Dine OR Dash?

Nowadays, pharmaceutical companies cannot even give a doctor a pen or sticky pad promoting their companies’ medications.  BUT, in the “old days” (circa 1960s-2000) the pharm companies would “wine and dine” doctors with free meals, trips, golf outings etc.  One of the promotional activities they would sometimes put on was something they would call a “Dine and Dash”.  This basically consisted of a pharm rep parking him/herself at restaurant between 5-7 PM and the doctors in their territories were invited to show up any time during those hours.  The doctor would place an order for food on the go for the doctor/family and then as the food was being prepared, the pharm rep would have face to face time (back in those days there was no “Facetime” on phone) with the doctor and try to convince the doctors to start writing prescriptions for their companies’ meds.

Changing subjects now and I will bring this full circle shortly:  Please welcome a new addition to the Posner family.  Meet “Dash”, a 7 month old Great Dane that we obtained yesterday from a military family that had to give Dash up due to a change in duty station.   The last dog we had died last year and now we were ready to take on a dog again. 

I have written blogs about the utility of dogs when it comes to weight control efforts.  Dogs need and love walks, so getting a dog enforces a certain amount of exercise every day for the owner(s) as well.  However, the first day of having a dog reminds me of some of the negatives as this relates to weight control.  Without a dog, there is more time to prepare/sit down for meals.  I do not see this as much of an issue with the lunch and dinner meal but breakfast is an entirely different story.  It is important to get those protein exchanges in at the breakfast meal.  However, if there are children to be attended to in preparation for school, personal preparation to get ready/commute to work and a dog to feed/walk, skipping breakfast altogether may become a frequent occurrence.

Whether you are a dog owner or not, please try to not allow the breakfast time to pass without driving 2 or more proteins in.  In the need to “dash off” to work and/or getting the kids off to school, you will have precious little time to prepare a SP compatible breakfast.  Perhaps make those hard boiled eggs the night before, throw eggs/bacon quickly into the microwave or devise some other method of ensuring that a protein-based breakfast is not missed.

One more point:  Time spent walking the dog will not burn as much calories as time spent sweating during a more strenuous athletic endeavor.  If your “gym time” is reduced due to “dog time”, you must be that much more adherent to your dietary efforts.

And now I must “dash off” to get Dash outside before he leaves us a “present” that no one wants to see first thing in the morning.