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

I am attending CES (the Consumer Electronics Show) in Las Vegas, Nevada. I will be reporting on the health and fitness gadgets I come across during the show.

Konami’s booth at CES was so NOT what I was expecting. I expected a big booth with multiple machines playing the large range of Konami’s DDR games on Xboxes, PlayStations and the PC. I expected a lot of noise and people playing. Instead, it was a small booth with two employees of Konami playing. They were doing a spectacular job of it, though.

I have heard lots of people say things like, “I’m too heavy to play that game,” or “I’d be too embarrassed to play that game.” After watching these two guys play DDR on Heavy and both of them get great grades, you have to admit that all of those excuses just evaporate. Of course, the idea that playing DDR alone will get you thin also evaporates. Weight loss requires rigorous exercise (like DDR) AND a healthy eating regime. Unless you have both pieces of the puzzle, you won’t lose weight. You can do this, you just have to give it a two-fisted punch.

They were demonstrating DDR Extreme 2 for the Sony PlayStation 2. After playing with DDR UltraMix 3 for the Xbox, Extreme 2 seemed really simplistic. The graphic interface is so much cleaner with DDR-UM3. They let me play and the pads and game reacted exactly the same as they would on my Xbox. Play was the same, it was only the graphics that were different. They gave music CDs of the songs on DDR-X2 to the passerbys and tried to urge the middle-aged men to play along, but I was the only one I saw playing. That was kind of disappointing because I expected a loud and exciting crowd.

Of course, after I played my song, I turned around and saw a crowd of people gathered to watch. It seems that all of these executive types secretly wish to jump in and play, but are only willing to enjoy it vicariously. If you find you are doing that with anything, please, let yourself jump in and play. Don’t worry about embarrassing yourself. Just jump in and do it, whether it’s playing DDR, learning to ski, or trying anything else that your heart is calling to you. Don’t be one of those people on the sidelines saying, “I wish I could do that.” Just jump in and try it!

Click Here for Konami’s DDR Website:

• Music In Every Direction :: Konami

I hear people say it at Weight Watchers, “This dieting is just too expensive.” There is an attitude in the world that eating healthy food is more expensive than eating whatever is handy. I’m not buying it.

The truth of the matter is, we SAVED money when I started eating healthy. Fresh veggies are a little more expensive in the winter, but not nearly as expensive as the frozen dinners that I was buying. You don’t need to shell out the bucks for Lean Cuisine in order to eat less calories, you just need to be willing to plan ahead.

Pre-packaged fresh vegetables (like the kind you find in a vegetable tray) are more expensive than the uncut variety. If you’re willing to wash and prepare your own food, you can save a lot of money. The prices for fruit and vegetables are highly dependent on the season. If you buy what is in season, you can usually save money and still enjoy fresh produce. Sure, you might be a little sick of clementines this time of year, but they disappear after January, so enjoy them now.

Rice is CHEAP if you buy it in bulk. It keeps for a long time and it is a healthy carbohydrate to supplement your diet. Brown rice and wild rice varieties tend to have more fiber, so watch for sales on them and stock up when they their price falls down to the white rice prices.

The most inexpensive meat I have found is the frozen chicken breasts that you can buy in a huge bag. One of those bags will feed us for a month. That’s ten bucks of meat for an entire month for two people. Dried beans are another source of protein that are very inexpensive and will store for a long time if you buy them in bulk.

It seems to me that you can feed a family on very little money and keep it healthy as long as you’re willing to put in the work of planning and preparing everything. Sure, ramen noodles are cheaper than Lean Cuisine, but fresh veggies with rice and beans beats them both.

This is a story from a man who is riding across the United States on a bicycle.

• Happy News – AP takes a backroads U.S. bicycle journey – by Calvin Woodward

He is so right about people opening up to him about their dreams:

“When you bicycle across the country, people tell you their dreams, because they see you are living yours.”

I’ve experienced the same thing. When I tell people that I quit my job to write full-time, I always hear about their dreams. Even strangers will tell me what they want to do someday. It’s like the act of living my dreams has opened all the people up around me like flowers. They want to live their dreams, too. Don’t we all?

