Chris, how did your children handle having to get rid of your dogs? We are facing a similar situation. We have rescued dog that we love dearly but, as it happens, is not really fond of children. She has gotten rather aggressive (unprovoked) with my oldest son lately. We've met with our vet and she did advise us that the breeds of her mix are independent and that she will never be a "buddy" to the kids. This, of course, has been a real dissappointment to them. Nonetheless, they love her dearly as do I. The vet told us that the agression she is showing is territorial and may be able to be addressed with some very strict rules (always have her on a leash, crate her when we can't hold her on the leash - she is an inside dog, etc.) to teach her her "place" in our family. Even then, though, we wouldn't trust her around children which, of course, are in and out of our house quite a bit. She is a very adoptable dog just not really suited for our family given that we have three kids. So, we are trying the tips given us by the vet but if we don't see an improvement we will have to give her up. We have a few rescue leagues here that do not euthanize so we'd do that if we couldn't find a new family for her on our own.

We've talked to the kids about the possibility of getting her a new family. We've had her for a year and they are quite attached. Our 6 year old seems to understand why this may have to happen (he's the one getting growled at) but our 4 year olds don't. I'm really worried about the impact that it will have on them and wonder what we might expect. Did you do anything special to make getting rid of your dog easier for them? I'd love to hear any advise you have.

Tricia

Tricia, the younger ones were okay with it, basically because I think they didn't really understand what was going on. My oldest one took it the hardest. She was hysterical. I had to call the school and have the counselor talk to her because she was so upset. She understands now. It took some time. We told her that they had to go live back out in the country where there wasn't as many people. She stills asks to go see them. We keep telling her it would hurt her and the dogs too much. Rocky, our basset hound, probably would have been a good dog if we hadn't gotten Maggie. Our vet said that even 2 dogs can "pack" up and be aggressive, which is exactly what they were doing. It was just safer to have them go away. Rocky, bit my daughter Kayla, on the face. She had to have stitches on both sides of her mouth. It was kind of an accident. He was snooping on the kitchen table and she startled him and he turned and snapped. I couldn't take the chance of that happening to another child though. Then they got under the fence and went next door and bit the neighbor. That was the final straw. In our state, you can get sued if your dog bites somebody. I think the saving grace for my oldest daughter is that she has a pet dog out at her dad's house. Solo is 14 yrs. old though so I'm not sure how much longer she'll be around. She has arthritis and isn't feeling too good lately. My ex gave her some antibiotics and they helped and he's been giving her tylenol for her aches. Okay...this is a book! I better skiddale.

~chris

Oh my gosh, Gloria, it looks like you have a couple of dachsunds in your family. I am a big dog lover myself and at one time had 4 dogs. Always, have had dachsunds since i was little. My current dachsunds name is tootsie. She is a piebald dachsund. Have you ever heard of those. She's adorable, loveable, gives lots of kisses. I will try to have my hubbie figure out how to post a picture of her. cheryll

This one is for you Barb. You sound like you need a good laugh.
Went to water aerobics today instead of my step class. About half way thru the class, our instructor told everyone to jump in one place in the water. O.k., i can do that. Because of the water, there is very little pressure put on the back or neck when jumping up and down. So i found myself a nice deep spot because I'm tall, (5"9') and started jumping up and down in the water when i felt something hitting the back of my leg. Looked around to see if there were sharks or something in the water. Nothing. So started jumping up and down again, and the same thing happen. O.k., I know i am not going crazy and there has to be something in this water hitting me. So i started jumping again, only this time i am keeping one eye on the back of my leg. Jump, jump, jump. It was my butt. The pressure from the water was making my butt move and it was hitting the back of my leg. Good thing no one was standing by me or they might have gotten "Butt-lash.
Hope you got a big laugh at my little story. I sure did.
Gloria

Hey everyone

Gloria, I am laughing so hard right now! I love water aerobics and wish we had somewhere close that offered them year round. Unfortunately, I do know what you are talking about. Things do move quite differently in the water. *Love the picture of your husband and the dogs. How did he even manage to keep a bite for himself? I wouldn't have survived with all those puppy dog eyes staring at me. And I've wanted to try belly dancing for so long. My sis did it for a while and it really tightened things up quickly, plus her dh was rather fond of the whole idea.

Chris, you sound like one seriously on the go woman. Glad to have you here! Maybe we can talk you into sharing exercise tips? *hint hint hint* I love those Morningstar sausage patties! Love gardening as well, but I still have so much to learn about it all, especially in this part of the country.

Tricia, wow, I read the bit you posted about letting the food control you, and it sounded so much like times I have been through. I get so totally obsessed with keeping track of each number and percentage of this and that. I would end up driving myself insane after a while because you really can't live like that every day. I had to finally step back and take a more simple approach, and it really has brought some balance to my life. *BTW, the crappy car vs. Jag analogy made me smile. It really is the truth! I'm on more of a scooter right now than anything with real horsepower, but I'm still going to be moving the right direction, and that counts.

