Real Life Dog Weight Loss Stories + WIN #PerfectWeight Pet Food

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10 week weight loss pets

For the past 10 weeks, we’ve been letting you know about the importance of helping your pet maintain a healthy weight. We’ve shared Tips on Creating a Healthy Routine for Your Dog, a link to a cool FREE Printable Calendar to help you stay on track, and even news about how to WIN your own supply of weight loss pet food for your dog or cat.

Well, during these past 10 weeks, several pet bloggers took the 10 Week Turnaround Challenge for themselves to help their dogs lose weight by feeding them Hill’s Science Diet Perfect Weight dog food.

By sharing their experiences, we hope it will help motivate and encourage all of you to think about what steps you can take to keep your own fur kid at their perfect weight! Want to find out how they did?

Check out these 3 Real Life Dog Weight Loss Stories:

hazel
Hazel started the 10 week dog weight loss challenge at 28 pounds. The ideal weight for a miniature schnauzer is between 10-15 pounds. On her first check-in, Hazel had lost 2 pounds. Then on her second check-in, she was down another pound. Her final check-in has her down a total of 4 pounds. Hazel now weighs 24 pounds and she feels great!

Helping Your Dog Achieve and Maintain Their #PerfectWeight

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weight loss dogs

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Is your dog overweight? Finding out and learning what to do about it is an important part of being a pet parent. It’s our job to keep our fur kids healthy, and that includes helping them maintain a healthy weight since this adds to quality of life and life expectancy.

How do you know if your dog is at their healthy weight? Start by checking out this video from Dr. Ashley Gallagher:

Did you watch it? If so you might have been surprised or even shocked to learn that more than 50% of pets are overweight…I certainly didn’t know that!

Dr. Ashley also mentioned this Healthy Pet Weight Tool where you can go to check your dog’s weight online. Be sure to go give that a try.

And the big takeaway from the video is to talk to your dog’s veterinarian for professional medical advice on whether your pet is overweight. It’s important to their overall health and wellness. If your vet says your dog needs to lose some weight, they will tell you the steps you need to take, including diet and exercise.

They may also recommend a special weight loss food like Hill’s® Science Diet® Perfect Weight. With a breakthrough blend of natural ingredients, prebiotic fibers for gentle digestion and 100% precisely balanced nutrition, 70% of cats and dogs who used Science Diet Perfect Weight lost weight within 10 weeks.
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Get Healthy, Stay Healthy with CVS MinuteClinic #MC

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Since I know we are all trying to make healthy changes and keep our families well, I’m participating in a campaign on behalf of Mom Central Consulting for CVS/pharmacy MinuteClinic to help spread the word about their programs and services to help you get healthy and stay healthy. I received promotional items as a thank you for participating.

cvs weight loss

How are YOU doing with your New Year’s resolution so far? This year, the hubby and I resolved to continue our healthy eating, keep up the exercise and look for some new hobbies and activities to join. It’s going pretty well so far, but I remember how hard it was back a few years ago when we both started to think about making serious changes to our lifestyle. We were lucky that we had each other, as well as the support of great doctors to encourage us and provide us the tools we needed to both get serious about weight loss AND to quit smoking. It’s been over 4 years now since we quit smoking (after many previous attempts) and I still remember how tough it was even with professional help! And the battle with weight and healthy eating is an ongoing challenge for us and many other people we know.

That’s why, when I heard about the new Weight Loss Program and Quit Smoking Program offered at CVS MinuteClinic, I jumped at the chance to help spread the word!

The Weight Loss Program at MinuteClinic is personalized, provides ongoing coaching and medical supervision. The program is easy to follow, focuses on healthy eating and is clinically proven to promote weight loss. It also has the added benefit of lowering blood pressure and cholesterol. With your initial assessment, you’ll receive membership to DASH for Health™, a great online resource to help you stay on course between visits to MinuteClinic. The Weight Loss Program is covered by most insurance plans, but contact your insurance company prior to visiting MinuteClinic to verify coverage as well as any copays, co-insurance or deductibles.

Want help quitting smoking? Studies show that smokers assisted by a health care provider have a greater chance of kicking the habit. MinuteClinic created this program that’s covered by most insurance plans to help those over 18(and you don’t even need to make an appointment). The program includes one-on-one consultation with a practitioner, including a nicotine dependence assessment. You’ll get an individualized smoking cessation plan and education based on your needs and goals, ongoing coaching and support in your efforts to quit smoking, plus Nicotine-replacement recommendations or prescriptions, based on what’s appropriate for your needs and situation.

stay healthy with CVS screenings

Want other help keeping yourself and your family healthy? In addition to weight loss and smoking cessation, MinuteClinic has a series of wellness services designed to help you identify lifestyle changes needed to improve your current and future health, including screenings and monitoring for diabetes, blood pressure and high cholesterol.

