Wanna Lose Weight? Eat More Hay
 

I kid you not! ;)

SAN DIEGO -- Move over Weight Watchers and Jenny Craig, there's a new diet that's proving a success -- and it's fit for an elephant. Seven pachyderms at the San Diego Zoo and Wild Animal Park have lost a combined total of 11, 314 pounds ever since zookeepers enforced a nutrition and exercise regimen for them in 2000. The elephants eat a diet high in HAY and are restricted from treats such as bread, corn and jelly beans. Instead of three big meals per day, they get several small meals.'' [1] The newest weight-loss craze, if it catches on outside the pachyderm world, could be the San Diego Zoo's So-You-Feel-Like-An-Elephant Diet. Elephants at the zoo and Wild Animal Park have lost 11,314 pounds, thanks to a nutrition and exercise plan started by their trainers in 2000. That's nearly 5.7 tons among seven animals.[2]

SAN DIEGO -- A new nutrition and exercise plan has helped the seven elephants at the San Diego Zoo and Wild Animal Park collectively lose more than five tons of elephant fat since 2000, it was reported Thursday.[3]

Zoo officials told the San Diego Union-Tribune that the seven massive mammals at the Wild Animal Park and the zoo have slimmed down, dropping more than 11,000 pounds collectively.[4]

Zookeepers also scatter the food around the yard so the animals have to work to find it. At the zoo, keepers trained the elephants to walk laps around their enclosure for exercise.'' Elephants at the Wild Animal Park are also encouraged to walk across their 3-acre living space. You're actually supposed to be able make out the muscles beneath their wrinkly, gray skin. The entire zoo industry is focusing on slimming down elephants in an attempt to increase'' success with breeding and improve their overall health.[1] The pachyderms were given several small meals throughout the day, in lieu of fewer larger meals, the newspaper said. Keepers also made the beasts work a little harder for their meals, and spread the elephants' food across their yards so they had to walk to get to each piece rather than feeding from one spot. The elephants were also directed to walk laps around their enclosures at the zoo and at the park, doing the equivalent of line drills in basketball.[3]

So what you're saying is that your wife should hide your beer around the yard? :)

Don't give her any ideas now kid...oh and by the way I have been meaning to mention...my ex-wife had a rough go the other night...her SO's son and dil were doing the midwife birth at home thing (hers) and the kid was sunnyside up...had to rush to the hospital....all turned out OK...but was scary for a bit.

Glad to hear everyone's okay. Sunny side up is a hard way to labor for mama & baby.

Eat more HAY?

Hey - why didn't I think of that? Or perhaps -
Hay - why didn't I think of that?

I was probably too busy eating less of this and moving more of that. ;)


Also glad to hear everyone's ok. How terribly scary.

LOL - OK, I AM a vegetarian, but - honestly, hay hasn't been on the menu lately.

Hmm, I wonder if DH would like a nice hay stir fry tomorrow ;)

I suppose the human equivalent to hay would be wheat grass, alfalfa and other sprouts.

I suppose you could dehydrate them and make a hay-like product if you really wanted to (I bet that would encourage a person to drink more water).

I could run out with the horses and have a little snack. What do you know! Learn something new everyday!

EEEEKKK!!! My second child was born facing up(and really wide shoulders) Thats a pain I never care to go through again. EZ, glad momma and baby are ok