Argh! I'm out of time to write, and I've barely scratched the surface for replies. I hope no one feels ignored or left out. Kat, Lucky, BarbPA, BarbG, Skittles, Laura and Lisa, you know I love you (wow, just realized how stressed I am that I might have missed someone in there!). I got a call this afternoon for a job interview, and it is at 7:30. I'm going to try and get a nap in first and then get all prettied up. This guy actually kept my resume on file for a year and a half and has a position open now. Flattering, if nothing else.

Got to go now, take care!

Andria

Hey everyone

Just a quick update before heading to bed. First off, I finished my day with picture perfect on plan! Go me! Second, I got thinking more and more about why I didn't accept a position with that guy in the first place. It is an insurance office, but the man came across like a bad used car salesman. He had also told me the position would be one wage and at the second interview he had lowered it a full dollar an hour. And, even though he sells insurance, he doesn't offer benefits to his employees. In other words, I'm telling you all that I stayed home and just enjoyed my nap. Don't worry, I did call and cancel with him first. Oh yeah, I remember the other thing I thought was really odd the first time I interviewed with that guy. He said he wanted to write a book, and when he found out I've done some writing, he said that ghost writing for him could be part of my job description.

Anyway, I'm off to see if I can sleep through an entire night. I'm shooting for anything over 6 hours. That would be a nice improvement over what I have been getting.

Night, everyone! And since you probably won't be reading this until your morning anyway, GOOD MORNING!!!

Andria

Hi all,

Don't have much time to post, it snowed again last night so I have to go out and shovel again. So here is the lowdown. Tomorrow is my therapy appointment to figure out the big ball. I will know what color it is tomorrow. Other than that, food has been ok. Haven't done any special exercises other than move stuff, unpack, clean up etc.

BarbG, Prayers and angels are coming your way. I hope everything is getting better for you.

Andria, You made the right choice, guy sounds like a user. I think something better will come your way. However, if you want to do the ghost writer thing, I say make a contract and go back to him with it. Just make sure that you get the money first.

Chris, I like Andria's idea of talking you into sharing some tips with us. I know I need all the help I can get.

Tricia, I know exactly where you are coming from with the food thing. It most definitely controls me. I know I think about food way too much. And I need to stop, I just don't know how. Even when I know something is bad for me I still think about how good it tastes. I keep telling myself that it is just food. But I don't know what to do, I am constantly thinking about food. It really disgusts me, but I don't know how to not to do it.

Kat, I am glad I make you laugh. And I am not too sour about the Superbowl, I just wanted the Colts to go. BTW I like your quote, I am adding that one to my list. That is one of the things I started in my journal, is I write down quotes. I have the Dr. Phil day calendar for my desk at work. And I am keeping all of the quotes on there and putting them in my journal as well. It is just a great way to have a motivation everyday.

Lucky, Hun, I have no suggestions for you, as I have the same issues. The only thing I can think of is to just do it. We have to just take 20 minutes and exercise somewhere, keep an extra snack with us all the time, carry that bottle of water everywhere we go. But alas, you see, this is something that I need to work on as well.

OK well, I have to go, I need to shovel and it is going to take a few more minutes to get to work today. I love you all, I am sorry that I don't have time to reply to everyone.

Belly dancing, I've got belly, and it can dance.

Anyone going to do that 12 Week Oprah challenge. I was reading that last night, boy is that harsh.

Snow awaits,
Skittles

Yea for you Andria with a picture perfect day. I remember those kind of day. Makes you feel good when you go to sleep at night knowing you did all the right things to keep you on track.
I agree with you in not wanting to get involved in a company that will use you, then say "So long".
It sounds like you have a hard time sleeping. I see on the time clock you posted around 2 this morning? When i started menopause about 10 years ago, i also had a hard time getting to sleep and staying asleep. Now i take a couple of asprin before i go to bed. It helps my brain calm down and stop thinking about all the stuff i have to do.

Hi Skittles, I loved you story about the ball and your cats. To funny. How many cats do you have? Carl and i have alway had one cat and one dog. At one time we even had three cats and i was always changing the litter box. Have you ever had a cat that thought it was a dog? Cat even went out side to do its business.
I am glad to hear that i am not the only one that thinks about food alllll the time. Even as i sit here typing i am thinking about what is in my kitchen to eat. I was watching the Dr. Phil show one day, and he said that if you take something away from your daily routine, then you have to replace it with something else. That made since. So if i stop thinking about food all the time, replace it with........ what? I know, talking on the computer with my friends, talking a walk.......

