WEIGHT LOSS TIPS

A Massive Dog Food Recall is Underway

There is a pet food company called Menu Foods which makes canned chunks of meat in gravy that is packaged in cans and small foil pouches. Some of their pet food is causing kidney failure in dogs and cats. This company supplies a huge number of brand names. Just for dog food, 51 brand names on this list may be tainted. See their lists for cat food here.

1. Americas Choice, Preferred Pets
2. Authority
3. Award
4. Best Choice
5. Big Bet
6. Big Red
7. Bloom
8. Wegmans Bruiser
9. Cadillac
10. Companion
11. Demoulas Market Basket
12. Eukanuba
13. Food Lion
14. Giant Companion
15. Great Choice
16. Hannaford
17. Hill Country Fare
18. Hy-Vee
19. Iams
20. Laura Lynn
21. Loving Meals
22. Meijers Main Choice
23. Mighty Dog Pouch
24. Mixables
25. Nutriplan
26. Nutro Max
27. Nutro Natural Choice
28. Nutro Ultra
29. Nutro
30. Ol'Roy Canada
31. Ol'Roy US
32. Paws
33. Pet Essentials
34. Pet Pride - Good n Meaty
35. Presidents Choice
36. Price Chopper
37. Priority Canada
38. Priority US
39. Publix
40. Roche Brothers
41. Save-A-Lot
42. Schnucks
43. Shep Dog
44. Springsfield Prize
45. Sprout
46. Stater Brothers
47. Weis Total Pet
48. Western Family US
49. White Rose
50. Winn Dixie
51. Your Pet

Kidney failure signs include loss of appetite, lethargy and vomiting. The recall involves 60 million cans of the contaminated food. Right now it's thought that it is probably the wheat gluten in the product that's the source of the contamination.

These food recalls are getting much more frequent over the last couple of years. It's another reason to eat as little processed foods as possible, but then again even raw spinach was recalled a few months ago. It's a very worrisome trend.

Reducing Alcohol

Everyone is Starved for Something

The other day I was walking past a McDonalds and saw a young fat mother sitting by the window with her baby stroller beside her. Her eyes had a glazed look as she devoured her big ice cream sundae.

I had a flashback from the night before, where I had seen a man sitting at a bar, his eyes glazed from alcohol and gulping back another mug of beer.

I can't understand how people who abuse alcohol can be so critical of fat people. And vice versa, many fat people look down on alcoholics as being some kind of very weak and despicable people. Yet take away the one vice from the one group and you will often see them turn to the other. As an example, studies are now finding that people who undergo weight loss surgery often develop an alcohol addiction in place of food.

Then there are the other thirty percent of the population, who are not overweight and don't overdrink. The majority of these people have some other equally harmful behavioural patterns such as uncontrollable shopping or gambling, nasty treatment of their employees, spouses or children, sexual addictions, beauty and body image obsessions or various other bizarre and harmful ways of manifesting their neurosis.

It seems we're all very hungry for something greater out there. There's a really good book that addresses this problem at the very root. Though it's aimed at people who drink too much, I think it's applicable to all neurosis and to anyone who feels a compulsion to escape to a better place with food, drink or other obsessions.

The book is The Thirst for Wholeness: Attachment, Addiction, and the Spiritual PathIt's written by Christina Grof and the main premise is that addiction is really a search for wholeness. Grof is a pioneer in transpersonal psychology and the book discusses her own addictive past and 'the thirst' to know the true self.

Priscilla weighed 390 at her heaviest in June of last year. Her and her husband Morton decided to take some drastic measures to lose weight. They are undertaking an extreme walking and cycling regiment. They started on January 1st when Priscilla weighed 343 pounds and their goal is to walk and cycle across the entire perimeter of the United States.

They have completed over 1,000 miles already. In January they did over 390 miles. In February they completed 534 miles. In the first 43 days of their trip Priscilla lost 47 pounds. Her goal is to regain her health and weigh 140 pounds by mid 2008.

They are asking people along the way to help them with donations for overnight stays and free nutritious food and water. Check out their walking and weight loss progress here. See more walking weight loss success stories here.

I bought an iPod a month ago. I'm writing to report that it's been a wonderful help to me to get me out there walking more regularly. It's the second generation iPod, much tinier and more powerful than the first ones that came out a few years ago. It costs $79. (The photo here shows that it's not much bigger than the size of a quarter.)

Before I got the iPod, I was walking an average of about 7 miles a week. I've been using it for three weeks now and I'm up to about 14 miles a week now. The goal is still to get up to over 20 miles per week and maintain that for a while.

I spend way too much time slouched over my computer. In the last few months I've really begun to feel the muscle and joint strain from this all over the right side of my body. (Especially around my right hip and right arm.) So it's really crucial I get out there and move, not just for fitness and weight loss and all the benefits associated with that, but to make sure I don't develop some long term nerve damage due to my bad computer habits.

I'm not so much into listening to music on my walks as when I was younger and jogging around with my heavy walkman. Now I prefer the fascinating podcasts that are available out there for free. There are tons of really high quality free lectures and talks on any topic you might possibly be interested in.

In summary, the iPod has been a great investment for my fitness motivation so far. Will let you know if it's still motivating me a few weeks from now.

A high fiber diet is very helpful for losing weight and improving digestion. When our intestinal tract is not functioning properly it can cause fatigue and listlessness. Legumes, vegetables, bran and oats are all high fiber foods. But some fruits are way up there as well in terms of high fiber content. What are the fruits with the highest fiber content?

A cup of raspberries has a whopping 8 grams of fiber and only 60 calories. That's almost twice as much fiber as a cup of broccoli, which is also a high fiber food. Pears have almost 4 grams of fiber. The delicious asian pears have the highest fiber content of all pears. One cup of strawberries has about 3 grams of fiber and one of the small kiwifruits has 2.5 grams of fiber.

These foods make great snacks. Get munching on some rasberries, pears, strawberries or kiwifruits today!

To lose weight without going hungry, try eating 25 grams of fiber everyday. This is the daily recommended amount but very few people get even half of this much fiber in their daily diet.

Some of these fruits can be quite expensive, especially when they are not in season. The most cost-efficient way to get a high-fiber diet is to eat lots of legumes, greens and brown rice. Legumes and greens are loaded with other vitamins and nutrients as well as fiber.