Tuesday 15 August 2017

Introducing Lucy - The CockerJack Puppy

As you may be aware I have just picked up my puppy, she is now 8.5 weeks old and is starting to show her own true little personality.
As I am writing this, today is my first day home alone with her, and so far so good she is sitting in her basket by my feet.

Our experience so far:

Day 1:
Lucy was so good in the car, we had about 45 mins travel time from her breeder to home, but she sat in the travel crate with no crying and fell asleep. Once we got home she had a good sniff around and we took her and introduced her to the house, her bed & toys.

A little later that afternoon we took lucy out for a play on the grass, where she just wanted to be close to us and cuddle, but we managed out first family selfie.

That night lucy went to bed and cried and cried, we ended up getting up with her ever 2 hours and knew we needed to do something. We had planned to crate train lucy however amazon prime did no deliver the crate on time.


Day 2:
Sadly this day we had 2 accidents in the house, however this was mummy and daddys fault. As lucy had come over to us and we thought she wanted to play, however she was cleverly letting us know she wanted to go out. After this we decided to start logging when she had been to the toilet / played/ food etc. this had helped us to ensure we take her to try every hour.
We introduced her to her collar and lead for the first time for 15 mins, and later this evening we went to the neighbours for a BBQ, lucy sat / slept  very happily beside her travel crate, on a long lead.
we borrowed a travel crate for this night to see how she settles, and cleverly lucy managed to last until 3.30 to let us know she needed the toilet, and managed until 6.30

Day 3:
Lucy went for her first visit to the vets, who did a health check and was happy wit lucy who is now 2.3kg, she had he first jab and insertion of her microchip. Lucy was yet again as chilled as ever and took it in her stride.

For the first hours when lucy got back home she was hyperactive and very boisterous and we couldn't tire her out, then at 6pm and if a light switch had gone off she was out for the count, we had to wake her up to go to the toilet before bed, and move her to the now delivered crate.

Lucy slept through from 10.30 to 5.30 (I think she would have lasted longer but this was what time Tom needed to get up for work today)


Routine:
Food - feeding 4 times a day - Pedigree wet and dry puppy food (half a packet and a few dry parts each meal) - training treats, lucy is best on the softer treats at the min, and likes bits of  hot dog sausages.
Toilet - Letting her out to try every hour, - we now know where she like to be taken for number 1 and different place for number 2
Training -
  • Lucy now wears her collar full time, and is happy to go out on a short lead to the toilet (we do this due to the nature of our garden, and 2 other dogs close by in the same open garden estate)
  • Fetch it and drop it - are becoming very responded too, lucy loves her plush toys, but is starting to like a lightweight ball outside.
  • Name - lucy will listen and come to you when you shout her name, and always looks when she hears it
  • Sit - Today I have had my first 5 minutes of sit training and so far so good,
I am looking forwards to being able to take her out for walks, and introduce her safely to the other 2 dogs.







Tuesday 25 April 2017

25.04.2017 Why do I feel anxious?

25.04.2017

Why do I feel anxious?

Control … that’s it, I am surrounded by situations where I am helpless and cannot change the outcome. I fear the potential that something may go wrong, even when usually nothing has happened.
Such as the repeated and recurrence of my grandma and her illness, the illness of other family members and the cropping up of new illness / situations of others. Even my logical brain can understand that people get older, and they get ill … or if someone is ill the hospital or the doctor is the best place for them, but all I focus on is the what ifs and the potential problematic outcome.

Or the what if I do something wrong at work, I am aware of the workload I have to complete, my boss has even told me that the things I do at work are not “life or death”, we have even increased the number of hours I work so that I can manage my workload a little better, and complete the jobs at hand quicker / easier. But that does not affect the complete feeling of dread I get when I receive a phone call etc. I just get myself in the mindset that I have done something wrong and I am going to get told off. Then my brain goes into overdrive .. what if the thing I have done wrong gets me sacked … how will we cope for money .. etc etc. All this and the phone call may just be to say hi, or what did I want from the coffee shop.

