Many people like to start the new year with a personal challenge. Some choose something fitness-related or the ever-popular “Dry January” — one month without alcohol.

For Mitch Felderhoff, he’s attempting to eat nothing but dog food for 30 days.

Wednesday was a milestone for Felderhoff, who says he’s literally eaten nothing but chicken, beef, elk and venison-based dog foods for 20 days. No sauces, no seasonings, nothing but high-protein, freeze-dried premium dog food and kibble.

Felderhoff is president of sales and marketing as well as a co-owner of Muenster Milling Co., a pet food distributor based 45 minutes north of Denton in the small town of Muenster.

“Probably my favorite feed right now is our ancient grains ocean fish. I don’t know why, but from a kibble standpoint, it tastes the best to me,” Felderhoff said. “And then on the freeze-dried side, our chicken meatballs and our beef meatballs are pretty good for dog food.”

He’s been documenting the challenge on social media and on his company’s website. In a recent update, he revealed he’s lost 20 pounds since starting the challenge.

Felderhoff said he’s tried a wide variety of extreme diets in the past several years.

“We’ve tried Paleo, we’ve tried Whole 30. … Last January, I did Carnivore where I did only meat and nothing else,” Felderhoff said, “And so I knew that for 30 days I could make myself eat whatever I wanted to.”

Still, Felderhoff talked to his doctor about the challenge ahead of time.

“After he got done staring at me with his mouth open, he said, ‘OK, well, let’s check you out,’” Felderhoff said. He had bloodwork and a physical done and plans to do the same after the challenge to see how his body responded to the diet.

Felderhoff wants his challenge to be an educational moment for pet owners who may not think twice about what’s going into the food they give their animals.

“We trust [Muenster Milling] so much we’re willing to eat it,” he said. “And we know a lot of these other companies would never eat [their product] because they know what they’re putting in it.”

He was on vacation with his wife when he got serious about the dog food diet idea, something he said he considered for years but didn’t really want to do.

“You go through times when you take a break, you try to reassess. … ‘Am I doing everything that I can to pull my weight in moving the company and for our customers and our employees?’”

His wife gave him the go-ahead.

“She said, ‘Well, if anyone can do it, I know you can’ and ‘Just keep your breath away from me,’” Felderhoff said.

Mitch Felderhoff bites into one of his company's beef meatball dog food products. (Via YouTube) (Courtesy of Muenster Milling)

Muenster Milling is a fourth-generation, family-owned business started in 1932 by Mitch’s great-grandfather. It began as a dairy feed business, but converted to pet feed in the late 1980s as consolidation started to squeeze the dairy industry, Felderhoff said.

The company came out with its first naturally preserved pet food line in the early 1990s. When Mitch and his brother Chad took over the family business about five years ago, they told each other they wanted to do things differently.

“We started making super premium pet foods and bought our first freeze dryer about a year ago,” Felderhoff said. He and his brother started removing as much carbohydrates from the company’s pet food as they could.

“That’s the leading cause of chronic inflammation and obesity in pets,” Felderhoff said.

Muenster Milling’s grain-free dog foods start at $15 for a 5-pound bag and can be custom modified with added ingredients like bacon fat and salmon oil.

“It’s not something that’s cheap, but it’s necessary for dogs,” he said.

With a little more than a week left in his challenge, Felderhoff said he’s confident he can make it through all 30 days.

And as anyone would be, he’s focused on what his first meal will be at 12:01 a.m. on Day 31.