Daisy is Losing It Too!

Those familiar with our family have most likely met our nearly nine year old black lab Daisy.  Daisy came to our family as a pup and in many ways, our girls have grown up with her.  And like a small child, we were pretty much responsible for both the good and bad things she learned.  Daisy was always active, had strong back legs and while she almost never nipped, could push someone over, if she jumped up on them.  Over the years, we simply fed her too much and of course supplemented the meals with treats.  Sound familiar?  One of the best kept secrets since I started IHC Medical Center's My Heart Challenge, is that at about the same time, our dog, Daisy has been on a diet too!  Daisy started struggling with getting up, walking any prolonged period of time and we were getting worried that something in her hips were failing and maybe her prognosis wouldn't be good.

Cathy took Daisy to the vet, where she was chastised on our behalf for over-feeding her and that the extra weight had put stress on her joints.  She was given one of those expensive dog foods, we were given a specific amount (talk about counting calories) and some pain pill to help her as she worked off the weight.  So at the same time I've been working on mine, Daisy along with the rest of the family has been losing her weight too!  In Daisy's recent trip to the vet, we were encouraged by the fact she has lost 13 pounds!  We've also noticed her walking better, back to jumping a little more and getting up and down better.  While we know her life expectancy isn't a really long time, we are hopeful to have a few more years together and want them to be as healthy as we can.  So while my weight loss is more public, my hat is off to Daisy for her progress as well!  As a side note, when you put less in, less comes out the other end!  The girls have noted a marked improvement in the cleanup area!

Last week Cathy and I had our picture walking together on the front section of the Salt Lake Tribune.  Any worries that my efforts would go unnoticed are now gone.  Thanks to EVERYONE who seems to have seen the article, so now once was substantial pressure to perform, now has become INCREDIBLE  pressure to perform.  I still have had my struggles however and have slipped back into a few bad habits, but I'm recovering.  Not to unlike many addictions, getting past it is not a one day occurrence and recognizing one's weakness and the way to get past it is important.  I have continued although not as quick as before, to loose 31 pounds in total, and I continue to push forward to my goal by July. 

If you didn't get a chance to read the story, feel free to read it in the Salt Lake Tribune.  Daisy, we're going to do it together!

25 and Counting!

25 and counting you might ask, is that how long I've been married?  No that's nearly 22 and I'm still trying to figure out how we celebrate the 25 when it comes.  Was that my ACT score?  Well actually it was, but then it went down when I took it the second time.  Was it the balance in my checking account?  Oh no, that's not that good!  It was the pounds I've lost since I started My Heart Challenge with Intermountain Medical Center.  That puts me about half way to my goal for the 100 day challenge but I know that I have a lot of hard days still to come. 

This week I had actually gained about 3 lbs over what I weighed in at earlier in the week, so I not only had to lose those, but another three to get to my 25.  A few challenges, with the weight loss, but problems I don't mind having.  1) I don't need to undo my pants anymore, they just fall down when I undo the belt (note to self - don't undo the belt in public), 2) I needed a new suit before I began, and now I really need it, but will it need to be smaller before I order it? and 3) my friends are getting tired of me explaining the composition of the food they're eating. 

I actually broke the 4 mph walk this week and it felt pretty good and broke my stretch bands doing resistance exercises.  Can I tell you, it hurts when those things break!  I may need to breakdown and go use the rec center before I'm done, but it has been nice to do some of those in my home.

On a side note, I took Cathy on one of those romantic dates I'm known for doing.  For example, how many guys do you know who took their spouse out with a night with the Vice Squad?  Yeah, you guessed it, Mr. Romantic! Well this wasn't quite as exciting but I did take her to watch the 24 hour a day project to redo the Trax intersection at South Temple and 400 West.  An extremely complicated project, with an hour by hour schedule and many deadlines to meet, it's a very challenging one with few times for delay.  Hey, while we didn't get to Nordstroms, Cathy did get her very own orange construction vest and hard hat.  How many girls have a set of those in their wardrobe?