Update on dogs, life, etc

In posting all of these old blogs, I realize a few things -

- I talk about the dogs then never update on what happened, because I know that everyone in the world is waiting for this.  Ha Ha.

Well, Puffy, Dad's small emergency back up sized Shih Tzu is doing well.  He just turned 7 years old, has cataracts, congenitally deformed hips, a severe double heart murmur and high blood pressure.  He is still taking anti-puke pills and bp meds.  No one has yet been able to determine why he doesn't keep food down, but if I try to take him off the meds he pukes.  On the couch.  In my spot.

So I cook his food. Once a week, I boil together 20 oz ground turkey or chicken breast and 2 good sized sweet potatoes, unpeeled.  I sometimes add some high quality grain free crunchies (he has allergies to wheat) and occasionally some greek yogurt.  He is much nicer to be around, I must say.  Dad can eat his nightly ice cream without a whining dog at his feet encouraging him to hurry and surrender the bowl.  We can eat dinner without the same thing.  Three years ago, when I came to be the parental caregiver, dinner time was unbearable.  The dog got fed under the table in an attempt to shut him up.  Of course, that didn't work, it only made it worse.  Putting him outside just made him louder.  Now, he sleeps through our dinner.  He gets his food and nothing else.  The noise wasn't enough to get Dad to stop feeding him, but hearing terms like "extending the useful life of his heart" was.  I also walk him a mile or two every day.  I watch his weight, his sodium and his manners.  Win-win, I would say.

Another thing I realized is how much I have struggled this year.  Yes, I have lost 17 lbs this year.  But I could have done so much more.  Of course, I could have done so much WORSE so I guess I won't complain. I will just work on today.  I am becoming more and more aware of my emotional eating triggers. And reactions.  Man, the mental part of this journey is the toughest of them all!