Since I started cooking homemade dog food for my two dogs years ago, everyone has noticed and commented on how much better they look, and I get asked what are you doing differently. Since feeding homemade dog food I can see significant changes, such as glossier fur coats, more energy, and they also smell better.

Imagine eating the same chemical filled food, day after day, for your whole life. The build up of cancer causing chemicals and preservatives is bound to affect your health negatively.

Checking with your vet or a pet nutritionist first, before starting your pet on a homemade dog food diet is always recommended. Just as we enjoy a variety of foos, so do our dogs.

Make sure you don’t just suddenly give your dog his new homemade diet in one immediate change, as this will cause stomach upset in most dogs. Slowly change him over by daily increasing your homemade food, and decreasing the old food.

A well balanced homemade dog food should contain approximately 40% meat, 30% starch, and 30% veggie/fruit on a daily basis. To ensure a healthy nutritious diet just follow the basic formula for any combination of ingredients.

Get a good dog nutrition book, written specifically by an animal nutritionist, and read up on the proper kcals (calories) per day per pound of your dog, so you will know exactly how much to feed per day. Also there are many excellent homemade dog food recipe books available now, especially since the dog food recall killed so many of our beloved pets. Many more people are making their own homemade dog food, because we have become much more aware of the commercial dog food companies practices.

Organ meat (liver, kidneys etc.) and occasionally adding eggs are very good for your pet, and as we all know variety in our diets is always nice.

There are three important ingredients that must be included in your dog’s home made dog food every day.

1. 40% meat – chicken, beef, turkey venison or other lean meat of your choice.

2. 30% vegetable/fruit combo – cooked and pureed – you can use all one veggie, a variety of cooked frozen veggies or a mixture of veggies and cooked pureed fruits. You can use frozen, canned or fresh, whichever is handy and on sale.

3. 30% starch – white or brown rice, barley, oatmeal, macaroni or other pasta, or potatoes.

The easiest and quickest way is to make what I call doggie stew. Everything is thrown into one pot and steamed together until cooked. I use just a small amount of water to start to cook the meat, pasta and veggies. Cook the whole batch in a covered pot, and add water as it is absorbed. You don’t want it to be soupy when finished. Then I use a fork and shred the cooked meat and mash the veggies all in the same pot. Done and delicious.

I also give a calcium supplement, along with a few teaspoons of flax seed oil, or a vegetable oil such a canola, drizzled over the top. An addition of iodized salt is also good for your dog in a quantity depending on your dog’s weight.

Feed two meals per day, rather than one big one.

Your homemade dog food can be prepared in larger batches and frozen in the proper serving sizes, ready to thaw and eat. Any hot food should be allowed to cool down before serving your dog. I usually leave the mixture on the counter for 20 – 30 minutes, and it is close to room temperature by then. Your dog’s stomach can be upset if they eat food that is too hot.

Give it a try, and you will find that it is not as time consuming as it sounds, once you get into a routine, and your dogs will live longer healthier chemical free natural lives.

I am an animal lover and advocate of raising healthy, happy pets, as part of the family. I truly believe this starts with proper, adequate nutrition, which in turn extends your pets life. Check out what is the best of the best for you dog here:

http://www.recipes4gourmetdogs.com

Jane_Dinunzio

There comes a point on every Catherine Freer wilderness therapy expedition camp for kids, usually in the second week, when the young people start looking different. Our staff refers to it as the “spark” or “signs of life” or “seeing the light in your eye.” The kids just call it “feeling happy.” And as much as we would like to take full credit for creating this feeling through cutting edge programming and brilliant therapy, I am convinced that more than half of the credit should be given to the very basics of what the kids are doing physically and putting into their bodies on a daily basis. These are usually big changes from that to which they are accustomed.

