Does your pet notice when you're ill?

This is how I look having the flu (= pale & crappy).

 Flo never leaves my side when I'm sick..

My blog-friend Giora asked an interesting questions in his last comment on my blog: 

"Does your dog notice that you are ill? Any reactions? I never had a dog, but wonder if the dog can feel what is going on with your health."

Yes, Flo notices when one of us is sick. She makes sure to stay very close to us all the time. She seeks body contact and often climbs on top of us to make sure we are warm.

Last night, when I was feeling really bad (having a migraine attack on top of the stupid flu), Flo spent the whole night next to me, snuggling up to me, so that I knew she was there.

I've heard from other dog-owners that their dogs are doing the same for them whenever they are ill. One of my co-workers told me, that his dog would even go out hunting rabbits when his wife was pregnant and presenting his prey to her, wanting to make sure she got enough food during the pregnancy. The dog was very sad when she started throwing up when the dead rabbit was put in front of her...

When I was still having cats, they watched over me, too, when I was sick. They always stayed close and snuggled me whenever I felt especially bad.

Has anybody else made the same experience with their pets?

Food Diary

This is today's screenshot of my food diary on My Fitness Pal.

It's 7 p.m. in Germany and I just had supper (oatmeal with cinnamon, 2 tbs sugar, 1 Tbsp white chocolate sirup, low-fat milk).

I've set my daily calory goal on 1,200. I never achieve that goal... because the true, the real goal is 1,400  - 1,500 calories a day. But I have to aim lower or else I will eat more. 

Does that make any sense? I guess it's some weird psychology thing making me work that way. Want another example?

All my clocks and watches are 2 - 4 minutes fast. That's the reason I'm never late, I'm always on time or early. If they'd show the exact time, I'd always be late. Weird, no?

I had to take Flo to the vet earlier today and I guess I was more anxious than her. She's better but the vet suggests surgery nonetheless. I'm thinking about consulting a different vet because I got the impression the only reason for him suggesting surgery is that'll bring him 1,000 Euros (1,320 US Dollars / 820 British Pounds).

Some of the running shirts I had ordered on Wednesday arrived this morning. They are really cute. The ones I ordered for D have yet to be delivered. 

We've got temperatures around 0°C again and getting outside is uncomfortable as hell. I prefer taking longer walks with Flo instead of running when it gets this cold. 

D is still at work and I feel lost all by myself. I'm glad Flo is around. 

How is everybody else doing?

This is a post of "A Quest For Health & Fitness". 

Running Slowly & Eating Healthy

by Sal

My new running shirt (by Tchibo).

Running Slowly

It's getting chilly and I can hardly motivate myself to go outside for long. It starts getting dark earlier and earlier, too. Sundown is at ~5 p.m.

Fortunately, I'm a dog-owner, so I had yet another chance to go out and jog. I run very slowly so that both  Flo and I can manage without starting to feel uncomfortable and our (my) sides starting to hurt.

Flo takes it very well, and so, surprisingly, do I. At first, I wasn't sure about taking her running because she's already 10 years old. But after finding the Pooch To 5k website, I decided to take her with me and just see if she'd start running on her own or not. I'm glad she did. If she hadn't, I would just have walked. Naturally, she pauses more often than I do, but that's no problem. I just wait for her, running in place. We've jogged for 10 minutes on Monday and another 10 minutes today (Thursday). 

I have no idea if this kind of slow jogging helps me build endurance. It's probably better than not moving at all.

Any advice on how to run/walk/exercise with an older dog? 

Eating Healthy

Another day of making healthier food choices. I had whole wheat bread with low-fat edam cheese and 4 oat cookies for breakfast. For lunch, I committed another sin and had a warm brownie topped with ice cream. For dinner, I'll have another slice of whole wheat bread & cheese and a soup. Desser will be strawberries and low-fat yoghurt. I was drinking water or tea throughout the day, but I couldn't resist a small mug of cappucino for lunch.

Today's calory intake will probably be around 1,600 after I've had dinner.

Does that sound healthy enough? Do you think it's okay to commit small eating sins every other day?