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

I saw this motivational poster from Fit Facts today and it made me sad.

It reads:

The pain I endure became the pleasure that I constantly crave.

I REMEMBER that pleasure and I miss it. When I was running before, however, I didn’t have the problems that I’m having right now. Even a long walk will make my feet ache like they never did before. My bulky and large feet, who have been my good friends all these years, have become fragile and temperamental. I have no idea how to strengthen them to be able to take the pounding that they did before.

I don’t want to injure myself, but I REALLY want to get back into running. I see that poster and it makes me feel so very sad because I WANT it. I want that pleasure of running every day. I want that sigh that I used to have during every run that said, “Yes, this is what I need.”

I don’t know how to get back there, but I want it so much that I’m willing to try again.

The Oatmeal is a great comic that has been around for a long time. He wrote about why he runs here:

• The Oatmeal – The Terrible and Wonderful Reasons I Run Long Distances

His most inspiring entry is about The Blerch:

He wrote:

Marathon runners often describe a phenomenon known as “hitting the wall.” They refer to ‘the wall” as the point in a race when they feel physically and emotionally defeated.

I do not believe in the wall. I believe in The Blerch. The Blerch is a fat little cherub who follows me when I run. He is a wretched, lazy beast. He tells me to slow down, to walk, to quit. (more…)

I absolutely adore Something Positive and I have been reading the online comic since the beginning so many years ago. Every day, Randy writes some pithy remark in the tiny signature line at the bottom of the comic. Today’s comic is no exception, but it made me think hard about things:

• something positive: Casting Call 10-21-13

It reads,

Nothing like a lot of exercise to make you realize that you’d rather be lazy and dead sooner.

Is that really the choice I make every time I blow off my workout? Why can’t I ever remember that when I am tempted to just skip my exercise for the day?

Our health is the accumulation of every decision we’ve made from birth until now (not counting genetics, which may account for a VAST amount of our health). I need to remember that every time I choose to sit out my workout, I choose to be lazy and die sooner.

I love this commercial for Planet Fitness.

Here is the guy version:

I don’t know what “No Lunks” means, but I’m pretty damn familiar with gymtimidation. I really have never recovered from the Bosu Ball Incident. It seems crazy to me that I am still shellshocked from something that happened nearly ten YEARS ago! I just feel like I should just get over it already. I’ve been to other gyms and I’ve even been to other exercise classes, but I have never recovered that LOVE for a gym that was destroyed that day.

And that makes me so very sad…

I don’t think Planet Fitness is really my thing, though… This video shows the top 8.3 reasons to join them.

Here are their reasons:

• Free food: Free pizza, bagels and Tootsie Rolls. REALLY?! What are they thinking?!
• Lots of Exercise Equipment
• The Staff
• PF Express: 30 minute Workout
• Free Unlimited Fitness Training
• Lunk Alarm: An alarm that goes off if you drop the weights loudly or grunt. Here’s a video of it:

• Black Card Membership: Bring a friend or use tanning and massage chairs for free.
• Judgment Free Zone: Regular people, no Barbies and Kens, feel comfortable (but apparently it’s okay to judge juice heads, grunters and gym bunnies, that seems wrong somehow)
• No Commitment Membership: $10 a month

Lunk is a trademarked term coined by Planet Fitness that refers to those ‘roided up gym rats who go around taking about their pump or burn. Or maybe it refers to those bimbos who dress up in cutesy matching gym clothes and wear makeup at the gym. I don’t like those people, but I don’t really think making them the subject of ridicule is the answer.

I don’t really know WHAT the answer is, actually, so maybe these guys are onto something.

I think proper gym etiquette is handled MUCH better with this little video:

Don’t be THAT guy at the gym helps people to know when they’re being irritating to others, but they forgot the Sweater, who is the person who sweats all over the equipment and doesn’t clean up after him/herself.

Easier just to workout at home, but only if I workout at home…

I adore this image that I found on Funeral For My Fat!

It reads:

Just stick with it… what seems so hard now will one day be your warm up.

I feel like I need to print up a bunch of these on little stickers and give one to myself after each workout.

This motivational image I saw on Funeral For My Fat reminded me that I wanted to talk about exercise.

It reads:

A daily hit of athletic-induced endorphins gives you the power to make better decisions, helps you be at peace with yourself, and offsets stress.

Honestly, if you are trying to exercise to lose weight, it’s kind of a losing battle. Take, for example, the Big Mac. It has 563 calories. In order for me to burn off that many calories, I would have to RUN at 5.0 mph on the treadmill for 48 minutes. I can’t keep up a 5.0 mph pace for that long. It’s impossible for me right now at my level of fitness.

I could walk. I would have to walk at 3.0 mph for TWO HOURS AND 25 MINUTES to make up the calories in one Big Mac. Two and a half hours for something that provides me pleasure for less than five minutes (two if I scarf it down). That is such a long time for such a short pleasure burst that the thought of exercising to burn off food is very frustrating.

Exercising for mental health, however, is a HUGE payoff. Just like this image from Loving My Body Through All the Good and Bad says, “You are only one workout away from a good mood.”

I also like this motivational image from NOURISHED EXISTENCE.

It reads:

Exercise is the most potent and underutilized antidepressant… and it’s free!