First of all, the participants typically sleep 8-10 hours a night during the expedition. Most researchers recommend that adolescents sleep 8-9.5 hours, an amount that is not usually attained given late nights on chat rooms and early school starts. Second, the groups hike on most days in the morning and the afternoon. The physical exertion varies day-to-day depending on the itinerary and terrain and the stamina of the group but it is safe to say that it far exceeds a Saturday watching television or playing with an Xbox. Exercise produces endorphins, the bodies “natural anti-depressant”, and may positively affect the levels of certain mood-enhancing neurotransmitters.

Young people eat very differently during an expedition than they typically do at home. They choose from a variety of less “processed” foods like beans and rice, and whole grains like oatmeal. And they learn to make the food taste good without deep-frying or adding lots of sugar. There is considerable evidence linking highly fluctuating blood sugar levels with ADHD, depression, anxiety, and other disorders. Blood sugar levels become unstable not only with the intake of refined sugar but also with highly processed, high carbohydrate foods like white bread and some types of pasta.

Expedition participants drink very differently, as well. Along with missing their fruit loops and donuts in the morning, many kids often complain about not getting grande lattes and caramel macchiatos. Needless to say, anxious young people who have trouble getting to sleep do not benefit from their Starbucks runs and Mountain Dew binges. Being without caffeine allows their bodies to readjust to natural cycles of energy and attention. Moreover, excessive caffeine intake may interfere with the efficacy of anti-depressant medication.

On the other hand, insufficient water intake can contribute to mood disorders like depression and anxiety, create low energy and make weight loss more difficult. Staff on the expeditions are continually reminding the kids to drink water and there are expectations for minimum consumption while hiking. Often it becomes a joke on the expedition. Sore muscles? Drink water! Tired? Drink water! Attacked by a bear? Drink water!

Most interesting to us is a study that was recently published by the University of Illinois that demonstrated a reduction of ADHD symptoms by young people who were exposed to “natural settings” on a regular basis. Even 30 minutes a day on a green lawn or a city park was beneficial for children who suffer from ADHD. Imagine what 24 hours in old growth forest and panoramic vistas does for a young person struggling with ADHD.

Eventually, however, participants on a Catherine Freer expedition must leave the woods and return to more “civilized” setting. Unfortunately, it is not possible for most kids to continue with six hours a day of hiking. And at home, parents have much less control over what their children eat and drink throughout the day. That “relapse” or falling back into old behaviors and attitudes that you experience may have just as much to do with sugar and inactivity as anything else.

There are some steps that families can take at home to capitalize on the expedition experience help make lasting, positive changes in behavioral habits:

Check out your own kitchen – Take a look in the fridge and on the dinner table. Does your family eat a lot of fast food and sugary sweets? Ask your child to demonstrate a meal he/she made on the expedition. Can you organize a more regular family dinnertime at a table that includes fresh fruits and vegetables, whole grains and other “good for you” foods?

Include these changes in your recovery plan – Along with not seeing negative friends and attending counseling sessions, all young people leaving Catherine Freer should make specific commitments about how they are going to get exercise and good food. Families can follow up on these commitments when behavior starts to change.

Make it easy to exercise – Membership to a gym, rides to activities, or a new bike are some ways that family can support a young person continuing to get physical exercise.

Get outside! – Even a walk in the park or throwing Frisbee in the yard is helpful. If you are up for it, go hiking or camping and let your child teach you some of what he or she has learned.

Making real change is hard and some parents may wonder why they have to give up Twinkies just because their kid got in trouble. It helps to remember the look in your child’s eye when they completed their wilderness therapy expedition when you knew something was different, something had changed, and how you can bring home some of the expedition experience to your home.

Have you ever tried to lose weight by simply deciding you are going to stop being a junk food junkie? You finish off the last 4 Oreos in the bag and then spend the next three or four days eating nothing but yogurt, chicken and bland salads. Then what happens? You find yourself opening up a new bag of Oreos because you feel that life is not worth living if you can not be happy about what you eat.

