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

A quick link to this entry from Tish Grier about faux-food and her reactions to it:

• love and hope and sex and dreams: Faux-Food Snobs

I love her response to the Faux Food Snobs:

“Oh. My. God. You eat POTATOES?!?”

Why, yes I do. They’re a great source of Vitamin C.

“But what about those CARBS! I simply can’t eat all those CARBS!”

Well, at least I don’t break out in a rash from potatoes.

“And you drink WHOLE MILK? what about all that FAT?”

Well, I’d rather have a glass of whole milk than eat a box of Snackwells–or some other “engineered” foodstuff…at least I know what’s in my milk (and it cures my sugar cravings really fast.)

I’ll never forget the day when I microwaved my Lean Cuisine for lunch and just couldn’t take a bite of it. I had eaten so many frozen dinners that I was just sick of even the smell of them. Rice was my savior then and Mike made good use of his fancy rice cooker for me. I never thought of potatoes. A potato sounds really good right now.

If you have become bored with the old salad routine, O Magazine has a Salad Mix N’ Match Chart that might spice things up for you:

• O Magazine Salad Chart

Stock up on the basics and you’ll be able to create something different every day for over a month. If you cringe when you think of eating another salad, it’s probably because you don’t have an interesting variety. Now, you don’t have that excuse!

Via: Oprah’s mix & match salad chart – Slashfood

I am finally able to talk to the camera again. Welcome me back!

My biggest fear happened a couple of weeks ago. I was so scared how my feet would look when my toenails finally fell off. I knew it would happen because both of them were hanging on by just a thread for so long. When I finally lost them, I was resigned to it.

If I squint, I can’t tell that I don’t have toenails on my two largest toes. A special thank you to the person who suggested that I just paint the nail bed. It has helped me so much to be able to look down and see what looks like a toenail there. My nails are only half grown back, but they look almost whole.

More importantly, I can run and walk again. I have been building up my mileage. I can do two miles a day and a long walk of four miles once a week. I’ll eventually get back up to where I was before, but for now, I’m working up to it slowly.

In the end, black toenail is painful for a couple of weeks, but it’s ugly for months. I think the worst part was worrying about how it would look. Now that I know that this is the worst it looks, I’m less scared of getting black toenail in the future.

Previous Entries:

• Starling Fitness » Black Toenail

• Starling Fitness » How I Treated My Black Toenail

• Starling Fitness » Black Toenails: Final Update

• Starling Fitness » Black Toenail: Finally Healed

I find that I am reluctant to be in front of the camera. It’s because I weigh more now than I did last year at this time and I don’t like how I look. I don’t know how hiding behind a camera can change that fact, but somehow I have to be able to get past this.

Have you been hiding from cameras? Why?

What would you have to look like to feel good about being in front of the camera? Does hiding from the camera (or mirrors) change the way you look?

Does it change the way you feel about yourself?

Is it possible to love yourself no matter what you look like?

How would you go about accepting yourself as you are now AND working to make yourself better?

Are those contradictory terms?

I am going to get in front of the camera again, despite my weight gain. Avoiding the camera and mirrors is just my way of trying to forget that I gained weight. If I avoid the truth, I’ll never be able to be healthy.

Some time before 10:28 pm last night, we crossed over to New York and finished our Race Across the USA! Here is a complete list of all the participants:

The winners are:

• krisjames – 1st place – Most miles run – Four DVD set of Starling Fitness walking videos: Swami’s Beach, Sugarhouse, Moab and the San Antonio Riverwalk.
• filo666go – 2nd place – Choice of three Starling Fitness DVDs.
• SOKAR – 3rd place – Choice of three Starling Fitness DVDs.
• DatabaseDiva – 4th place – Choice of two Starling Fitness DVDs.
• SLB’s Nike+ – 5th place – Choice of two Starling Fitness DVDs.
• Rossanne – 6th place – Choice of one Starling Fitness DVD
• abelisle – 7th place – Choice of one Starling Fitness DVD
• uberjeph – 8th place – Choice of one Starling Fitness DVD
• noels71 – 9th place – Choice of one Starling Fitness DVD
• shornke – 10th place – Choice of one Starling Fitness DVD

Congratulations to everyone who participated (if you notice, I came in at 31st place)! I hope you had as much fun as I did imagining our run across the United States!

Last week, we bought Tiger Woods PGA Tour 07 for the Wii. Mike and I have been testing it for its exercise capabilities. Sadly, as far as exergaming is concerned, it comes up short. Most of the exercise that you get when you golf comes from walking from hole to hole. With this game, you get none of the walking. Sure, you get to swing your arms to take the shots, but it has no cardio impact at all and very little muscle training. I played two days in a row without any muscle pain, which is something that I would have never been able to do with Wii Sports or Rayman Raving Rabbids.