MinuteClinic is also there to help you with year-round common family illnesses such as strep throat and ear, eye, sinus, bladder and bronchial infections. Minor wounds, abrasions, skin conditions and joint sprains are treated, along with common vaccinations and walk-in camp, sports and school physicals are available.

Whatever you need to get healthy and stay healthy, MinuteClinic walk-in medical clinics, located inside more than 800 CVS/pharmacy stores nationwide, are there to help you stay on track with inspiration and support along the way! They are open 7 days a week with evening hours and you don’t need to make an appointment. Go HERE to learn more & find your nearest CVS MinuteClinic location.

What’s In Daisy’s Bowl? Natural Balance ALPHA Grain-Free Dog Food!

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Daisy with Natural Balance

Regular readers probably already know about Daisy’s favorite food and how happy we are with feeding her Natural Balance, but I sometimes receive questions from new followers, our friends and even family asking about what dog food Daisy eats, and how we decided on a brand and formula.

Over the first year and a half after adopting Daisy, we struggled with getting her healthy. She was a scrawny, sick little puppy who didn’t like to eat and had trouble when she did. In addition to the tummy troubles, she also had terrible skin rashes that constantly got infected, and after seeing our first few vet bills, we began to suspect that all this was why she was abandoned at the shelter in the first place!

The veterinarian suggested that before we start running more invasive and expensive tests, or put her on prescription food, that we try experimenting with a few premium wheat-free brands to see if we could find one that suited her. We tried a few, allowing enough time for her system to adjust and even though her tummy troubles  diminished, we didn’t really see an improvement in her appetite or skin until trying Natural Balance’s ALPHA. It’s a grain-free formula and comes in 3 varieties: Chicken, Turkey Meal & Duck; Lamb, Chicken Meal & Rabbit; and Trout, Salmon Meal & Whitefish.

Daisy eats the Trout variety and has been since March of 2012 when we first discovered Natural Balance. You can read the original post about how Daisy started eating Natural Balance for more info. Since that time, Daisy’s appetite and weight have become much more healthy and we’ve seen great improvements in her skin allergies as well.

Besides finding the right combination of ingredients for her sensitive system, she really loves the taste. And that’s super important when you have a dog who struggles with lack of appetite! We used to have to take Daisy in for monthly weight-checks just to make sure she wasn’t wasting away (seriously)…now we measure her meal  portions and limit her treats so she doesn’t overdo it with her enthusiasm!

Natural Balance treats and food

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Nutrisystem Update Week 33: One Week Left + Some Exciting News!

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WOW! So hard to believe that we’re heading into our final week on the Nutrisystem program! If you’re just joining us, the hubby and I have been losing weight together with Nutrisystem. Each week, we post a new update and share tips, info about our experiences, let you know about the program, and tell you how much we’ve lost so far.

win nutrisystem

Just a reminder that we’re celebrating our Nutrisystem success with a giveaway and it’s your LAST week to enter! WIN a 5-Day Nutrisystem Meal Kit and help jump start your own weight loss (ends 6/9)!!!

Knowing that we are wrapping up our time with Nutrisystem, the hubby and I really pushed extra hard last week and he’s got some super exciting news. He has reached the weight loss goal he set back in October when we started our journey! Not only that, but when we did our weekly weigh-in yesterday morning, he was actually BELOW his goal weight of 190…weighing in at 189.6 lbs, meaning he’s lost a total of 60.4 pounds!

I think I mentioned that Woof Woof Papa has started training for his first marathon, and this is due in no small part to the weight loss he’s been able to achieve thanks to Nutrisystem getting us back on the right path when it comes to portion control and logging what we eat.

I also have a reason to celebrate. Although I haven’t quite reached my goal weight yet, I dropped 3.8 pounds since last week’s weigh-in for a total of 37.8 lbs lost so far. That means I’m only 6.2 lbs away from my goal of 145. I think I’m within a few weeks of reaching it, and I’m going to do my best to do it by the end of June no matter what!

If you missed any of our previous Nutrisystem posts, just visit the links in the table below or click here to catch up! We’d love to hear about your own weight loss experiences, advice and challenges, so leave a comment and share some with us. We’re also happy to answer questions, so ask away!

See below for the full breakdown of our weekly weight loss for Weeks 1-33:

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