Settling In

Angel Marie continues to settle in to the household.  Her feet are doing much better.  If she were a horse, I would call her lame.  He feet were swollen and tender.  With the help of steroids and antibiotics coupled with foot soaks, she is doing much better.  Her personality is starting to shine through, which includes her trying to assert some dominance over her sissies.

She approaches strangers with friendliness....no guard dog here. At least she looks intimidating.  The Bulldogs have a face that only a mother could love.  Macy, a mix, had her mother's long snout.  Angel has the mush face and the under bite.  With her skin condition, every fold, even on her face is a place to grow a colony of something.

My Measured Life Progress: I am on track to meet my end of month goal for weight.  I have been mindful of my eating choices, and I continue to measure everything. I have rarely gone over my calories.  My body fat % is now 34%--still to high, but lower than it was.  I'm confident that I will dissipate with my weight loss.  Already, I can see a difference.

My daily activity is subpar, and I can feel that. The allergy season sucks the life out of me, and a few days the air was so thick with pollen I was choking.  This happens each year and lasts about a week.  It is about 1 month later than normal due to the odd winter/spring confusion we experiences.

My Blendtec blender came  on Tuesday.  I've been experimenting with it.  It makes remarkable smoothies.  I understand now with the green smoothie craze why there is so much greater availability of packaged kale and collard in addition to the typical spinach, mixed green offerings.

 Last evening I used it to make some breadcrumbs. Easier than the food processor, but this machine would NEVER replace my food processor.  This a.m. I put a grapefruit (peeled) in it to make some whole juice.  I'm waiting for my oatmeal to finish prior to drinking. It boosted my calories by 79 for a total of 379. (It was yummy.)  My combined foods gave me 20 grams of fiber with almost half coming from my whole juiced (unstrained) grapefruit made in the Blendtec.  Just peel the skin and pull off 1/4 sections and throw it in the blender.  You get the juice + all the good stuff (fiber). 

Did you know?  Grapefruit has many health benefits.  The World's Healthiest Foods counts grapefruit among its stable of healthiest foods.  According to WHF, grapefruit is a lycopene-rich food (as is green tea and tomatoes.)  Check out their link and see which of your favorite foods are on their list.


Angel Marie

Here is our new, big girl, Angel Marie.  She has some health issues, most notably tender feet from what appears to be some foot pad infection or allergic response.  She appears to have a yeast infection in her girlie-girl parts.  She goes to the vet today.

Like many of the dogs that I have transported over these 7 years of volunteer dog transport driving, she slept like a little baby.  I traveled to Windsor, VA, which is in a beautiful part of the state that is mostly known for peanut farms.  It was about a 1.75 hour trip.  I had originally planned to meet the volunteer halfway.  However, she had spent her Sunday afternoon at an adoption event.  Why make her drive more?  I arrived just after she was returning.

She had an adult female dog--looked to be a setter/hound mix-- and some cats.  Returning home after not findinga permanent home.  There's always the next week.  Nevertheless, this volunteer offers her home to these animals.  Hopefully we can get this girl's fee restored to good health.  They are a mess, and I'm sure it is painful.  But she is the most delightful girl.

Her night was restful.  She slept downstairs rather than in our bedroom.  My other two girls (formerly three) always slept upstairs, going up when I retired. They don't go downstairs until I do, even if they have to 'go' and even if Mark is already downstairs.  I guess I'm packmaster.

Angel Marie came upstairs this a.m. at rising time.  She is well-housebroken, and she did her business outside.  She sits in my office now as I write and work.  I marvel at how adaptable dogs are.  She is not showing any apprehension, taking everything in with quiet acceptance.  There's always something to be learned from another be it human or animal.

Back on measured living.  I'm counting on another good week of results.

Are you an animal lover?  Why not see what small thing that you can do to lighten the load among other volunteers?  Write a check for an amount that is comfortable for you.  Drop off some newspapers or bleach.  Karunda beds are great, and it is easy to donate them.  Karunda beds give shelters a durable, comfortable, clean bed to offer their guests.   


Making room in our home and hearts

We are opening up our home and hearts to this American Bulldog girl.  Her name is Angel Marie.  She has the same lovely brindling of our recently departed Macy. Angel was an owner surrender.  Divorced owners and upon moving, there was not a place that would accept dogs.  It is a commonplace problem.

I will get her this p.m.  She is sponsored by the Isle of Wight Humane Society -- like many rural areas, my own included-- a group of committed volunteers that offer their homes to foster these animals until a permanent situation is found.  She has some special needs for diet and allergies that we can accommodate.  She is 6 years old.  She is friendly to kittens, cats, children, babies and other dogs.  They said that she is one of the sweetest dogs that they have ever seen.  That says alot.  But there has not been much interest in her.  As she is a 'bully breed' there is often some reluctance  by those who are not familiar with the breed.  Plus, special needs provides another crimp in interest.

We will give her a nice home.  We are so used to the 3 dog dynamic, that even though I originally said, "No more dogs," my subconscious went ahead and did an American Bulldog search.  This girl popped up.  I saw her a couple of weeks ago.  This past weekend, my thoughts turned to her.  I hoped that she had been adopted.  I looked again.  She was still there.  Time to act.

She is spayed, heartworm negative. 


Weekly Wrap Up

I missed a couple of posts this week; however, it was a winner week. I was diligent each day:
  1. stayed within my calorie count
  2. achieved my exercise goals for the week
  3. lost some weight ===> 2.5lbs
Okay, I let Friday be a bust.  I met an old friend in Fredericksburg, and we had lunch at a Thai Restaurant.  It was only fitting to eat there as many, many years ago I had my first taste of Thai at That Thai Place in Bethesda Maryland.   I ordered red curry chicken, my favorite.  I ate it all, and I did not feel guilty in the least.  I was similarly indiscriminate for dinner.  I ate a chicken enchilada -- but my portion was small.

I just entered my calories, and surprisingly, I stayed under my calorie count.  There are so many different types of diets out there.  I surmise that most diets work (at least for a time) because no matter which diet it is, it is a nutritional departure from what the dieter was on before.

All I'm really doing is being conscious of calories and content.  I was at a client, and some nice vendor had brought in bagels, cream cheese and a coffee cake melange (a pinwheel of cheese, apple and other that had had already been consumed).  I had to walk by it too many times.  I resisted the first three times.  On the four walk by I sliced off a little sliver.  Ultimately I gave into two slivers -- and I'm not lying when I say slivers.  It was maybe a 10th of a serving.

Often we read that you must not deny your sweet tooth, that by doing so will only cause a sweet-binge later.  I do know this, my sweet tooth is a powerful addiction. It is never sated.  But I did not give into it fully.  And, I actually regretted that I even bothered with those two slivers, and I'm thankful that my regret was just over such a small amount.  I would have had the same level of regret had I had two entire pieces.

My reflections for the week:

=> Measuring appeals to my inner geek -- even if I think that I'm not going to like the results, knowing that I'm going to have to account for my ingestables ensures that I'm going to be mindful of what I consume.
=> Writing keeps me honest -- further, though I would prefer to NOT shine the light of slippages,  I will.
=>  Listening to my body is important:  If I'm waking up tired and draggy then I'm asking too much too soon.  I ratcheted my exercise back in intensity and frequency.  Already I had made my initial goal.  
=> Celebrating my meeting 17% of my goal to lose 15 lbs is one way to embrace the positivity of vanquishing my muffinicity!