I have two dachsunds Cheryll. My daughter (Jamie) was married for about two years and living in Iowa. Then out of nowhere, he told her he didn't want to be married anymore. No lets talk about it. Nothing. He bought her two dachsunds about two months before he split, so she could not take care of them. Hubby and i took them in so that is how we ended up with five dogs.

Mother-in-law just came over so will have to go for now.
Love to all of you.
Gloria

Have any of you ever staggered your calories? I've read a few articles about it and it makes sense to me. The posts I've seen on this site were really more geared towards a free day where you would eat your alloted calories each day and on the 7th day have an eating free for all. That doesn't appeal to me and it doesn't seem to me like it would work for weight loss or increasing metablolism as the posters were trying to do.

The information I've come across is actually just planning your calories for the week rather than the day. So, if my calorie goal is 1500, rather than try and reach that for the day I would shoot for 10,500 for the week. The goal is to never eat the same number of calories two days in a row. The first couple of days would be of average intake, maybe 1200 the first day and 1400 the second. Then, the third day is called a "refeeding" day and you would increase the intake to 2000 or so, the fourth and fifth days are average again, the 6th day is a low cal day 900-1000 and the the seventh day is another refeeding day but bigger than the first maybe 2300-2400 (I don't know if my numbers add up just using examples). The higher calorie days still consist of healthy fare, just more of it. Complex carbohydrates is what was specifically suggested. The point is to keep from ever reaching the point where your body adjusts to a certain calorie level thus keeping your metablism slightly higher allowing your body to continue burning fat at a reasonable level (as opposed to muscle). Also, it keeps your body from ever hitting the starvation mode that people speak of forcing your body to try and hold onto its fat storage - I don't think I'm in any danger of this though. LOL.

Anyway the reason that I ask is because I could tell that my loss each week was starting to slow down despite following my plan each day. Nothing unusual there. But this week I lost more than I had expected to. I looked back at some fitday reports and realized that I had actually staggered my calories as descriped above (I didn't mean too, I just did). And one reason I didn't expect to see much of a loss was because of the "big" day where I had eaten close to 2000 calories. My average calorie intake came to 1300 per day instead of 1500 - which I think is another reason they suggest the staggering...you can lower your average rather painlessly.

The catch is that I don't know if this week was just a fluke or if there really is something to the staggering. And, of course, the other question is whether or not the last day being high calorie would make it difficult to get back on plan and start over. Personally, I think I could do this but I know it isn't for everybody. I've been doing this long enough that eating that much makes me feel physically yucky so if I over do it I tend to want to jump immediately back on plan.

Any thoughts? I think I am going to try it - but not until AFTER our two pound challenge - just in case it I just got lucky this past week.

Hope everyone has a great day today!

Hello everyone, today I feel back on track again. Lost a couple of days this week and ate horrible. But so far today I've eaten healthly. I'm also cooking asian chicken wraps for supper tonight. WW recipe. Hmmm good. Last year at work we took turns every friday bringing in a sample of a healthy recipe. It would rotate between 10 women, so that wasn't too bad. We brought in copies of our recipies we prepared to share with everyone. That was alot of fun for all of us. Plus we got to try samples of food we'd never eaten before.

I don't know how to clear my thoughts about food all the time. Even when I'm eating healthily I'm still thinking ahead about food. I hope to get into aerobics tonight, but I have a dentist appointment scheduled only 40 min. before my class. I'm not good about working out at home. I need the structure of a class. I have two friends at work that are joining my toning class next week. I think that will bring some new fun into my workouts.

Anyway, I hope to stay strong tonight and not start the snacking routine. Better go brush and floss. Have a good evening all! Cheryll

Hi all,
Just a quick check in and then I'm going to bed. I had to get up at 5:00 this morning to attend a school conference with my principal in a town 2 hours away. Ugh! Lots of fun. Did get my walking in this afternoon but my food was the pits today - my principal choose the restaurant and my weak willpower did the rest. Southern fried cooking is not on my food plan...

BarbG - Hugs and prayers to you!

Gloria - Cute dogs! We only have one right now but Queen Hershey rules our house... I loved your water aerobics story - I can relate too well to that one! Yes, I know where Blairsville is. Up close to Dahlonega, right? I love that area of the state. It is really pretty up there. Did you know we are supposed to get ice (yes, ICE!) in North GA this weekend? You guys be careful! :sman:

Tricia - I've done some reading about the staggered calories and I think there might be something to it. I know when I was on WW, the weeks I really thought I had blown it were the ones I would have big losses on. I could faithfully stick to program - and end up in the same place I had started the week. Let me know if it works that way for you. I may have to figure out what I would need to do and try it!

Andria, Chris, Kat, Lucky, and Cheryll - Best wishes for a great tomorrow! My eyeballs are closing....

Laura