The Dumbo Diet

OK, I saw this in the news yesterday as I sat in our snowy northern Wisconsin cottage…..on my wonderful pda of course keeping me connected!

I have attached the link here…kind of a cute story: Click here to go the news story in the San Diego Union Tribune

The gyst is this:

Since 2000 7 elephants at the San Diego Zoo have lost over 11,000 pounds.  Yes, I typed this correctly…elephants are pretty large animals.  But I guess that in captivity, elephants typically weigh a bit more than they would in the wild.  I wonder why???

So, what WAS this diet?

1) Zookeepers switched them from a diet of bread, corn and occassional jelly beans to a mostly hay diet

2) The elephants were given a series of small meals throughout the day instead of a few large meals…and they scattered the food around the enclosures to create more exercise for the elephants to get to it.

3) The elephants were taught to walk laps around their enclosure.

Hmmm….how many times have a heard this….not about the hay, but encouragement for us to eat more smaller meals…..or eat our largest meal at breakfast and then size down proportionately after that.

And please, how many times, do we need to hear the repeated reminders that we need to add more routine, basic exercise into our daily habits…..no, we don't need to become marathoners, we need to walk more, take the stairs instead of the elevator, and how about simply shoveling our Minnesota driveways instead of using our snowblowers???

Have you done it yet?  I know that I haven't….so as we think about the New Year….let's think of these elephants and the basics about our daily habits that can help our health…..enjoy the article!

Barb