If your dog is fat, it is said, you need more exercise. I guess in our case, this aphorism doesn’t quite hold water. Although I do in fact need more exercise, my dog happens to be in tip top shape. In fact, sometimes I worry that he is too skinny. The vet assures me that it probably only seems that way because the majority of dogs out there are overweight.
I’m not quite sure how he does it. We always keep his bowl full, so he eats whenever he wants. Not to mention, he serves as a breakfast and dinnertime cleanup crew underneath the kiddos’ booster chairs. I am fairly certain that he sleeps most of the day when Lovely Wife and I are away to work. The last time that I took him in for his shots he had lost about a pound and a half. Pretty significant when you only weigh 18 lbs in the first place.
What his real talent lies, however, is in matching my mood. I started noticing when he was a puppy that on days I was feeling good he would run around and play and be full of energy. If I came home in a foul mood and plop down on the couch, he would snuggle up next to me and lay his head on my leg, a forlorn look on his face. Recently he seems to have been a little more down. We have considered getting another dog to keep him company during the day. However, we have doggie-sat my parents pooch on occasion, and I am pretty sure that he goes about his normal routine.
I visited the psychiatrist today, who reminded me that exercise is a good way to help with depression. Exercise helps release those feel good endorphins. So in our case I think that perhaps we need to make an amendment to the old axiom. If your dog is depressed, you need more exercise.
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I figured that I should at least do a weekly update on my physical fitness. The exercise isn’t going too well, which is a little stressful as the upcoming Bike MS is weighing heavily in the back of my mind. I can report that Lovely Wife and I have placed at least a temporary moratorium on eating out, and it is already paying dividends. This week I weighed in at 269 lbs. I will gladly take a four pound a week loss.
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TUESDAY FUN – Photo Favorites
I took the following photo on our honeymoon. Lovely Wife and I took a cruise and one of our destinations was the small Caribbean island of Dominica. I had never heard of it before. We were pleasantly surprised with Dominica. Being less of a tourist destination than a lot of Caribbean nations, there really wasn’t much to offer in the way of beaches or shopping. We elected to take an excursion that would take us on a hike through the rain forest to view a waterfall and then stop at a smaller waterfall with a pool that we could swim in. Along the path I spotted this little fellow, almost begging me to take a picture.
reclaiming ryan 