Wildcats In The House

From a longer creative nonfiction piece:

Wild Cats in the House

Isn’t it strange to think that the little eight-pound creature purring in your lap is related to lions and tigers?

My cat, Rhiannon, was a poster-child for domestication.  She was an animal, of course, as all cats are, but she couldn’t really be called a natural creature.  She was bred for looks, and so was the perfect specimen of a Siamese cat.  The only food she ate was dry kitty-kibble—not even the canned stuff—and occasionally the cooked and seasoned food we ate.  She liked corn and peas; who ever heard of a wildcat munching on a corncob or a pea pod?

Cats have this reputation in the public imagination as mousers; this is probably why wild cats were domesticated to begin with—to keep mice out of the granaries.  Rhiannon, however, never saw a mouse in all the four yours of her existence, and was wary of anything bigger than a spider.  Don’t get me wrong, she did hunt, but it was never a matter of life or death for her; if the bugs got away, she still had a bowl of food in the kitchen, and a warm lap to nap on. 

Rhiannon was a housecat.  She slept in our beds at night, and lay in the sun streaming through the windows during the day.  In the winter, she lived in a five-foot space around the heater.  The furthest outside she ever went was onto the top step of our front porch—and then only when the weather was warm and dry—where she would sit perfectly upright, her feet bunched together, and her tail wrapped around her toes.  I always thought she looked like a statue, then.  She was a pureblood, show-quality Siamese, all angular and bony; when she sat very still, she looked like those statues of Bast on display in natural history museums.  And maybe that’s why she made sure so carefully that she was spoiled.

Siamese cats were supposed to be descended in a straight line from two temple cats brought from Siam—now Thailand.  There, they were looked after very carefully, because the souls of the dead were believed to live on in the bodies of these cats before passing on into the afterlife.  The monks in these temples fed them the best food, decked them in jewels (it’s said that the weight of diamond necklaces gave them their long necks), and made sure that they wanted for nothing.  They were treated like royalty.

7 Healthy No Nonsense Weight Loss Tips

Weight loss is one of those issues that generates a lot of information, leaving the consumer lost as to which are the best weight loss tips and which diets to follow. But if you take a no-nonsense look at it, and remember that losing weight is a slow and steady process, it’s much easier to know when something is worth trying.

Here are seven no nonsense weight loss tips:

Eat More Often

This might sound anti-intuitive, but it’s really very sensible. Eating smaller meals more often, you will eat less overall because that point of starvation that causes overeating never happens. Aim for four to six meals of around 300 calories each, and eat every four or so hours to keep blood sugar steady and stomach full. Three hundred calories may seem like not much, but keep in mind that vegetables have very few calories, and so you can eat a huge salad or bowl of soup for the same number of calories in one candybar.

Include More Fiber

Fiber gives a sense of fullness and keeps you full longer. It keeps the intestines working and takes longer to digest, burning more calories as the body works on it. It helps maintain blood sugar so there’s no late-afternoon crash to contend with. Aim for 20-35 grams a day for adults.

Get Five Colors, Textures and Flavors Into Every Meal

The more varied the colors, textures and flavors on a plate, the more varied the nutrients represented, and the more balanced the meal will be without having to fuss over it. There’s a Japanese saying that says every meal should aim for five of each: five different colors, flavors, and textures, and they should know. The Japanese are generally among the healthiest people in the world.

Eat Seasonally

For one, eating what’s in season encourages creativity and diet diversity. For another, seasonal foods are at the peak of their healthiness and taste their best. Eating foods that are in season right now encourages healthier eating habits just by including more fruits and vegetables. Weight loss follows naturally! Look online for lists of what’s in season by month, or see what’s most abundant at the grocery.

Move Around More

Exercise is exercise, however you get it. Try walking up stairs instead of taking the elevator. Walk to the store if it’s less than a mile. Do jumping jacks during commercial breaks. Join a yoga class. Just find something that you enjoy doing, and do it as often as you can to break up the sitting around that modern life encourages.

Drink More Water

Hydrated bodies are happy bodies, and they’re more able to digest food and wash away wastes, both of which help with healthy weights. Try to get at least eight glasses of water a day.

Use Smaller Plates

The size of the plates people have been eating off of has been growing since the 50s, and the weight of the people eating has grown, too. So go back to basics, and eat from smaller plates. It’s easier to clean your plate without going overboard, and once the adjustment period is past, you’ll feel just as full as before. Just don’t go back for thirds and fourths!

Following these few simple weight loss tips can help anyone start the journey back to a healthy weight. Better yet, it can help anyone maintain those healthy weights once they’ve been reached. These’re simple, straight-forward and easy to do weight loss tips. And best of all, there’s nothing to lose but unhealthy pounds!