I do understand how irrational this may seem, however to me it’s a constant feeling of worry and dread. From waking up in a morning, throughout the day, to trying to get to sleep at night. It is constant and some days are worse than others.
I am not good for turning my mind off, and when I start to get “the feeling” my stomach turns, I feel / be sick, get very tearful, sometimes just get inside my head and fully burst into tears and usually start to breath funny.

I recently had a situation where I was on holiday with my partner, and had stuff on my mind regards family and illness, and some worry about work. I couldn’t even switch off walking up a mountain in the lake district. However .. I sadly on this occasion could not physically manage to reach the summit, and I totally got in my head that I was a failure, and what is the point anyway, and burst into tears, not a good thing when trying to walk down the side of a mountain and watch your footing. But everything just swimming around gets on top of me and one last thing can tip me over the edge.

Today has not been the best day, home alone whilst my partner is at work and I have the power of google at my hands (well until the internet went offline). I can read and read and research ideas of what to do for anxiety and look to practice mindfulness. But I feel like I have been there, and already done that and I am not getting further forwards. I have done the usual trick, analysed my meals and food (I naturally eat very healthily so nothing really needs to change) but I try and analyse it and “take back control” of my body. I tried talking to others today (I am not a talker) but I just feel like I am burdening them with my issues, and that I should be able to find a way to “fix myself”.

I don’t know what to do, I feel like I will never feel “better” and this dark cloud is going to be hovering over me. I want to feel like myself again. Right now I don’t know what to do or how to approach feeling better.
I just want to wake up and be able to take each day as it comes, and if there are a few bumps in the road along the way just deal with them like a “normal person”.

What am I scared of:
·        Family dying
·         Loosing my job
·         Stressing tom out with always being sad and anxious and then as a result loosing him
·         Being lonely and isolated
·         Making myself physically sick and “worse”

·         becoming a burden to others and causing more stress

Monday 2 January 2017

New Year = New Fitness goals - Juicing, Plant food eating, & more.

Hi Happy New Year -- can you believe it is 2017!

I know this time of year everyone is doing their new years resolutions, generally jumping on the healthy eating & more exercise band wagon. 

As per most people I have enjoyed my xmas time off and this has resulted in eating of cheese and chocolates. (which is usually limit or don't buy at all). Therefore it is time now to get back to me "normal" diet and routine. However this time I am tweaking a little.
I always eat well in regards salads and "proper" dinners. As due to my allergy it is always better for me to cook and prepare myself in house. 

This time I am going to follow the Plant Food Eating plan, Which is basically, nothing animal produced (vegan in essence). But the plan is for health reasons and not ethics, it also explains in the first few weeks to ease yourself into it, and that slip ups will happen.

At the moment my partner is still at home, so we will be following this together, which is always better to motivate each other and stick to it. 




I sat down yesterday at the kitchen table with my books and wrote up a meal plan and shopping list, I dont know why but I find this so therapeutic, as well as the planning and preparing of the lunches and juices for breakfast the evening before, making my mornings so much easier.

Today we bought the food, I expected the first week to be more expensive, but this was due to buying the dried pulses and spices that I didn't have, but now I have them it will just be a veg shop as such weekly. Today I spent £30 on the "normal" shopping, and £15 on the dried and long lasting foods. This is really good for me, as I usually spend at least £50 a week, even with my meal planning and usual choices. 


Linking with the intake of fruit and vegetables, I shall be juicing for my breakfast and I am currently undertaking the mammoth research of which new juicer / blender to purchase, as my old one is on its way out. 

I am not doing this for weight loss as such, however I did this morning weigh myself and take measurements, more to see how this compares. 


I am going to also actively do more exercise, I would like to do at least 30 mins 3 times a week.

I would love your thoughts and comments, on what I can try, or even which blender is best.

Speak Soon

Nic