Clean Eating: Feline Edition [Sponsored by Influenster]

I was given the Temptations items in this post for free from Influenster for review purposes, but did not receive any additional monetary compensation. Blog posting and other sharing on social media with brand hashtags was encouraged, but not required in exchange for receiving the products. All opinions are my own. See Influenster detailed disclose post here.

I have a fair number of goals that could be aided by changing the way I eat: losing weight, helping the environment, supporting animal welfare. Beyond simply being vegetarian though, I don't put any real restrictions on what I actually eat. I just don't think that's a healthy - in a holistic sense - thing to do so (see some discussion here). Abe has some similar, sometimes more extreme beliefs and goals, which to an extent I allow him to impose on me and our household, since I don't disagree with the concept/result - for example, he goes further than I would to avoid artificial colors. But any thing even remotely resembling a "clean eating" strict diet? Absolutely not!

But when it comes to the cats, I kind of do impose some healthy eating habits to meet my ideals. (They can't complain! Or, if they are complaining, it sounds the same to me as when they complain about how evil we are for not allowing them to drink out of our water glasses or freely chase squirrels down the street.)

The staple of their diet is Halo dry cat food (the indoor cat formulations, because that's what I've found at a store), with plenty of water always available. Looking at the ingredient list, you can see that, although it's fortified with various nutrients, the top ingredients are clearly real food, akin to what the cats would eat in nature, with salmon listed first thing.

My only minor quibbles with this product are the plastic bag it comes in (thick and sturdy - which is nice, except that comes at a price of more plastic wasted), and that it's dry food. Cats don't have a very strong thirst drive, since in nature they would get much of their water by eating whole animals (which would contain water). Dry food obviously doesn't give them sufficient water, and they won't always drink enough water separately to make up for it, which eventually leads to kidney disease.

To compensate for that, it's important for cats to also get some kind of wet food. What we've chosen is Rad Cat raw cat food as a daily treat. Less than a dozen individual items, and several of them are actually parts of the same things (e.g., turkey thigh/leg, heart, and liver; egg yolk and shell). It's not fortified with individual isolated nutrients, but with additional whole items like gelatin or kelp to provide the nutrients that cats need.

At times, when I just had Imogene, I fed her raw food as the primary food, with dry food as a treat, but the cost would be super high for both cats (especially Hera, who, especially when we first adopted her, eats ridiculously amounts), plus with the waste of the plastic containers, that's not really feasible right now. I'm glad they get a bit of it every day, but I'm also comfortable with the quality of the dry food it supplements.

With that context in mind, you can probably imagine that when I received a Temptations Snacky Mouse toy with Temptations treats to try out, I was mostly concerned about what was in the treats. The latter half of the list looks similar to the Halo dry food - lots of isolated nutrients, important albeit not from a whole foods kind of source. But the beginning of the list looks a little different: First ingredient is "chicken by-product meal", followed by corn, and shortly thereafter "dried meat by-products" and natural flavor. 

Corn isn't really good, at least so high on the ingredient list. Cats are obligate carnivores - they benefit from some roughage, which they would get in nature from the stomach contents of the small animals they'd eat - so grains in cat foods aren't providing quality nutrients but are just filler. More grains equals less animal protein.

Natural flavor also isn't great, but mainly just because it means the actual ingredient(s) isn't being disclosed. If it's "natural" versus artificial, then it's at least derived from real stuff, but it can be still be hugely processed before it gets to the flavor stage. Just like in human food, natural flavor is better than artificial flavor, but fully disclosed ingredients are even better.

And what about those by-products? By-products are basically what they sound like: the product that's leftover after other portions have been processed for human consumption. It doesn't necessarily mean it has no nutritional value, but it's definitely not the same as whole muscle meat. It's random leftover pieces - includes organs and bone that are good for cats anyway (remember, they'd be eating small animals basically in whole, if they were catching their own prey), but it can also be feet or meat deemed unsuitable for humans (such as dead on arrival animals) that at best have no nutrition, and at worst could be harmful.

On the one hand, I like the idea of all parts of an animal, once it's doomed to consumption anyway, being used for something. But my cats are my babies! The fact that I brought them into my home means I made myself responsible for their well being. I doubt the potential health risk is significant (their stomachs are made to digest raw meat, after all), but it's simply not high-quality food. It's bits and scraps, processed to meet certain numbers - but it is processed, it's not real food that should the staple of anyone's diet.

That said, like I don't constrain myself to not only eat for pure health, the girls are entitled to treats as well! While I don't think the Temptations treats are truly healthy, I also don't think they're inherently harmful, and I have no issue with Imogene and Hera have a few pieces occasionally. 

