Well, if you're talking about that Calorie Counter assessment, I really like it, but it is only a general guide, and probably based on a "one size fits all" function. However, I am coming in consistently very low on fiber which is odd since I always thought I ate a lot of fiber. I'm trying to fix that. Basically I think I'm coming in low in fiber because I'm just not eating that many calories. I'm also low in calcium but I knew that and have been taking calcium/magnesium supplements with a vit. C chaser for years. They make a huge difference in how well I sleep and help me avoid "restless leg syndrome." Other than that, I take a multi-vitamin and acidophilous every day. That's plenty IMHO. Most vitamins are not stored by the body, so you're just peeing away money by taking a lot of supplements. BF swears high dose B vitamins give him energy, but they just give me weird dreams. I'd rather take my fish oil in the form of fish. I guess I should do flax, but I don't at this point. The best thing is to freshly grind the seeds but I'm not organized enough to do that. I also come in low in iron, but the body stores iron so you don't have to have adequate intake every day. Too much iron is toxic, so I just have some iron pills which I take every once and a while, with a C chaster for absorption. Calcium blocks iron, and iron is absorbed best on an empty stomach, and my thyroid medicine blocks calcium too. So timing and absporption are important with taking vitamins. I take my calcium at night, my multi and acidophilous with lunch, and my eye vitamins and iron if I'm taking it, before breakfast. Oh yeah, I have macular degeneration so I take Lutein with some other antioxidants. Probably futile. My mom has it so it is probably genetic. I don't have the worst kind though.

I agree that keeping track of your cats' weights is a VERY good idea. I learned that the hard way when, as lfnyc noted, one of my cats lost a substantial amount of weight without my noticing until he was very, very ill. That was when I bought a digital baby scale off of eBay and started weighing my cats every two weeks. I chart their weights in a spreadsheet on my computer so it is always readily at hand and I can see at a glance how each cat's weight has ebbed and flowed since 7/07. Feeding portioned meals to four cats really wouldn't be difficult once you get into a routine. I feed all fifteen of my cats portioned meals so that I can keep an eye on daily food intake and properly manage their weights. I used to free feed, but I am so glad to have switched to portioned, scheduled meals. Now I know immediately when one of my cats loses his/her appetite and can evaluate him/her for other signs of illness or take a trip to the vet if necessary. I won't lose another cat because I didn't notice weight loss or inappetance again. Laurie

Carol: I'm happy and proud for Holly. Autistic children are VERY SMART, and VERY GIFTED. Jess: I was puzzled by the 40 lbs. mistake too, I saw your hand in one of the pic., it's a slender hand. I'm happy that it's only 20 lbs., due to the kilograms conversion. Twenty pounds is easy to lose. It took me 6 months to lose 20 lbs. when I had the time to eat salad & apple & carrot & exercise. Then I got busy & get into fast-food & IV myself with juice ... and gained back 20 lbs. WEIGHT-LOSS is a life-long-habit to MAINTAIN, rather than a goal to achieve. People achieve that goal, go back to the old habits, and re-gain all-over again. Jim: Thanks for that link on processed meat, I read the entire article. I wish it would say how many people were involved in that study, or how many test-subjects. Re-post info. from Huffingpost on tips to lose weight: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/tips-losing-weight_562e8606e4b00aa54a4ab51b "Aim for 20 to 35 grams of fiber a day from plant foods, since fiber helps fill you up and slows absorption of carbohydrates. " Portion control: Popular “100-calorie” food packages do the portion controlling for you Eating mindfully means giving full attention to what you eat, savoring each bite, acknowledging what you like and don’t like, and not eating when distracted (such as while watching TV, working on the computer). Chew slowly, and savor each bite: Keep in mind also that the most pleasure often comes from the first few bites of a food; after that, it’s the law of diminishing returns. Thus, you should focus on those first few tastes of chocolate, cake, or other indulgences, as this may be enough to satisfy. Get protein in all meals: Some research suggests that distributing your protein throughout the day also helps in weight loss, rather than eating the bulk of it at, say, dinnertime. According to a 2015 paper in theAmerican Journal of Clinical Nutrition, higher-protein diets that include at least 25 grams of protein at each meal may reduce appetite and thus body weight, compared with lower-protein diets. Limit variety at meals. Don’t drink your calories. Allow for (controlled) indulgences. Consider weighing yourself regularly—at least once a week." Huffington Post Tips. **** From Straw: I agree with the above. My lowest weights were achieved when I snacked on high-fiber & high-protein cereal with soy milk ... with at least 35 gram of fiber per day. Also at least 25 g. of protein for each meal, be it peanut-butter or eggs for breakfast, beans for lunch, or fish/meat for dinner. I gained weight whenever I forget to weigh myself at least once a week. Really love their tip of " Keep in mind also that the most pleasure often comes from the first few bites of a food; after that, it’s the law of diminishing returns." So true, I really enjoy the first 4 bites of peanut-butter toast, that's all I can remember ... the rest was just to fill my stomach. Dolly Parton stays slim with her life-long habit, she eats 3 bites of a yummy food, and NO MORE. Practice portion-control is actually fun, once it becomes a habit. So proud of myself last night, I had a sour fruit, so I grabbed a fig-bar, took 3 bites, it was too sweet ... Instead of finishing that, I told myself "You don't have to eat that, you can give it to God." So I wrapped the rest and put away, GREAT FEELING! It felt good to be in control over a piece of junk, and turning something over to God, rather than torturing my body with that.

