Maintainers Weekly Chat: December 12 - December 18
In a snit here: there's snow on the ground that I'll have to shovel before I go anywhere; Comcast email is down (for an upgrade to improve the looks of my inbox); I can't get notices that classes or other events may be cancelled without email; and, more important, I've dawdled on getting an assignment ready that I need for class today assuming that I could use the time that I'll now need for shoveling to prepare.
Yes, all first world problems, LOL. And all triggered by my own procrastination.
Naturally, the only thing I can think to cure the situation is to eat. And, just as naturally, the only thing that won't contribute to a solution is eating.
I will be working ankle deep in slush with cold rain coming down today. We had our first large snowfall and now it's raining on top of about 6 inches of snow.
I have all the ingredients for a slow cooker supper prepped and will throw that together and switch the cooker on when I bring Trixie back from the first walk.
I will probably hit bed tonite around 8:30 p.m. It's going to be a long miserable day. But the dogs will love the snow so that will make it bearable.
Dagmar-- do any of the dogs not like the snow? I don't think Dewey would come out from under a blankie if it snowed here. If it is cold or wet, he hibernates.
Unfortunately, the weather looks awful (just rains and cold) when we are gone this week so my teacher friend who is doing me a favor by petsitting may have quite the issues with the dogs. Sigh....
Good luck today, Bill! Stay strong! Are you a teacher or professor?
Michele All the dogs I walk - big and small - love the snow. They were running and jumping and rolling in it today. My cat Natalie is not a fan though - she has gone out on the porch today but only for a couple of minutes.
Last day at work before we leave tomorrow for Arizona. Dh is in "travel mode", which my family knows (and hates). He is a super grouch-- trying to get everything done at work and home before we leave. I'll be coming home next week, but he won't. He'll stay in Arizona and then go to Texas, not coming home until after the New Year. So, he is trying to get everything done.
I realized we will be leaving tomorrow about 4 am, and I guess I will have to feed the dogs and walk them quite early! My co-worker is watching them while we're gone, but she won't come till after school so they will have to be crossing their legs! I'm thinking they'll get a light breakfast and limited water.
No snow here, and not much rain either. Prediction is for some rain tomorrow. I don't have one blade of green in my pasture yet.
Animal updates: My cryptorchid border collie Spot had a successful neuter surgery last week. My other border collie Cooper needs a re-do to repair his perineal hernia, a surgery which he had exactly three years ago. If I hadn't tried to wean him off pumpkin he may not have relapsed, but last year's pumpkin shortage made it impossible to find in stores. I switched him to the "No Scoot" fiber pills which contain pumpkin powder, hoping this would keep his stool soft (he gets lots of water in his food), but evidently it didn't work very well. I have calculated that we will need 200 cans (15 oz) of pumpkin puree for the coming year. I've been visiting the 99 cent stores to stock up in case it becomes scarce again after the holidays. Cooper will have surgery next Monday. He is 9.
Also, most of the cats have diarrhea. I'll try to get a stool sample to take in soon. Some of them are off their food a bit, but mostly it is the fat ones, which might be a good thing! Oh, the trials and tribulations of being an animal lover/owner.
Our Christmas will be very low key. I managed to gather up items I can stuff in gift bags for people as needed, and a few things I'll wrap for DH. I will send off a couple of packages to select relatives and then I'll relax and enjoy the season. Our snowless climate makes it harder to get into the spirit, but I can make a trip to the mountains if I really need to see snow.
Silverbirch, I read the article. Interesting indeed. I have often felt that the "secret" to long-term weight maintenance has nothing to do with any particular diet, it is entirely dependent on not setting off the "overeating monster." I have no problem resisting even very tempting food when I'm not hungry and not feeling sorry for myself. The minute I eat a meal because I'm hungry, it sets off all kinds of secondary mental issues around "healthy" and "not healthy" foods, and how much I can "afford" to eat, and whether I "get" to have dessert (and what kind, and how much). All the mental negotiation is exhausting self-defeating and ultimately counterproductive as it results in either a binge or a sense of deprivation. I would kill to be prescribed a drug that takes away that mindset. But I suspect there's no such thing.
Alice, if pumpkin availability is an issue, sometimes very small volumes of lactulose can be used to keep stool quality "optimal". It's very inexpensive as well.
Andrea, agreed - which always brings me back to intuitive eating. Like right now. I know that I'm not hungry. Instead, I am trapped at work watching sleet fall and freeze on the road, worried about getting home, sad about living in this grey cold gloomy place, lonely because my husband is away, and jealous because my parents and sister/family all went to Hawaii together and I wasn't able to go. Does this knowledge keep me out of the rum cake? No. And I know that it's ok to eat if not hungry per the intuitive eating principle, as part of the process; and it's always ok to eat when hungry. I'd love to get to where I never have that feeling of regret after eating - that feeling of "crud, all my calories are gone" or "now I have no way to soothe myself/nothing else to look forward to".
Thanks, JayZeeJay. I will pick up some lactulose. It will be especially important right after the surgery which is scheduled for Monday. Do you know if vets ever use mesh to help repair a hernia like they do with people? I'm afraid since the surgery is a re-do, there might not be enough muscle to close it properly. I need to get an extra plastic head cone, too, because last time Cooper chewed out several stitches during the Christmas holiday and I ended up stitching him back up myself. I have one cone but he thrashes his head around and last time he broke one.
My oncologist switched me from anastrozole to letrozole a week ago. Both pills supposedly suppress estrogen production and hence keep my ER+ cancer from recurring. However the anastrozole wasn't working very well based on the estrogen level in a recent blood test. We'll see if the letrozole does any better. I'm hoping that my recent slight reduction in appetite might be due to the new pill. I still get hungry, just not out-of-control hungry, and I spend less of the day thinking about food. It would be nice to at least get one benefit from this pill, since the possible side effects include hair loss, bone loss, stiff joints and higher cholesterol
Here's a silly thing I do when I know I need to undereat slightly. I have my morning coffee in a "special" coffee cup. It is from a Native American craftswoman and has a stylized raven on it. I think of it as my "power" object and tell myself that drinking out of this cup will give me strength for the day and help me eat well. It gets me focused and thinking in a positive way instead of being po'ed that I have to pass up junk.
Last edited by HowlinAtTheMoon; 12-15-2016 at 01:58 PM.
Alice, I like your mug trick. I too have small rituals like that for empowerment, though I mostly use them for much-needed work fortitude.
Re the surgical mesh: my use of them was mostly confined to severe trauma (hit by car) cases when the defect in the abdominal wall was too large to close. I've not used them for inguinal or perineal hernias, though it's surely feasible. I know it's a decision they deal with in human surgery as the indwelling mesh can possibly lead to long term complications (discomfort, infection etc). Perineal hernias can be hard to close muscular layers securely, so ask your vet what the plan is.
Maintainers Weekly Chat: December 12 - December 18
