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

I love this article from McSweeney’s Internet Tendency.

• McSweeney’s Internet Tendency: Cookie Monster Searches Deep Within Himself and Asks: Is Me Really Monster?

Cookie Monster wants to know why he is called a monster, whereas the other monsters on Sesame Street have names like Elmo and Telly. Is he actually a monster? This paragraph is so familiar to me that it reminds me of how I have been a monster.

When me get back to apartment, after cookie binge, me can’t stand looking in mirror—fur matted with chocolate-chip smears and infested with crumbs. Me try but me never able to wash all of them out. Me don’t think me is monster. Me just furry blue person who love cookies too much. Me no ask for it. Me just born that way.

It has been months since I’ve had a binge and I’m beginning to feel that it was physiological, not psychological. It was in my body, not my head. I haven’t changed my mind at all, but I have been free from that constant desire to binge for two months now.

How did I do it?

I quit cold turkey. I stopped eating carbs, sugars, artificial sweeteners and anything with caffeine. Just protein and green veggies for me and I have been free from that desire to binge for two months. It is such a blessing that I can’t express how liberating it feels.

Cookie Monster, you’re not a monster. The cookies are.

Via: Mind Hacks: Is me really a monster?

Odd Pairing by pheochromocytoma from Flickr

This article from MSN shows how grocery stores set up their floor plan to increase sales. Unfortunately, sometimes that means food that we didn’t want ends up in our shopping carts. We’ve all heard the adage to never go grocery shopping hungry. Here are some other things you might want to know.

• 10 Things Your Grocery Store Doesn’t Want You to Know – MSN Health & Fitness

Here is quick run-down of their list:

1. The shopping carts have cooties.
2. Food expiration dates are open to interpretation.
3. Kid-friendly food is purposely placed within their reach.
4. They cut up food so they can charge more.
5. Good-for-you foods require bending and reaching.
6. End-of-aisle displays are there to distract you from your mission.
7. Bargains aren’t always a bargain.
8. You’ll walk the store the way they want you to.
9. The salad bar can make you sick.
10. They don’t always clean as often as they should.

I have heard that the best way to shop at a grocery store is to only go around the edges. The fresh food like veggies, fruits, dairy and meat needs refrigeration and ends up along the edges and in the back of the store. Avoiding the inner aisles helps keep tempting (and “kid-friendly”) food out of your cart.

My BEST weapon to protect me from buying food that I shouldn’t be eating has been my camera. If I see something that I like and think I want to buy (despite the cost or sugar content), I snap a picture of it instead. Then, if I REALLY want it later, I can go back and buy it without worrying that I’ll forget. EVERY time, so far, I have looked at the picture and wondered what I was thinking.

Via: Ten Surprising Facts Supermarkets Won’t Tell You | Organized Home

I’m angry enough to bite nails over this advertising campaign created by Brandon Knowlden:

• brandon knowlden // art director

In his own words, the description of the campaign is here:

It is no secret that the American culture is known for overindulgence. This public service campaign dramatizes the effects of poor eating in a way we can all understand.

Public service campaign? Read the fine print on the ads and tell me if it’s a “public service” or not.

But it doesn’t have to end this way. Find out how bariatric surgery can help. The Northern Bariatric Surgery Institute. www.cutweight.org.

That little URL leads directly to the website for William S. Peters, M.D.

• William S. Peters M.D. – Bariatric Surgeon

That is NOT a “public service” announcement. It’s a barefaced advertisement for a surgeon using scare tactics.

I’m not here to argue whether obesity kills because even the medical community is split on that issue, but we KNOW that bariatric surgery kills 1 out of 200 patients.

• Gastric bypass mortality, a bariatric surgeon’s view

The most commonly cited mortality rate for bariatric surgical operations, across the United States, is 0.5%. That looks pretty good, till you do the math and realize that means about 1 out of 200 patients will experience a fatal result.

Don’t let them lie to you. Promoting the idea that it’s better to be dead than fat isn’t a public service.

Via: A Sizable Apple: Reaction: ‘Obesity is suicide’ campaign

Update 04-24-08: A special thank you to Juliana for pointing out that Dr. Peters left the following statement on his website:

It has been brought to my attention that there are posters circulating on the internet that are being associated with me. I would like it to be known that I am in no way associated with this marketing campaign and I have taken formal action to have my name and likeness removed from any such product, poster, internet site or publication.

Just for clarification, I have never been associated with this organization and am disgusted by their vulgar display of obesity. This is something I would never stand for and am appalled that anyone would even consider placing material of this nature out for public viewing.

Update 06-25-08: I received this email from the originator of these ads:

Laura,

My name is Brandon and I am the originator of the ads you have posted on your site at

These ads were created on a sample basis for a support group that Dr. Peters meets with. His position is and has always been that he sees the ads as disgusting. I am emailing you because the ads are damaging his business and they were proliferated throughout the internet by my own selfish motives without his knowledge.

I apologize for the level of insincerity the ads depict and would be grateful if you could remove the post. If not, please let me supply you with new images that do not connect Dr. Peters to the graphic nature of the content.

brandon

Dannon has been advertising a new yogurt called Activia that is supposed to help you with “digestive issues.” You can see the commercial here:

My first thought was of all the years I suffered with digestive troubles. It had nothing to do with age and everything to do with a bad infection. When I took the antibiotics to kill the infection, it killed all the good stuff in my body as well, so I had stomach trouble for over five years.

