Happy new year to us! 2023, entering the guts of the roaring 20s again. Not that I was alive to experience the foxtrot and Charleston; my main 1920s knowledge is of the global economic collapse in ’29. It’s a good thing current macroeconomic models prevent such things from happening here in the 2020s. No need to fret about your hard-earned cryptos drying up into something intangible!
What does 2023 hold in store for us (or is it held in the Amazon fulfilment centre with my sneakers)? One thing that is in store for me is a weight loss program.
The middle age spread comes to many and I am one of those. Hopefully, I will get some sneakers from Santa and punish the pins in this new year (turning 50 in February)!
With our four-legged friends, obesity is quite an overlooked topic. The fat lab is incorrigible and the bulky pussy on the sofa is considered to be endearingly lazy. As well as health issues (and there are many), that fat cat would live more of a god-intended cat life if it was a regular cat size. Over the years, I’ve seen dogs and cats who have successfully undergone a weight management program and their owners are surprised at how active he/she becomes. Cats and dogs are active animals.
With domestication, we obviously constrain their natural roaming freedoms, but that does not mean we cannot allow them some physical freedoms and the feel-good rewards that come with it.
Dogs can be walked and exercised easier than cats (unless you are the one doing it!). But cats who live inside have many more play toys available for their owners to buy. I have seen a variety of toys for cats on the internet. They play on the cat’s natural curiosity and the exercise happens as a matter of course. There is one that caught my eye, which is called the magic organ cat scratching ball. Though the name sounds a bit dubious, it looks like tons of fun for cats. Something to entertain a housebound cat and keep them active. Purrfect I reckon. As regards losing weight, the input is more important – just like us. If you are trying weight reduction food or using normal food, here are a few tips:
- When looking at the feeding advice chart (i.e. gram of food per kg body weight), you need to consider the dogs/cat’s ideal body weight, not its current weight.
- Some charts have various options depending on body mass. Always feed the lowest amount recommended.
- If you want to get the weight off the animal very quickly, nutritionists recommend feeding 80% of the daily ration.
- If you split the daily ration into two meals, it takes energy for the body to digest the food and helps burn more calories.
- Lastly, no between-meal-snacks! This is mainly directed at myself!
So, burn off any XS Christmas calories and get fit to enjoy the roaring 20s. Now we are getting into the swing of it!
Happy new year y’all!
