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

My mom has the Post-Thanksgiving Christmas Shopping down to a science. She arrives at her first choice store five to ten minutes before it opens, rushes in, buys the one or two items on her list and sprints for the checkout stand: repeat, repeat, repeat. Christmas shopping with her is an efficient and tiring ordeal. Sure, you get all your Christmas shopping done in about three hours, but afterward, you’re more tired than thirty minutes after the turkey dinner the day before. Here are some tips to get the most of your shopping workout:

• The Mall Is For Walkers: It might seem like lazy shopping to go to the mall because there are so many stores in one spot, but the point that you miss is that you end up doing a lot of walking in that mall. Wear your running shoes and you’ll last a little longer.

• Running Gets You There Faster: If it means you have to run to beat the other people rushing for the low priced televisions, running gets you there faster. Very few of the other shoppers are willing to run while they are getting their three items that they want from this particular store. If you sprint between the items, you’ll burn extra calories AND get what you had on your list.

• Carts Are For Wimps: Carrying your products in your arms not only builds upper-body strength, it lets you be more agile when dodging other shoppers. A cart is a big and bulky thing to negotiate through the narrow aisles of the store. Use a hand basket or just carry your items and you’ll be faster. Plus, you’ll feel it in your arms the next day.

• Standing In Line Is A Way To Burn Off Nervous Energy: Sure, you can stand still in line like a zombie, but if you are fidgeting, bopping from one impulse item to another, and bouncing a bit, you’ll not only burn off that nervous energy, you’ll burn a few extra calories.

• Fisticuffs Are Never The Answer: I worked at K-Mart for over seven years while putting myself through college. Every year, there was a fist fight. It might seem like a good workout to physically fight for the last 40-buck microwave, but you’ll just end up stuck in a room in the back of the store for an hour or so. Let the other person get the good deal. You’ll find something better later, I promise.

Me? I think I’ll just avoid the frenzy. After seven years of retail slavery, I vowed never to shop on the Friday after Thanksgiving. I think I’ll get my workout the old fashioned way. I’ll just run around my neighborhood. It will probably be abandoned, so I’ll have my run of the sidewalks.

Last year, I wrote an entire series on Thanksgiving. How to survive it, what to do if you “blew it” and everything else. Here is a list of links to that series:

• Starling Fitness » How To Enjoy Thanksgiving Without Guilt

• Starling Fitness » Thanksgiving Calorie List

• Starling Fitness » I Blew It On Thanksgiving! Now What?

• Starling Fitness » Dealing with Post-Thanksgiving Temptation

This holiday seems to be focused on food, but in reality, it’s supposed to be about gratitude. I’m grateful that I live in a country where abundance is so easily acquired. I’m grateful that I have been able to live such a healthy and happy life up to this point, even when I was fat. I’m especially grateful to all you readers. Your comments are so inspiring and positive that sometimes it feels like I get a lot more out of this daily conversation than you folks do. Thank you for reading and have a healthy Thanksgiving this year.

For the last few years, I’ve been hearing that the tryptophan in turkey is what makes you sleepy, but Cheryl Koch from Yahoo! Health has a different idea:

• Expert Blogs Eat Right, Stay Fit – The Truth About Those Thanksgiving Naps on Yahoo! Health

She says tryptophan would need to be taken on an empty stomach with no protein in order to make you sleepy enough for a nap. Here is the true culprit…

“What will make you drowsy? Consuming a large meal that’s high in fat definitely helps. Remember that the larger the portions and the richer the meal, the more energy that’s required to digest it. In addition, digestion directs energy away from other organs, including the brain, making you feel lethargic and sleepy. Finally, consuming alcohol as part of your holiday celebration also is likely to slow you down and add to your need for a nap.”

So, tomorrow, remember to eat light and go easy on the alcohol to keep the droopy eyelids away. Suggesting a brisk walk outside in the cool air would be even better.

