Select batches of Premium Edge Finicky Adult Cat and Premium Edge Hairball do not contain enough thiamine, which is an essential nutrient for cats. Without it, they could develop thiamine deficiency which causes gastrointestinal or neurological problems. If untreated, this disorder could result in death.

Initial symptoms of thiamine deficiency include decreased appetite, salivation, vomiting and weight loss. Later, neurological problems could develop including, bending the neck toward the floor, wobbly walking, circling, falling and seizures.

So far, the recalled food has only been known to have been distributed in the eastern part of the U.S.

Residents in Maine, New Hampshire, Vermont, Massachusetts, Connecticut, Rhode Island, New Jersey, Maryland, Delaware, New York, Pennsylvania, Virginia, Alabama, Tennessee, North Carolina, South Carolina, Georgia and Florida are urged to check the labeling on their bags for the following codes: RAF0501A22X, RAF0501A2X, RAH0501A22X, and RAH0501A2X. Affected bags can be returned to the retailer they were purchased from.

[images: premiumedgepetfood.com]

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Diamond Pet Foods Recalls Cat Food

Angry Fat Girls by Frances Kuffel is the memoir of five women struggling with losing weight and gaining it back again. The author’s life was transformed when she lost 188 pounds. That story was documented in Kuffel’s book, Passing for Thin.

Angry Fat Girls, to be released in January, deals with how Kuffel’s life changed yet again when she gained back more than half of the weight she lost. But the book is about more than the physical and psychological implications of the author’s weight gain. Kuffel’s memoir includes the stories of four other women: “5 Women, 500 Pounds and a Year of Losing It…Again.”

After she re-gained the weight, Kuffel formed new friendships with the other women featured in the book. They were in similar situations and found each other through the internet. The memoir has been described as funny and painfully honest. They’re looking for their best selves amid all the crazy weight loss struggles, while also asking the difficult questions like “Who am I inside all this weight?”

Enter to Win Angry Fat Girls: 5 Women, 500 Pounds and a Year of Losing It…Again

Contest is open to US residents only. Leave a comment on this post before 11 pm CST on Tuesday, December 15. Share why you’d like to win this book.

The randomly chosen winner will have 5 days to respond to my request for a mailing address before another winner is chosen. Please check your spam filter on December 16.

(Image via Berkley)

UPDATE: Congrats to the randomly chosen winner, Christina M!

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Book Giveaway: Angry Fat Girls

I found a great list of diet tips from AOL Health. These tips are tried and true favorites of top US registered dieticians.

Some are no-brainers, like switch out your whole milk for 1% (I use Fat Free myself). Did you know that if you drink one glass of milk a day, then this switch could generate a 5 pound weight loss in one year?

Here are a few more of the tips that were provided to AOL, by Prevention magazine:

“Eating out? Halve it, and bag the rest. A typical restaurant entree has 1,000 to 2,000 calories, not even counting the bread, appetizer, beverage and dessert.” Be sure to put your leftovers into a refrigerator promptly.

“Get calories from foods you chew, not beverages. Have fresh fruit instead of fruit juice.” Fresh fruit has fiber and fills you up. Juice does not.

“Have a V8 or tomato juice instead of a Diet Coke at 3PM.” Excellent! I just purchased some Spicy Hot V8 yesterday. 

“Mix three different cans of beans and some diet Italian dressing. Eat this three-bean salad all week.” I suggest adding finely sliced slivers of red onion to the mixture. Tastes excellent when spooned over a green salad.

“As obvious as it sounds, don’t stand near the food at parties. Make the effort, and you’ll find you eat less.” I saw something on TV that said to turn away from the food, because if you face it, you’re more likely to reach for another serving.

Image credit: Sxc.hu

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5 Easy Ways to Increase Weight Loss

The Measure Up Bowl is a handy dish that measures foods for you, without having to use and dirty separate measuring cups. Simply pour or serve whatever you’re eating and then eat directly from the bowl, whether it’s a snack of mixed nuts or a dinner of spaghetti and meatballs.

