Another Sunday and another weigh in.....

How bout' this picture.....How many times have I looked into the mirror and done this!

Only to capture a glimpse of myself in a photo, or a store window, and be shocked at that person who is staring back at me.

I wonder why my mind play those funny little games?

I also have become memorized by the concept of fat. Its such an insidious substance...

When exactly does it come, at night while I sleep?

How does it get there with out being noticed?

Why can't I see it until its too late and by then I have this big roll of fat hanging over my pants?

Then when I finally accept the fact that its really there and I have have to do something about it, why does it stick to me like glue and I can't get rid of it?

And the biggest question; WHY JUST BECAUSE I"M OVER 50 DOES IT HAVE TO BE SO HARD?

Seriously, I think about this a lot, to me, fat is a fascinating subject.

I have a Eastern Nutrition class and each of us is to pick a topic to write a paper about, and then we have to prepare an Chinese meal based on this topic, and then serve it up to the class as we discuss our paper.

I of course picked the subject of obesity....

Can you imagine what the dish I'm going to prepare and what it will taste like? How can you cook a meal that is tasty to treat being fat? Trust me, food to get rid of fat is never good, no matter what anyone says.

I'm going to do a fat loss soup recipe which I posted awhile back on my blog, but I am going to do the fat loss fast for the week before and take pictures..HA....I'll get an A for the effort...I really have never fasted, so it should be interesting.

Anyone one to do it with me?...probably not.....

Did you know the Chinese say that fat is the accumulation of Phlegm and Damp? If that statement interests anyone as it does me, click the link and read about this fascinating subject.

Enough of myself already....here we are this Sunday. I am afraid that I'm stuck at 17.2% body fat. I can't shake it off.....Its sticking to me like glue. But I am seeing this thing through, I am hanging in there.....Here we are for our Sunday Weigh In and Pictures of Us!

I want to thank Lady Banana for passing on this blogger award to me, it was nice of her to think of the Spiritual Dog Blog family.

Now I want to pass it on to Betty Jo at A Bead a Day....your are a good blogger, no matter what you say!

Next, I want to also pass it to Lavender from the Birds & The Beads for her Little Waddle Birds....that was a great series, and your making me a bird lover!

Thank you both for reading about me and my dog family, we appreciate it because your both are

There are some days during my recent life where I wonder; what would of it been like to have children, and I often speculate weather or not I would have been a good mother.

Today is one of those days that I got some insight to that particular question...

My friend Susan gave me two dogie designer t-shirts for Daisy and Pinkerton. Both shirts are black with white rhinestones that say "Bling Bling", how cute right?

Its cold here today, so I thought this might be a good time to put on the new outfits to help them stay warm, plus I thought I would take some pictures and show off their new gift to Susan as gratitude.

First, I slipped on Pinky's. He of course just laid there and let me have my way, as he looked adoringly into my my eyes, because I can do no wrong according to Pinky, I am his love object.

Then it was Daisy's turn....she had been sleeping in one of the twenty five dog beds that I have around the house, so maybe this was was not a good time, but I was determined that I would have a matched pair.

I slipped one paw through the hole. ..and then wait, ....was that a growl I heard?

No way I said to myself, not my sweet Daisy Girl. I continued on with the other paw, and then she let out a giant ferocious mean spirited roar!

I was shocked as you might imagine. I looked at her and I said;

"Daisy, BAD GIRL",

I stared her down as I put her head down into submission, that'll do the tick I thought to myself.

In the mean time poor Pinkerton is cringing in fear and horrified at this nasty exchange.

Then I went to put the T-shirt over her head, and she then once again snarled at me with all her little front teeth bared and her eyes glaring at me....her provider.

I sat there, this was shocking.

Once again I sternly reprimanded her, calling her a "VERY BAD GIRL" ....

I held her head down even longer, but that didn't work either because the entire time I was finishing putting on the t-shirt, she continued to give me some giant attitude.

So what are the spiritual ramifications of this incident? Here are my thoughts on the matter;

1) I am this families low man on the dog pack ladder.

2) Daisy is just striking out from her beating she took from Bad Dog Chico Martini.

3) Its the nasty chihuahua genetic makeup causing her to lash out.

4) Girl dogs are just bitches.


All that love and devotion, and what do they do, they turn around and growl at you!

I left off by telling of the account of Daisy's eye, and where once again her eye had started gushing huge amounts of blood;

So I looked at her eye, and I said 'O boy", I knew I had problems here.....I put the cloth hard against her eyeball and once again applied very hard pressure, it hurt her, but she withstood the pain, seemingly knowing I was helping her.