I took a walk last night and enjoyed the unseasonably warm weather. It’s almost Thanksgiving and it feels like early October right now. Of course, tomorrow we may be buried in three feet of snow. You can never tell with Utah weather. Sometimes I wonder whether living somewhere else would affect my exercise routine. Would I be more faithful if the weather was good all the time or would my ability to withstand weather extremes close in on me and I would find myself shivering at 71 degrees?

Yesterday, I walked further than I usually do and found different sites to look at while out and about. I have been running the same 2.27 mile course over and over so many times that just walking a different route felt refreshing. I really enjoyed seeing parts of my neighborhood that I usually only see in my car. I can catch more details when I’m walking, like the rust on the sign at City Dry Cleaners or the flowers around the hippie store. It’s November. How are they keeping those pansies alive? If the pansies can stand this weather, then I sure can and I’ll be out again today.

I think this video is supposed to promote weight loss surgery, but it seems to do the opposite for me. If you have ever thought about having weight loss surgery, this video is a vivid reason on why you shouldn’t. Not only do you have to endure an unpleasant surgery, you have to eat healthy to keep the weight off. Weight loss from gastric bypass surgery or any other weight loss surgery happens because you change your eating habits. If you have to change your eating habits anyway, don’t bother with the medical torture. Learn how to change your habits now.

Sometimes I think people are tempted by weight loss surgery because they think they deserve the pain. Maybe they think that if they suffered so much that they wouldn’t dare go back to eating poorly. Or maybe they think that the cost of the surgery is going to be a deterrent to eating poorly. It all sounds like punishment to me.

Instead of punishing yourself with weight loss surgery, do something nice for yourself today. Feed yourself some fresh veggies and fruit, maybe even some lean protein. Give yourself the rush of some heart-pounding exercise. Find other non-food-related ways to be nice to yourself. You don’t need weight loss surgery. You need someone to love you so much that you WANT to be healthy. That someone can be you.

Months ago, I looked through YouTube to find inspirational weight loss stories. I didn’t find much. Now, YouTube’s tubes are full of weight loss videos promoting weight loss surgery, hypnosis and other weight loss gadgets and pills. Instead of finding personal stories about people trying to lose weight, I am buried in commercials and propaganda.

How do you evaluate weight loss commercials?

What do you use to filter out the crap? How can you tell if something is real?

Are you tempted by options like weight loss surgery, hypnosis, gadgets or pills?

What do you tell yourself when you see weight loss propaganda?

I’ve gotten so fed up with the weight loss industry that I’m to the point where I don’t believe ANYTHING. I have found gadgets that have actually helped me exercise more often, but I still don’t believe in them. That sort of backlash can’t be healthy either. I don’t know what’s right for me…

The Question of the Week is meant to be an Inner Workout for you. Find some time during the week and allow yourself to write the answers to the questions posted. You can write them on paper, on a word processor or here in the comments section. Whatever works for you as long as you do it.

Keep writing until you find out something about yourself that you didn’t know before. I’ve also heard that it works to keep writing until you cry, but that doesn’t really work for me. Whatever works for you. Just keep writing until it feels right.

I stopped watching The Biggest Loser pretty early this season. I don’t like that new trainer. I really miss Jillian and it seemed even MORE commercial than last year. Last year’s constant Jello commercials really bugged me, but this year, everything was a commercial, so I stopped watching.

I guess my instincts were right on about the commercialization of the show. Last week, on my trip to the grocery store, I saw a huge display of bottled water with last year’s “Biggest Loser” advertising it. Penta Water is filtered water, so it doesn’t pretend to be diet water, but I was still offended. The look on Matt’s face told me all I needed to know about Penta Water. His mouth was smiling, but his eyes weren’t. You don’t watch a season of reality TV without being able to recognize when someone isn’t happy. Matt, if you’re out there reading this, you don’t need to sell your body to Penta Water.

