Our Great Dane Abby

Our Great Dane Abby is now 7 1/2 years old and ever since our vet gave us a DVD on senior dogs we have been noticing changes in her health and personality.  She has become extremely clingy, right next to use where ever we are, and I must say that's a little difficult in the bathroom.  For the last few months she has been having trouble keeping her food down, we started feeding her smaller meals several times a day and that helped for awhile but then it started again.  Last Saturday Jan said look at Abby's ribs, she must be loosing weight, so we took her to the vet just to weigh her and she had lost 11 pounds in the last two months.  We went ahead and had the vet look at her and take some blood tests and found that she has elevated white count and liver panel.  All of this really just adds up to the fact the she is getting older and not really much that we can do but try to keep some food down.  We are now giving her a mixture of noodles, ground turkey and vegetables, giving her small meals and it seems to be working at this time.  We have had Abby since she was 7 weeks old and the thought of her not being around  some day pains Jan and I very much.  She still sleeps in our bed with us or I should say she lets us sleep with her, she doesn't share very well.

Abby and her favorite cat Little Joe

Jan and Abby playing in the backyard last year

Abby's newest favorite position

Two and a half months ago I shared what countries our readers are from and since then we have had new blog readers from Russia (quite a few), Indonesia, France and Belarus (I had to look at a map to see were that was).  Welcome to all of our new followers, feel free to make any comments you like as I like hearing from all of you. 

I was surprised at weigh-in today as I have added 6 points to may daily points target since I have reached my new goal and I lost 1.8 pounds this week for a total of 43 pounds.I'm going to increase that a little more this week to try to stop losing and to maintain, maintenance is not easy but once you find the right amount of points it becomes a little easier.  Jan stayed the same this week and was pleased with her results and I'm thrilled to hear that as it is so easy to think you must lose weight every week.  Everyone's weight loss journey is different and it's important to work and accept your journey and not compare it to others.  Remember we need to support each other and not to compete with each other.

The next two mind tricks to fool yourself into eating less are:

5.  Turn Off The TV - The more distracted we are, the more we eat, according to 2007 research. Participants who ate while playing solitaire felt less full after eating than participants who ate without any distractions.

6.  Out of Sight, Out of Mind - The farther away from you and the less visible a food is, the less likely you are to eat it.  Keep the sweets in hard to reach kitchen cabinets and office snacks in drawers.

This was the last week working with this group of kids at Horses of Hope and as usual they made it very special for them.  It started  with the Dancing Donkeys, miniature donkeys who run, jump, go through hula hoops and do what ever they are asked.  Then they got to ride horses and then participated in a costume parade with the miniature horses and finally had chocolate chip cookies and punch (Jan made the cookies), and everyone had a great time.

One of the Dancing Donkeys

Jan helping one of the kids in the parade

The food find this week is one of my favorites, Pringles Extreme Dill Pickle flavor potato chips, remember they all don't need to be healthy or great nutrition values, you just need to enjoy them and make them work in your program.

This weeks recipe is one of Jan's favorites.

Pistachio Mousse

(Actual picture of our dessert)

Servings: 6 • Calories: 88 • Fat: 2 g • Carb: 14 g • Fiber: 0 g • Protein: 2.5 g 

Ingredients:

One box Jell-o FF & SF Instant Pistachio Pudding
One package Dream Whip
Two cups Skim Milk
6 Tbs Whipped Cream
12 shelled Pistachios

Directions:

Mix Jell-o with 1 1/2 cups skim milk, then mix Dream Whip with 1/2 cup of skim milk, mix the two together and place equal amounts into 6 dishes.  Top with 1 Tbs of whipped cream and 2 crushed pistachios, Enjoy.

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