Weave 201

Tonight was Cassi's weave class. It was similar to Teka's class but the weaves were in sequences with other obstacles. We did work on the 2x2 for entry and Cassi needs just as much work on that as Teka does. (I did not blog this right away and forgot the details.)

Househunting is done!

We got our keys today! We have a lot of work to do in the next few weeks but hope to move mid-September and get our current house listed and sold. I'm super busy at work, so M has been picking up more of the to-do list than I expected. It is AWESOME. I mean he is AWESOME.

We went to check the place out and drop off some cleaning supplies. We were talking about the little piles of dog poo in our yard as we were about to leave. Then a neighbor came home and this herd of cats materialized. Hmm, not dog poo. Our dogs are going to have some fun with that.

Humiliation Diet

Weight 190

Breakfast: Post Raisin Bran with milk and a little sugar

Nectarine

Lunch catered office party from Scottsdale Barbecue Co: meat and BBQ sauce, potato salad, cole slaw and beans

York mint patty

Plum

Dinner at Buffalo Wild Wings: 2 pieces cheese quesadilla with tomatoes and sour cream; almost a dozen wings, tall Miller Lite (happy hour special)

Some green ice tea with night meds.

Humiliation Diet

Weight: 191

Breakfast: Dutch Bros Kicker, medium

Lunch at the Grind with my boss: pork sandwich, french fries, and ice tea

Snack: Dirty brand Maui Onion chips (leftover from lunch yesterday)

Dinner: chicken and risotto and broccoli, ice tea, 2 Late July sandwich cookies

Humiliation Diet

Weight 191.5

Breakfast: Grapenuts with sugar, milk and banana.

Orange lifesaver mint in meeting and two saltines

Lunch: Bertha's Cafe, one of my very favorites. (Get the lunch special if you go: pick two item, includes cookie and chips.) I had the half tuna sandwich (grain bread, lettuce and tomato) and salad with goat cheese and roasted red peppers, small chocolate cookie, and ice tea, with refill. Saved chips for later.

Social hour after meeting: glass of Cabernet, two mini egg rolls and two mini quesadilla/empanadas.

Dinner: Annie's chow mein with chicken breast and broccoli, green ice tea.

2 Late July sandwich cookies

Control Unleashed Seminar

I signed Teka up for this all day seminar based on the book, Control Unleashed. I have lots of notes, so I don't know if I'll get them into my blog. I have homework!

Weave 101

D gave us instructions for five exercises and paired us up. The first exercise was the Weavomatic, 12 weaves, with the treat bag at the end. We did send, recall, and run with on each side (moving away on one). I had to back chain at first; Teka ran around the weaves to get her treat bag.

Next we did the channel weaves, with the same send, recall and run on each side. D pointed out that Teka's footwork was not very good. It started to improve when I ran ahead of her, so D suggested I do run with, send, run with, recall, to keep her motivation up.

Next we worked on the two poles for entry. There are four positions I need to be in with her on my left and then do the opposite order with her on my right side to practice rear crosses.

Then we moved on to a four pole exercise, but for Teka it was the same 2 pole exercise. I need to focus on getting her around the pole, using the treat and click, not stepping with her--keep my feet together and step after she goes. D suggested I get cheese puff balls so I can throw one by my feet to drive her around that pole.

Last, we did "toy torture" using a treat bag at the end of a 6 pole Weaveomatic but another toy off to the side. Teka did figure out the game of going to her treat bag instead of the toy, but only got about 50%, so we have to be careful with this exercise for now.

It was exciting to see that she was having some fun and catching on to the games. She didn't seem to mind the other dogs (there are only 3 others in her class). She did potty as soon as we left the building. I need to pack a mat to put in the kennels there for her. And lots more treats!

Humiliation Diet

I started this morning with Grape Nuts and a banana. (with milk and a little sugar.) Before my 10 am meeting, I realized my tummy was growling, so I had a Kashi Go Lean bar. It wasn't very good. I'm not sure what to do with the rest of the box--I hate to waste my calories on something I don't like, but I also hate to waste this huge box of Kashi bars.

I went to Wendy's to pick up a large chili and medium ice tea for lunch. I did not know that a medium drink is 32 ounces. That seems very large for a medium. I also had my potato salad from yesterday. I finished with a banana laffy taffy.

I went home a little early to make it to Teka's agility class on time. I made a turkey sandwich on wheat with havarti, lettuce, a little mayo, and a Roma tomato; I ate it on my way to class.

I had a glass of ice tea when I got home, but started to get hungry, so I'm having a Horizon chocolate milk-box before going to bed. I don't want to be up TOO late--I had some trouble getting to sleep after getting bad news about some friends I care about. And my tile guy is coming by my office in the morning to pick up a check.

The Twitter Diet

I ran across this article and comments about the Twitter Diet. A man lost some weight by reporting everything he ate. It's the modern-day Weight Watchers or food journal. Don't miss the comment at the end of his article that says there is a scale that will post directly to Twitter. Say it ain't so!

I think this Twitter Diet is a cleaned-up version of the Public Humiliation Diet. Check it out; he's funny. And it leads to the funniest page about Fiber One bars, which I checked out once but decided I didn't like the ingredient list.

Anyway, I find this diet idea interesting because the best weight loss experience I have had was when I met with a "nutritionist" at the women's only gym I went to. We met weekly and I just wrote down on one piece of paper everything I ate and whatever exercise I did. The accountability really worked for me. She was also able to help me find substitutes and better alternatives rather than giving things up. Obviously I know how to lose weight since I have done it before but I haven't found it to be so easy. I gained that weight back after my diagnosis, and have tried several online "food journals" to gain the accountability, but so far none have worked. Thinking back to the program I did, I think that online programs don't work because I eat a varied diet of prepared grocery store food, restaurant food, and food I have cooked myself. The websites are a pain to use for tracking food, in my opinion.

