Leif, My Guide Dog is 11 Years Old.

 Today is March 29. 2023.  Today is my guide dogs eleventh birthday.  

Leif, my guide dog has been by my side for just over nine years now.  He was eighteen months old when we both graduated from Guide Dogs for the Blind in November 2013.

Since then we have enjoyed many adventures, travels, stresses and laughs.

My life with Leif has led to my meeting thousands of people over the years.

Working with a guide dog certainly broadens ones circle of acquaintances.

To read my latest post about Leif follow this link to 'Medium'  and read my article,  'My Guide Dog is Eleven Years Old'

I Love My Labrador (Zazzle Affiliate Link)

My Income on 'Medium' Increased By 325%. Take my Challenge

 So on Monday February 6, 2023.  I got to monetize my posts  on the 'Medium' platform.

That is just over two weeks since I first published a post over there in Mid January.

To monetize you need to gather 100 followers, and have posted one article within the past six months.

I actually posted around ten  articles one or two per day.

So I now have a challenge for you all.

Follow the My Challenge link.

Register for your free "Medium" Account and write.  Write on any subject you wish.  Gather 100 followers and monetize your posts.

Then watch your bank balance increase as people read your stories.

Earn more cash than I did in six weeks and I'll hail you a champion.

Easy.  Beat me I dare you.  I am blind and I got 135% in increased income in one night.

See My Challenge Here

A New Writer On 'Medium'

 

With the start of 2023,  I decided to take a look at the writing website 'Medium'.

I love writing,  I have written many articles both in my blogs and over on Quora,  the question and answer website.  At Quora I have had over 12 million views and have received over 1 million views per month in November and December 2022, and January 2023 has been equally well visited.

Now I have added 'Medium' to my portfolio.

'Medium' will be a place where I post general content.  Memoirs,  relationship and just material that I feel like writing on a particular day.  Not always blindness related,  though there is some guide dog material over there right now.

'Medium' has free material so you can follow the links to my 'Medium' profile and look at my stories.

'Medium' also has a built in text to speech reader,  so it is easy to click listen to a story and a pretty good screen reader will read the story to you.  Even good for the sighted who want to listen to blogs while on the go, possibly driving about town.

I hope that you might take a look at my posts over there.

Maybe consider following me there for more regular posts about anything I take to writing about.

Here is the link to my 'Medium Profile' again.

To see my Quora Profile and Posts click here.

How Do I Convince my Family to Raise Guide Dog Puppies?

 Being a puppy raiser for a guide dog charity is not easy.  One does not volunteer and receive a puppy the first day.  There is a lot to think about.

I have been a Guide Dog user for over nine years and I have become involved with my local puppy raiser groups as a fund raiser and puppy sitter.

Here are some of my thoughts on the subject.

I  am blind, I have been a guide dog user for nine years. I also became involved with some of the Guide Dogs for the Blind raisers groups in my local area. Because of that my wife and I were accepted as helpers who care for a puppy for a few days while the regular raisers may be out of town.

Our title is that of “Puppy sitters” we are baby sitters for baby dogs. Marco above was one of our first puppies and he stayed with us for five nights, while his raiser was at a conference, not the place to take such a young puppy.

I have only experience with the process for Guide Dogs for the Blind based in San Rafael, California and their affiliate puppy raising groups in the Central Valley of California. So bear in mind other guide dog cahrities may differ in the role of puppy raiser.

Your question suggests that you may still be in school.

If you are you need parental permission to be a puppy raiser, you become the raiser as a family not you as an individual, being a minor.

If you attend a high school, does that school have a “Future Farmers of America” ( FFA ) program? The teacher may look into having part of that program a puppy raising program, puppy raising can be part of your school work and education.

 To continue reading  on Quora Click here.

 

Losing Weight: Adiet that Works Now Lost 91 Pounds.

 It has been a while now since I began to lose weight deliberately.

I began around Easter 2021, that was in April.  It is now the end of August 2022, about sixteen months later.

In April 2021, I weighed 375pounds and actually felt really sick most of the time.  I was also taking huge  doses of insulin.  Because  I was following doctors orders to eat several small meals per day, and take thirty units of insulin at each meal, I was over 200 units per day.  Eating high carb, to prevent low blood glucose crashes which happened daily and gaining weight.

In December 2020 I had been given a continuous glucose meter.  By April I was using it to monitor and assess my bodies reatcion to my food.  That diet was having me see-saw all over the place.

In April I heard of the Pegan diet, from a PBS infomercial.  So I bought and read the book. After reading the book which made sense to me.  I talked to my wife and she agreed to work with me in trying its ideas.

The basic summary is, eat good foods, lots of colorful vegetables and fruits, drink organic grass fed milk and use healthy fats such as butter, and olive oil, eat organic meats.

Avoid, sugar, did you know sugar has over two hundred names used on processed food packages in order to hide its presence in many foods.  Avoid processed food like substances whose ingrediant list reads like a chemistry experiment.  Avoid soda of all kinds.  I drink tea, coffee and sparkling water that is unflavored, just plain sparkling water or club soda if I am in a restaurant.

Within days of starting I was eating just three meals per day.  Instantly halving my daily insulin dosage.

I lost several pounds per week for a few weeks and then my weight loss slowed.

As I reduced my insulin over time, I also reduced the ammounts I was taking with each meal.  from thirty units to twenty-five then twenty so on down to tan units in the early months of 2022.  By June even five units saw my blood glucose unstable and crash so my doctor took me off insulin injections completely.

As my weight fell I was able to increase my exercise, taking on various virtual walking challenges from Conqueror walking challenges, see my favorite exercise apps in the link at the top of the page.  If you use that link you can receive money off your first virtual challenge.  

I now walk around six or seven miles per day.  Boosted by my desire to gain a new medal from my latest challenge.

As my diet progressed I found myself only wanting to eat one or two times per day.  I never feel hungry with the Pegan Diet.  So I also looked into intermittent fasting.

With intermittent fasting one might skip a meal or two or one may not eat a meal for one or more days.  I have not eaten for up to sixty hours, just because I have not been hungry.  

I found "The Obesity Code", by Dr. Jason Fung a very interesting read and it helped me understand alot about eating and health.

So with mixing up ideas like the Pegan Diet and intermittent fasting I get to late August 2022.

At 284 pounds on August 22, 2022.  Having lost 91 pounds in seventeen months.  I reccomend The Pegan Diet and intermittent fasting as a good way to reduce weight and for type two diabetics a good way to lose the insulin.

Type one diabetics need insulin to live.

Insulin can make type two diabetes worse as it promotes insulin resistance, a major factor of type two diabetes.  Giving insulin to a type two diabetic, makes as much sense as giving an alcoholic whiskey to stop DT's.

Thanks for reading.

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