Hi aztcqn: Agree that corn-fed, zero-sun, and hormone & antibiotics injections mess up milk. Same with soy: we eat tons of soy in Vietnam: soy milk, tofu everyday, and the skinny Buddhist monks there eat soy daily since they are vegetarians. No one ever have a thyroid problem in Vietnam, and the soy back then WAS NOT GENETICALLY MODIFIED, nor doused with pesticides like the soy in America. I did a thread on the problem with soy in Organic Rose, where I dug up research on carrageenan additive in soy which irritate the body, that's the same stuff they add in ice-cream & coffee creamer. Carrageenan is inflammatory to the thyroid. Also the aluminum equipment they use to press soy in making tofu. raise the aluminum levels to brain-damaging level. I stopped eating tofu after I posted that in Organic Rose. My Mom's tofu in Vietnam tasted yummier, because she used Organic, non-genetically modified soy, plus she used stones to press tofu, rather than aluminum. I use soy products for my entire life, but stopped for a few years 2013, 2014, & most of 2015 when genetically-modified soy-milk with added carrageenan upset my stomach greatly. I came back to soy late 2015, after they take out carrageenan, and the SILK Organic soy is certified 100% non-genetically modified. I get my thyroid tested yearly for decades: zero problems. My kid's friend who drinks 3 glasses of cow-milk per day is tested hypo-thyroid, and is on thyroid medication. My kid had the WORST time ever on cow-milk. She was a happy kid, being fed with soy-milk after 3-year-old (I breast-fed her before then). When she reached puberty (11 year) .. that's when we took her off soy, and put her on cow-milk, plus plenty of ice-cream. Her hormones went out of whack with the many hormones added to cow-milk. She got depressed, she grew body hair & acne, her period was heavy, diarrhea & stinky gas, horrible mood-swings with crying, her blood test showed high-testosterone. We put her back on soy-milk late in 2015: big improvement, body hair & acne reduced, less mood-swings & crying. She's happy & energetic, her grades shot up. we use non-genetically modified, no carrageenan ORGANIC silk soy. Her thyroid is always normal. What I like about soy-milk is IT'S CLEAN, I can rinse the glass off, and it's not stinky like cow-milk. Soy milk doesn't have added hormones, antibiotics, or pain-killers nor contaminated with feces and pus (from mastitis, UP with Monsanto hormone). With cow milk, I have to wash with serious-soap twice to get rid of the stinky smell, very much like chicken or eggs. Cow-milk is allowed by the FDA to contain added hormones, plus a % of feces and pus. The safest milk is coconut milk ... my kid used it before with zero harm on her hormones, but coconut milk has no protein to fill her up for breakfast like soy milk. We need protein & fat in our cold zone 5a, when it gets down below zero in the morning. Sometimes I mix 1/2 coconut milk and 1/2 soy milk, to get both fat and protein. Some cow-milk also contain antibiotics, see excerpt from Time Magazine, March 2015: http://time.com/3738069/fda-dairy-farmers-antibiotics-milk/ "Milk intended for commercial sale is tested for six commonly used antibiotics, NPR reports, and any shipment that tests positive for drug residue is barred from ever making it to the supermarket. Because of that, farmers only use antibiotics on the dairy cows when the cows’ health requires it, and they put those cows’ milk production on hold. The FDA has learned, however, that some farmers use antibiotics that aren’t even intended for cows because the drugs go undetected by these tests. The agency studied milk from close to 2,000 dairy farms, roughly half of which were under suspicion, and half of which were random samples. More than 1% of the under-suspicion group, and .4% of the other samples, tested positive for six antibiotics not FDA-approved for use on dairy cows."