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

I found a little religious book at an estate sale a few weeks ago. While most of the little stories don’t have much to say to me, this one did:

Two men became neighbors in a new housing development. Both men worked long hours removing the weeds from his new back yard. Then one was satisfied but the other went on to put in a lawn, flower garden, and even a few fruit trees and rows of vegetables. The first man soon realized that his lot was being refilled by a new crop of the same old weeds, while the second man was enjoying a thing of service and of beauty.

To resolve to remove an old way of life without substituting something else was not enough – the old way grew right back.

This story really spoke to me because I have tried time and time again to remove my old bad habits without replacing them with NEW good habits. I don’t WANT the same old weeds to pop back up in my life. I want to replace them with a crop of beautiful flowers and veggies. To do that, I need to focus on new habits that are good for me.

Right now, I’m concentrating on getting twenty minutes of exercise every single day. It might sound like a pathetic and small step, but that’s how new habits are formed, slowly and small and every freakin’ day.

Original photo by: Tobyotter on Flickr

This postcard from PostSecret tells us all something we already knew.

It reads:

I hate people who successfully lose weight.

Yeah, I know you do. You want to know why? It’s because you hate YOURSELF. If you were at your goal weight, you wouldn’t be trying to pull down everyone in their lives who were bettering themselves. You’d be happy and supportive of them.

I recently read, “I Got This” by Jennifer Hudson. After she lost all her weight, some people were literally ANGRY with her for getting healthy. She talked to her WW leader about it, and her leader asked her:

“Would you trade your weight loss for acceptance from others?”

It’s an amazing question, because when I read that passage, I realized that, yes, I HAD traded my weight loss for acceptance from others. I had felt rejected by many people because of my new-found loss. I have the complete acceptance from those people now that I’m nearly one hundred pounds over my goal weight. Was it worth it?

Hell to the no!

The next time I feel that someone doesn’t accept my weight loss and maybe even HATES me because of it, I’m letting it fall away from me. Either they will get used to the new, skinny me or they weren’t worth it in the end. If you only like me because I’m fat, then you can not be my friend anymore.

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.

A special thanks to Funeral For My Fat for posting this motivational poster.

It reads:

People often say that motivation doesn’t last.

Well, neither does bathing.

That’s why we recommend it daily.

More importantly, the poster came from a Tumblr called Fitnessive. I found a TON of great motivational posters there and immediately started following them. Here are a couple of my favorites:

It reads:

A calendar determines when the year ends, but only you can decide when a new you begins.

It reads:

EVERYDAY is a good day to work-out.

It’s so nice to find another blog to follow that provides so many inspirational reasons to get off my butt and exercise!

The always entertaining Jenna Marbles did a funny video showing how her home workouts “work.”

If you have trouble working out at home, then a gym membership might be the best thing for you, or even taking a walk (or run) outside. I actually prefer to workout at home where no one can see me, smell me or laugh at me. I can’t wait until Jenna does a “How Gym Workouts Work” video!

The new version of Zombies, Run has finally arrived! You can see it here:

• Zombies, Run! 2 on iPhone
• Zombies, Run 2 on Android

They made a pretty cool commercial for it here:

I love this game so much that it doesn’t really feel like exercise when I do it. I can’t wait to hear the new episodes!

I’ve been gone from WW for about two years, and things have changed a bit. One of the more exciting changes is ActiveLink. It’s a little accelerometer that tracks your daily movement just like BodyBugg, except it’s WAY smaller.

The only reason I was enticed by it was because it promises to make things easier. I don’t have to figure out if my exercise was high, medium or low intensity. I don’t even have to log my workouts. All I have to do is remember to wear the thing all day long and then plug it into my computer at the end of the day.

But does it work with my computer? The stupid box at WW didn’t say what the system requirements are on the outside and I was told that I wouldn’t be able to return it after I plunked down the $40 for it. I couldn’t even find the system requirements online when I went home and looked it up. One member said that it worked on her Mac Mini, so I figured I was safe to use it on my MacBook Air, but there were no guarantees.

The website for ActiveLink, however, DOES tell you the system requirements:

• ActiveLink System Requirements

It just didn’t show up in any Google searches I did. For your benefit, ActiveLink works on both Mac and PC. Here are the minimums that you will need:

I am currently in the assessment stage, so I have no idea how this will work for me. I’ll post updates about whether I like it and whether it’s as easy as they say it is to use.

Update 05-05-13

I’m out of the assessment stage and I have to say that I LOVE ActiveLink! One of the reasons that I left Weight Watchers before was because I didn’t lose very much weight.

• Why I Left Weight Watchers

I went to every WW meeting and I followed the program for a year. My progress was minimal at best. I lost approximately ten pounds in that year, which is better than gaining that same amount, but it was a CONSTANT struggle to even have those minimal results.

