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

I saw this postcard from PostSecret this week and I didn’t know what to think of it.

He works out and stays fit. That’s a good thing. She’ll leave him if he doesn’t? That’s a bad thing, right? Yeah, but then again, it’s keeping him healthy.

This just doesn’t feel right, even though in the end, he is a healthier person.

PostSecret‘s beneficiary is the National Hopeline Network. It is a 24-hour hotline (1 (800) SUICIDE) for anyone who is thinking about suicide or knows someone who is considering it.

This is a commercial parody. It’s for something called Power Thirst.

The hyperbole is so specific:

Try Power Thirst: energy drinks for people who need gratuitous amounts of energy!

After watching this, suddenly ALL energy commercials seem like they are lying to me.

As far as I can tell, most energy drinks are just sugar and caffeine. They run about 150 calories to a whopping 300 calories. Now, I have had my own problems with caffeine in the past. It doesn’t affect everyone that way, but does ANYONE really need 300 calories of unpleasant-tasting liquid?

If you REALLY need a caffeinated jolt, why not just take a No-Doz pill? It has zero calories and the same boost of caffeine. I suspect that the reason people don’t start every day with a No-Doz pill is because pills have a negative connotation. It’s hard not to notice that caffeine is a drug when you take it in pill form. When you drink two cups of coffee or chug a Rock Star, Red Bull or Amp, it just feels like a morning drink.

Be honest with yourself. Caffeine is a drug. It can be a useful drug. It is a legal drug, but it’s IS a drug. You’re not drinking “energy,” you’re drinking caffeine and sugar. There’s nothing wrong with that as long as you consciously know that you’re turning to caffeine every day.

Be honest with your caffeine intake, otherwise you’re lying to yourself just as much as the Power Thirst people are.

Every week, I’ll be giving you some direction for how to actually KEEP your New Year’s Resolution to lose weight or get more active. If you’re short on time, scroll down to the end and read “The Short Version” to get your weekly tips.

If you’re like a lot of people, you have given up on your New Year’s Resolutions, but are desperately trying to find SOMETHING that works. Somehow, you’ve found Starling Fitness. If this describes you, go back to New Year’s Resolutions: Week 1 and start from there.

If you have been faithfully following along since Week 1, this week is very much like last week.

Cut Your Intake By 100 Calories A Day

Your goal is to get to The USDA’s MyPyramid recommended daily calorie intake. If you complete their little questionaire, it will give you an idea of how many calories you should be eating every day. If you are still above that amount, then cut your intake by 100 calories a day.

If you are eating the right amount of calories every day, then keep it up. If you are eating LESS than the recommended amount, then increase your calories by adding healthy food. Never eat less than the USDA’s recommended daily calorie intake for your height and gender.

Save enough calories to eat one teaspoon of healthy oil each day

If you are eating lean protein and high fiber whole grains, then you are going to need some fat in your system. The USDA recommends a lot of oil. For me, it recommended 5 teaspoons. Don’t jump into their recommendations all at once. Shoot for one teaspoon of healthy oil a day. That will be about 50 calories, so plan for that amount every day. Here is the USDA’s list of healthy oils:

• canola oil
• corn oil
• cottonseed oil
• olive oil
• safflower oil
• soybean oil
• sunflower oil

Include one teaspoon in your diet every day, either by cooking with it or using it on salads.

Plan One Non-Food Related Present Every Day

The longer you follow this program the more important it is to give yourself a non-food present every day. It will help you avoid the feeling of deprivation by finding non-food activities to nurture yourself. Since this is different for every person, think of some activities that you like to do. If you didn’t do this exercise, then go back to New Year’s Resolutions: Week 3 and work on finding out what these activities are for you.

Plan a non-food activity for yourself EVERY day and protect that time. It is your reward for eating healthy every day. You MUST reward yourself every day to stave off any feelings of deprivation that limiting your calories might cause.

Eat five servings of fruits and vegetables every day

One way to stay within your calorie range is to eat vegetables on a regular basis. You should be adding four to five 1/2 cup servings of fruits or veggies to your diet every day now. They are low in calories, provide essential vitamins and fiber and they keep you feeling full.

Save enough calories to eat two servings of dairy products each day

You need to make sure that you have enough calories saved up for two servings of dairy products every day. This is another healthy food to add to your diet. One cup of fat-free milk is approximately 110 calories. It’s probably your best option for adding calcium to your diet, so make sure you get two servings a day.

Increase Your Exercise

This week, I want you to increase your walking mileage to 1.50 miles five days a week. I want you to do it at the same time every day. If you want, you can increase your speed to really get yourself sweating, but if you end up sore the next day, you MUST slow down. It’s more important to exercise every day than to push yourself. Consistency is key. You need to learn the habit of exercising every day and that is WAY more important than going fast or covering a lot of miles.

