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

The stereotype for someone with an eating disorder is a young teen female, but it appears that women aged 30-50 are also at risk.

• Clinicians Observe Rise in Eating Disorders Among Middle-aged Women

The groups are not as different as you might suspect:

Dr. Pryor tracked patients at the Eating Disorder Center of Denver (EDC-D) over the course of two years, comparing the information of 78 younger women with that of 63 women in their 30s, 40s, and 50s. While she initially believed that the specific issues facing these women would vary depending on their age, she found that these women had similar temperaments and triggers, regardless of age. Both age groups scored similarly on tests of character, with low self-esteem and high anxiety predominating. Additionally, young and middle-aged women were affected by many of the same triggers for disordered eating, including dieting, experiencing abuse, and grieving.

Part of me thinks like that older women aren’t just developing these eating disorders. We had them all along and never got treatment when we were teens. The other part of me sees that disordered eating is becoming all more common and is now spreading to all age ranges.

This is the final week where I will give you step by step instructions on how to get into a swimsuit this summer. If you’re short on time, scroll down to the end and read “The Short Version” to get your weekly tips.

If you haven’t been following along with the program, there is still time to get into that swimsuit this summer. Go back to Week 1 and get started there:

• Starling Fitness » Get Into That Swimsuit This Summer: Week 1

If you HAVE been following along, your job last week was to wear your swimsuit alone at the pool. How did that work out? Did you take a couple of hours just for yourself to relax at the pool and test out your suit while it’s wet? If so, give yourself kudos and move on to this week’s final adventure.

Go Swimming With Friends or Family

This is the week that you test out your suit with trusted friends or family members. Don’t bring along the person who will make fun of you. Only bring supportive people who will have a good time with you.

Don’t tell them that you are there to evaluate your new swimming suit. Just tell them that you want to get ready for the summer season and go swimming with them all before the pool/beach gets crowded.

Have FUN!

This isn’t all about getting used to your suit. The whole reason why you want to have a swimming suit that you love is because you don’t want to miss out on the fun. Whether it’s water-skiing, snorkeling, boogie boarding or just splashing around in the community pool, you want to be where the fun is, so make sure you have a swimming suit that works for you.

Evaluate The Suit

How did it work out? Did anyone mention something that you might have missed? Did people compliment you? How did it feel when you were swimming, lying on your towel or laughing with friends? Did it work? Yes? Great! Then you’re set for the summer.

If it didn’t work out, however, there is still time for you to get back into the store and start all over with Week 1 again. You deserve to have a swimming suit that looks good, feels good and covers you well this summer. Don’t let yourself miss out on all the fun just because of a yard of fabric. Get out there and enjoy the summer!

The Short Version:

• Give yourself kudos for getting this far.

• Go swimming with friends or family.

• Bring only supportive friends and family. Leave the person who makes fun of you at home.

• Evaluate your suit. If it’s not perfect, go back to week 1 and try again. There is enough time to break in another suit if you have to before summer.

This postcard showed up on PostSecret this weekend. I originally thought that the numbers assigned to the forks represented dates, but then 0-6 isn’t a date. What do the numbers represent?

Because they are forks, I immediately thought that they represented disordered eating. What do you all think? What is the solution to the Three Forks Enigma?

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.

Something about Paul McKenna smacks of charlatan to me. I don’t know what it is, but he doesn’t seem like someone I want to trust. He has a new show on TLC and here are some highlights from the first episode.

The thing that bothers me is how much this show feels like an infomercial. The clapping at the “appropriate” times and the weighing of the studio audience really feel like parlor tricks to me. The before and after pictures and the pants from a previous life are all the same things I’ve seen before.

I have no disagreement with what he is saying. He recommends the same things as I have been saying:

1. When you are hungry, EAT.
2. Eat what you want, not what you think you should.
3. Eat CONSCIOUSLY and enjoy every mouthful.
4. When you think you are full, STOP eating.

He uses the SAME hunger scale that Weight Watchers uses. I don’t know where this scale originated, but it isn’t anything revolutionary.

Because he is recommending the same views about food that I have, I really WANT to like this guy, but something about him sets off my B.S. Detector. I can’t put my finger on it, but I don’t want to believe in anything he says, even when he’s preaching common sense.

Via: TLC’s “I Can Make You Thin” with Paul McKenna Video | TV Crunch

There are a few nutrition scales on the market. Do you have any idea if they are useful and which ones are worth looking into. Every website about weight loss speaks about food diary and self monitoring, this appears to be an accurate method.

What are your thoughts

Valarie

Valarie,

My first thought was: What the heck is a nutrition scale?

When I did a Google search for the words “nutrition scale” there were SO many entries for companies selling food scales. They are compact little scales that can tell you how much food you are eating. So if the nutrition facts on the back of the package say 1 ounce, you can weigh out 1 ounce.

I have one. I use it to weigh the Walking DVDs and Yearly Journals that I send out every month.

Okay, every once and a while, I use it to weigh food to make sure that I’m still eyeballing things right. Mine is made by Escali and it looks very much like this Escali Primo Digital Multifunctional Scale. My sister gave it to me when she cleaned out her kitchen. It runs on batteries and I have never had to change them.

The thing that worried me is the price of these gadgets. They range from $20 to nearly $300. My scale was the cheap twenty dollar version and works wonderfully. Why would anyone need a food scale that is almost three hundred bucks?

They don’t.

I can understand the cost of a scale like that if you worked in a research laboratory, but for weighing your food at home, an inaccuracy of a tenth of an ounce isn’t going to make or break your diet. In fact, the whole idea of meticulously weighing your food just seems wrong to me. Eat enough to stop being hungry and not too full. If that means leaving a bite or two left over, fine. Give it to the dog, throw it away or save it for later.

