Starling Fitness: Daily writings on Fitness, Diet, and Health

When I went to Weight Watchers regularly, there was a muffin recipe that made the rounds. It was basically a chocolate cake mix, water and a bunch of Fiber One cereal added to increase the fiber and bring down the Points level. It also made the muffins taste horrible. I was so desperate to eat sweets by the time I encountered that recipe, that I lived on those chocolate muffins for awhile. I knew they weren’t good, but they weren’t “forbidden” so I was happy to eat them.

What I really wanted was a cupcake, but I ate horrible fiber muffins instead.

That is everything that is wrong with what goes on in my mind when I’m dieting. It happened to me when I was on Weight Watchers, but it wasn’t their fault. It was something that clicked and changed in my mind. As long as I lived under the motto of “I can eat anything I want, just not everything I want,” I was fine. The minute I started categorizing food as good and bad, I started to have troubles.

What I should have done instead of eating horrible fiber muffins was make some mini-cupcakes. They now have mini-cupcake pans like this one from WearEver and even mini-cupcake foil liners. Since a tiny cupcake like that is probably 150-250 calories, it wouldn’t overload my eating for one day if I eat one. I could even make them beautiful like the big cupcakes.

It has taken me years to realize that the best road to eating healthy is the one that lets me enjoy the foods that I love. When I want a cupcake, a fiber muffin is just going to make me feel deprived. When I want a cupcake, I should eat a cupcake! If I don’t, I’ll eat fifteen cupcakes in one sitting in a couple of months. Is that better?

Apparently a ton of people got the Nike+ iPod for Christmas because Nike’s website has been slow and undergoing lots of changes the last few days. Yesterday, I logged on to see if a new challenge for my Level 3 group had been started and my heart skipped a beat when I saw this:

After a couple of weeks grounded because of my black toenails, I have NO patience. I want my challenges back. I know I can only do two miles today in order to keep my feet healthy, but I still want to see where I am on the list. I had no idea I was this addicted…

Here is a picture of how my toes look after a week of nurturing. They don’t look all that bad. Compared to the pain that I experienced, they look shockingly unharmed. There was one day last week when I couldn’t walk without limping they hurt so bad. I was shocked that even putting on socks hurt them so much.

After reading all the recommendations on the Internet about how to deal with black toenail, I cringed at every one of them. They suggested lancing under the toenail with a sterilized needle or even lancing through the nail. I was reluctant to do any of those things. I knew what I was experiencing was a really bad bruise, so I treated it like a bruise and an open wound.

Here is how I treated my black toneails:

• Warm water foot baths with epsom salts to reduce the swelling: Since the swelling was so bad that the nail was pushed up at least a quarter inch away from my nail bed, I soaked my feet in warm water with epsom salts.

• Alternating with ice packs: After soaking for about ten minutes, I would fill a Ziploc bag with ice and water and place it on my toes (with a towel inbetween for comfort). I read that alternating between warm, moist heat and ice packs reduces swelling. None of the websites recommended this, but it sure helped for me.

• Triple Antibiotic: After two or three foot baths/ice packs I would put triple antibiotic on my toenails, around the cuticle area and gently under the nail. Since this was a wound, I wanted to prevent any infection, so I used Neosporin liberally. It may be that just keeping the nail and cuticle area soft with petroleum jelly might have been enough, but I grew up in a family that lived under the motto: Neosporin cures everything.

• Most importantly – REST: I stopped running, period. I stopped walking on the treadmill. For two days, I didn’t even leave the house and walked as little as possible. Part of the rest was enforced by necessity. My feet hurt too much to do anything, but after they felt better, I forced myself to stay off the treadmill. It was difficult for me, knowing that I could be logging miles, but I did it. When you feel like you could do an easy workout, DON’T. Wait a couple more days to ease yourself back into exercise.

I’m not a doctor and I didn’t see a doctor about my toes. I probably should have and if you have black toenail, don’t risk infection and pain. Go see a doctor. I definitely wouldn’t follow the advice of the websites that tell you to poke at it with a needle that you’ve held in a lighter for thirty seconds. If your toes are so bad that you feel like they need to have the pressure relieved, have a trained professional do it.

I am easing back into the world of running right now. Wish me luck and you’ll be guaranteed that I won’t increase my distance drastically like I did before. Over the next few months, I’m working up to six miles a day instead of doing it overnight like I did last month.

Other Entries:

• Starling Fitness » Black Toenail

• Starling Fitness » Black Toenails: Final Update

• Starling Fitness » Black Toenail: Biggest Fear

• Starling Fitness » Black Toenail: Finally Healed

Every year we get a bunch of new readers in January. If you’re one of them, let me introduce you to Starling Fitness. We created Starling Fitness back in December of 2003 because I was writing so much about my eating and fitness endeavors that they threatened to take over my personal weblog, Pick Me! At times, I struggle with bingeing, so maintaining a healthy weight is an effort for me. I write about the things that interest me, the things that worry me and the things that just seem kind of cool in the health and fitness industry.

I’m not a doctor. I’m not a nutritionist. I’m not an exercise physiologist. Sometimes I do stupid things. Don’t you do the same. Sometimes I find cool stuff. Check it out and see if you like it too. Sometimes I’m tempted by diet pills, diet plans and exercise equipment that promise more than can be possible. Let’s stay away from them together.

I orginally started writing about my eating problems and exercise endeavors to help keep me accountable. The whole reason Starling Fitness exists is to help me eat healthier, stay away from stupid diet plans and exercise wisely. If even one other person is helped by this website, then that’s icing on the cake.

If you’re new to the site, here are a few entries that will give you an idea of what Starling Fitness is all about:

• Starling Fitness » New Year’s Resolutions

• Starling Fitness » Video Confessional

• Starling Fitness » Losing Motivation

• Starling Fitness » Can’t Buy Me Fitness (Part 1)

• Starling Fitness » Can’t Buy Me Fitness (Part 2)

Starling Fitness isn’t for everyone. I’m very skeptical about weight loss surgery, diet pills and diet fads. I’ve been betrayed too many times to believe that these are permanent answers. If you have put your faith in the quick fix, then you probably shouldn’t read Starling Fitness, because I am all about making small healthy choices every day.

If you have made a New Year’s Resolution to live a healthier life and you came across our website because of it, you have come to the right place. Have a healthy and active 2007 with us!