Cold sensitivity

by Jillian @ http://blueshelled.com . November 17, 2009 . 8:38PM

I’m a sensitive person. I’m sensitive to light, sensitive to moods and emotions, and I’m particularly sensitive to temperatures.

And I hate being cold.

I will go to extremes to avoid being cold. This involves having 4 dogs to puppy pile on the couch in the winter. This involves layering myself with four layers of clothing in 50 degree weather. It involves secretly coveting a snuggie but not telling anyone. It involves always wearing socks. It involves bringing a jacket to school even in the summer.

I hate being cold.

If I’m cold and you are warm, I will put my cold hands on you. It doesn’t matter if this is outside your boundaries. Sorry about that. Just be glad you don’t sleep in my bed. Cold feet will find a place even if it’s the only warm place on your body to be warmed. I am shameless.

I hate being cold.

This translates into the fact that I’m an awesome cuddler and if you are a warm person, I’m going to like you. I’m going to like you a lot. Especially in the winter.

I may also stick my nose in your ear and call it a “nose slipper.” I know it’s gross. Sorry.

I hate being cold.

Walking the dog

by Jillian @ http://blueshelled.com . November 10, 2009 . 10:38AM

For the last several months, I’ve been “off my program.” My program had been eating good for me foods and losing weight. Unfortunately, I’d hit a plateau, and after a month of said plateau, I gave up the fight. It wasn’t a huge deal for me, but I wanted to keep moving forward on my loss. I hadn’t been motivated until Halloween. I saw my Halloween pictures and thought, “Man, I really wanted to be a Merlotte’s waitress this year.” Yes, Brandon would probably classify it as a slut costume, but I love True Blood and I really want to do homage to the show without being a vampire. When I looked at the costume though, I thought to myself, “Self, you clearly cannot wear that costume in your current condition. It’s about that time.” So, yes. I am going to get myself in shape for a Halloween costume. I don’t see that it’s any better or worse than anyone else’s excuse. Besides, I have been working on getting in shape for me for a long time. This is just the added motivation.

My YMCA card had dust on it, so I blew that sucker off and decided to get back to business. Over the weekend, I’d managed to get ‘er done (yes, I just said it-go on and disown me), but after the car fiasco, I knew there wouldn’t be time to workout. My fitness guru and very good friend, Mike, has been yoda-ing me in this go-round and he’d cautioned that I needed a recovery day for my body. So, I decided that a nice, leisurely walk with Reagan would do the trick.

I don’t play favorites with walking the dogs, it’s just that Sophie tuckers out after a block and Molly is so busy sniffing and marking territory that I’d never get anywhere if I took them. Reagan is built Ford-tough. She has tiny legs and some serious muscle in that little weiner dog body of hers. She went with me today for 35 minutes without complaint. We did have some adventures, though.

-We attacked every crunchy leaf in the vicinity of our walk. As the trees are letting them drop like crazy, this amounted to some serious attacks.

-A school bus full of children waved at us.

-Reagan whined at the school bus full of children because she knows that the school bus might mean AJ is there.

-When the bus went past with no AJ, she pouted, moped, and refused to jump on crunchy leaves until I was ahead of her crunchy leaf ratio 10:1.

-We went around a park and found a small stream that I didn’t know existed.

-A car drove past us with a little dog in it that so desperately wanted to make Reagan it’s “friend” that it almost jumped out the window. I watched as it slowly drove past with the dog hanging out the window and the owner laughing so hard he almost let go of the little dog.

-We saw some beautiful fall foliage.

-A LOOSE doberman came running after Reagan. Apparently my horns came out because I yelled at it “NO!” and “YOU GO HOME YOU VERY BAD DOG!” and it literally turned and ran with its tail between it’s legs. Wussy. I must have a fierce angry face. Don’t mess with anything I believe belongs to me. I will ruin you. I don’t care if you have teeth that can tear me apart. I look really mean when I’m mad. And if I see it again I will have no problem calling animal control and letting those people pay to get that dog back. Leash laws are there for a reason.

-Reagan gave me the biggest, happiest face when she saw the front yard. Dogs can grin, you know? We both got our fitness on.