Seeing all those listings for companies that are selling “nutrition scales” just seems like they are trying to profit off the diet industry. If you do desperately need to weigh your food, a twenty dollar scale should be perfect. Don’t waste your money on anything more elaborate than that.

Best Wishes,
Laura Moncur

Note:

The email reply that I sent to “Valarie” bounced. I suspect that the email I received was a pathetic attempt by some misguided company to create a viral marketing desire for “nutrition scales” and to profit from the diet industry.

Good luck with that.

If you took two packages of Hanes Underwear and compared them like Julia did, then you would notice a distinct difference between the pictures. The authors of Photoshop Disasters hit it right on the head:

If you’re trying to guess which one is the real leg, the smart money is on neither.

I know that using photo editing software like Photoshop is common, but I forget HOW common it is. Not even this perfectly beautiful girl on the package of Hanes underwear was good enough. Her already lovely leg had to be trimmed and molded like clay on the computer.

Personally, I LOVE Hanes underwear, but I don’t think I’ll ever look at their packaging the same way again.

In the world of marathons, I sometimes forget that 5K and 10K races are also considered long distance races. Here is a classic picture from the Library of Congress of Hannes Kolehmainen. He won the Olympic gold medal for the 5K and 10K in the 1912 Olympics.

Sometimes I forget that these races are so old. Almost one hundred years ago, this man ran that familiar 3.1 miles of a 5K. He ran it in 14:36.6 minutes, which is slower than the usual winner of the Salt Lake 5K by a couple of minutes, but twice as fast as my best time. Are we faster now than they were back then? Are we slower? There certainly are more people competing in races.

Sometimes I wonder what it was like to run in 1912. No digital chronographs. No heart rate monitors. No Nike+ telling me when I’ve finished my run, however inaccurately it may judge it, I’m sure it’s more accurate than I could have done in 1912. Is it more convenient to run now? Yeah, I think it is. That’s why we’re able to beat the Olympic time at little 5K races in my hometown.

From the look on his face, however, running is just as hard now as it was back then.

Each week, I will give you step by step instructions on how to get into a swimsuit this summer. If you’re short on time, scroll down to the end and read “The Short Version” to get your weekly tips.

If you haven’t been following along with the program, there is still time to get into that swimsuit this summer. Go back to Week 1 and get started there:

• Starling Fitness » Get Into That Swimsuit This Summer: Week 1

If you HAVE been following along, your job last week was to wear your swimsuit while you cleaned house.

How did that work? Did anything fall out? Did your sarong stay on? Do you trust the swimming suit’s ability to stay on your body during extreme work conditions? If not, buy a different one. If so, move on to this week’s challenge.

Wear Your Swim Suit in a Swimming Pool

I know it’s a radical departure, but at some point, you are going to have to test the suit out at a pool. My recommendation is to go to a pool on the other side of town or even at a hotel in your own town. You are less likely to see anyone you know at those places and you can test your suit in relative privacy.

Go Alone

This isn’t about having fun with the family. If you need to, get a sitter. This is YOUR time this week and you only need to be gone for an hour or two. You deserve two hours to yourself out of the 168 hours in a week. If you can’t take two hours to yourself in a week, you have bigger problems than swimsuit issues. Get help from friends, family or services so you can spend two hours to yourself.

Don’t Use The Gym Pool

This isn’t about exercise. This is about learning how to relax and enjoy yourself in your swimsuit. Don’t use the gym pool, even though it’s free. It’s better to get the adrenaline rush from sneaking into a hotel pool than to test your newly beloved swim suit at the gym. The BEST option would be to actually check into a hotel for an entire night of solitude and enjoyment, but if that’s not an option for you, make sure you go somewhere that feels as relaxing as it can be.

This is the week to really test drive your suit, so enjoy your hour or two in the pool.

The Short Version:

• Evaluate your current swim suit. Do you trust it to stay on your body? If not, buy a different one. If so, move on to this week’s challenge.

• Wear your swim suit in a swimming pool.

• Go alone.

• Don’t use the gym pool. Find a place that feels luxurious and relaxing.

All over Salt Lake City, we have remnants of the 2002 Winter Olympics. The Olympic Tower is one of them. A huge tower of blown orange glass, it says NOTHING to me about physical fitness or winter sports. I’m almost bitter at the “art” that was thrown up to make our city look urban and presentable.

If you were to create something that represented physical fitness, what would it look like? Do you think a hulking mass of glass is really representative of the epitome of human strength?

Wendy Bumgardner at About.com’s Walking Blog brings up an interesting idea. Which is better, treadmill or walking outdoors?

• Treadmill vs. Outdoors Walking

She suggests:

The motorized tread and lack of uneven surfaces, curbs, etc. slightly reduce your calories per mile on a treadmill. You can make that small difference up by adding as little as a 1% incline on the treadmill.

For me, it’s not strictly about calorie burning or training effects. Walking outdoors is interesting. I usually take a camera along and snap a ton of photos along the way. Then again, walking on my treadmill with my DVD player nearby, I can take myself to any place in world (or out of it). In fact, if I want to recreate a peaceful walk outdoors, I can always do so with one of my Starling Fitness Walking DVDs:

• Starling Fitness – Fitness, diet, and health weblog » Walking Videos For Sale

I am continually surprised at how relaxing AND invigorating a walk on the beach can be when there is three feet of snow outside my window.

Most importantly, the best exercise is the one you will do. If the thought of going outside makes you cringe, then maybe the treadmill is best for you. If you have been avoiding the room with the treadmill, then maybe a walk outside will be better. A minor difference in calorie expenditure or alternate muscle training is NOTHING compared to being willing to do it every day.