These past couple months have been some of the busiest of my life. I wouldn’t say that they exceed the months surrounding law school finals and the bar, but they have come close. My own weight loss battle has continued, and, while I have not gained weight, I have not been able to lose more than one pound. And after months and months (years actually) of hard work, that’s discouraging.

I won’t be giving up, of course. Even if I never succeed in losing the weight, if I can just hold off the weight gain, it will be worth it. Plus my health is gradually improving. The doctors have various theories as to why I cannot lose weight, but there’s really nothing conclusive. One has recommended that I return to the Atkins based diet.

I will now be joined by my own weight loss partner. My darling little Loki is no longer so little. After he was neutered in August, he started to become more lethargic. He didn’t gain weight right away. In fact, he was quite lean. Starting in late September, I noticed that he was beginning to gain weight. Since he was severely underweight when we first adopted him, I wasn’t concerned about his more aggressive behavior toward food. And within the span of about a month, he packed on eight pounds (though in fairness, he carries it well. You have to be looking at him at the right angle to really see it). But at this point, he is so large that he can no longer clean his hindquarters, which has led his dragging them across the carpet.

The vet agreed that the pounds must come off. He wants Loki to lose six pounds, averaging a pound a month. I’ll be taking him back in in May. So Loki needs to get down to twelve pounds, approximately 2/3 of his current body weight. I would like to get down to about 130 myself, which would mean I would be going down to approximately 2/3 of my current body weight. Obviously, healthy weight loss for me is not likely to occur as swiftly, but I’ll sure give it my best.

To make this work, I am feeding all of the cats at a set point rather than allowing grazing. Loki has to be put in a separate room because he tries to eat the other cats’ food. The problem is that Maelona and Sophie, my two older girl cats, are starting to lose weight as well. And given that they are already 6.5 and 6.8 pounds respectively, that’s not good. They don’t act like they’re hungry, and they don’t want treats. But they don’t eat as much when they aren’t allowed to graze. So I will need to look into some other options for them. Thor isn’t having a problem. He is so relaxed about all of this that it doesn’t seem to be an issue. He doesn’t come running when it’s time for breakfast, lunch, or dinner if there’s any possibility of his getting a few more minutes of snuggling.

Loki, however, is very angry with me. When he received his breakfast, he looked up at me and meowed. Not a nice little “may I have some more?” Nope. More like a “where’s the rest of it?” I stroked his head, gave him a kiss, picked up my cup of tea, and went to the desk where I started working on a new chapter for Tue-Rah Identity Revealed. Since Loki has to be kept separate from the others, I thought it would be nice if I kept him in the office with me while I worked. But after Loki finished his quarter cup of Blue Buffalo Indoor Cat Formula, he hopped  onto the desk, strolled over to me, and gave another disgruntled meow.

I, of course, said, “No, Loki. That’s all you get for breakfast.”

That’s when he slapped me. No claws fortunately. But those ears went back and he popped me on the jaw with his paw.

This is going to be a very long, long process. Tomorrow we start leash training.