Sunday, February 9, 2014

Operations "I'm Alpha" and "Self Control"

I don’t know why I don’t think things through before coming up with great plans (and the timing of said great plans.) 

First, I have been exercising since we returned to school.  That’s about 5 weeks. I have lost a grand total of zero pounds. I don’t even know how that is possible. So I am much aggrieved over the situation. Of course, as with all things everybody and their rabbit has advice of what I should do. I finally decided that I would give it ONE WEEK of hard core self-control (translated as only 1 drink a night, 2 on Saturday, and eating super healthy, vegetables and chicken till I squawk.) And, of course, I would continue to run.

Friday afternoon I hit the grocery store and bought a chicken and a bunch of vegetables to cut up. Saturday morning, I threw the chicken in the crockpot (world’s greatest invention). I then proceeded to go run, come home, eat a little chicken and vegetables before continuing on with my day.  It pains me to say, after 24 hours I’ve lost 2 lbs. What crap. Why must eating healthy be part of the equation????

Second, my dogs, shall we say, are miscreants. Gracie barks endlessly at me, and she pees everywhere. Dixie barks endlessly at Gracie and, quite frankly, starts fights. Buddy steals any and all food he can get his paws on as evidenced by my back yard which is the graveyard for food I wasn’t fast enough to put away. He’s the Houdini of food thieves.

So, I have kennels in the TV room that they all go to when I leave the house. I also have kennels in the bedroom, because, wait for it, I’m making them sleep in the kennels at night now. I will show them I am in charge if it kills all of us. (Side note: yes, that is six kennels, plus one loaned out to a friend and a spare. Can’t really explain how I have so many, but I do, and it’s turning out to be convenient.)

I also borrowed my parents “dog barking” house… it’s a device that when it hears the dogs barking emits a high pitched squeal people can’t hear to make the dogs stop barking. I’m not totally certain it works, but I’m trying.

Yesterday I left the house 3 or 4 times, and the dogs hit their kennels each time. The treats seem to help with the process, but it was nice to come home to the house being in the same condition as it was in when I left.
Last night, I will admit I gave Gracie a Benadryl to help with the “going to sleep” process. She can whine for a VERY LONG TIME and has when I have put her in her kennel in the past. Amazingly enough, Dixie was the one to whine softly in the night… luckily she gave it up after about 20 minutes.

These two operations are perhaps not best started on the same day because Operation self-control requires a calm environment so that I don’t want to eat the house empty and drink my way to poverty…on the other hand, being in a battle of the wills with three dogs really requires a lot of energy… and grapefruit juice if you know what I mean.

I probably need to do some more research to find ways to get the dogs under control, but as they say, the first step is admitting you have a problem, right? There is no doubt I have a problem. This place is mad chaos and the dogs are running the asylum. It has to stop. They are making me insane.

Of course I don't fully have a plan worked out for the week days... I work waaayyyy too many hours to leave them in kennels all day, but it kinda defeats the whole thing if they are out making messes during the week. On the other hand, part of what I'm trying to do is just get them used to going in the kennels like normal dogs. 


I’ll try to keep my act together remember to update the blog with operation details… hahaha. 

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