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

I found this advertisement from the 1920’s for The Weil Reducing Belt.

It reads:

Fat Men!
This new self-massaging belt not only makes you look thinner INSTANTLY – but quickly takes off rolls of excess fat.

Diet is weakening – drugs are dangerous – strenuous reducing exercises are liable to strain your heart. The only safe method of reducing is massage. This method sets up a vigorous circulation that seems to melt away the surplus fat. The Weil Reducing Belt made of special reducing rubber, produces exactly the same results as a skilled masseur, only quicker and cheaper. Every move you make causes the Weil Belt to gently massage your abdomen. Results are rapid because this belt works for you every second.

Fat Replaced by Normal Tissue

From 4 to 6 inches of flabby fat usually vanish in just a few weeks. Only solid, normal tissue remains. The Weil Reducing Belt is endorsed by physicians because it not only takes off fat, but helps correct stomach disorders, constipation, backache, shortness of breath and puts sagging internal organs back into place.

This ad might seem ludicrous and silly over eighty years later, but there are companies that are still selling this idea to this day:

• Starling Fitness » The Electric Corset: 1883 Is Very Similar to 2008

• Starling Fitness » Curves and Avon Embrace Quackery

Just like in 1920, you are unlikely to see any long term effects from a reducing belt, or trimming belt, or abs belt or anything that you put on your body. The only thing that will be lighter is your wallet.

Photo via: Found in Mom’s Basement: 1920s ad for “fat men”

In what has become a silly extension of the worry about the environment, everyone is asking whether riding your bike to work is better for the environment than driving your car.

• Roger Kramer Cycling: The Blog Page

The study Nye speaks was written by Karl T. Ulrich of The Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania, and it’s titled “The Environment Paradox of Bicycling” (PDF file). In short, the study suggests there is an immediate energy savings by bicycle riding, since a cyclist is up to nine times more energy efficient than a single-occupant car. However, the study suggests cyclists increase their longevity by 10.6 days for every year of cycling. Because of that, they consume more energy over their lifetimes, thus doing more harm to the environment.

Which is more important: human life or the environment? If you really believe that the environment is more important than your own life, then you should commit suicide now. There are none of us with a carbon footprint of zero.

If it’s at all possible for you to ride your bike to work, you should DO it! It will help the environment in the short run and keep you alive in the long run. I’ve written about this in the past:

• Starling Fitness » Riding My Bike To Work

• Starling Fitness » Save Gas By Walking or Riding Your Bike

• Starling Fitness » How To Ride Your Bike To Work

This photo from I Can Has Cheezburger? made me smile the other day.

When I look at this, I realize how silly it is to look at models in fashion magazines and feel bad about my body.

That cat is adorable and I want to pick him up and nuzzle my face on his belly. Whether he’s that size or the size of the cat in the book, he’s still adorable.

That’s how we are as humans. No matter what size you are, you are adorable. There is someone out there who wants to pick you up and nuzzle their face into your belly, whether it’s flat as stone or soft and round.

You deserve to be loved no matter what size you are.

Back in December of 2006, I warned you about Enviga, the purported “negative calorie” drink.

• Starling Fitness » Enviga Review on Big Fat Blog

Back then, I said:

Remember, weight loss is big business and companies think we are stupid. Don’t fall for it. Just because they slap a label on something telling you that it will make you lose weight, doesn’t mean it will or that it’s good for you.

It seems that Richard Blumenthal, the Attorney General of Connecticut, agrees with me:

Coca-Cola, Nestle and Beverage Partnership Worldwide (BPW) have been ordered to pay at least $650,000 in fines from the false claims.

• Attorney General: Attorney General Announces Settlement Resolving Weight Loss And Calorie-Burning Claims About Enviga

“The Enviga lesson is that weight loss requires sound diet and exercise, not simply a concoction of caffeine and green tea,” Blumenthal said. “Enviga’s calorie-burning claims led to credibility loss more than weight loss. Its new labels must now state clearly that calorie burning and weight loss requires proper diet and exercise.

“Enviga’s implied weight loss claims were scientifically weightless — unsupported by solid evidence. Enviga is no magic potion, capable of cutting pounds without pain.

“The larger message is that pound cutting claims are easy to swallow, but ultimately unsatisfying. Consumers deserve unadulterated truth — on food product labels as well as contents.”

The wheels of our system are SLOW. It took two and a half years for Coca-Cola to finally pay the piper. The fly-by-night scammers don’t tend to be around long enough for the government to finally put an end to them. If you ever see a product that promises to make you lose weight without diet and exercise, run away. And if you see a product that promises weight loss WITH diet and exercise, well, you can do that on your own without it. Don’t fall give them your money.

Via: Consumer Health Digest, March 19, 2009

This postcard from PostSecret made me feel so sad for the girl who sent it in.

It reads:

I only think about killing myself when I work out at the gym.
I know that no matter how hard I try
I’ll never be thin or even average.
I often wonder if any of the other big girls around me
are thinking the same thing.

I just wanted to take this girl in my arms and give her a big hug. I know it feels like you can’t do it, but that is just not true. You CAN get to a healthy weight.

In fact, it is only your belief that you’ll never be thin that is holding you back. If you can change that deep-rooted thought about yourself, you’ll be able to change your life. If there is only one thing that I could tell you, it would be, “You CAN do this!”

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 postcard from PostSecret made me realize one of the things that scares me about getting to goal weight.