I have wanted to ride my bike across the United States for a long time. I think I first heard about it in Runner’s World magazine. I showed the picture of the woman who had done it to Mike. “Wouldn’t that be great?! To just ride your bike across America?” He didn’t think it would be so great.

After reading this story, I am inspired. It took him three months to cross the continent. Where will I be three months from now? How many imaginary miles will I have ridden on my bike on my trainer in the house? Enough to take me across the U.S.? Probably not, but doesn’t it sound like such an adventure?

If you are interested in riding across the U.S. on your bicycle, here is a website from a guy who actually did it. You can read his journals, see his equipment list and look at the photos he took along the way.

• David Moretz – Bike Across the U.S.

Here is a map of the Transamerica Trail, which is a quiet, off-road trail, safe for bikes to cross the United States. It’s not detailed enough to follow with your bike, but it gives you an idea of where you can ride.

• Transamerica Trail

Take a virtual ride across America

For the less adventurous, you can print up that map and mark your progress at home along the trail. If you go on a twenty-mile bike ride on the stationary bike at the gym, you can mark the progress on your map.

There are times when I feel really left out because I have an Xbox and not a PlayStation. This is one of those times. Glen Raphael, the writer for Videogame Workout, bought Eyetoy Kinetic about a month ago and has been writing updates on what it is like to workout using this video game.

• Videogame Workout: Eyetoy Kinetic

• Videogame Workout: Kinetic week three

Here is a quick list of the positives:

• The trainers have strong personalities and you can choose between different ones.

• No distracting movements behind the trainer. All of the programming power has been used to make the trainers look as good as possible.

• The post workout stretching is fantastic.

• Can compare the video of your workout compared to the trainer to see your form errors.

• Each workout has a score, so you can see how well you’re progressing.

Here is a list of the negatives he has noticed:

• No ability to change the scheduling of workouts.

• The Eyetoy controller interface can be difficult to use and needs to be readjusted for floor exercises.

• If you pause the game during the workout and then continue, it skips the segment instead of continuing where you left off. You miss out on some of your workout if you pause.

• Repeated dialog snippets get old after multiple workouts. It has “Exercise Video Syndrome.”

This sounds like a good workout once you have the interface worked out with the Eyetoy. It’s not quite ready for prime time, but I’m still wishing I had a PlayStation 2 right now.

This article from USA Today really surprised me. It’s a year in review-type article that looks at the diet trends over 2005.

• USATODAY.com – Chewing over the past year

I almost skipped this article, but I’m glad I noticed the final paragraph.

“Obesity researchers who have long sounded warnings about excess weight were alarmed when a government study suggested that weighing too much may not cost as many lives as previously believed and may actually provide some health advantages.”

The jury is still out on the health benefits or disadvantages of being overweight. For a news outlet that has been touting the evils of being overweight all year, it’s nice to see at least one acknowledgement of the possibility that being fat isn’t nearly as bad as the health insurance companies are trying to convince people it is.

This article about flaxseed oil is pretty interesting. There is no proof yet about all those supposed benefits of flaxseed oil, but it DOES give some good information about how to eat it.

• Yahoo! Health Expert Blogs Eat Right, Stay Fit – Facts About Flax

I wrote earlier about taking flaxseed oil on this entry:

• Starling Fitness » Following the Rules

Back then, my evaluation of the benefits of adding oil to my diet were as follows:

The truth of the matter is, I haven’t noticed a big difference by adding healthy oil into my diet. My nails are growing well. My hair is a little less dry. Other than that, I haven’t noticed anything. I started adding it to my diet because Weight Watchers told me to. I’m just following the rules. I like the Flaxseed oil. It tastes nutty. In all sincerity, though, I’d rather use those two points I allot every day to something else.