Do not worry. This happens to most junk food junkies because they think they can only lose weight with will power and an abrupt change in their diet. Although this looks great on paper, it does not work for the majority of people because the approach is what we call cold turkey. Change needs to happen gradually in order for it to work long term.

First face the facts. You are a junk food junkie. You have been eating junk food for a long time and it is extremely difficult for you to eat a carrot instead of those tasty McDonald french fries. It has taken you years upon years to get out of shape and become sedentary. If it happened overnight, you would have noticed it. No one can break a long-time habit easily.

In order for anyone to lose weight and keep it off for good, a person must lead a healthy lifestyle. Knowing this is important because it is the ultimate goal for anyone wanting to lose weight. Leading a healthy lifestyle includes exercise, proper nutrition and a sense of well-being for the areas in your life that give you joy. All on a daily basis.

Your first thought is probably that it takes too much work to to kick the junk food junkie habit and lead a healthy lifestyle. Exercise every day? Who has the time and energy for that?! And proper nutrition will just take you back to those bland salads again, right? Wrong! People who lead a healthy lifestyle eat McDonald’s french fries and Oreos. They just do not eat them all the time.

As far as exercise is concerned, all a person needs to keep themselves fit and active is 30 minutes. Walking, running, bike riding, dancing, roller skating, skiing…it does not matter. If you can not set aside a half hour each day to ensure the health of the only body you have to take care of in your life, you need to make more changes than just weight loss!

What does all of this have to do with how you can quit being a junk food junkie? A lot! Now that you know leading a healthy lifestyle is the ultimate goal, you can set up a road map to get there. Everyone wants to be there overnight, but setting a realistic time frame to achieve your goals is a more effective and productive approach.

Your parents probably told you to eat your vegetables when you were a child. Somewhere along the way you decided to eat for yourself and junk food replaced what you have always known was a healthier choice. The shock value of going back to those vegetables without continuing to eat your junk food will not feel right to you. I say keep eating your junk food.

What? Keep eating junk food? Yep, that is my advice. But here is the catch. Instead of eating junk food every time you sit down to a meal or a snack, choose one meal a day that you will change to better food choices. I told you this would be gradual. If you usually eat Cheez-its every day at 3pm for a snack, eat a bowl of granola cereal instead.

After making this small daily change for a few weeks, discipline yourself to take it to the next level. Now that you are OK with eating good once a day, go for two! This could be two snacks, two meals or a snack and a meal. I would go for a meal this time because it will accelerate your weight loss more than changing your snack habits every day.

So after a month of this, you are not really eating junk food all the time are you? You have probably lost some weight but you still get to eat pizza every Friday night. Hmmm…interesting how this works. Now that you are well on your way to eating properly without giving up the foods you love, it is time to think about exercise.

We have already established that you do not have 30 minutes a day to sweat on the treadmill. OK, how about 5 minutes? Everyone has 5 minutes to walk around the block. Spend 5 minutes a day doing this for a week. Once you start feeling better, which you will, you will want to do it more often. I can almost guarantee you will find 10 minutes in your busy schedule.

Keep going at this speed. Increase your exercise time each week by 5 minutes. After a month and a half you will be up to 30 minutes and that is it! Whether you want to continue improving your health is your own choice, but for the most part, people only need 30 minutes of sustained exercise a day to maintain a healthy weight.

Even if you are reading this and you know you can eat better than one meal a day, or exercise longer than 30 minutes, do not do it. You will just burn out like all the other times you have tried to lose weight. Keep it gradual and eventually you will get to the point where you are actually exercising and eating healthy most of the time without thinking twice about it.

This approach worked for me 15 years ago and I have maintained a weight loss of 70 pounds ever since. I had severe asthma and could not exercise at first, but as my body became healthy, I suddenly found myself off medications and outside on a bicycle every day. Words cannot describe how happy I am to be able to do this now and breath properly now.

For things to change, you have got to change. Just remember kicking the junk food junkie habit does not have to be overnight. In fact, the more gradual it is, the more effective it will be in the long run.