As far as keeping you in shape during the winter months, I don’t think this game would be good for that either. I actually think that it might have the potential to hurt your game depending on how you have to swing for the game compared to swinging with a real club. Since I’ve never played golf in the real world, I wouldn’t be able to compare those two, but I highly doubt that this simulation will keep you in practice.

That said, I actually love the game. I liked that I was able to make my avatar look as close to me as I could. I didn’t have to choose between ten men and one blond famous golfer, I was able to make a golfer that looked kind of close to what I look like. I was even able to make her as fat or as thin as I wanted. Creating my avatar was really enjoyable, actually. Playing golf with her is even more so. They have animated certain reactions to good shots and bad shots. It’s funny to see how my computer golfer reacts to my miserable performance.

Additionally, it’s a lot of fun playing the courses. They have beautiful scenery, lovely clouds and tweeting birds. I can play the game at midnight and feel like I took a walk in the sunshine through a gorgeous park. I love how the trees sway when there is a lot of wind. I love how my golf ball skips across the water when I aim poorly. I even love how my golf ball got stuck inside a tree. Even the bad programming has funny effects.

Is it exergaming? No. Did it get me off the couch and interacting with my family? Yes! Most importantly, it introduced me to a sport that I might want to try in real life. It taught me the rules and got me interested in something that I never considered before. If sport video games pique the interest in a real live sport, then I’m all for them. My verdict on Tiger Woods PGA Tour 07 for the Wii? Go for it! It is a lot of fun and it might even get you interested in real-life golfing!

Adrants hit the nail on the head in this article about childhood obesity:

• Adrants » Once Again, Obesity Equation is Backwards

“Who is the one person that is most influential in a child’s life and who is charged with that child’s education and upbringing? Any guesses? Not sure? We’ll tell you. The child’s parent. Yes, parents. Parents are the primary person in their child’s lives and the ones who should be charged with educating them on proper eating habits.”

Children will do what the parents do. There is no stronger force in a child’s life than parental actions. The way you eat has much more effect on your children than a million television commercials. If you want some tips on how to help your children to eat healthy, here is an article:

• Starling Fitness » Childhood Obesity

You have an imense amount of control on how your child perceives food and exercise. Far more than all the advertisers in the world.

Update 03-24-07 12:46 pm: I also found this EXCELLENT article explaining why it is such a fight to get children to eat certain foods and what you can do about it:

• The Expatriate’s Kitchen: Why Kids Eat What They Do (or Don’t)

Finally, the most important ingredient is you. In fact, the strongest predictor of fruit and vegetable consumption by children ages 2-6 is the amount of these foods that are consumed by the parents. It makes a lot of sense. Why would a child want to eat a food that no one else wants to eat? You, yes, you have to eat your vegetables, too. This role modeling is important, both for direct learning, “this is what we eat,” and indirect role modeling, “new foods are a fun adventure, it is healthy to eat well, and these foods are enjoyable.”

Don’t give up on them just because they say they don’t like it. Repeated exposure to healthy food creates increased ability to tolerate it.

The bill board in Salt Lake City says:

“Lose Fat Forever. No Surgery. No Sweating. No Kidding.”

Don’t believe it. If they had REALLY found a way to melt away your fat, they wouldn’t need to advertise it on a billboard.

Update 04-28-08: Looks like albaum has removed this photo from his collection on Flickr. It doesn’t stop them, though, here is a screen shot of another company in Utah promoting LipoDissolve.

Kate Hopkins at The Accidental Hedonist reminisces about the candy that was offered by her grandma:

• Accidental Hedonist – Grandma Candy

“Someone once said that you know when you’re an adult when you can walk into a convenience store and have the means to purchase every piece of candy upon the shelves…and you willingly choose not to. I’d like to amend that statement a bit to include that when you do make a candy choice, you’re an adult when choose licorice, breath mints and yes, even cactus candy over the plethora of chocolate bars at your disposal.”

Just like Kate, I find myself fascinated at how my own tastes have changed over the years. Is it because I can buy whatever candy I want now and it is no longer a limited supply? Have my taste buds actually changed and candies that used to be horrible like licorice now are interesting and different? My taste for candy has changed and not because of any restrictive dieting. I just don’t want to eat some things anymore.

I wish I knew why. I wish I could harness it and change my tastes to crave fruits, veggies and whole grains instead of other unhealthy foods. Instead, I eat whatever I want in small portions and leave the old candy cravings by the wayside.