If you are keeping track of your mileage, you can join us at Runner+ to track your miles and compete against other beginners.

Give Yourself Kudos

If you are still working toward your New Year’s Resolution, then you need to give yourself kudos. There are little boxes on the forms every day to give yourself a shiny sticker. Each day that you stay on the program, you need to acknowledge yourself and how good you are doing.

See you next week!

The Short Version:

• Reduce your daily caloric average by another 100 calories. Write down EVERYTHING you eat including measurements and calories.

• Save enough calories to eat one teaspoon of healthy oil each day.

• Avoid the feeling of deprivation by finding non-food activities to nurture yourself EVERY day.

• Eat five servings of fruits and vegetables every day.

• Save enough calories to eat two servings of dairy products each day.

• Increase your mileage. Walk 1.50 miles five days this week. You are allowed to increase your speed to the point of sweating, but if you are sore the next day you MUST go slow again.

• Give yourself kudos for coming this far.

I watch Diggnation every week. I love how Alex and Kevin chat on their couch talking about cool stuff. Imagine my surprise when they go into detail about their New Year’s Resolution to go alcohol-free and the surprising results.

The best of all, Alex has been losing weight with Jenny Craig and shared that fact with the audience:

Alex: I was losing weight because I was trying to lose weight. And I will say, I’ve lost twenty pounds.

Kevin: That is freakin’ crazy!

Alex: Is everybody ready for this? The WAY that I’ve lost twenty pounds in three months? Jenny Craig.

Kevin: Oh Gawd! I can’t believe you told people! This is a big thing to do!

Alex: Honestly, I was like so didn’t wanna do this, but both Heather and Susie lost a ton of weight on it. My mom was doing it, so I started doing that Chef at Home thing. Honestly, HONESTLY, I was like I don’t wanna try this. This is for ladies… whatever.

Kevin: Well… JENNY Craig…

Alex: I looked it up online and it was like, yeah, this itty bitty thing, “Yes, we help men, too.” And I was like is this really gonna work? DUDE! Three months and I’m eating better than I ever have before.

Kevin: Did you tell your bro’s that?

Alex: Yeah! And every single one of them starts off snicker snicker and then goes maybe I should join Jenny Craig. Fuckin’ Twenty POUNDS, dude, in THREE months!

Not only did Kevin Rose lose seven pounds just by cutting out beer from his diet, Alex has lost twenty pounds since October by following Jenny Craig. Watching two geek guys sitting on the couch talking about these things just brought it all home to me. EVERYONE needs to take care of their bodies by eating healthy and exercising, not just the “ladies” not just body builders. EVERYONE.

Sushi is a particularly healthy meal. It’s mostly fish and rice, so it tends to be filling and low in calories.

My friends Cory and Kathleen showed me how to eat sushi on a trip to visit them in San Francisco. I have followed their habits since that day and it’s good to see that they taught me well. Here is a video from Video Jug explaining all the intricate details for eating sushi.

How To Eat Sushi

They explain the soy sauce, sliced ginger and wasabi as well as the habits that may be considered impolite. Here is a quick list of the steps:

There are a few do’s and don’ts, but as with all food, it’s there to be enjoyed. Sushi is cold, cooked rice cooked with vinegar, shaped into bite-sized pieces and topped with raw or cooked fish or formed into a roll with fish, egg or vegetables and wrapped with seaweed.

Step 1: What to Expect

• Your place setting should include a napkin, a plate, a small block called a hashi oki onto which you rest your chopsticks, and a small shallow dish. This is for pouring soy sauce into.

If you are trying to lose weight, skip the sake and beer in step 2 and just drink the green tea.

Step 2: Drinks

• You may begin the meal with one sake. This is an alcoholic, wine-like drink, made from rice. It is then customary to move on to either green tea or beer during the meal.

Step 3: Chopsticks

• Although it is easier to eat larger pieces of sushi with your fingers, you should also use the chopsticks for some pieces and sashimi, the thin slices of fish which often start the meal. You’ll most likely be using disposable wooden chopsticks.

• Wooden chopsticks often have a few loose splinters of wood, which can make them uncomfortable to hold. These can be removed by rubbing the sticks together. Do not let your host see you doing this, as it implies that they are cheap.

• When selecting a piece of sushi from the serving dish, use the wider end of the sticks, not the end that you put in your mouth.

• Never pass food to another from your chopsticks to theirs. This mimics part of a Japanese funeral ritual and is therefore considered extremely rude.

• When you’re not using your chopsticks, rest them on the hoshi oki or across your plate, but do not lean them on the edge of your plate.