They come in two sizes as well, a “classic” size with measurements up to two cups down to 1/2 a cup, perfect for larger meals like soup, salads, fruits and pasta, and a “small” bowl with measurements up to 3/4 cup for light snacks, cereal or ice cream.

There’s a child bowl too that I’m a little leery of, mostly because I don’t think kids need to be worrying about how much they eat, as far as portion control goes (I think a parent can show them how much to put in a regular bowl and maybe supervise). Anyway, I think the two regular bowls are a fantastic idea just the same.

The bowls can be purchased at the Measure Up Store, but in my opinion, they’re not too affordable. One classic bowl will run you $20, and the small bowl is $14, or you can get them both together for $30. I can’t find any pricing information for the children’s bowls, though. The porcelain bowls are all dishwasher and microwave safe.

What do you think? Is this a food “gadget” you’d invest in?

[image used with permission from measure up bowl]

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Easy Portion Control with Measure Up Bowls

John Morton, MD, associate professor of surgery at Stanford School of Medicine, performed the gastric bypass surgeries in the probiotics study.

Researchers followed 44 patients receiving gastric bypass from 2006 to 2007.

The group of patients taking probiotics consumed one pill per day of Puritan’s Pride, available online and in many stores. Puritan’s Pride has no financial ties with the study.

The probiotics study, published in the July issue of the Journal of Gastrointestinal Surgery, revealed that after three months, the patients taking probiotics saw a 47.6% weight loss, while the control group had only a 38.5% weight loss.

One of the study authors, John Morton, MD, who performed the gastric bypasses, said he now recommends probiotic supplements to his patients.

Another benefit of of probiotics is that they help maintain levels of vitamin B-12 after gastric-bypass surgery. The study showed that patients taking the supplements had higher B-12 levels three months after surgery. That’s a useful finding since gastric bypass frequently causes deficiency in B-12.

Morton believes that, “part of the obesity puzzle may be due to the kind of bacteria you have in your intestine.”

(Image via Stanford University School of Medicine)

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Role of Probiotics in Weight Loss

I am on the look out for the right diet programme for me. What can you suggest? I’m currently looking into:

Atkins Diet

I heard that the Atkins diet is quite controversial because of extreme results from those who tried it. I wonder if it has the same carbohydrate restrictions as South Beach Diet?

Weight Watchers. The review from Consumer Research include:

Weight Watchers is reviewed by numerous medical and general-interest publications, including Consumer Reports magazine, The Journal of the American Medical Association, the British Medical Journal, Health magazine and WebMD.com. We also consulted user opinions of this plan on TopDiets.com.

Weight Watchers has been subjected to the most clinical studies of all the weight-loss programs. This program encourages a sensible diet of healthy, ordinary foods, combined with exercise and a positive attitude. Weight Watchers is also flexible, reviewers say, which makes it easier to stick with, and its costs are reasonable. In-person group meetings and weigh-ins are the cornerstone of the Weight Watchers diet plan; the food plan demands strict calorie control, but does not require the purchase of prepackaged food. Critics of the plan say counting “points” doesn’t necessarily encourage healthier eating, but overall, Weight Watchers has a vastly better long-term record than any other diet plan, including Slim-Fast (*est. $40 per week for shakes/bars).

South Beach Diet

I’ve tried the South Beach Diet. I even bought the recipe book. It gave me great results but not sure I want to do it all over again. No carbs for the first 2 weeks of the diet left me really weak. I wonder if I can do it again.

Image: SBD

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On Losing Weight

Sensei for Weight Loss is a mobile nutrition program that assists and guides people with busy lifestyles in managing their diets and weight loss through healthy eating and fitness. Truly helping you really embrace a healthy and active lifestyle, Sensei has already given away a Nintendo Wii Fit and a Whole Foods Gift Card as part of Blisstree’s We Love You, Moms! Giveaway.

At $15 (for online-only service) to $20 per month (for online and mobile service), it is a cost-effective approach to healthy eating, and is available wherever you are – online at Sensei.com, on your smartphone through their mobile website, and through their iPhone app. Sensei for Weight Loss offers a personalized meal planner that takes into account where and when you eat your meals, what foods you like and don’t like, and whether you like to cook or eat out.

