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

I got this recipe last week at Weight Watchers. I have no idea where the member got the recipe, but she was SO excited to share it with all of us and I can understand why. It’s delicious.

Ingredients:

• 1 cup of fat-free milk – 100 calories – 2 points
• 6 ice cubes – 0 calories – 0 points
• 2 Tbsp of sugar-free fat-free pudding mix – approx. 15 calories – 0 points

Total: 115 calories – 2 points

Directions:

Put all of the ingredients into a blender and blend until smooth. The pudding gives the milk flavor and a little bit of creamy smoothness.

This recipe is a fast, 2 point dessert that REALLY fools me into thinking I’m eating a Wendy’s Frosty. I’ve also tried the white chocolate flavor, which has a malted milk and vanilla taste. There are so many pudding flavors to choose from, you could have a different milk shake every day of the week!

Yum!

The rice cooker has been a boon to eating healthy for me. Honestly, cooking rice on the stove top is difficult. Most times, I would end up with a sticky glue instead of fluffy rice. Brown rice and other whole grains are even harder. Now, I just cook up three to six servings of rice, divide them up into Ziploc bowls and put them into the refrigerator to eat in a myriad of ways.

Here is one of my favorites: Mexi-Rice

• 1/2 cup pre-cooked brown rice – 140 calories – 3 points
• 1/3 cup canned dark red kidney beans (drained) – 100 calories – 2 points
• 1 cup canned diced tomatoes – 25 calories – 0 points
• 1/4 teaspoon oregano
• 1/4 teaspoon dried onion
• Smidgen of dried chipotle peppers
• Optional additions: Two sprigs of fresh cilantro and/or a few drops of Tabasco sauce.

Total: 265 calories – 5 points

These are the ingredient sizes for one serving. It’s a HUGE serving, so you might want to cut everything in half if you have a small appetite.

Put all the ingredients in a bowl and microwave for 2 minutes. Mix together and add the fresh cilantro and Tabasco sauce for extra flavor.

If you are following the Weight Watchers Core Plan, this is also a Core Food. It counts as one serving of whole grains, one serving of lean protein and two servings of vegetables.

If you don’t own a rice cooker or know how to make brown rice on the stove, you can purchase pre-cooked packets of brown rice from Uncle Ben’s. It’s not quite as good as making it yourself, but it’s really easy.

If you try this recipe, please leave comments here about how you made it better. Considering how horrible a cook I am, I’m SURE there are ways to make it better!

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.

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Last week, you should have been writing down the measurements and calories for everything you ate. If you didn’t do that last week, go back to New Year’s Resolutions: Week 2 and try again this week. If you DID write down everything you ate and your calorie amounts, good job! Now you have the information to help you move on to Week 3!

Find Your Daily Caloric Average

Add all your calories for the whole week and divide by 7. This will give you a daily caloric average.

Now, visit The USDA’s MyPyramid Site. If you complete their little questionaire, it will give you an idea of how many calories you should be eating every day. Compare that number with your daily caloric average.

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.

If you are eating MORE than the USDA recommended amount, then this is the week you start to work on losing weight. I don’t recommend going down to the USDA daily calorie recommendations unless you are within 100 calories a day. Instead, take your daily caloric average, minus 100 calories and stay within that range this week.

This might sound easy, but it can be very difficult. When you take away, even if it’s only by 100 calories, you start to feel deprivation.

Avoid Feeling Deprived

Avoid the feeling of deprivation by finding non-food activities to nurture yourself. This is different for every person, so I can’t really tell you what your magical activity will be, but here are a few ideas:

• Give yourself 30 minutes to do whatever you want: Reserve that time and don’t let anything else get in your way. Read, play video games, crochet, whittle wood, whatever you want to do, give yourself at least a half hour to do it.

• Take several nurture-breaks: Throughout your day at work, I’m sure there are times when you reach for food. I know I hit the vending machines or walked past the candy dish at those times of the day. Instead of eating, take 2-5 minutes to breathe deeply, call a friend or do some other activity to clear your mind and give yourself a break.

• Watch TV Snack-Free: Every commercial seems to entice me to get up and check the fridge for some food. At commercial time, consciously do something else instead of eating. You can get up to go to the bathroom, get a drink of water, or even do a few exercises. Whatever you do, enjoy your television time without food.

I’m sure there are a million ways to nurture yourself without food. Please leave comments telling me your favorite way to reward yourself.