After almost a year of following the rules, my evaluation is basically the same. I don’t notice a huge benefit from my two teaspoons in my All Bran every morning. There is a minor benefit that I didn’t mention before and that’s…

Man, I don’t know how to say it politely, so I’ll just say it impolitely. The only other benefit that I’ve noticed from regularly adding flaxseed oil to my diet is looser bowels. Going to the bathroom is much easier for me and I tend to have a regular “movement” every morning as long as I have a cup of All Bran and two teaspoons of healthy oil every day for breakfast.

It’s uncomfortable to talk about, but it’s a REALLY important thing for me. Severe stomach pain is the reason I started eating healthy. Being able to stop taking Metamucil every day feels like an accomplishment. It’s worth the repetitive breakfast every morning to be able to live without the pain.

This article is about the stages of change and how far along the stage you might be.

• Treatment Online – More than just a Resolution – by Lily Hung, PhD

Lily lists the stages of change as follows:

• Precontemplation: no change in one’s behavior is being considered.

• Contemplation: one becomes aware of a desire to change a particular behavior, i.e. making a New Year’s Resolution, but not taking any active steps.

• Preparation: there is not only a desire to change, but also evidence of commitment to make that change in the near future, such as not only making a Resolution, but taking a few active steps toward that goal.

• Action: the change in the criterion behavior actually occurs. Progressing through this stage may include intense effort to modify behavior itself as well as the environment in which the behavior occurs, and can last for a while.

• Maintenance: consists of ongoing change of behavior. However, this is that stage that most people are faced with relapse to a previous stage. Relapse can sometimes be fought by focusing on the benefits and gains from the change.

No matter where you are on the stages of change, it is possible to make lasting changes in your life. If you notice that you are in the Precontemplation or Contemplation stages, and notice that you are not willing to take the steps necessary to live a healthy lifestyle, don’t bother. Don’t say you’re going to go on a diet if you aren’t willing to do what needs to be done. You would spend your time much more wisely if you decide to eat whatever you want and just learn to love yourself as you are.

So, you looked at the New Year’s Resolutions from last year and you’re unhappy with the results? Steve Pavlina has the answer to help you stick to your resolutions for this year.

• Steve Pavlina – Be Patient With Yourself

He is talking about personal development in general, but this article is dead on as far as weight loss is concerned. It probably took you more than a year to get fat, so it will probably take more than a year to take off the weight and learn healthy habits.

Even if you’re working a great deal on your own personal growth, you may look back on yourself a year ago and think, “I didn’t get very far this year at all.” That’s OK. It doesn’t mean you failed. For most big changes, a year is too little time. Look back at yourself five or ten years ago. Notice any differences? Unless you’re a stick in the mud, they’ll be a lot more pronounced. You’ll have a better sense of what worked and what didn’t.

A general rule of thumb is that people overestimate what they can accomplish in a year, but they underestimate what they can accomplish in five years. I’ve found this to be fairly accurate.

When I look at myself back in January of 2001, I was just starting on this road to health. I had decided never to diet again and to love myself just the way I was. That idea was liberating to me, but I also gained a lot of weight because I had finally taken off the reigns of my eating. I was closer to loving myself than I had been for a long time, but I had no idea about what was healthy and what wasn’t. I believed every dieting hype that was out there.

Five years later, I’m healthier than I’ve ever been. I exercise regularly. I’m not at my goal weight yet, but I’m much further along than I ever thought I would be when I decided never to diet again and to just love my body the way it is.

If you have been beating yourself because you’re not where you wanted to be when January 2006 rolled around, take Steve Pavlina’s advice: be patient with yourself. This is a journey. You can travel it at whatever speed works best for you.

Because of the new year, we are getting a lot of new visitors right now, so I thought I would introduce myself. My name is Laura Moncur. I’m the primary writer for Starling Fitness. At times, Michael Moncur writes, but most of the time, it will be just you and me learning about fitness and health together.

I wrote about my weight loss story so far here:

• Starling Fitness » My Weight Loss Story So Far…

I wrote that last year and I was determined to get to goal by October, but I’m not there yet. Bingeing is a difficult problem to deal with and I am still fighting it every day. Some days are easier than others. When I can string a bunch of them together, I make real progress. That’s what this website is about: stringing enough good days together to make a healthy life.

(more…)