I may have mentioned previously that I have a wicked commute that involves a 45 minute train ride, each way. Plus a bit of walking to/from the train. Instead of letting that stress me out, I’ve turned it into “me” time, reading books and listening to podcasts.

If you are looking for some good reads, check out my list of books I’ve read this year and what I’m planning on reading soon. I’m only listing “high brow” books, no Georgette Heyer or David Brin to be found. :)

There are a ton of great health themed blogs and podcasts out there. Too many to read them all, though I’m crazy enough to try. I’m currently following 44 blogs and 7 podcasts. A 2.5 hour commute does help too. :)

As part of my eternal effect to “organize the internets”, here is a listing of my favorite blogs and podcasts. But even that isn’t terribly helpful. Thanks to the blog format, listing content by date instead of importance or popularity, it’s usually hard to find the best posts or must reads especially if they were posted months ago. Here is my ever growing “Best Of” listing for blog posts and podcast episodes. Hopefully if you are just starting out or are looking for new ways to kill time online, this should give you some ideas.

Also if you haven’t tried using an RSS reader, why not give it a shot? I used to keep dozens of bookmarks that I had to regularly check for new content. With an RSS reader, I can go to a single page and see a listing of which new blog posts I haven’t read yet. I originally used Google Reader and now use FeedDemon (which still uses my Google Reader settings) and has a nicer interface.

• Is that chicken really free range? - Questioning if it’s possible to ethically and sustainably raise pastured poultry.
• Is Bacon Actually BETTER For You? - A study shows that there is a reason why traditionally people have salted and cured pork and no it’s not to kill icky bacteria.
• Making a Pill from a Ketogenic Diet - They start off great, glucose is toxic, causes damage and speeds aging. They then quote a study that shows that ketogenic diets normalize blood sugar and reverse diabetic kidney disease. So the next step would be to test ketogenic diets in diabetics, right? Nope! Evidently the answer is that there’s something magical about ketones and that we need to invent ketone pills. So we removed glucose from the diet and health improved so now let’s NOT remove glucose from the diet and just add ketones into the mix too. Yeah that should work great…
• It’s Not That Hard People - The evolution of US nutrition recommendations. My favorite is FitBomb’s version of the 2010 food plate.

  

As I’ve mentioned before I have been transitioning my three cats from dry food to low-carb canned food. It was not as easy or quick as I had originally thought. I started this crazy switch to “paleo kitty food” in April and it’s only recently that they are eating all of the food without refusing altogether or vomiting later.

After going through dozens of types, they have settled on: Wellness Core,  Wellness Healthy Indulgence, Nature’s Variety Homestyle and Nature’s Variety Instinct. The biggest hurdle was finding flavors and textures that all three liked. I wasn’t willing to keep buying duck for one, chunks for the other, etc.  Once they are fully settled, I’ll start introducing raw food. There are some packaged raw brands that I’ll start with (e.g. Feline’s Pride, Nature’s Variety Instinct Raw) and eventually once I am sure it’s worth the trouble, I hope to be making this on my own.

Lessons Learned

• Never let your cat go more than 1 day without eating. They can become deathly sick very quickly. If they refuse breakfast, lunch and then dinner, it’s time to give in and feed them their normal food.
• Don’t expect this to be a quick process. It may seem like they will never accept the new food but if you keep at it, eventually they will adjust.
• The more cats you are transitioning, the more longer the process will take. Each cat has different preferences and it may take a while to find something that everyone agrees on.
• Younger cats or cats used to wet food will be much more cooperative than older cats or cats fed exclusively dry food. Ideally cats should go directly to raw or canned food after being weaned.
• Remove all traces of dry food from the house. They can smell it and will “hold out” for what they are used to.

Benefits

Now that the worse part of the transition is over, I am noticing many improvements in all three cats. Which was some much needed motivation to keep at it! :)

• They are all much more affectionate. I cannot stress this enough. Maybe I’ve finally made them realize who’s the boss or at least who’s the person who feeds them!
• Sola sits on our laps all the time now and meows like crazy when thwarted by a laptop.
• SilverBelle has gone back to her old favorite sleeping spot, my chest. Luckily she’s only 4 lbs so she still fits.
• Big Red follows us through the house and especially loves to supervise in the kitchen. He has his own stool now in an out of the way place to prevent being stepped on.
• Kittenish hijinks are back in full force. They sleep less and are more playful. Whereas previously Sola would just watch me waste my time frantically dangling expensive toys for his amusement, he now delights in destroying said toys. Good Kitty.
• Their fur is softer. They had a big improvement from high carb kibble to low carb kibble but it keeps getting better the longer they are on quality canned food.
• Less vomit! The old “normal” was cleaning up kitty puke a few times a week and now it’s down to 2x a month. It has even helped with Sola’s formidable hair balls.
• Better litter box habits. SilverBelle would occasionally have trouble with diarrhea and Sola was plagued with “dingleberries”. This has pretty much stopped completely.
• Big Red has lost 2 lbs and is down to 13 lbs. He still has maybe 1-2 more lbs to go but this is a safe rate of weight loss.
• Big Red’s neurosis is much less pronounced. He used to become upset and frantically/obsessively lick his left shoulder when his butt was scratched or petted. It sounds funny but was a sign of brain abnormality. Now he enjoys a good butt scratch and does the standard “hydraulic kitty butt” maneuver to get more.
• I can throw away my alarm clock. I prefer Big Red’s “I’m a starving kitty” meow over a blaring alarm anyway.

Overall, I’m very happy with my “paleo” kitties progress. If you are curious, or just love pictures of kitties, meet the cast of today’s post: Sola, SilverBelle and Big Red.

Here is some reading material to help you ignore your relatives on Thanksgiving. Enjoy!

• The Problems with Antibiotics: They Kill the Good Guys and Make You Fat
• The Paleo Solution Podcast 106: [51:29] Robb Wolf ponders how to prepare for the inevitable zombie apocalypse.
• Bread and Braces: The reason so many people have wisdom teeth removed or braces could be due to eating grains.
• How (Not) to Put On Weight During Thanksgiving: Fun look at how following the conventional advice will really help you pack on the pounds.