Sensei for Weight Loss will also send you personalized grocery lists based on the meal plan it puts together for you, as well as daily alerts on your meals, fitness activities and weight loss goals – all via email or through their app! You can learn more about how Sensei for Weight Loss works at Sensei.com.

All you need to do to enter the giveaway is write a quick comment telling us what your biggest weight control obstacle is. One winner will be drawn at random after 5 days, so don’t delay! Enter only once to be eligible.

This giveaway is now closed. Congrats to the winner – Susan V.

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Sensei Giveaway: Weight Loss Service

I have heard women lament about how as soon as they got married, 5-20 pounds immediately appeared on their frame, as if a wedding band were a magnet for saddlebags and love handles. The same deflection is heard every Fall when a bunch of kids trot off to college and promptly gain “the freshman fifteen”.

Image: stock.xchng

No, your husband and your marriage are not making you fat. And this is coming from a woman who has probably put on close to twenty pounds since the wedding day! To be fair, the slide downhill probably started a year or two before the actual wedding, but never the less – in the last 18 months or so…the difference is noticeable, as much as I hate to admit it.

Could I just blame Paul? Make it his fault that I don’t eat skimpy salads for dinner? Yeah, probably. He might even absorb that accusation just because who wants to be the guy to say, “Eve, you’re the reason you can’t fit into your favorite jeans anymore, not me.” No one wants to be that guy.

No, it’s not Paul’s fault. It is my concern and my stress, work, life that has caused exercise and moderation to escape my brain completely. The downside of an active childhood is that you can eat whatever you want without a second thought. As soon as that is paired up with an office job and long hours…the pounds are hard to stave off.

Don’t blame your husband if you are battling with your weight. That’s only going to stop you from doing something about it. Making it a consequence of married life only stalls the ability to change and start feeling better about yourself.

Okay, easy part is over. I know who is to blame. (Me.) Now the hard part – actually doing something about it.

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Is Your Husband Making You Fat?

But Bertinelli still says Alley can lose the weight and get back in shape again. She says Alley’s recent 83 pound weight gain is “just a bump in the road. Nothing in life goes smoothly all the time.” She also credits Alley with inspiring her to lose weight and considers her a mentor, and has invited Alley to come work out with her.

Seeing these two celebrities struggle publicly with their weight has been quite a contrast to the people who seem to lose weight like it’s nothing. Think of all the new mothers we see just a few months after giving birth who are in the best shape of their lives. While I think that’s a great thing, it always doesn’t always happen like that. More often than not, people struggle when it comes to weight loss. It’s a livelong change, as Bertinelli says, not just a quick fix. Hopefully seeing Alley and Bertinelli will help the rest of us trying to lose weight and be healthy.

Image: Bauer-Griffin

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Valerie Bertinelli Supports Kirstie Alley

In 2007, Rena Wing,professor of psychiatry and human behavior at the Waren Alpert Medical School of Brown University, and her colleagues evaluated the Shape Up Rhode Island weight-loss competitions.  According to this article, Weight Loss Competitions Produce Encouraging Results, “Shape Up Rhode Island reduced the percentage of patients in the study who were obese from 39 percent to 31 percent. Researchers found that individuals who increased their activity the most achieved the best weight losses.”

Also of interest: “Of the initial participants, 3,311 people or 70.2 percent of participants completed at least 12 weeks of the study. Participants who were heavier at the start of the program lost more weight, as did those who generated greater jumps in their physical activity.”

Many businesses, social groups, and just groups of friends are starting to challenge each other to do certain activities geared towards fitness and weight loss. My husband’s company had a 10,000 steps per day challenge that lasted one work week. All participants were given a pedometer to help measure their progress. And, there’s a prize after for the team (of 5) who made the goal and had the highest total number of steps. Since his work place is a sit down work place, this forced some of the workers who don’t usually move around to be more active.

I know that in my husband’s case, although he’s extremely active as it is (he goes to the gym to run, exercise and do weights several times a week), he found that 10,000 steps was more than he realized. But if it can get others moving a bit more, even 5,000 steps per day, this was worth the effort put into it.

~~~~~

Image: Stock.xhcng

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Are weight-loss competitions helpful?