Eat three or four 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 three to four 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 one serving of dairy products each day

You need to make sure that you have enough calories saved up for one serving 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 one serving a day.

Increase Your Exercise

This week, I want you to increase your walking mileage to 1.0 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!

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The Short Version:

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

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

• Eat three or four servings of vegetables every day.

• Save enough calories to eat one serving of dairy products each day.

• Increase your mileage. Walk 1.0 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.

Running is strong this month. I was out of town, logging miles by walking the convention floor at CES. Lucky thing this isn’t a speed race. I would have never even got on the board! If you have an iPod Nano, spend the extra 30 bucks and get the Nike+ so you can easily upload your runs. You don’t need a Nike+, however. You can manually enter how much you run every day. Click over to Runner+ to see all the results.

Level 1 Results 01-07-08

We had three winners of the Level 1 Challenge with week with KellerMom, Marsupilami, and Hansenvl61. Good job! Time to move up to Level 2, Diet Me! Bad form, Laura Moncur!! You should have withdrawn from Level 1 before the week was finished.

Level 2 Results 01-07-08

Congratulations to AirRobi, who squeaked by to win the Level 2 Challenge by running 18.09 miles this week. You beat out mjn1877 by only 0.01 miles!

Level 3 Results 01-07-08

The win easily goes to stuckinord for the Level 3 challenge with her 29.52 miles last week. The next competitor was five miles behind you! Good job!

Level 4 Results 01-07-08

It was just me and Sareybabes on Level 4 last week. She easily kicked my butt with her 39.34 miles! Good show!

Level 5 Results 01-07-08

Not only did Sareybabes win Level 4, she finished off Level 5 with her 39.34 miles.

Level 6 Results 01-07-08

Mangaman narrowly beat out anderu for the Level 6 Challenge. He logged 58.46 miles last week. Excellent Work!

Congratulations to all the competitors! Join us at Runner+ and show off your mileage!

If you exercise by running or walking, you can compete in the Starling Fitness Challenges on Runner+. All you need is an account at Runner+ (free) and you can log your miles there. If you have a Nike+iPod kit, then your runs will automatically be added, but the site will also allow you to add your runs manually. If you would like to compete against runners on your level, here are the links for this week’s challenges:

Level 1 weekly challenge from Starling Fitness. This level runs between 0-10 miles a week.

• Challenge: Starling Fitness Level 1 (01-14-08) – RUNNER+

Level 2 weekly challenge from Starling Fitness. This level runs between 10-20 miles a week.

• Challenge: Starling Fitness Level 2 (01-14-08) – RUNNER+

Level 3 weekly challenge from Starling Fitness. This level runs between 20-30 miles a week.

• Challenge: Starling Fitness Level 3 (01-14-08) – RUNNER+

Level 4 weekly challenge from Starling Fitness. This level runs between 30-40 miles a week.

• Challenge: Starling Fitness Level 4 (01-14-08) – RUNNER+

Level 5 weekly challenge from Starling Fitness. This level runs between 40-50 miles a week.

• Challenge: Starling Fitness Level 5 (01-14-08) – RUNNER+

Level 6 weekly challenge from Starling Fitness. This level runs between 50-60 miles a week.

• Challenge: Starling Fitness Level 6 (01-14-08) – RUNNER+

This is the original trailer from Nintendo for the Wii Fit. I watched this and the game looked like fun.

It looked like fun until I watched this parody of it…

I don’t know if the Wii will be any good for exergaming, but I’m willing to try it out. Sometimes something simple is better than the most complicated games.

Watch this commercial:

Next time you think of one of those excuses, remember that there are NO EXCUSES! If that guy can get up off the couch, then all of us can.

Via: AdFreak: If this guy can get off his ass, so can you

The Bowflex is an exercise machine that uses flexible rods for resistance. It’s a small machine that folds up nicely and is relatively light weight when compared to weight machines that use weights for resistance. When I was looking for a weight training solution, I looked at Bowflex machines in the sporting goods stores. I decided against them because they were too tall for my basement and because it looked like a royal pain in the butt to switch between exercises.