This is the front of the card:

This is the back of the card:

It reads:

I couldn’t find love when I was young and attractive, because all everyone wanted was sex.

I can’t find love now that I’m old and fat, because all everyone wants is conversation.

Firstly, I wonder exactly what the writer imagines “love” to be. If it’s not sex and it’s not conversation, then I’m at a loss. Throw in a little devotion and I’m all set. Maybe my standards are low…

More importantly, however, I worry about getting to goal weight. When I am thin, will people take me as seriously as they do now? Will I suddenly be classified as a ditz just because I’m physically fit? Will they only think of me a sex object and never listen to a word I say? This is something that I thought I had dealt with long ago, but I guess it’s something that still frightens me a bit.

Of course, another side of me thinks that after a lifetime of being taken seriously, it might be a little nice being treated like a sex object for once…

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 postcard from PostSecret shocked me.

It reads:

I think she looked more beautiful before.

The reason this postcard shocked me is because I have seen that woman a hundred times before. She is in an ad for Hydroxycut diet pills in the back of every magazine I’ve read over the last few months. When I was looking for a good photo to use for visualizing myself at the end of my weight loss journey, I actually considered using this one.

I can’t say that I think she looked more beautiful in the before photo. I think both snapshots have been photoshopped beyond recognition. It’s one of the reasons I chose not to use the after photo for my own visualization. It didn’t look real.

As far as I think I’ve come with fat acceptance, I can’t look at the before photo and think she looked better that way. I wonder if I every will…

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 postcard from PostSecret reminds me of how different our bodies are.

It reads:

I’m terrified that my thighs will touch together one day.

As thin as I’ve ever gotten, my thighs have ALWAYS touched together. I have never been able to stand up without my thighs touching. That makes running VERY difficult and chafing is a problem unless I wear the correct clothing. When my mom was at her tiniest, I was talking about my problem with chafing on my inner thighs when I run. She nodded and said that she had the same trouble on her evening walks.

I was shocked. She couldn’t have weighed more than 120 pounds at the time.

As similar as we are, there is so much variation in the make up of our bodies. The girl in the PostSecret card would have to gain hundreds of pounds in order for her thighs to touch, whereas I may never be free from it no matter how thin I get. Honestly, whether my thighs rub against each other when I’m doing my daily run isn’t the issue. The issue is whether I do the run every day.

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 postcard from PostSecret reminded me of the reason that most people don’t lose weight.

It reads:

I am so afraid of failing that I don’t even want to try.

I see so many people at Weight Watchers who stay the same weight, me included. Whenever I really attack the reasons why I’m not following program, it always comes down to being afraid. Sometimes I’m afraid of failing. Sometimes I’m even afraid of succeeding.

If I fail, then everyone knows that I keep trying to lose weight and I’m still STUCK where I am.

If I succeed, then I have to live in an unfamiliar world of being thin. Will that make me different somehow? Will I be conceited? Will I be constantly hungry? Will I be promiscuous?

It’s no wonder that I feel stuck sometimes.

It has been said that fear is energy. It’s the energy that we need to do something scary. They always say feel the fear and do it anyway, but I want you to USE that fear to move you past your sticking point. Every time you feel scared, go exercise, clean out the bad food in the house or call a friend and talk it out. Don’t let fear trap you in a life that is less than you deserve.

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.

The workouts from iPump cost two bucks a piece and they are worth every penny. I worked out with iPump Fat Burn.

• iPump Fat Burn: iTunes Link

They have a FREE workout that you can download to your iPhone to see what they are like:

• iPump Free Workout: iTunes Link

They have many other workouts to choose from. You can see them all here:

• iPump on iTunes

Each exercise has a video showing how to perform the exercise correctly. To play the video, press the green circle with the letter P in it. I didn’t notice this the first time I used iPump and wrote a VERY different review of this application. After a few emails with Craig Schlossberg, the founder of PumpOne, he pointed out where the play button was. That dedication to customer service is what separates a good company from an excellent company.

The videos showing how the exercises work are only accessible when you have Internet access, but you don’t need the videos to complete the workout. After you’ve done each workout several times, you can probably do the whole thing just by looking at the exercise photos. I tried accessing iPump Fat Burn while my iPhone was in Airplane Mode and it allowed me to go through the whole workout just showing me the photos and instructions. When I tried to play a video, it just popped up a dialog box saying, “This movie could not be played,” and let me continue.

As with MANY exercise programs, their idea of a beginner workout is sorely mistaken. Take, for example this exercise: the push up.

Asking a 200 pound beginner to do a push up is like asking them to do a bench press with nearly 200 pound weights on the bar. What trainer in their right mind would have a beginner bench press almost 200 pounds? That is essentially what you’re asking a beginner to do when you have them do a push up. Sure, you don’t need “special equipment” to do this exercise, but a first-timer should be doing a modified push up or push ups against a wall in the beginning. Asking beginners to do push ups or bench dips is just an exercise in frustration or a recipe for injury. As a beginner, if you find any of the exercises to be too advanced for you, do your best, modify the exercises or skip them altogether until you are strong enough to master them.

Despite their miscalculations about what beginners can actually do, iPump Fat Burn is a great workout tool. You could take it with you to the gym, use it while traveling or just workout at home. You don’t need any exercise equipment to do the workout aside from a bench or stool that can support your full weight. More importantly, PumpOne is a company that is dedicated to customer service. If you are looking for something to change up your workout, then try one of the iPhone applications from iPump.