Step 4: Soy Sauce

• Pour a little of the soy sauce into your small, shallow dish. Do not dip in too much. This is considered greedy and wasteful. You can take more if you need it.

Step 5: Wasabi

• This is the extremely hot green paste that is included with most sushi dishes. Take a small amount with your chopsticks and carefully stir into your soy sauce. Again, don’t get too heavy handed as it could override the subtle flavors of the sushi and offend the chef.

Step 6: Eating The Sushi

• You should begin with sashimi, the thin slices of fish. Handle them with chopsticks and take time to savor the flavor. Then move on to rice based sushi, which you can eat with your hands or chopsticks.

• Pick the piece up and dip fish-side down in the soy sauce. Do not dunk the rice in the sauce. This will make it too soggy and difficult to eat.

• Place the sushi in your mouth fish side down, too, as it’s the flavor of the fish, not the rice that’s important here. Ideally, you should eat the piece of sushi in one go, or two at a push. Try not to take a bite and return it to your plate.

Step 7: Pickled Ginger

• These are the pale, pinkish slices often served with sushi. The idea is to eat the slices between sushi pieces to clean the palate. Use chopsticks for this, not your hands.

Etiquette aside, clearing your plate is not recommended is you are trying to lose weight. Stop eating when you get full. You don’t need to eat every grain of rice if you have eaten your fill.

Step 8: Clear Your Plate

• As much as possible, try not to leave any food on your plate. It is considered especially rude to leave rice.

Knowing what to expect when you are at a sushi restaurant will help you enjoy the ritual and experience. I have found sushi to be a way to eat healthy and feel like I’m having a fun night on the town.

I am continually surprised at the type of advertising that gets past the board room and to the filming stage. I never saw this commercial “in the wild,” but I can’t believe they actually FILMED it.

Why? Why? Why? I don’t understand the Burger King Triple Whopper, but I REALLY don’t understand advertising it with a creepy snake-like man who can swallow it in one unhinged-jaw dropping bite. That did NOT make me want to eat a hamburger. It made me want to get as far away from Burger King as I could.

Here is a good video of a series of stretching exercises to do before and after exercise to increase flexibiliy.

How To Perform A Stretching Routine To Improve Your Flexibility

I love stretching before I exercise because it’s a quiet time when I’m getting my body ready to workout. I love stretching after I exercise even more because I know my workout is finished and I can rest and relax.

Hope these are helpful to you!

Hey! I just started reading your blog, and I love it! I went and read most of your archives this weekend. I have a dilemma that I would love your advice about!

I am overweight and I started eating right and exercising two weeks ago. So far it’s going really well. Yesterday I jumped rope for two 10 minute sessions and today my left calf is really sore. I can walk fine, but if I try to move my foot I can feel it. I’m a teacher, so I stand all day and it got worse throughout the day.

I want to keep exercising so I don’t lose momentum, but I don’t know much about sore calves. Is this something I should work through and walk tomorrow, or should I give it a rest for a few days? Is it supposed to hurt, or is it a sign that something’s wrong? I was hoping to walk on the treadmill tomorrow after work, but I don’t know what’s a good idea and what’s stupid.

I know you’re not a doctor, but as a runner you have way more experience with this type of stuff than I do after two weeks.

Thanks for any help you can give me!

Stephanie

Stephanie,

You’re right, I’m not a doctor, so visiting one might be a good idea if the pain becomes any worse.

That said, I have dealt with a lot of calf pain and shin splints (the front muscle of your lower leg). Fortunately, the stretch for both of them is the same. I dealt with this pain a lot when I first started exercising.

My first recommendation is to start slowly. Jumping rope, even if it’s only for 10 minutes is REALLY intense for a beginner. I recommend walking. At first, you are building muscle, so you probably won’t get a good cardio workout. Go to my New Year’s Resolution: Week 1 and start there with your walking plan. It will prevent you from getting sore:

• Starling Fitness » New Year’s Resolutions: Week One

In addition to taking exercise slowly in the beginning, you need to stretch those muscles. There has been a lot of talk about stretching and how it might not be as helpful as once thought. I don’t know what medical science has found. All I know is the days when I stretched before and after my walks, I wouldn’t hurt as much the next day. The days when I forgot (or was in a hurry and skipped it), I paid for it in pain. Here is an entry explaining how to stretch your calf muscles:

• Starling Fitness » Shin Splints

It took a couple of weeks of regularly doing that stretch in addition to my exercise for the pain to ease off. I wanted to keep exercising, but I didn’t want to hurt myself and this was the only way that I found that worked for me.

I wish you the best and please come back to Starling Fitness and tell me how it works for you over the next couple of weeks.