Plus, it was EXPENSIVE. The cheapest Bowflex machine I could find was almost $600. I just wasn’t willing to spend that kind of money on flexible plastic rods. It looks like that initial price tag wasn’t the only thing to worry about with Bowflex. According to some of the people who have bought them, there’s a lot more to worry about. That financing offered by Bowflex is a little more complicated than it appears:

2/16/2007 – Silena writes:

I am a physically handicapped woman confined to a wheelchair. I was encouraged by my physical therapist to consider purchasing a bowflex after being told that my insurance could no longer pay for my therapy and the small monthly payments of $28.00 a mo. would make it affordable to maintain my physical strength. My problems began when they started doubling my pmts. without telling me. By the time my pmts. exceeded $120.00 a mo. I was left with no choice but to stop making pmts. What really upsets me is the fact they knew what my income was when I ordered this item. They knew I could not pay more per month and they still approved me knowing they were going to raise the pmts. My account was turned over to collection and my credit is ruined, and I will never be able to pay it off because it is still collecting interest.

You can read all the complaints here:

• INFOMERCIAL SCAMS.COM – BOWFLEX COMPLAINTS

In the end, I bought an Apex weight bench, but it’s no longer available. Apex does make this Deluxe Standard Bench that is very similar, but it’s about $50 more than what I paid last year. I’m still using my weight bench off and on and the cost of the bench and the weights was less than half of what I would have paid for a Bowflex and even takes up less space.

Should you buy a Bowflex? When there are so many other options out there that are just as effective and less expensive, I think it’s best to steer clear of them.

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.

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Last week I asked you, no begged you, to take it easy on yourself. I know you have a New Year’s Resolution to finish, but honestly you can’t finish it in a week. You had three options last week: Take it easy, overdo it or give up. Let’s figure out what to do this week based on your performance last week.

I Overdid It

If you jumped into your New Year’s Resolution to lose weight and get active, you might have overdid it. Your muscles are sore and you feel like you’re STARVING. If that’s the case, STOP IT! Seriously, right now, throw whatever plan you had to lose weight out the freakin’ window. I’m not asking you to give up on your resolution, I’m just asking you to stop abusing yourself and move on to the “I Gave Up” section.

I Gave Up

I can’t tell you how many January firsts started with a strict New Year’s Resolution plan that ended up with a Twinkie binge by January third. Okay, that’s a lie. It was one year. The other years, I binged on something else.

If you find yourself in the position of giving up, that’s completely fine. Seriously, you don’t have to kill yourself to get healthy. All you have to do is pick yourself back up, time after time. Instead of going back to your old ways, try my New Year’s Resolution plan. You’ll be one week behind, but that’s just fine. Start from here and move on:

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

Evelyn Underhill said,

“Every minute you are thinking of evil, you might have been thinking of good instead. Refuse to pander to a morbid interest in your own misdeeds. Pick yourself up, be sorry, shake yourself, and go on again.”

I’m not saying that eating poorly is evil, but if you use this idea for every time you eat poorly, you WILL succeed at weight loss.

I Took It Easy, Just Like You Said

The first thing I want to say is, “Good Job!” It is SO hard to take it easy, despite how it sounds. Here is your plan for Week 2:

Learn Serving Sizes and Calorie Counts

If you followed last week’s plan, you wrote down everything you ate. Excellent work. I want you to do that again this week, but this time, I want you to put the calorie counts next to all the food you ate. That means you need to measure and you need to start learning the calorie amounts for all of your favorite foods.

This is a week for education. You need to train yourself what a cup of rice looks like. You need to train yourself to know how many calories are in a Big Mac.

This is NOT a week of deprivation. You still need to eat just like you would eat before. All I’m asking you to do is to WRITE DOWN everything you eat and its caloric amount.

Eat Your Veggies and Fruits

This week, I’m going to recommend that you add two or three servings of vegetables to your diet every day. There are little check boxes on the forms for you to check off vegetable servings. You need to check off at least two servings a day. According to the USDA, you should have between 3 and 5 cups of vegetables a day. One cup is a mighty big bite to swallow, so I divide servings into half cups. Here’s a good list of veggies to try:

• MyPyramid.gov – Inside The Pyramid – What foods are in the vegetable group?

All I’m asking is that you make sure you eat 1 or 1 and 1/2 cups of vegetables or fruit every day.

Increase Your Exercise

I’m still telling you to go slow and easy. When I did this, the second week was actually HARDER than the first week, not because I increased my mileage, but because I wanted to increase it MORE. It was so frustrating, I complained about it on Twitter:

• Twitter / Laura Moncur: Workout finished. 1 mile doesn’t seem enough, even though I’m running fast. It’s hard to take it slow.