They haven't quite gotten the hang of the snacky mouse to earn their treats, but they love the eating treats part!

Influenster required disclosure: I received the Temptations products complimentary from Influenster for testing purposes.

ClassPass Fitness Night Out: Xtend Barre Portland [Sponsored-ish]

I was invited to attend the class in this post for free from ClassPass for promotional purposes and attendees at this free event received a small gift bag, but did not receive any other additional compensation. Blog posting and other sharing on social media with brand hashtags was encouraged, but not required in exchange for receiving the products. All opinions are my own. Please see my ClassPass disclosure post for additional information, and let me know if you have any questions or concerns.

On Wednesday I was able to attend a class at Xtend Barre Portland, courtesy of ClassPass. ClassPass is a program that provides unlimited monthly access to fitness studios in the network, and just came to Portland a few months ago. There are limitations (such as a max of 3 visits per month to each studio), but it ends up costing the same or less than what an unlimited pass at most studios would cost, and you can try a variety of classes throughout the month. 

Check out the map of participating fitness studios (accurate to the best of my knowledge as of February 2015, or possibly November 2014 - underlying source). As I'd expect, they're pretty concentrated in Portland itself, but there are a good handful on the westside suburbs where I live and work! Plus, the yoga studio I go to (when I get around to doing yoga) is included.

source/interactive version

The studio: 

Xtend Barre Portland is in SE on Division, in between 30th and 31st. 

I would recommend arriving by bike or TriMet if you can; parking is definitely limited! I thought I was familiar enough with the area because I've been to the Bhaktishop at Division and 26th, but no. At about 28th the vibe changes from leisurely commercial to straight out busy commercial, and parking is difficult to find. I ended up just one block down and a couple blocks away, but it's not like spots were abundant even there; whereas down by 26th I can easily find space less than a block away either on Division or down a side street.

The inside of the studio is a nice Portland-y, slightly-industrial vibe. It's set up like a ballet studio with wood floors, a literal barre, and cozy retro blue tones. There are cubbies inside the studio section to put your stuff during class. They provide the equipment needed for the workout, but also require grippy socks be worn, which they sell for $13. 

The studio is mostly Xtend Barre classes, of course, but also has TRX (the suspension band strength training).

The class: 

Our barre class was taught by Jessica, the founder of the Portland location. She's a very upbeat, enthusiastic instructor, greeting everyone as we came in to ask if we had questions or any injuries to be aware of. During the class it was a bit difficult sometimes to hear her cues over the music, but I'm sure that's at least partially because I was near the end of the studio by the speaker. She mentioned they are getting a microphone, so at least they're aware that that can be an issue!

Xtend Barre is a fusion of dance, ballet, and pilates. It utilizes a non-weighted ball, light handweights, and a mat. There are various segments that each class always follows, although the specific elements may vary. I don't recall the exact order, but there's a warm-up, arms, abs, legs. 

The arm exercises use very light weights - 1, 2, 3, or 5 pounds - and you hold your arms up for extended periods of time. I stuck with 1 pounds since I didn't know exactly what to expect, and that was sufficient! Legs were worked mostly at the barre, lots of plies, squats, lunges. Many exercises incorporated both legs and arm movements. Core and ab exercises took place on a mat. With all segments, there tended to be full range of motion movements (e.g., a full plie), followed by holding mid-way with pulses, and then tiny tiny pulses. The fairly quick reps and going from one exercise to another made it a cardio workout as well as strength.

This is clearly a program that focuses on the concept of "leaning" and "toning". So I found it kind of entertaining that I had the opportunity to do this class in my break week between phases of New Rules of Lifting for Women - which is very anti this concept. I have a post in the works about the first phase of NROLFW, which hopefully I'll get up early next week. According to NROLFW, that type of low-weight, high-rep strength training builds endurance muscles, but not strength of muscles, so it unlikely to produce the results that a typical woman wants from strength training.

Which is certainly not to say that it doesn't do anything. As I write this about 24 hours after the class, I'm definitely feeling it in my arms, shoulders, abs, and lower back! Whether it's truly building muscle in a way that would be beneficial long-term, is something I'm less certain of. It definitely felt like a good workout, in terms of cardio and calories burned, I'm just not convinced of it from a strength training viewpoint.

The cost would be the biggest reason I'm unsure if I'd go back. It's $20 per drop-in, or $16 - $18 if you buy a package of 5, 10, or 20 classes. Unlimited monthly pass is $159. That's just too much for me! By comparison, the yoga studio that I can justify spending on is $14 per drop-in, and as low as $10 per class in a 20-class package. If I did ClassPass, though, to bring down the cost per visit, it would definitely remain on my list of studios to visit.

