Little boo was not initially supportive of ‘Operation Littler Boo’
‘I hardly ever say this,’ said the veterinarian at City Paws matter-of-factly, ‘but your cat is the perfect weight.’
I beamed.
Two years ago my cat Leda (aka ‘Little Boo’) and I had embarked on a joint mission. Little Boo had been chronically overfed and needed to shed some pounds. My breaking point was when my Dad commented that she was looking a little chunky. Aaron suggested that I initiate a strict regimen of 1/4 cup of dry food 2x a day, with a treat at night. At first it broke my heart to hear her crying for food and not be able to give her any. But apparently truly loving your animal means not overstuffing it with food until it dies of heart failure. I held my ground and stuck to the plan, and set a goal weight of 10 little kitty pounds.
Working on getting Little Boo to attain an ideal weight got me thinking about myself. I decided that if poor Little Boo was going to suffer to achieve her goal weight, I should strive to achieve mine. I hunkered down and developed my own strategy for getting to 120+ lbs from a low of around 116. I researched and figured out which foods were the biggest bang for buck calorie-wise. I started adding nuts, seeds, and cheese to everything. I ate avocados and hard-boiled eggs like candy. I switched to whole milk. I added Ovaltine to my whole milk. I picked up pieces of Vace pizza in the morning and brought them to work for lunch. In June 2014 I officially launched Operation Littler Boo and Operation More Marmot.
This might sound like some kind of food paradise (think Templeton the rat warbling ‘A Fair is a Veritable Schmorgasboard-orgasboard-orgasboard’ in the 1973 Charlotte’s Web animated movie). But shoving food down when you’re not hungry isn’t as fun as it sounds. It’s kind of like being a kid again and having your mom make you finish your vegetables. Because I didn’t want to just make up the calories in junk food. Sure, dark chocolate in the morning and ice cream every night was a mainstay. And no food was altogether forbidden. But a lot of my strategy was learning which foods with nutritional value I could eat even when I was feeling pretty full (avocados, almonds, and hard-boiled eggs are big winners here). Gaining weight the right way takes a lot of planning and being systematic, two things that do not come naturally to Marmots.
Last week Little Boo weighed in at City Paws at 10.3 lbs. She crushed it. I’ve been consistently weighing in at around 125. Crushed it, and then some. Little Boo and I are in the bathtub right now clinking our champagne glasses. And then chasing it with some hard-boiled eggs.