Here’s the run I was talking about:

• LauraMoncur’s run log for Wednesday, June 06, 2007 at 10:32 AM – RUNNER+

And I was pushing myself too much that week. This week, I want you to increase your walking mileage to 0.75 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.

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!

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The Short Version:

• DO NOT change your eating regime at all, but write down EVERYTHING you eat, including the measurements (i.e. 1 cup of rice) and calories.

• You are allowed to ADD two or three servings of vegetables every day, but you are not allowed to restrict anything in your diet.

• Increase your mileage. Walk 0.75 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.

We started the New Year out with a BANG! If you got an iPod Nano for Christmas, spend the extra 20 bucks and get the Nike+ so you can easily upload your runs. You don’t need a Nike+, however. You can manually enter how much you run every day. Click over to Runner+ to see all the results.

Level 1 Results 12-31-07

Hansenvl61 took the Level 1 challenge with exactly 10.0 miles last week!

Level 2 Results 12-31-07

For the second week in a row, Pooh won the Level 2 Challenge by running 19.06 miles this week. Good job! Bad form, deadz00m, you exceeded the max mileage for Level 2, so you were kicked out of the running.

Level 3 Results 12-31-07

Sarybabes won the Level 3 challenge with her 29.2 miles last week. Uncool, deadz00m and IMama. You went over the limit for this challenge. You should have withdrawn from this race.

Level 4 Results 12-31-07

deadz00m was a newcomer this week and kicked some Level 4 butt with his 38.75 miles.

Level 5 Results 12-31-07

Not only did deadz00m win Level 4, he finished off Level 5 with his 38.75 miles.

Level 6 Results 12-31-07

Welcome to the Level 6 Challenge, mangaman, you’re the winner this week with your 74.15 miles. Excellent work!

Congratulations to all the competitors! Join us at Runner+ and show off your mileage!

If you exercise by running or walking, you can compete in the Starling Fitness Challenges on Runner+. All you need is an account at Runner+ (free) and you can log your miles there. If you have a Nike+iPod kit, then your runs will automatically be added, but the site will also allow you to add your runs manually. If you would like to compete against runners on your level, here are the links for this week’s challenges:

Level 1 weekly challenge from Starling Fitness. This level runs between 0-10 miles a week.

• Challenge: Starling Fitness Level 1 (01-07-08) – RUNNER+

Level 2 weekly challenge from Starling Fitness. This level runs between 10-20 miles a week.

• Challenge: Starling Fitness Level 2 (01-07-08) – RUNNER+

Level 3 weekly challenge from Starling Fitness. This level runs between 20-30 miles a week.

• Challenge: Starling Fitness Level 3 (01-07-08) – RUNNER+

Level 4 weekly challenge from Starling Fitness. This level runs between 30-40 miles a week.

• Challenge: Starling Fitness Level 4 (01-07-08) – RUNNER+

Level 5 weekly challenge from Starling Fitness. This level runs between 40-50 miles a week.

• Challenge: Starling Fitness Level 5 (01-07-08) – RUNNER+

Level 6 weekly challenge from Starling Fitness. This level runs between 50-60 miles a week.

• Challenge: Starling Fitness Level 6 (01-07-08) – RUNNER+

A study that was funded by Nintendo determined what I had already learned on my own: the Wii is fun, but it’s not a good workout.

• Medical News: Even Active Video Games Not Good Enough For Kids’ Fitness – in Primary Care, Exercise & Fitness from MedPage Today

They have measured passive gaming (finger twiddling) with active gaming (like Wii Sports) and this is what they found:

In a typical week … active gaming rather than passive gaming would increase total energy expenditure by less than 2%.

I found that out myself back when the Wii first came out. I tested various games with my heart rate monitor.

• Starling Fitness » Wii Would Like To Play

On the whole, the Wii Workout isn’t that great. It’s not quite intense enough to get your heart rate up for an extended period of time and it isn’t too much of a muscle workout. Is it exergaming? Not really… Is it better than any other gaming console for getting you out of the couch? Heck yeah!

I don’t consider the Wii to be a workout, but it’s a fun game to play and gets the family playing together more than any other video game I’ve seen. I really had big hopes for the Wii and exergaming, but this year has been more of a disappointment in that realm.

The best exergaming I found over the last few years has been the Nike+ and a free membership to Runner+. Running on the treadmill every day to beat strangers online has gotten my heart racing FAR more than the funnest of video games.

Via: Techdirt: Nintendo’s Own Study Show Wii Not So Great As Exercise