Happy Walking,
Laura Moncur
Starling Fitness

Update 01-25-08: Video Jug has this video showing how to deal with cramps or spasms in the calf:

How To Deal With A Cramp In The Calf

Every week, I’ll be giving you some direction for how to actually KEEP your New Year’s Resolution to lose weight or get more active. If you’re short on time, scroll down to the end and read “The Short Version” to get your weekly tips.

If you’re like a lot of people, you have given up on your New Year’s Resolutions, but are desperately trying to find SOMETHING that works. Somehow, you’ve found Starling Fitness. If this describes you, go back to New Year’s Resolutions: Week 1 and start from there.

If you have been faithfully following along since Week 1, then here are your assignments for this week:

Cut Your Intake By 100 Calories A Day

Last week, you calculated your daily caloric average and should have cut it by 100 calories a day. Were you able to do that? If no, stick with last week’s goal for cutting your calories. If you were able to keep your calories within last week’s range, then this week you are to cut your intake by an additional 100 calories.

Make sure you visit The USDA’s MyPyramid Site to calculate your recommended daily calorie intake. If you complete their little questionaire, it will give you an idea of how many calories you should be eating every day. You should never go below their number.

If you are eating the right amount of calories every day, then keep it up. If you are eating LESS than the recommended amount, then increase your calories by adding healthy food.

Plan One Non-Food Related Present Every Day

Last week, we talked about avoiding the feeling of deprivation by finding non-food activities to nurture yourself. Since this is different for every person, you were supposed to think of some activities that you like to do. If you didn’t do this exercise, then go back to New Year’s Resolutions: Week 3 and work on finding out what these activities are for you.

Plan a non-food activity for yourself EVERY day and protect that time. It is your reward for eating healthy every day. You MUST reward yourself every day to stave off any feelings of deprivation that limiting your calories might cause.

Eat four or five servings of fruits and vegetables every day

One way to stay within your calorie range is to eat vegetables on a regular basis. You should be adding four to five 1/2 cup servings of fruits or veggies to your diet every day now. They are low in calories, provide essential vitamins and fiber and they keep you feeling full.

Save enough calories to eat two servings of dairy products each day

You need to make sure that you have enough calories saved up for two servings of dairy products every day. This is another healthy food to add to your diet. One cup of fat-free milk is approximately 110 calories. It’s probably your best option for adding calcium to your diet, so make sure you get two servings a day.

Increase Your Exercise

This week, I want you to increase your walking mileage to 1.25 miles five days a week. I want you to do it at the same time every day. If you want, you can increase your speed to really get yourself sweating, but if you end up sore the next day, you MUST slow down. It’s more important to exercise every day than to push yourself. Consistency is key. You need to learn the habit of exercising every day and that is WAY more important than going fast or covering a lot of miles.

If you are keeping track of your mileage, you can join us at Runner+ to track your miles and compete against other beginners.

Give Yourself Kudos

If you are still working toward your New Year’s Resolution, then you need to give yourself kudos. There are little boxes on the forms every day to give yourself a shiny sticker. Each day that you stay on the program, you need to acknowledge yourself and how good you are doing.

See you next week!

The Short Version:

• Reduce your daily caloric average by another 100 calories. Write down EVERYTHING you eat including measurements and calories.

• Avoid the feeling of deprivation by finding non-food activities to nurture yourself EVERY day.

• Eat four or five servings of vegetables every day.

• Save enough calories to eat two servings of dairy products each day.

• Increase your mileage. Walk 1.25 miles five days this week. You are allowed to increase your speed to the point of sweating, but if you are sore the next day you MUST go slow again.

• Give yourself kudos for coming this far.

Faintstarlite went to Weight Watchers to lose weight and after a little over a year, she finally hit goal. Here is her YouTube video:

When I first started watching this video, I thought that she was just another beautiful girl who needed to lose 15 pounds to be “perfect,” but she lost a total of 58 pounds. Her before and after pictures are stunning!

For the guys out there, here’s a wonderful motivational video for you:

He lost 236 pounds in two years. He lost an average of two pounds a week. His advice?

“You can do it. I’ve averaged just a little over two pounds a week. The only thing I’ve done is not quit. That’s the key: don’t quit. And you’re gonna want to… you’re gonna want to. I had a six month plateau where I didn’t lose a pound. This is not six month of me playin’ Nintendo or whatever. This is six months of me running 5Ks, me exercising, me bustin’ my butt, watchin’ what I eat every single day and I didn’t lose a pound. That was a test and I’m proud to come out on the other side of that.”

If you are feeling like skipping your eating plan for the weekend, watch these videos instead. It is possible to eat healthy and get to a healthy goal weight.