Diving into Facebook LIVE

We're live!

Cool, cool, cool.  I thought that I enjoyed blogging but man do I enjoy this new FB live stuff.  I've been noticing it here and there over the last week and finally decided to give it a try myself.  I made Elsa's dinner tonight and showed everyone watching how.  Of course like anything it takes some getting use to; but I have to say that so far I'm liking it a lot.

I decided to try it out on meal time because I'm pretty stationary; aside from the moving about cooking.  What I really liked about using it for cooking was that if anyone has a question right then, I can answer it.  Sure if you have a question when I post or blog I'll try to answer but it might be a few hours or days.  

Link to the prep work for Elsa's dinner

Like this blog, my GO LIVE will be about dogs.  That means that the main home for my GO LIVE will be on my Just dogs with Sherri FB page.  

I'm not a big schedule person and sort of like to be spontaneous so much of the GO LIVE will be as the feeling hits me.  Once I start being live more often then I may switch to a more routine thing....we'll see.  This is all new but so far very, very cool.  If you'd like to see more of my GO LIVE leave me a message or I'll see you over at my FB page.  

Have a great weekend.  

Feeding your dog

A healthy dinner for both Elsa and I; although the orange would have to be snuck in somewhere for her. 

What did you have for dinner last night?  I had an organic romaine heart salad with organic quinoa, pecans, beet and cabbage sauerkraut, organic black beans, with dressing.  To drink I had water with cranberry juice.  I pretty much eat salad every night.  I feel really great eating at least one salad a day; plus it's super easy to make.

What did your dog eat for dinner last night?  Elsa had grass fed beef, wild caught salmon with bone and skin, organic quinoa, organic greens, chia seeds and cranberry juice.  Right now I have a turkey meatloaf for her in the oven that will be packaged up and put in the freezer for later.  For breakfast this morning she had wilted organic romaine, eggs over easy, egg shell, organic quinoa, hemp seeds and cranberry juice.  Earlier this morning she shared my peanut butter Perfect Bar in bed before 6:00am.  We eat well.

Nutrition is such an important part of feeling good.  Sure you can exist on over processed, dried and packaged food but you will not feel optimally healthy.  If you've only ever eaten a diet of processed food then you won't even know what you're missing as far as feeling great.  Same goes for your dog. 

Yes, dogs can exist and be sustained on a diet of over processed garbage, like Pedigree or Beneful but will they thrive?  Nope.  There are lots of folks out there that will say "my dog is so healthy," when questioned about what they feed.  If it is a poor quality dry dog food then your dog could be much healthier.  

There is such a range of food available for canine guardians to feed their dogs.  If price is the first thing you look at, you need to do some homework.  Just because you can feed your dog for penny's a day does not mean that you should.  No, you do not need to spend a fortune on food to feed a better diet.  When you buy better food, the amount needed is typically less.  Many dogs eat too much food that contains too little nutrients. 

Think of a wolf when considering what to feed your dog.  How much actual real meat is in their food?  How much nutrients are accessible for their body to utilize?  Elsa and I often eat a very similar dinner albeit different rations.  She is heavy on the meat where mine will be heavy on the veggies.  We need to think about food as fuel for the body; both for us and for our dog.  When I take Elsa out for a run; I consider what her powerhouse of a body needs to run.  She is a high energy dog in peak condition.  Much thought goes into what she eats so that she feel as great as she looks.  

Feeding real food makes sense; eating real food makes sense.  The more processing a food goes through the less nutrition is left at the end of it all.  Does your food resemble real food?  How about your dogs?

Food vs. nutrition

 

Luke and Elsa had Mackerel last night, a first. 

 

 

You've gone to the store and bought a big bag of dog food.  You went for the really big bag because it just made economical sense.  20 lbs of dog food for only 13.00, pretty good deal right?  Or is it?  Do you know what you are feeding your dog?  Do you care?  Many people don't really care what they feed their dogs.  Let's be honest.  Canine nutrition is not something that man people concern themselves with.  To them food is food and dogs are meant to eat dog food, end of story.

But that is not the end of the story.  What you eat makes a huge difference in how you feel.  The more nutrient dense a food is the more your body and our dog's bodies can pull from it.  Sure a dog can survive on poor quality dog food just like we can survive on a diet of donuts, hot dogs and mac'n cheese.  Will we feel great?  Probably not, nor will our dogs.

A dog's diet should be based around high quality animal protein.  That said, many dog foods have very little if any high quality animal protein in them.  Instead they are based on fillers; unusable stuff that simply fills the need of eating not utilizing nutrition. 

I have often seen people who have one or two tiny dogs that feed very poor quality food.  This always shocks me because they eat such small amounts that feeding really high quality food will not cost a lot.  Now if you have 5 Great Dane sized dogs; I can see the desire to go cheap, cut corners and stick to a budget.  But no matter what size your dog is; nutrition should always be considered.  Why should we not feed the best that we can afford?  Why do some people shake their head about good nutrition for our dogs?  They deserve good nutrition as much as we do.

There are so many dog food manufacturers out there now.   Many great new ones are popping up with different ways to feed our dogs.  There are also lots of websites where you can read about the quality ratings of each food and go from there.  I say "stay out of the big box stores when buying dog food."  The lower the quality the more chance they will be sold in the big box stores.  Hit the Mom and Pop shops, somewhere they are concerned with quality and your dog.  Online is a great place to buy dog food now.  Especially because many people cannot find a place close by them to purchase the good stuff. 

Don't stop your search at dry bagged dog food.  Canned food is a great option.  There too of course you need to weed through the bad to get to the good.  Great canned food is easy and often something more palatable for our dogs.  Forget the idea that dry dog food is good for their teeth when steering away from canned food; that is another myth put out their by the dry dog food manufacturers. 

The better the food, the less the quantity needed to fuel our dogs.  I am always surprised what a small amount of food is needed to keep a dog in peak shape.  If you feed real quality food, it is very little.  Nutrition is very important and it all started way before someone came up with the idea of dry food kibbles to feed our dogs.  Think about that.