My experience was more like this skit from Saturday Night Live:

I haven’t had stomach troubles at all for over three months, which is when I stopped eating carbohydrates. Can a low-carb diet cure Irritable Bowel Syndrome? Well, it’s the COMPLETE opposite of the diet that the stupid gastroenterologist recommended. Of course, when I ate his diet, I suffered MORE. I haven’t taken fiber supplements or acidophilus for two months and I haven’t had one incident like the skit above.

I don’t think I’ll be needing any Activia any time soon.

This postcard from PostSecret showed up a couple of weeks ago.

I love my body and think it’s perfect, but I pretend not to because that’s what normal girls do.

STOP IT!

If you say something enough times, you begin to believe it. Keep your perfect body and throw the false modesty out the window.

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 love Ernie’s entry on Google Maps and their public transportation options:

• little. yellow. different. – Dear Google Maps: Your public transportation options mock me

This is the result map that came up when I typed in that I wanted to take public transportation from my house to the DMV. (Public transportation since, you know, I forgot to renew my car registration. Ooops.)

I love how it’s all, “WALK THERE, YOU FAT F***ER.”

The Salt Lake County public transportation is so inefficient that if anything is closer than three miles, it’s ALWAYS faster to walk there. One of the reasons that I like to exercise is because if I have to do something like walk to the DMV, I can. Nothing is in my way and I can survive on just my two feet alone.

Here is a most excellent article from the Diet Blog about water and the idea that we need to drink eight glasses a day:

• Diet Blog: The Mythical Daily Water Requirement

But where did the 8 glasses per day gospel originate?

Dr. Frederick Stare suggested this theory in a book “Nutrition for Good Health” published in 1974 (“theory” being the operative word). The theory caught on despite its arbitrary origins and it has been speculated that bottled water companies are largely responsible for perpetuating the 8-a-day mantra.

So, how much SHOULD you drink? We all love rules, don’t we? Click on over to Diet Blog’s entry and find out!

Photo Credit: Deep Blue by Ak_Saechao from Flickr

Is it possible to eat noodles AND lose weight. According to some, you can with shirataki noodles:

• About.com: What are Shirataki Noodles?

Although shirataki noodles have been around in Asia for quite some time, they’re becoming increasingly popular outside of Asia with people who are trying to lose weight or who are cutting back on carbohydrates.

Shirataki noodles are made from the tubers of an Asian plant (Amorphophallus konjac) called a konjac plant. The tubers are dried and ground to make a flour which is then used to make noodles.

The noodles have a gelatinous consistency and have no real flavor.

Shirataki noodles contain almost no calories, carbohydrates, fat, sugar, protein, or gluten. Although shirataki noodles contain carbohydrates, very little of it is digested in the small intestine.

In addition to having almost no calories or usable carbohydrates, shirataki noodles contain a type of soluble fiber called glucomannan.

I have seen these noodles at the grocery store in the refrigerated section by the tofu. Next time I go shopping, I’m going to pick some up and see if they taste good with some lean meat. If I create a new recipe, I’ll share it with you!

This ad ran in 1975 and it says a lot about the economy of that time:

How to eat well in spite of it all.

Tonight’s dinner doesn’t have to look like today’s economy. Not with Kraft Dinners and a few touches of your own. Like adding some snipped parsley to Kraft Macaroni and Cheese Dinner and serving it with sausage and tomato wedges. Just one of the ways Kraft Dinners can help you eat well in spite of it all.

Kraft Dinners make ends meet.

Back in 1975, Kraft didn’t try to tell me that their Macaroni and Cheese was a healthy part of my daily diet. They hadn’t thought to convince the USDA that I should eat five to eleven servings of grains every day and that their dinner was a healthy way to achieve that goal.

No, they were far less devious back then. They just said it was an inexpensive way to feed your family. If the political pundits are correct, we are heading into a recession worse than they saw in the Seventies. Will the healthy advertising change when it hits us hard?

When Mike and I were first married, we were pretty poor. We ate Mac and Cheese (generic, because it was 25 cents a package), Ramen (10 cents a package) and spaghetti. I don’t know about Mike, but that year I went from 140 pounds to 178 pounds. I gained almost forty pounds in a year eating inexpensive food.

If I had spent my money on the fresh vegetables and meat instead, I would have spent just as much on each meal AND maintained my weight (if not lost). I know it looks like fresh meat and vegetables cost more than Kraft and Ramen, but you need to eat far less to feel full.

If you are feeling the financial pinch, don’t fall into the Mac and Cheese trap. Those simple carbohydrates make you feel MORE hungry than the same amount of meat for your money.

Via: Found in Mom’s Basement: Vintage ad for Kraft mac & cheese resigns itself to 1975’s crappy economy

Mixed Messages from Supermarket Tabloids by Laura Moncur from Flickr

I was at the grocery store on Monday and this is what I saw at the checkout counter. Two different tabloids screeching two different messages at me:

Life & Style:

Refusing to eat: Why these stars look so scary skinny:
Katie Holmes: Katie’s weight loss could keep her from getting pregnant.
Nicole Richie: Is Nicole going too far with her diet?
Nicky Hilton: Nicky is in total denial.

OK Weekly:

Steal Brit’s New Diet
Britney lost 15 lbs in just 4 weeks!
No Pills, No Lipo

If you find yourself vacillating between dieting and feeling like it’s all hopeless, take a look around you. The entire world can’t make a decision between whether being thin is good or bad. It’s almost enough to make you want to give up, but remember this:

• This isn’t about approval
• This isn’t about the rest of the world
• This is about YOU and your health

Don’t let the rest of the world tell you that you’re too fat or too skinny. Make a decision on your own based on how you feel and how your body is reacting to your current weight.