Conscious Consumerism: Rimmel Mascara [Sponsored by Influenster]

I was given the Rimmel items in this post for free from Influenster for review purposes, but did not receive any additional monetary compensation. Blog posting and other sharing on social media with brand hashtags was encouraged, but not required in exchange for receiving the products. All opinions are my own. See Influenster detailed disclose post here.

I recently received my first box of goodies from Influenster - the #ModaVoxBox. A couple of the items are disposable and/or plastic products that I try not to have in my life - tissues (I do have a box around for guests or occasional extra-gross situations, but generally use handkerchiefs), single-serve hot cocoa, and the bottled water. The hair mask and lotion are things that you can rarely avoid buying in a plastic bottle, so I'm still checking them out to see if they're products I'm really interested. 

The remaining items were make-up items by Rimmel: Rockin' Curves mascara, Moisture Renew lipstick, and Moisture Renew lipliner. (See me wearing all three products on Instagram here.)

I generally stay pretty loyal to my products - once I find something I work, I stick with it. I am, however, currently in the market for a new perfect mascara, so I was intrigued to have the opportunity to try this one.

Of course there are some specific factors I look for in a particular item (e.g., not clumpy for a mascara, non-sticky for a lip gloss), but summing those up in "product effectiveness", the three things I consider when buying something are: 

1. Product effectiveness
2. Readily available in nearby stores (to avoid shipping costs and materials)
3. Packaging (environmental impact)
4. Company responsibility (including animal rights)

Obviously the first three are or become fairly self-evident; the last one I try to confirm on PETA's animal testing list (though the three companies discussed in this post aren't on the list either way; I'm guessing because they're UK based?), and/or on the companies' websites.

For a few years, I had the absolute best mascara: The waterproof version of the Boots maximum volume I'm now trying again - but a couple years ago they completely revamped the line and it's no longer available in waterproof. The current version is good in most other respects, but I really would love to find something equivalent that's waterproof. 

I've tried at least a half dozen other mascaras in the past year. Most recently I bought this Pixi mascara, as the display indicated it was an animal-friendly, eco-friendly brand; it's water resistant, but merely ok in other respects. With this long search in mind, you can imagine I was intrigued to get a chance to try this Rimmel mascara in the Influenster box.

How do these current three options rate? Below are evaluations on the four factors mentioned above, on a scale from 1 to 10. (All are comparable in price - in the $6 - 8 range.)

Rimmel ScandelEyes Rockin' Curves: 
1. Effectiveness: 7. I found the "heart shaped" brush annoying - either I have oddly shaped or sized eyelids, or I just don't know how to use these brushes, but I can't manage to apply it to my entire eyelashes in one swipe, so the marketed ability to target certain parts of the brushes for certain spots just doesn't work. Provides good volume and length. Doesn't appear to be available in a waterproof version.
2. Availability: 10. Found at both Fred Meyer and Target, both regular shopping spots for me, and most other retailers that sell make-up.
3. Packaging: 5. Comes in rigid plastic on cardboard backing. Tube is on the larger side, but it also does contain more product (0.41 oz). 
4. Social responsibility: 7. No animal testing (source), but doesn't make it easy to confirm.
Overall: 7.25

Boots No. 7 Maximum Volume: 
1. Effectiveness: 8. Normal brush. Moist formula. Provides reasonable amount of volume and length. Only real drawback is that it's not available in a waterproof version.
2. Availability: 6. Found only at Target, as far as I can tell (for retail stores; also available online). 
3. Packaging: 8. Comes in a single plastic wrapping, no rigid plastic or box. Tube is a bit on the larger side for how much product (0.23 oz).
4. Social responsibility: 7. No animal testing (source), but doesn't make it easy to confirm.
Overall: 7.25

Pixi Lash Booster: 
1. Effectiveness: 7. Normal brush. A bit dry. Provides reasonable amount of volume and length - just a smidge less than the Boots option. "Water resistant" is a good balance - stays on through watering eyes, but can be rubbed off in the shower without the hassle of actually using makeup remover.
2. Availability: 6. Found only at Target, as far as I can tell (for retail stores; also available online).
3. Packaging: 9. Comes in a cardboard box, no plastic. Smaller tube relative to others with similar amount of product (0.25 oz).
4. Social responsibility: 10 No animal testing (source), and advertise to imply this and make it easy to confirm.
Overall: 8

Overall, I think I'll be sticking with Pixi for the time being, although I definitely am not calling off the search yet for the perfect mascara.

Influenster required disclosure: I received the Rimmel products complimentary from Influenster for testing purposes.