My Journey With Weight Loss – My Pets and How They Have Helped

I started my new interval training today. Instead of increasing the amount of time in the running intervals my coach actually had me decrease the time in my walking intervals. I don’t really question why when she gives me my new targets, I just do it. Moreover, I used the interval feature on my Fitbit for the 1st time and it actually worked fairly well.

Those of you who know me know that we have a menagerie of pets that live with us. Tom and I have 2 cats and a dog while my sister has a cat and a dog. Everyone gets along well and each one of them is terribly spoiled. So how do they help with weight loss? I’ll be honest, most of it with the cats is the mental side of things. One of my cats is super sensitive and can always sense when something is wrong. That is when he throws all 17 lbs of his weight across my lap and refuses to move until he seems to determine that everything is ok. Really, petting a purring cat that is trying to make you feel better makes it so you just can’t help but smile. Our other cat is my snuggler. If I am struggling to sleep (which is often the case) he comes and just buries his face in the crook of my arm and purrs to the point where it sounds like he is humming. This of course helps me relax and sometimes lets me get in a couple hours of deep sleep. Unfortunately this particular cat also believes he is our alarm clock. Everyday at exactly 5am he starts screaming telling us all it is time to get up. The problem is I can’t quite get him to understand that Sunday is our sleep in day (by that I mean not getting up before 6am) and his very vocal alarm still goes off at 5am.

Now our dog has actually been part of my journey with weight loss. In February 2020 our beloved old dog, Hammie, crossed the rainbow bridge. She was 14 and by that point nearly completely blind, very deaf, diabetic and full of arthritis. Obviously her and I had long since given up on going for walks. So, just before the pandemic was officially proclaimed I got us a puppy, an adorable Corgi named Scottie (aka Mary Queen of Scots). Obviously it had been a long time since I had looked after a puppy and I certainly had forgotten exactly how much energy they have. The only way to quell that energy was to take Scottie for walks. Seriously, with her stubby little legs and the fact that she seems to be inherently quite lazy, she would often times give up on walking and just lay down on some random front lawn (I should note that she is a drama queen so when she would do this it was accompanied by very loud, long sighs). I kept at it with her and eventually got her doing longer, unprotested walks. We now do a 2 1/2 mile walk every morning and that seems to give her the exercise she needs. The vet and I have now been discussing taking Scottie on short runs with me a couple times a week to keep her weight in check (because Corgis have such long spines you need to be very careful about their weight).

Ultimately, pets can help whether it is giving you some of the mental support that you need or in forcing you to get out every day and take them for walks (there have been very few days that I haven’t walked Scottie). And really, if you have a super high energy dog like I do it is good for them as well.

There is one thing I learned today, if you step outside and say to your dog, hmm, maybe I should put on my rain jacket then you absolutely should. 1 1/2 miles into our walk today the rain started and I had opted to risk not wearing that jacket. While Scottie loves being in the rain, I am not keen on getting soaking wet and dealing with a dog who takes this kind of weather as a cue that it is a good day to sniff every blade of grass along the route. Won’t be making that mistake again.