I looked away when they did the “Pudding in a Cloud” episode. I glazed over every glimpse of Jello, One-A-Day vitamins, Diet Rite and Timex watches. I even turned the other cheek when an entire episode was turned into a commercial for The Planet Hollywood Casino and Las Vegas. But, come on? Biggest Loser Water?

Bad form, Biggest Loser, bad form…

I have run pretty hard, but never hard enough to smell like ammonia.

• “Daddy, You Smell Like …Pee” » Complete Running Network

Releasing ammonia in your sweat is caused by burning protein during your exercise instead of carbohydrates. If you are low are carbs, the body dips into the protein reserves, which means your muscles or whatever protein you ate recently. I’m not a long distance runner, so I have never had a workout that was this intense.

It makes me wonder what it would be like to workout so hard that you end up burning off all the carbs you have eaten. I’m such a carbohydrate hound that I don’t know how far and long I would have to run to achieve this. I wonder if it’s healthy. According to Devine Sports, it might not be:

“The smell usually isn’t anything to worry about. But if it persists, you probably aren’t taking in enough carbohydrates. If you emphasize carbohydrates before, during and after running and the ammonia smell is still around, you should get checked out by a physician.”

If you have noticed an ammonia smell after exercise, try increasing the percentage of carbohydrates in your diet. If the smell, persists, make sure you talk to your doctor. It might be enticing to know that you are burning off so much fuel that you are dipping into your protein reserves, but it might be a sign of a bigger problem further down the line.

When I first started exercising, it was always a struggle to find any exercise clothes to fit me. I remember finding some plus-sized shorts and tops at K-Mart once. I was so grateful that they had my size that I bought EVERYTHING that fit me, despite color or fashion. I just wanted anything to fit me and I am STILL grateful to K-Mart for that day. Even though I’m down to regular sizes now, I still hit K-Mart first to give them a chance at my money.

Wendy Bumgardner at About.com has a great entry about Plus-Sized exercise clothes:

• Plus-Size Walking Clothes

Having enough workout wear is essential. I always set out my workout clothes the night before so I don’t have to make decisions when I’m half-asleep. I just throw on the clothes and get moving. I always make sure I have at least seven outfits so that if I want to exercise every day this week, I can. I don’t want to have to worry about doing laundry before I can workout and I NEVER want to have to wear the same sweaty clothes two days in a row. I did that enough in junior high dance class for a lifetime.

Don’t let the fashion designers tell you that you can’t workout just because they refuse to admit that you exist. Fashion designers aren’t fitness experts. Find a company that makes clothing that fits you and reward them with your loyalty.

I don’t know if you noticed, but I don’t do shoe reviews. I don’t even mention the shoes that I wear by name. I have had such bad luck with shoes that I found one version of a shoe from one company that works for me. One, out of all that are out there. I can’t even find these shoes in Salt Lake City anymore. I actually order them online from the company that makes them. Every time my shoes start to wear out, I think that I should try a different brand or shoe so that I can just walk into a store and buy them.

Every time I try to go shoe shopping, I regret it.

I have tried on hundreds of shoes and I have only found one pair to ever work for me. Most shoe shops don’t have treadmills in the store, so you can’t really try the shoes out. Every time I have bought shoes other than the ones I use now, I have found weird things wrong with them. I try lacing my shoes in all the ways that they talk about in the running magazine to make it better, but in the end, I order my running shoes online.

Each of us is unique. Running puts a lot of stress on our feet and can cause a lot of rubbing in sensitive areas if the shoe isn’t perfect. If you find a shoe that works for you, buy a few extra just in case the company stops making that shoe. Or go with a reliable company that makes the same shoes over and over for years like New Balance or Ryka. Reading shoe reviews won’t tell you how the shoe fits your foot. All you can do is hit every store in the city and when you finally find that perfect shoe, stick to it like glue and hope that the manufacturer is still making it next year.