Overall, my walk today was simply breathtaking. It helped remind me why fall is my favorite season. I hope that all of you are spending some time outside just enjoying the scents and beauty of this time of year. I want to take a second and thank Mike, one more time, for the time and effort he has been putting into me. My friendships mean a lot to me and he’s holding me accountable this time and it is what I needed. I’m one of those needy, hard to be friends with people because sarcasm is my defense mechanism, so it really is hard to put up with me on a regular basis. I’m also sensitive, so I take things the wrong way a lot. To be “in charge” of anything I’m doing, especially when I’m such a type-A, has got to be a pain in the butt, so thank you, again.

Throwing Nuts

by Jillian @ http://blueshelled.com . August 26, 2009 . 1:04PM

I admit, my title was a gimmick to get you here. I’ll bet you read “throwing nuts” and wondered just what kind of show I was running here. Now that you are here, stay around. It’s not THAT kind of place, but we have a good time. Maybe not that good of a time, but fun.

I’m the type of person who hates to have anything on my hands or feet unless it’s supposed to be there. For example, socks, shoes and gloves are fine. Lotion and sunscreen make me cringe. My mother and sister love their lotion. I would rather be a scaly skinned lizard than put lotion on my body because, you know it, I have to rub it on with my hands.

I just don’t like the feeling.

This feeling extends to having anything on the bottom of my shoes. Generally, I’m pretty sensitive to everything. I’m fair-skinned, sensitive-skinned, temperature-sensitive, blah blah blah. You get it. I’m one of the irritating people. So, when there is something stuck to the bottom of my shoe, I feel it. I hate stepping on things.

When I step on something, I cringe. Recently, we went to a restaurant that we’d been avoiding for a long time for various reasons, but for me, one of the main reasons was this: they throw their empty peanut shells on the floor. AND THEY LEAVE THEM THERE. FOR ME TO STEP ON. OH, WOE TO ME!

Since A.J. doesn’t go to these restaurants often, he now believes this to be the best thing ever in his young life and is now requesting we go there daily. He believes food tastes better when you can have an appetizer of peanuts and throw your shells on the floor without someone yelling at you for doing it.

Mmmmm…crunchy shells on your feet. Yummmm…dirty floors. Om nom nom…peanut dust everywhere.

He is in heaven.

You know where I am.

Throwing nuts isn’t for sissies. Unfortunately, I’m a sissy.

How can I calculate the calories in my exercise regimen? Or Wiener and I are working on our fitness.

by Jillian @ http://blueshelled.com . May 31, 2009 . 1:25PM

I promised this wouldn’t turn into my weight loss blog, and I’m sticking with that plan. However, that doesn’t mean that you won’t hear about aspects of my journey. It’s a big part of my life right now, and, until it becomes second nature to me, it feels like an overwhelming aspect that is permeating everything, not just my eating habits. I’m having to relearn all kinds of things: how I eat, how I sleep, my daily schedule, and, most especially, fitness.

We live in a nice, safe neighborhood that is filled with well-manicured lawns and well-designed sidewalks. Daily, Duder, Weiner and Pea lose their noodles over people who walk or ride bicycles past the house because the area invites us to get out and move. I have a membership to a local place, but the beauty of the weather, when it hasn’t been raining, has beckoned me to get out and move. Well, that and the dogs are eating us out of house and home and I’m afraid that they won’t be able to get up the steps if they don’t exercise soon. I’m not kidding. Weiner could pass for a Sumo-dog and Pea is getting close to Shamu proportions.

So, I ordered them some harnesses because they are adept at getting out of collars, especially Pea who is like Houdini. For the record, I like Puppia harnesses and I don’t get paid anything to endorse them. They are comfortable and they keep my dogs safe. That’s what matters to me.

What I’ve been doing is taking the dogs around the neighborhood several times. They are so good! They don’t do their business on anyone’s yard and they walk at a brisk pace, which keeps me on track. Pea is good for a couple of trips around, which is good for her little legs. However, this is where Weiner isn’t just good: She SHINES. She’s like a miniature Energizer Bunny. She will go around the block as many times as you’ll take her. She’ll walk quickly and be a good dog. There is no sniffing for a sweet spot. She’s all business. We’re here to walk.

I wondered how effective our walks were as exercise. I go for about 45 minutes. Thanks to a book I’m reading, I was pointed to a website, CalorieControl.org, that tells me exactly how effective my walks are and I was blown away. I’m not going to tell you how many calories I burn while taking care of my dogs, but it was a lot. How many calories are you burning every day? Was it more or less than you thought? This is a great resource and I’m glad to have found it.

My dogs are just glad to get out of the house.