Heart Like a Dog

The Good, the Bad, and the Oh My God of living with dogs!

Coffee and Donuts with Peggy Frezon

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We are super excited to be participating in the “Fun & Furry, Fit & Healthy” Blog Tour featuring Ms. Peggy Frezon and her dog Kelly!

Last week over coffee and donuts I sat down to interview Peggy.

Peg & Kelly - Close Up 3 x 2

Full disclosure here.  We didn’t ACTUALLY sit down together, I sent her a list of questions and she answered them.

Come to think of it WE didn’t really have coffee and donuts, that was just me stuffing my face while I read her responses.

But semantics aside, Heart Like a Dog is happy to be the next stop on this fabulous tour!!  So without further ado, here we go.

Congratulations on having your third book published!!  What prompted you to write the follow-up to Dieting with my Dog?

Thank you Jodi! Dieting with my Dog is my personal success story about helping my dog Kelly lose weight, and how Kelly motivated me to get fit along the way! Many people who read it asked me if I could share more tips about losing weight and getting fit with our dogs, so that they could do it too. I think The Dieting with my Dog Guide to Weight Loss and Maintenance contains everything you need to know to help start you and your dog off in the right direction, for you and keep you going strong.

What kind of tips can we find in the book? Tips for losing weight?  Exercising?

How to calculate what you should weigh, how to tell if your dog is overweight, healthy eating habits for both of you, healthy snacks for people and dogs, how much exercise does your dog need, running, hiking, climbing stairs, biking, snowshoeing with your dog and more, how to tell if your dog is fit, tips for maintaining weight loss, and more!

Obviously you and Kelly have had success at losing and keeping your weight off.   What made you decide to undertake this journey together and have you found Kelly’s inclusion to be more motivating than if you’d undertaken this alone?

Initially, I started helping Kelly lose weight for health reasons. Her vet said that she was headed for some serious health issues if she didn’t slim down. Then, along the way, Kelly motivated me to lose weight and get fit. I had the same health risks! We really couldn’t have done it without each other.

I don’t know about you, but one of my biggest weaknesses is snacks.  Will there be any ideas for snacks or meals in this book?  Perhaps a couple of low fat/low cal recipes?

The book includes a list of healthy snack ideas for you, and a list for your dog. Before I started dieting with my dog, I never thought to give Kelly fruits and vegetables. The book tells you which ones are safe for dogs to eat. For people, you probably know it’s healthier to eat a strawberry than a cookie. But if you really want a cookie, it’s all about portion control and just do it once in awhile as a treat. (I have a bit of trouble with that concept!)

Maintaining weight loss is a life time commitment and a lifestyle change, what are your tips for resisting temptation and sticking with the plan?

Keep it interesting.  Surround yourself with supportive people.  Work on eliminating (or at least reducing) stress.

Right now we’re participating in a virtual tour, do you have any plans for a physical book tour?

Not a tour, so much as taking advantage of joining in at great dog-related events as they come up!

Is there anything else you’d like to share?

Be sure to check out the Woof Workouts from K9 Fit Club (a great gym where you get to work out along with your dog!) The book contains step by step instructions with photos from a K9 Fit Club fitness trainer and her dogs!

The Dieting with my Dog Guide to Weight Loss and Maintenance is available on Amazon, where you can also purchase Peggy’s other books, “Dieting with my Dog” and “Heart to Heart, Hand in Paw.”

Peggy Frezon is a freelance writer who specializes in pets.  She is a regular contributor to Guideposts Magazine and Angels on Earth.   She has also contributed many stories to the Chicken Soup for the Soul books as well as numerous magazines.

Peggy lives in New York with her husband, her spaniel-dachshund mix Kelly and newly adopted golden retriever Ike.

You can connect with Peggy on her blog, “Peggy’s Pet Place” where you will find all of her social media links.

I’d like to thank Peggy for including us in her virtual tour and wish her great success with her book!

spaniel-dachshund mix Kelly
spaniel-dachshund mix Kelly
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  2. Great interview, Jodi! I’ll have to visit Peggy’s blog when I’m done here. Early last year — before Ducky joined the family — Callie and Shadow were both overweight and I had to find a way to slim them down. A month after we started a healthier diet and our walks, Shadow had lost about 2 lbs., but Callie hadn’t lost any at all. That’s when we did a complete thyroid panel and found she had hypothyroidism. So, we put her on the meds, continued the diet and exercise, and within 2 weeks, she had lost just over a pound. It wasn’t long before both girls were back to a healthy weight. Now we work at maintaining it. Of course, Callie’s ACL surgery in February made things a bit difficult, but the walks around the back yard did help maintain her weight and helped me lose a little more too, plus a few inches around the waist.

  6. Great interview Jodi and nice to discover another writer whose book I’d like to read – Heart to Heart actually caught my eye when I checked it out on Amazon – and I’ve added it to my ever growing list of books that I will buy and read – one day. 🙂

  7. Great interview. I understand the weight loss and help from dogs. Nellie is over weight so I would take the dogs when I walked. I lost 36# and poor Nellie is still just as big as she keeps running off and eating garbage in the fields.