Going to the dogs

Greetings friends, I was not home all day yesterday. I went on an adventure with my friend and fellow dog lover, Mandy! She runs a pet sitting & dog walking business, and is also involved with a wonderful organization called Presents 4 Pets, a nationwide program designed to collect much-needed pet care items for donation to local animal shelters and rescue groups.

Recently, Mandy organized a fundraising and supply drive event for Presents 4 Pets that was a "HOWL"oween event for dogs and their humans. There was even a Halloween costume contest for the dogs! This event raised a considerable amount of pet supplies and yesterday I went with Mandy to help deliver some of the donated items to one of our local animal shelters.


This shelter has had a plea on the radio every day that they are low on food for the animals. So Mandy decided to start here, where the need is greatest.

I provided the muscle to load up the vehicle. It pays to have an amazon friend!

Mandy's car


Here's Mandy sorting through some leashes and collars.

Mandy speaking with shelter volunteers. This shelter received a considerable amount of pet foods, treats, toys, collars, leashes, dog beds, cat litter and the like through Mandy's efforts.

After this we went out to lunch at a Japanese Restaurant where I had scallops and brown rice! Yummy! A nice break from tuna or scrambled egg whites-- which I have for lunch quite a bit. It was a great girls day out for both of us---which was LONG overdue!

In order to fit in my ChaLEAN Extreme workout, I had to get up early and get it done before Mandy picked me up. It felt strange to be working out so early and part of me resisted it at first. As it is with most things, once I got started I was fine. It felt good to not have the thought haunting me all day that I hadn't done my work out.

When DH got home from work, there was just enough time to take the dogs for a quick walk in the woods before complete dark set in. This was an unexpected treat that Beau and Zeke really appreciated, as did I. What a great day!


On the exercise front, most of you know that I have a commitment to exercise at least 5 hours a week. Well, my fitness week runs from Sunday to Saturday, and looking over my Body Minder journal last night I can see that I ALREADY well surpassed five hours for the week by quite a bit. I am on fire! I have been a fitness lunatic!

For instance, on Tuesday I walked to the gym, did a 30-minute chest and back work out with the maximum weight and reps that I could handle, and then later in the day I did the Jillian Michaels Boost Your Metabolism work out which is 45-minutes of sheer hell.

That night, I was all ready to watch the Biggest Loser and then found out it was delayed by half an hour. Instead of killing that time on the computer (what I would typically do) I plugged in another Jillian Michaels DVD (No more Trouble Zones) and did that for 30-minutes.

And I've pretty much been working at that pace all week---one or two walks a day, cardio DVD just about everyday, heavier and heavier weights when I work out at least every other day. So I know when I total up my fitness hours at the end of the week the number is going to be outrageous! I love it.

Look for my monthly progress report with pics anytime between tomorrow and the end of the weekend. It's just a matter of catching DH at a time when he can do it.

Oh, and one last thing, if you want to see some cute pics of the doggie halloween costume contest from my friend's event, just go to this link and click on the link for the photo gallery. One lady dressed up her two dogs as a cowboy and a horse--the horse costume is awesome--she made it herself.

Have a great day and be good to you!