Not only was it awful that this was happening, but what was worse, was little Daisy girl's pathetic wondering; Why couldn't she see? Daisy Girl kept waving her little paw in front of her bloody eye, while making a very pathetic little mewing sound, my heart was breaking for her, she was truly very sacred.

The entire time that I am administering to Daisy Girl, right next to me, watching my every move and staying as close as he could, was sweet Pink Pinkerton. His concern for Daisy Girl was palpable, he was right there with me the entire time, trying to help and assure the little Daisy Girl, by giving her loving nudges and getting as close to her as he possible could.

It was amazing to watch the two in this situation, she looked to him for help, and he was there for her by comforting her and providing her a safe haven. Never before have I ever seen two dogs connected as these two siblings are to one another.

This is where I came to the Y in the fork of the road and my dilemma began. I love this little dog, her and Pinky mean the world to me. Here I was, in a situation that my first impulse was to get her to the Vet....

But this would be in direct conflict with what I do each and every day.

My website pawhealer.com sells Chinese herbal formulas to dogs and cats that are very sick. I tell my pet loving customers that I stand by these herbal formulas, and because of this, they put their trust into me, they believe me when I tell them that herbals are in fact something that work as well, if not better, than most western medicine solutions.

That being said, I knew that if I could determine for a fact that her eyeball was not poked out, and not punctured, and did not need surgery, I could handle the situation with my own very powerful herbs.

Because if one remembers history, the Chinese were a warring nation, and eye lacerations were a common occurrence, so clearly, I could find an herbal solution for Daisy Girls wounded eye, if the Chinese could do it, so could I!

I then set myself on a mission to determine if her eye was intact. After a few minutes of applying pressure, I was able to get a glimpse of her eye, and I found the the color to be good and there was not any evidence of clear fluids. I then made the decision that her eye itself was not injured because the blood appeared to be coming from inside the lower lid.

By then she was curled up against Pinky, and she was hunkered down and could barley keep her eyes open. I think she was in a state of mild shock, but she was responsive, so I decided that I would watch over through the night and let her sleep. It was a very restless night for me, but every time I checked her, she was sleeping a normal sleep.

When we woke up the next morning, her eye of course was swollen shut. I once again examined her eye and pried it open, and I could see that the eye itself was fine, but the tissue around the eye was in pretty bad shape.

I then got up... went over to my extensive herbal pharmacy and picked out an herbal formula called Gu Die Shang Wan (The Great Mender). This is a formula that is used for trauma. I got the little tea pills down her throat with very little problem, and then I waited.

Within one hour the swelling was completely down, her eye had opened, and she was walking around the house.

Here is Daisy to show you herself;

I have my Sunday Secret that I tell every Sunday......


As you know if you read my post called Scary Night on Sassafras St. Daisy's fate hang's in the balance at the end of the post.


Based on the above Secret Postcard as well as the picture on the left;

What do you think my Sunday Secret might be? hmmmmmm?
Here are my Sunday Weigh-In Pictures:

It was late Friday night, and all the dogs and me where in the kitchen. I don't even know what I was doing when all the sudden I heard a big commotion going on between Daisy Girl and that Bad Dog Chico Martini...

I then heard Daisy yelping and it was extremely loud, and it was also a higher intensity than when her and Chico have previously had a tussle. I decided to investigate, I walked over to where she had run, which was to her little dog bed, only to find huge amounts of blood gushing out of her eye, not a small amount of blood, A LOT of blood.

That Bad Dog Chino Martini had bit Daisy Girl, as hard as I think he possible could, and he bit her smack dab right on her eye.

At first I panicked...I was walking around going "o my god, o my god" , and yelling at Chico what a bad dog he was and then said to myself...HOLLY SNAP OUT OF IT; YOUR ALMOST A OMD (Dr. of Oriental Medicine) YOU CAN HANDLE THIS!

I gathered my wits, I went to the sink, got a cloth, put water on it, and then I went to find Daisy. By that time she had jumped up on the living room couch and was curled up against Pinky as if she was asking him to protect her. You could see the poor little thing was freaked out, she was making this pathetic little sound, it was awful...blood just gushing from her eye socket.

Her eye was not at all visible because the blood was so thick ... I sucked it up, gathered her in my arms and told her it was okay, I put the cloth against her eye and applied pressure, which she very bravely let me do without a struggle.

We sat there for about three minutes, and then I decided to take a look at her eye, not at all sure that she still even had one, it was that bad. I pulled away the cloth, and I could see thankfully that her eyeball was intact, but that she had sustained a really bad bite, and it was still questionable...

I walked back in to check on her after taking the cloth back to the kitchen, only to find that her eye was gushing again. I ran back to the kitchen, gathered another cloth, and once again applied pressure.