A concern with these Diets is that I don't want to read what everyone ate everyday when I'm catching up on FB, so who wants to read about what I'm eating either. But I don't think anyone reads my blog, so maybe I should do a daily post on what I ate. I think it will be super boring, but I am going to try it for the next 6 weeks to see how it goes.

Here's my first post. I weighed 192.5 this morning. YIKES. I've been around 188-190 for quite a while. This weekend was super bad. This morning the milk was bad, so I threw it out and went to McDonald's for an egg McMuffin. I didn't eat all of the English muffin. I took my Horizon chocolate organic 2% milk-box with me. I forgot my fruit. :(

For lunch, I went to Einstein's to get a tuna sandwich but they were out of tuna so I ended up with chicken salad on a wheat bagel. It was WAY too mayonaissey. I love their tuna because it isn't and they use light mayo. Very disappointing. I got potato salad as my side (other choices were cole slaw and chips) but couldn't eat it after the chicken salad, so it's in the fridge. I also had a green iced tea.

I was getting hungry when I left work so I had a can of low-sodium V8 juice before going to the grocery store. We were having a notary come to the house with our closing documents, so I didn't want to start cooking dinner, so we had a Digiorno after she left. I had 2 pieces (of 8 as we cut a pizza) with a little ranch dressing and Parmesan cheese. I had some F&E green tea. I also had two leftover Oatmeal Scotchies.

Agility Weave Intro

With our impending move to the west side, I decided to check out Top Notch Canines, the agility training facility closest to our new house. M went with me to check it out. It's an indoor facility (evap, not a/c--hot). I sent applications for Cassi and Teka and got a call from D. She suggested handling classes. I decided to sign them up for Weave classes which are actually every other week, so they will alternate. (I go every week, but one or the other of them goes.) As a prerequisite, I had to go today for a private session. She pinpointed some issues each of them has and gave me some starter exercises and tips. Main things are I should not use my hands to signal; I'm over supporting I guess.

D explained the 2 weaves for my practice: I need to start with the clicker in the left hand, treat in the right hand (hand on hip), look at weave pole--not the dog, can hold the collar (underneath, not overhand) and let go when she is looking, treat at chest level by the pole. This will help get the head close to the weave poles. On the full set of poles, we will use the target (treat bag laying open but not upright) to increase drive and getting the head down.

We also discussed Cassi's teeter issue and she wants me to take a plank (the size of a teeter board) and make sure it is painted and texturized, then use it for training. She can be clicker/treat trained for looking at it, walking on it, turning, etc, to get her to feel comfortable.

The facility does a dog food order every four weeks, and she mentioned that the brand my dogs eat was recently bought out by Proctor & Gamble. She is from Cincinnati and has issues with their animal testing for cosmetics, in addition to some questionable products. I will have to keep an eye on this news.

Toe taps

This is quite a bit like the physical therapy I learned for my pain. I need to do this more consistently than I do.

Trial update and Vitamin D

I went to Hope Research Center for my monthly testing. I had a new girl. She didn't get the blood draw, so E had to come in and take my blood. It ended up being a pretty shallow vein so it didn't feel so great, but hey, I only have two holes in my arm.

I also updated their record to include my new conditions of hypothyroid and Vitamin D deficiency and the associated medications. I also went to Dr R's office to get Vitamin D gel pills in 5000 IU increments so I don't have to take 5 1000 IU tablets. The geltabs are really small! I'm very happy about that!

Home and Garden Show

As if we don't have enough ideas for our new house and yard, we went to the Home and Garden Show today at the Cardinals Stadium. We watched a presentation on composting, saw the Queen of Clean (and got some freebies), bought a taller ladder, talked to a guy about our pool ideas/questions, met up with our landscape designer (current neighbor), and talked to a guy about a shuffleboard table. I'm tired! And stressed about how much needs to be done.

Would you like some mothballs with your Fruit Loops?

I have migrated away from any Kellogg's cereals over the past few years because of the long ingredient lists that include things such as High Fructose Corn Syrup. They recently had a voluntary recall that is discussed in this rather SCARY article about chemicals in our food and other products. The article essentially states that most of the chemicals used in food are not regulated or tested. That's NOT good!

"If a manufacturer possesses data showing that a chemical harms health or the environment, it is required to turn over the findings to the EPA. Critics say that creates a disincentive for manufacturers to test their chemicals."

Also note that Kellogg did their own investigation and destroyed the possibly contaminated products, so the FDA isn't doing a full investigation. HUH?!

and here we have an article that discusses research showing that all sugars are not created alike. Fructose (much of which we get in HFCS) helps pancreatic cancer cells to multiply. While the corn industry (subsidized and powerful) will likely discredit this research, I am continuing to avoid HFCS and will be more careful to look for fructose to avoid also.

Xylitol is lethal to cats

I was watching Pets on Parade and a veterinarian guest talked about hazards for pets, in particular cats. It wasn't surprising to hear about chocolate and raisins, but he went on to add sugar-free gum and candy. Apparently, the Xylitol often used in those items is lethal to cats. I have been trying to avoid chemical sweeteners and have found the hardest item to buy now is gum. Pretty much all gum has artificial sweetener in them. At "health food" stores, they sell gum with Xylitol. It is not good for the digestive system (ask a cat?), so I also avoid that ingredient. I have found ONE brand, only at Sprouts (not Trader Joe's or Whole Foods) that uses sugar instead of artificial sweeteners. Unbelievable. So our choices are aspertame and Splenda (cancer) or Xylitol (diarrhea). Great.