Stop thinking of exercise as a way to “work off” food and start using it for what it’s best for: mood elevation. The happier you are, the less you’ll turn to food for comfort, so get out there and get moving because it will do more for your emotional and mental health than it can do for that Big Mac you ate.

I love this simple animated GIF I found on work sweat achieve the other day.

It reads:

#IWill

That pound sign (#) in front of the words, IWill is a hashtag and it’s used to mark things on Twitter and Facebook. In particular, it’s used by Under Armour Sports Clothing to advertise their products.

I liked that animated GIF a lot more before I knew it was an advertisement for overpriced exercise clothing, but it’s still inspirational to me.

I saw this motivational poster on Fitness, Health, and Confidence, but it wasn’t quite right for me.

It reads:

Working out is my partying.

Protein shakes are my beer.

Preworkouts are my shots.

The pump is my buzz.

And the pain the next morning is my hangover.

I don’t drink protein shakes and I have no idea what preworkouts or the pump are, so it really didn’t speak to me. I’m a runner, and running is my partying, so I thought I would make one for me.

It reads:

Running is my partying.

Water is my beer.

Intervals are my shots.

Endorphins are my buzz.

Muscle pain is my hangover.

This really means more to me and I need to remember it every time I’m tempted to skip my workout.

Images via:

• run by Naomi Ibuki | Flickr
• Party by The Next Web Photos | Flickr
• Water Faucet by Jenn Durfey | Flickr
• Beer by DeusXFlorida | Flickr
• High intensity interval training
• A Shot, Anyone? by Nancy Frost | Flickr
• Imagine: Running to Ethiopia by lululemon athletica | Flickr
• Paris Wine Bar by Alexis O’Toole | Flickr
• Sports Injuries & Physiotherapy by Durrah Ramli | Flickr
• hangover in the heat room by Álvaro Canivell | Flickr

This postcard from PostSecret made me so sad.

It reads:

I still don’t know how to ride a bike.

When I read it, I suddenly remembered all the exhilarating times I’ve had on a bike:

• When I was eight years old and first learned how to ride a bike by falling over and over until I didn’t all anymore. I remember showing my dad and grandpa that I could ride that huge, antique bike from my grandma’s garage and they were so impressed and amazed because I could barely get on the thing and had to stand on the curb just to be tall enough to get on the seat.

• When I was ten years old and finally learned how to ride with no hands on my Frankenbike that my dad made for me from two broken bikes he bought from the DI. [not a picture of my actual bike, just a mockup I made to describe it]

• When I was twelve years old and my mom let Chelly and me ride our bikes to Skateland West all by ourselves. Suddenly a bike represented freedom to me. I felt like I could ride it anywhere.

• When Mike and I saved up for our first mountain bikes when we lived in Stonehedge. I loved riding it home from Westminster down that huge hill. By the time I got home, the muscles in my legs were throbbing.

• When I finally got a bike that actually fit me in preparation for an epic bike ride.

• When my friends flaked on the epic bike ride, I did it all on my own anyway, riding all the way to Lagoon from my house.

My heart aches for that person who never learned how to ride a bike. If you are one of those people, then get out there and DO IT! I have had so much joy from riding my bikes over the years and I am wishing all that joy for you as well. The skinned knees and elbows are WORTH it!

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.

I can’t stop thinking about Chris Traeger and his goal to run to the moon. That’s a little much for me, but I can envision me running around the world. Heck, when I look at my Runkeeper stats, I have already run 1,817 miles. And that only counts only the runs that I have logged with Runkeeper.

I’ve decided that my goal is to run around the world. If I just ran around the circumference of the Earth, it would be about 24,906 miles, but that’s boring. I want to see every continent, so I’m going to use the path that I was going to use for a Race Around The World contest back in 2007.

I was going to sponsor a cooperative run in which all of us could add our miles and race around the world in a month, but I couldn’t get it to work with Nike+, so I had to abandon the idea, but it has lived in the back of my mind for the last six years. In fact, some of the songs on my workout playlist are named Around The World just because of this idea.

Here is the mileage and a list of the cities I would like to “visit”:

• London, England – Starting Point
• Paris, France – 207 miles
• Rome, Italy – 902 miles
• Berlin, Germany – 1,639 miles
• Moscow, Russia – 2,644 miles
• New Delhi, India – 5,322 miles
• Hong Kong, China – 7,675 miles
• Melbourne, Australia – 12,305 miles
• Antartica – 14,314 miles
• Los Angeles, USA – 22,977 miles
• Rio de Janeiro, Brazil – 29,272 miles
• Cape Town, South Africa – 33,047 miles
• Cairo, Egypt – 37,549 miles
• Back to London, England – 39,725 miles

Based on my miles, I’ve already been to London, Paris, Rome and Berlin. I’m currently making my trek to Moscow. I wonder how long it will take me to get to Russia.

Here are some motivational songs [iTunes Link] if you decide that this is your goal as well:

• Around the World (Radio Edit) – Daft Punk
• Around the World – Red Hot Chili Peppers
• Around the World – Aqua
• All Around the World (feat. Ludacris) – Justin Bieber
• Around the World – Christina Aguilera
• Around the World (La La La La La) – ATC
• All Around the World (Remix Lady B 128 BPM) – Workout Ultimate Hits 2013, Vol. 1 – Remixes Ideal For Gym, Fitness, Aerobics, Cardio