END OF PART ONE...to be continued tomorrow! Stay tuned to find out Daisy's Girl's fate.

I just read a post by Betty Jo at A Bead A Day...and I felt kinda relieved...like a little something was lifted off my shoulders.

I appreciated that shared with all of us that she has days where she reflects back on her life and it makes her a little melancholy...

It seems lately that I have been doing alot of the same thing... Her daily post for that day made me feel less alone because it was comforting to know that others were having similar thoughts and feelings. Thank you Betty Joe, glad its just not me!

That being said...I would like to lighten the mood of my fellow bloggers...

I dedicate this video to Betty Jo...I am sure that it will give you a good belly laugh, something to lighten up the mood for both of us!

This came from Lady Banana, I enjoy her blogs because she always has something different and witty...or just plain funny!

Today I received a shout out from Phillip at the blog your-relevant.com...They have awarded me my first blogging award and its called The Golden Glasses Award...here is what they are saying about it;



The Award:

The golden glasses award is a concept brought to us by one our readers. They suggested that we hand out awards to reward those that have really great blogs and who add value to their readers weekly and in most cases daily. So we decided, sure why not.


That was me that made the suggestion. I think that it's great that they thought enough of my idea to make it a part of their recognition process! And they listened...I think thats nifty.

They are making my award official on Thursday and it will have the Spiritual Dog Blog name attached....So, I can talk about it again on Thursday...(smile)

Thanks again to Phillip at your-relevant.com for giving me my very first blog award.

I saw this postcard on postsecret.com and knew I had to write about it, because I related to this particular message 100% , because I do the same thing.

I hold grudges, I admit it and mostly they are against my family.

I think the San Diego fire can best demonstrate what I am trying to get at here.

When the fire broke out and all those people had to be evacuated, I felt sorry for them, but I just went about my own life, never really giving them a thought. I did my daily routine as if nothing had changed, but it had, hundreds of thousands of people were misplaced.

It never occurred to me to help, volunteer, or open my home to those who were less fortunate than myself.

As the week went on and I spoke with different friends, I noticed that almost all of them, in some sort fashion, had opened their heart and did what they could do to better the situation for those people by volunteering their time, or their homes, or whatever it is that people do to help others.

It never ever occurred to me to come out of my own world and reach out to those that needed some sort of help of any kind.

So I reflected on this personal flaw, and I I believe it is a result of the way I was raised, which was that of total self absorption;

As a child I grew up in a family that had significant resources. Looking back, I can never recall one instance where they reached out to help others less fortunate, ever.

As a child I grew up with immediate family members who suffered from a serious and chronic disease. Never during the thirty years of their life experience with this terrible disease, did they they ever reach out to any organizations or people as unfortunate as them so that they could help others to cope. They could of made a difference by sharing with others their own life experiences, knowledge, and understanding of how to live with such a terrible disease.

Let me break it down even deeper....NEVER has anyone from my immediate family ever volunteered to help any any type of emergency or to any organization...ever, and sadly that also includes myself.

As children we mimic our parents "monkey see, monkey do"; and I find I'm following their footsteps exactly without even realizing when I'm doing it. They taught me very well...

So I hold another grudge against them, I begrudge them for not caring about anything other than them selfs, and I begrudge them for passing this trait on to me.

I can only hope that when the next opportunity comes around for me to contribute, I can see past myself, remember this blog and then do the right thing.

Today is Sunday Weigh In .....and I'm a tad under the weather today, in fact I feel like I'm being tortured. I'm almost eight long weeks into this self imposed torture ritual. I mustget some sort of pleasure from inflicting this constant denial upon myself in the quest for self discipline. (and the loss of 25 lbs), but today I can't remember what it is.

I HAVE A STOMACH ACHE! I'm not with it today....

Another good analogy is that I feel like I'm running the marathon and I'm at the "wall"...it seems that four more weeks or is it five...anyway, is a long haul until the finish line.

That little man that sits in the back of my head (my friend Susan calls him her drunk monkey) and he whispers to me to forget about it, then he tells me that I have lost near 15 pounds and thats good enough...I keep yelling back at him (yes it's a him) to SHUT UP!

I know it gets harder to loose weight the longer your on a restriction diet....I use to watch the Biggest Looser on TV, and I would see some of those people who weighed like 250 pounds, eat very little and train everyday for hours, only to get on the scale and have not lost a single pound.

I don't think I look different from week to week....None the less, I must continue with my quest of torture.






I love my two little dogs....These are my favorite pictures for the past two weeks, I have about five hundred more. Daisy is starting to look exactly like Pinkerton, but she has her own distinct personality to be sure. I wish I could bottle their cuteness...