Since I followed the program exactly, I was very frustrated that I was only losing minimal amounts of weight. I now know why. I am such a SLUG during the day, that I was over-counting my exercise points. What I would have counted as four points, is only showing up as two points with the ActiveLink because my workday is so sedentary.

I knew it MUST be something to do with exercise because when I didn’t eat my exercise points, I made a lot more progress than when I did. That’s because my calculation for exercise was completely wrong.

Now, I don’t even need to think about it. I just wear the ActiveLink all day long, try to get my butt out of the chair every once and a while and exercise a little harder (or longer) than I used to. I can completely trust the results when I pop my little gadget into my computer every day.

I just wish there was something like this for eating. What if I am UNDER-counting my food? I do my best to be accurate, but that was the case with exercise as well. I wish there was a little gadget that could analyze every morsel of food that I eat and record the points automatically. That would be one less place where I could screw up.

Almost three months ago, I had a freak out because I realized my weight was up to 220.9.

• Starling Fitness – Fitness, diet, and health weblog » 220.9

Since then, I have tried to lose the weight on my own. I used Lose It! and had a lot of support on that website, but I kept flaking on myself. Despite the lovely people there, willing to give me support, I didn’t follow through.

Low carb eating works best for my body, but I haven’t been able to stay on that diet any longer than I was able to stay low fat. The only diet that I’ve been able to stay on long-term is Weight Watchers.

I think it’s because of the accountability. Every week, I stand on a scale in front of a REAL person. Most of the times, it was my WW leader who weighed me. Something about that accountability is very motivating to me.

Of course, there are other forms of accountability. I could hire a weight loss doctor to weigh me each week, but that costs a lot more than the $12 a week that WW is costing me right now. I could go to OA meetings. Heck, I think they are even FREE, but then I have to accept a “higher power” and all that Jesus talk that I can’t swallow any more than I could swallow a Jenny Craig meal.

It seemed that the only option that I could see was Weight Watchers and seeing my weight on the scale at the office shocked me. I had bounced up to 226.4, despite all my efforts on my own to lose weight. I might not have lost weight the last time I struggled with WW, but I didn’t GAIN! Trying to do this on my own, I GAINED weight.

In 2011, I wrote about why I was leaving WW:

• Why I Left Weight Watchers

I said:

And I did it. I went to every WW meeting and I followed the program for a year. My progress was minimal at best. I lost approximately ten pounds in that year, which is better than gaining that same amount, but it was a CONSTANT struggle to even have those minimal results.

Two years later, I’m looking at a constant struggle and I’ve GAINED over twenty pounds since I left WW. Those “minimal results” are looking pretty good compared to the last two years of failure.

So, I’m back at the beginning. I went to WW yesterday and it was really good to see my leader. It was really good to see my old friends. It was even BETTER to see the lifetime member who lost 150 pounds in 1995 and has kept it off since then. She goes to WW EVERY week, even though she has kept the weight off for so long.

What the HECK was I thinking? If that lifetimer has to still go to WW every week for YEARS in order to keep those 150 pounds from creeping back, why did I think I could do this on my own?!

And now, I have to start over…

Well, if I’m sick of starting over, I need to stop quitting. I’ve seen it time and time again on Pinterest. It’s time to take it to heart.

I love this image that I saw on work sweat achieve.

It reads:

Running.

First, you feel like dying.

Then, you feel reborn.

It usually takes about a twenty minute workout for me to feel that good feeling. That’s the shortest run I can do and get that good feeling. I don’t know about the benefits of doing longer workouts, but if you are just looking for that “high” then you can keep your workouts short.

I love this tweet from Tara Stiles.

It reads:

It’s all in the food. Eat better, feel better, never get sick, have a great mood, loads of energy, and look fantastic. #saynothankstojunk

The thing that really caught my eye was the hashtag, “Say No Thanks to Junk.” It is so hard for me to do it. Not only do I have a hard time saying no thanks to other people, but it’s SO hard to say it to myself. I crave all the worst in food and just saying no to it is as hard as they told me it would be to say no to drugs.

Tara Stiles is a Yoga instructor and she has many yoga videos for sale at Amazon:

• Tara Stiles This is Yoga
• Yoga Transformation: Weight Loss & Balance
• Tara Stiles – Yoga Anywhere

I also found a workout on YouTube, but I don’t know how long it will stay there:

She seems focused on Yoga, yet she tells us that it is all about the food. If we can control our eating, then everything else will fall into place.

Via: Fun, Fit, and Fabulous

I love this animated GIF from Funeral For My Fat.

It shows Kevin Spacey running outside in grey sweats and it reads:

I wanna look good naked!

This scene is from American Beauty and you can see the whole thing here:

His physically fit friends ask him,

Are you lookin’ to just lose weight or do you wanna have increased strength and flexibility as well?

Is it enough? Is it enough motivation to want to look good naked?

Yes, yes it is…