Friday, April 26, 2024

Welcome home, Bonnie! Hugs to Swan!

Hugs returned from Swanny, the most affectionate and delightful of WTerriers around. Told me not to tell you how jealous he is of your incredibly well groomed and talented pack. Poor thing, there are no groomers hereabouts who can, much less even know about stripping instead of clipping. He naturally strips himself somewhat going through the dense underbrush and I use that wonderful Andis tool you raved about one time to card the undercoat. I so love the hard, black, wirey, topcoat so he remains every bit of the scruffy country dog he is.

When am I going to learn my lesson and not write a very long post in OH? I lose it every time...

The scale was the same today. I made a delicious chicken salad yesterday to have for lunches with a rotisserie chicken, celery, apple, dill, mayonnaise, Greek yogurt, pecans, green onions, lemon juice. It doesn't take a lot to fill me up, but it?p's tasty.

Kirby and I had our first training session with Jason. It was terrific! He uses a combination of training tools. Gentle correction is one of them and I think something Kirby was missing. He had a lot of the basics down, such as sit, down, heel, wait, but it was all buried under his special brand of chaos! He fitted him with a pinch collar and showed me how to use it appropriately. It made a huge difference, walking him and stopping the jumping and biting at me and the leash. He also got Kirby into the car repeatedly and up his new car stairs! What a relief. I think Kirby had a great time, got lots of treats and praise and was such a good boy. We signed up for four more classes and can always do more. The next one will be at a park because he wants to train him with distractions and my neighborhood is really quiet. I think next time he's going to fit him for an E-collar as well.

The almond mom letter article was interesting. My mom was very concerned about my weight from a very early age, mostly because she struggled with her own. I wonder how my life might've been different without that or if I would've ended up in the same place just taking a different road to get here? It's a bit of a chicken and the egg conundrum. Was I like this in spite of or because of the focus on my early weight gain?

Speaking of dieting and weight, I have always been really good about weighing myself, especially since VSG. I found a journal with previous weights and weight loss attempts going back to 1999 so I added the highlights and lowlights to my weight tracker app. Things looking at a 25 year period tells me: I have spent very little time with a normal BMI, the majority of the time I've spent obese, I've lost well over 100 pounds four times, and while I may have spent most of my time overweight post VSG, my swings are so much smaller than they used to be, which has to be healthier. I hope tirzepatide changes what this graph looks like for the better going forward. I'll post it on TT.

Kirby has been sacked out since training. Good for his little brain. I think I went to go run a few errands. Take care all!

I recall my mom (bless her heart, she had her own lifelong struggles with weight) in very genuine attempts to spare her daughters, tried to be helpful- I remember standing on the scales as a 6th grader weighing 135. Encouraging, she said, "Now, Bonnie, that's alright, now, all you have to do is stay there and don't gain any more weight". As an adult I've tried to figure the logic in that advice without success- sounded logical as a 10 yr old and my first failure. Then there was TOPS..and AYDES....and Diet Pills (ever seen a 15 yr old on dr prescribed speed?) and.....I ended up feeling worthless and undeserving blah, blah...

So, I as a parent not to focus on making body image and food as a marker of my children's worth. Result-I have one well adjusted son who struggles a bit when he is inactive and one well adjusted son who is very overweight. Both are the best kiddos ever, but. Somehow my strategy didn't work any better than my moms.

I started writing my posts in the notes app first, then copying/pasting it here a while ago. Saves on frustration.

So happy to hear about your success with the new trainer! I think Kirby is going to be so much better behaved and happier because he will know that you are too.

I do like how your graph has so much lower peaks since VSG. Shows the value of it.

Greetings all

It's one of those odd days where it seems sunny but the sky is spitting a bit. I just made a run to CVS as I am out of Claritin and cannot live without it. I did not get much else done today. Just washed my endlessly dirty hair and did laundry. DH went to lunch at the chinese place and brought some home. Our good friend is back in the hospital with some infection but is getting treated. So discouraging. Her husband is busy figuring out how she will navigate their house in a wheel chair. No fun.

Bonnie150 good to hear from you! We all love the tales of weight loss and gain as we can all relate. Why does this all have to be so hard? In high school our clique of a dozen or so girls had two fat girls and one was me. I weighted about 135 pounds as did the other fat girl. Fast forward 50 years and we both still struggle. She had a lap band but did not do well with it. She now mostly uses a wheelchair and does not get out much. It really is a life sentence.

And yeah CC interesting about your records of weight. Sometimes I think width is preordained like height. Glad to hear Kirby's training is going well. I totally favor gentle correction as sometimes thats the only way to communicate with a strong rambunctious dog. We used to see this at dog club - a muscular energetic dog that had no idea someone was asking him to do something. A pinch collar can be like power steering and gets the job done with less energy.

Yep Peps in CA rain = cold. Those of us who have spent summers in the midwest are familiar with the warm stickiness of tornado weather. We don't miss it.

Almond mom was interesting. My mom was a product of the depression and did not always have enough to eat so she may have overcompensated when we were little. But as a teenager she also gave me her diet pills which were speed. What a messed up world.

Time to do my walk. I begrudgingly admit it does seem to help with my overall aches and pains. I have now concluded that my left hip is the source of most pain. Another reason to get on wl drugs. As usual I am over thinking it

DianeS

We're experiencing some of that warm rainy tornado weather right now as I type. Watches/warnings popping up here and there round abouts. Our house has set here unmolested by wind for all of its 104 years. Something about the topography; tornadoes will come straight from the west, reach the Neosho 400 River bridge west of us about 3/4 mile and then vere either to the southeast or northeast of the property. Once, a tornado splint at the river forming two, each headed either way.

On the other hand, lightning loves the deep pocket of mineral rich rock the house was built on, and in addition to the numerous land line phones blown smack off walls, one time hit the driveway, travelled down the drive, jumped onto the car's rear axle and fried every electrical thing there was. Same strike fried all electronic equipment in the house and most notably blasted our son, Asher, out of his bed.

So goes SEKansas weather.

I can't imagine living with that weather

Definitely not an everyday occurrence - but truly noteworthy when it does!

Very powerful reflections about our encounters with diet culture when we were so young. My daughter has a high BMI, and has been "chubby" all her life. DS was a naturally thin kid until around 17, when he started gaining. One day his senior year, I noticed he looked thinner, and I asked him if he had lost some weight. He said yeah, when I went for my sports physical my doctor asked me if my parents struggled with their weight. I said yeah, and he told me I need to take care of excess weight now, while I'm still young. So what did you do I asked, and he said, I just served myself smaller portions. I was absolutely amazed by this. Everyone's doctor is always telling everyone to lose weight, and everyone goes looking for a magic diet. But he did it, without punitive restriction, without angst. I think right now he would like to be a bit thinner because it would make one of his sports, rock wall climbing, easier.

For DD, she tells me I have never fat shamed her, and she feels pretty at any weight. I hope that is true. I of course think she is very pretty. We have though, offered some thoughts if she brings it up. I don't think fat is shameful. She is a very disciplined person. Her weight has a lot to do with the genetics we've passed on, not any character flaw. But I'm also not naive. Excess weight comes at a cost, sometimes a high cost, physically and mentally. If we could help her, I would want to. But I would never want her to feel I think she is flawed. She is perfectly herself.

So I guess my journey through life coming to terms with weight is just not about me. It's about my family too, how my weight impacts them, and how that plays out on how I react their weight and any struggles they have. Holy cow, this is all so complicated.