double-dug beds and try out Square Foot Gardening for a change.)

It was great fun and we were proud and happy, if tired and sore.

Then coming to work this morning first thing I noticed was that the Chicken Hilton had been transferred from the warehouse, where it was built, to the field where our gardens, the chickens, the berries (uh oh…do chickens like berries?)…anyway, where it all will shortly be.

I took some pics of Mike putting the finishing touches on the Hilton. A few minutes later Don went charging one way on a red tractor while Pat charged in the opposite direction on another red tractor.

Don hailed me as I headed for the barn and suggested we go to the horse pasture and get some pictures of Cheena and Austin cavorting amongst the wildflowers “without the other horses around to make them squirrely.”

Alas, they were pretty determined to be squirrely anyway, but it was fun. (That's Austin taking off.)

Later Don let me know that the barn and garden crews were clearing the first space in the garden area so I shot out with the camera to record this momentous event.

This is truly the start of something big. If you came to the Gala, you heard us talk about Operation Independence, and we’re serious about this. Eggs, beef, veggies, fruit trees—we’ve got room to produce it all.

Come, and see.

Between a Rock and a Hard Place

Yesterday I took daughter Kelly to Wal-Mart to buy a new dvd player since hers had broken. (In case you weren't aware, an emergency of the first order!)

Half-way there Kelly asked me, "Why are we eating so healthy?" 

So we started talking about weight, and health, and exercise--not for the first time by any means.  Most of our residents struggle at least some with weight issues, and it poses a real predicament for us.  On the one hand, as adults they should have a significant degree of choice in this most basic human activity.  On the other, we're charged with exercising judgement and care when they can't (or don't want to) over things that impact their long-term health.

I recall a former case manager, Stephanie, who visited a diabetic camper who'd had to leave camp early because we couldn't control her blood sugar.  Stephanie has the world's softest heart, and she drove a considerable distance once the session was over to check on the lady, who weighed about 300 pounds and lived alone in a small apartment.  When Stephanie returned she said, "Judy, it just broke my heart.  Her whole house is crammed with candy and cookies.  Nobody's helping her control this disease."

During followup, she learned the camper did not have a guardian, and that her service coordinator had determined that they had no right to intervene.  The camper's right to choose the food she put in her mouth trumped the agency's duty to ensure her long-term health and well-being.  They did all the right things--training sessions, counseling, and education--and didn't feel they had any options to do more.

We run into the same issues with our guys.  (Oh heck, let's face it, we run into the same thing with ourselves.) 

But we're not giving up.  We're planning a major assault on fat and flab here at the Ranch, for everybody, not just the Ranchers.  We're writing grant proposals and talking to Weight Watchers and personal trainers.  We're investigating every nook and cranny of the Ranch and our activities to log where the extra calories come from, and determining how to limit them.

There has to be a way, and we have to find it.  People with Down syndrome are at high risk for diabetes and Alzheimer's, both of which can be influenced by proper diet and exercise, as can most disorders affecting the human condition.

 I'll be reporting on our progress.  Wish us luck.

Food images courtesy of Google Images