Adopt a Training Partner - Part 2

After we got Rex home, he gradually warmed up to everyone. He now follows me everywhere and he loves to go for walks. or for a run.


Not too long after we got him, Kelly and I took him to the dog park. We drove down the hill and parked the car. We got out of the car and opened up the back door. The dog wasn't there. Where was he? We panicked. I drove back up the hill looking for him. It turns out that as we were driving down the hill, he got so excited that he jumped out the window, and we didn't even know it! Luckily he was ok. With a dog this enthusiastic, how can you not take him for a walk or a run?


If you adopt a young training partner, it is important to talk to the Vet before you start to run him. When a dog is very young, their muscles and joints haven't fully developed. Running them hard may damage their little joints and cause permanent damage. Make sure you talk to your Vet before working out the dog.


Rex and I walked together for many miles. As my strength got better and my workouts shifted towards less roadwork (walking and running), and more strength training in the gym, my workouts with Rex changed. What once was a daily walk, became a weekend only walk. I would still get up early every Saturday and Sunday and take him to the dog park, but I don't think I was meeting his needs.


While all this was going on, we moved to a new house. With the move, we also adopted a second family member. We adopted Bindi. Bindi is a ptibull-boxer mix. Bindi loves to run and she helps keep Rex occupied.


Now with two dogs needing to be exercised, it was the perfect time for me to get back to some roadwork. I now run about 2 miles everyday with the dogs. Rex dictates the pace. He is kind of big and not built for running. Kind of like me. We started out with running intervals. We would sprint until Rex has to slow down or stop. Bindi never needs to stop. Once Rex catches his breath. We hit it again. We run these sprint intervals over the 2 mile course. Over time, we have now gotten to the point where Rex only needs to walk less than a quarter mile on the 2 mile course. Rex has lost some weight and is getting faster and now has better stamina. The good thing is while the dog has been getting in better shape, so have I.

Adopt A Training Partner - Part 1

Want to stay motivated? Want to help out a deserving animal? Want somebody to love you unconditionally? If the answer to any of these questions is yes, then you need to adopt a training partner!

When I first received a date for my Weight Loss Surgery (WLS), I told my wife that I needed to get a dog. She looked at me kind of funny. Our dog Emma had just been hit by a car and killed a few months earlier. We had kind of talked about waiting to adopt another family member so I think she was kind of surprised. I told her that I needed a dog to serve as my training partner after the big surgery. I explained that if the dog was dependent upon me for a daily walk, it would force me to get out and get some excersise. Not wanting any excuse for failure, she agreed.

We started out our search on the Internet. Most local shelters have pictures of dogs that need to be adopted. After viewing hundreds of dogs on-line, we went to the Watsonville shelter. My wife immediately started looking at little dogs. I reminded her that the dog was for my training partner, so he would have to be big enough to walk some real miles. I spoted a big, goofy looking dog. When we went up to the cage, he wouldn't even come see us. He looked lost and scared. He looked like he had given up. We moved on down the row of jail cells. We picked out a couple possibles. The shelter worker took us outside to a visiting area. She brought the possibles in for us to interact with.

The first two dogs they brought in, just didn't seem like a good match. Finally I asked the worker about the big, goofy dog we had seen. She said that he had been abused and wasn't taking to people very well. She said they would probably have to put him down. I asked her to bring him out. She said she would, but not to expect much. She said to stay seated and see if he will come to you.

The worker brought him in to the visiting area. My wife was in a chair on one side, me on the other. The dog came in and walked straight up to my wife and gave her a kiss. The worker was suprised, Kelly was suprised, and I was jealous. That dog didn't want anything to do with me. It turns out that most of his abuse came at the hands of men. He had some issues.

Well, as you can guess, he came home with us. He didn't have a name, so we named him Rex. That only provided a little trauma to my daughter Tammy. You see we had told her many years ago that if she had been a boy, we would have named her Rex. I don't know why she was so stressed, I mean why waste such a great name?



Part 2 will talk more about my partner

Congrats to Kelly

Just a quick congratulations to Kelly, my wife of 29+ years. Kelly has been investigating Weight Loss Surgery and now has a surgery date. She has lost all her weight, passed her psych eval, met with the nutritionist, and gone to all of her orientation meetings. She is set for an R-N-Y gastric bypass on July 6th. I had my surgery about 3 and a half years ago and I know that it is not an easy decision to come to. Kelly made the decision on her own and is taking positive steps. I'm really, really proud of her. Congratulations Kelly!

Sick of Being Sick

I had such great plans. I launched my blog on Monday with all the intentions of blogging daily, well at least every other day. Then it happened. I got sick. Not just a little sick, but big time sick. I actually stayed home from work for two days. That means I was sick. I only take time off work for fun stuff. By Tuesday night I was already sick of being sick. My wife has decided to look at having the R-N-Y surgery. One of the steps was for her to have a sleep apnea test. Well they called on Tuesday and wanted to squeeze her in for Tuesday night. That was great, but it left me home alone, sick and miserable (she was probably glad to get away from me!). Like millions of Americans I flipped the TV over to watch the Biggest Loser finale.

I guess you could say that I have what you could call a love/hate relationship with that show. I love how the show shows fat people as real people. That they have families, loved ones, and dreams just like everyone else. Often times people forget that. The part I hate about the show is that they make it seem like it is easy to lose the weight. All you have to do is workout. They make it look like it is no big deal to loose 10 pounds in a week, however, the biggest thing I hate about the show is how they put down weight loss surgery (WLS). They are always so quick to tell the world that Ron had had an R-N-Y gastric bypass surgery and had failed. This perpetuates the idea that WLS is a quick and easy fix, and how the only way to do it is by following their exercise plan, signing up for their meal plan, and following Jillian.

When I weighed 400 plus pounds, I hated myself and what I had become. I wanted to work out but with that kind of weight, my body wouldn't cooperate. My back hurt, my joints hurt, I had trouble breathing. I would try to fight through it. I would loose 3 pounds then hurt myself. I would get depressed and gain back 5 pounds. It was a vicious cycle. It finally reached the point where I said that "enough is enough." I realized that for me, I would need the kickstart of WLS. WLS is not a quick and easy fix. It is just a tool. It allowed me to reduce my body mass enough that I could begin to exercise and to take responsibility for myself.

As I'm watching the show, I noticed one thing that kept being repeated. As they profiled each of the contestants, many of them came to the same conclusion. They felt that they had reached the point where enough is enough, and had decided to accept responsibility and take care of themselves. I know that when I reached that point, it was time for me to accept responsibility and look at WLS. Looking back it was one of the best things I've ever done. It was the first step to "Fixing Rick."

Welcome To My Blog!

Hi - My name is Rick. I used to weigh over 400 pounds. In December of 2006, I underwent a form of Weight Loss Surgery known as a Gastric Bypass (R-N-Y). Within a year, I lost about 160 pounds. Here it is three and a half years later and I still have kept the weight off. Some say that I have just transferred my addiction for food into an addiction for working out. There may be some truth to that, but I'm not sure I want to come out and admit it. :-) Anyway you look at it, the surgery is just a tool that gets you started on taking your life back. This blog is about my new journey of life, as I go about "Fixing Rick."