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

ABC News has a video on their site about LipoDissolve:

ABC News: Lipodissolve: Too Good to Be True?

Here are some of the quotes from the video:

Annette Clark didn’t blink at the steep 2400 dollar bill for a series of multiple injections. “They gave me about six injections across my abdomen and by the time I got home, I looked like I was eight months pregnant.” The swelling was one of the MILDER side effects. “My whole body, just covered in hives, itching bad. I became very hot… I wake up in an ambulance.”

Gigi Hinton had a nearly perfect body simply hoped to trim her thighs and knees. After a second round of nearly twenty injections, her treatments turned nightmarish. “It really seemed like something started to eat away at the skin beneath.”

Next time you see one of those billboards that promise you that you’re fat will melt away with no effort, remember what Gigi’s leg looked like and steer clear of them.

I’ve talked about LipoDissolve before here:

• Starling Fitness » LipoDissolve Banned in Kansas

• Starling Fitness » LipoDissolve Billboard

Watch this video from Equinox Fitness:

Download this video for your iPod

This was an advertisement posted on Equinox’s website here:

• Equinox | What’s Your After?

Their whole theme is “Happily Ever After: What’s Your After?” Apparently, their “After” is:

I want women of questionable sexuality to hire me to be a coffee table at their Marie Antoinette party.

Is that really the “After” they’re trying to promote?

More problematic are their print advertising. I consider this a shameful display (click to see full size):

Perfect women with plastic surgeons’ marks all over their body. THIS is a happily ever after?! Never mind the controversy with the nuns and the naked art model, it is advertising like the one above that causes PostSecrets like this:

If you notice, whomever sent in this postcard to PostSecret, cut it out of the Equinox Fitness ad. Remember, gyms, fitness centers, personal trainers and weight loss medications PROFIT when you don’t like your body. Don’t let them make you feel unworthy and take your money for the privilege of it.

Via: Sexy Gym Ads: Clever or Sleazy?

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.

For the longest time, my PowerSong on my iPod has been Harder, Better, Faster, Stronger by Daft Punk. I talked about it almost a year ago here:

• Starling Fitness » Harder, Better, Faster, Stronger

It looks like a lot of hard bodies have chosen that song as well. Here is the cute girl version:

Then, here is the cute guys version:

Next time you’re thinking of skipping out on your workout, imagine yourself as trim as these guys and get your butt moving!

Via: Blind Prophecy » Music Monday

This postcard from PostSecret showed up last week.

I am continually fascinated at how judgmental mothers are. From potty training to discipline to eating, it seems that mothers are eager to judge each other with ferocity. Since I’ve never had children, I don’t find myself judging other women in this manner, so I can watch it from the outside.

If a child is fat, are the parents to blame?

That’s an interesting question. If a child is tall, are the parents to blame? I wonder why we are so willing to blame the parents with one direction of growth and not the other.

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.

If you are one of the many people who have bought a Starling Fitness Yearly Journal, then you know that the quote of the month is about pain and illness. If not, you can see the quote here:

The more severe the pain or illness, the more severe will be the necessary changes. These may involve breaking bad habits, or acquiring some new and better ones.

Peter McWilliams, Life 101

If you have been overweight for a long time (or even your whole life), I’m going to be honest with you. It’s going to be a little harder for you than the person who used to be skinny and gained a few pounds over the last couple of years. What habits will you be breaking? What new ones will you acquire? Your changes might need to be more severe, but they are not out of your reach. What will you do to bring yourself back to health?

If you would like to order your own Starling Fitness Yearly Journal, you can do so here:

• Starling Fitness » Order Your Starling Fitness Yearly Journal

If you order it now, you can choose the month you want it to start and it will last you a year from that date. You won’t have to throw away any unused days from the first of the year. You can start fresh now.

Congratulations to Chloe Marshall, who is the first finalist for the title of Miss England who is plus-sized.

• Sweet 16: Plus-size model Chloe Marshall reaches Miss England final – Telegraph

She is excited to show that it’s possible to be beautiful without being stick thin.

“I wanted to go through to the Miss England finals to break through the stereotype that you have to be tall and skinny.

“I wanted to make a bit of a statement. When I studied the other entrants for the Miss Surrey competition I concluded that pretty as the contestants were, they were equally all uniformly blonde and Barbie doll like.

“I want to show girls out there that it is possible to be beautiful and not a standard sized zero.”

She has had a few people saying nasty things to her, as you can see from the comments section on this site:

• Miss England hopeful Chloe tells HELLO! why she loves her curves

I want to give her a big shout-out! She IS beautiful and size 16. Thanks for showing the world that the two are not mutually exclusive.

Via: Rudd Sound Bites: Stigma-busting Beauty Pageant

Weight loss drugs have been shown to have link to depression and suicide.

• Anti-Addiction, Obesity Drugs Tied to Depression and Suicide

The diet drug rimonabant (Acomplia) perfectly illustrates this discouraging trend. It truly seemed to be a miracle drug in early trials, effectively combating patients’ dependence on tobacco, decreasing appetites and promoting weight loss in obese individuals, and even counteracting addictions to alcohol and cocaine. Originally marketed primarily as a weight-loss drug and only tepidly endorsed as such by the FDA in 2006, it was denied approval as a smoking cessation aide. It was never actually formally approved for either purpose, and in the face of this new data the likelihood of its availability to the American public looks slim at best.

By suppressing the same cannabinoid receptors that create the highs and hunger pangs associated with marijuana use, the drug may effectively shut down the pleasure mechanisms in certain individuals’ brains, and this reaction triggers an adverse response amounting to deep depression and, in extreme cases, suicidal thoughts.

Next time you’re tempted to spend your good money on weight loss drugs, remember that there is a lot more at risk than just losing money. You can lose weight on your own without the use of questionable medication.

Marilu Henner is promoting her new book, Wear Your Life Well. She promotes a macrobiotic and vegan diet, but this book also covers all the Inner Workouts that you can do to fix your mind.

She asks how much you love your life. So much of having a healthy life has to do with your mind. Here she describes what her book is about and how it can help you:

• Amazon.com Video : Entertainment : Marilu Henner on Wearing Your Life Well

She talks about her book on Jay Leno’s show here:

Via: Mary Lou Henner on April 24 Tonight Show with Jay Leno (Video) | TV Crunch

It appears that eating contests have reached such popularity that they are actually making a video game emulating them:

• Major League Eating: The Game

In this video game, you use your Wii controller to pretend to overeat more than your competitor. You can pretend to be one of the “famous” overeaters like Sonya Thomas or Patrick Bertoletti.

Here is a video trailer for the game:

Download this video for your iPod

Really? Do we really need a video game for bingeing? I’m shocked that it’s considered a sport. I have no idea why it is shown on ESPN, but now it also has a video game?! Can anyone explain this to me?

Via: Major League Eating Vomits Screenshots

For the first time, a woman has won The Biggest Loser! Ali Vincent won The Biggest Loser, even after being sent home in week four.

Here is a video interviewing her and Jillian, her trainer on the show.

Jillian is really proud of Ali

She’s sending a message to women out there that when you connect your mind, your body and your intention, anything is possible.

Since women typically don’t lose weight as quickly as men, it has been thought that a woman couldn’t win The Biggest Loser. Every season, women have said that they were going to be the first woman to win, but this time, Ali did it!

Congratulations!

If you want to see Jillian and Bob talk about the finalist before they found out who won:

Via: First Woman, Ali Vincent, Wins Biggest Loser | TV Crunch