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

All of the clues were there. They said you could lose weight without having to change your diet and exercise. Sure, they said that their coffee had been tested in clinical trials, but they were still promising something for nothing. But when you watch the commercial, you can understand how appealing it might have sounded:

In January, the FTC cracked down on the sellers of Slim Coffee and the company agreed to pay $923,910 in fines.

• Sellers of Hoodia Coffee Settle with FTC for Bogus Weight-Loss Claims

Under the proposed settlement, Diet Coffee, Inc. and its principals, David Stocknoff and David Attarian, based in New York City, are prohibited from claiming that any product enables users to lose substantial weight without reducing caloric intake or increasing physical activity. The order also prohibits them from representing that any product or service causes weight loss, causes users to lose any specified amount of weight, reduces or eliminates fat, reduces or curbs appetite, or increases metabolism, or making any other health-related benefit or efficacy representation unless it is true, not misleading, and substantiated by reliable scientific evidence. In addition, the defendants are prohibited from misrepresenting the existence, contents, validity, results, conclusions, or interpretations of any test or study concerning such products.

Next time you see a commercial for a product that promises that they will help you lose weight, remember Slim Coffee and keep your money in your pocket.

Via: Diet Blog: Slim Coffee: Another Weight Loss Scam

Every week, I’ll be giving you some direction for how to actually KEEP your New Year’s Resolution to lose weight or get more active. If you’re short on time, scroll down to the end and read “The Short Version” to get your weekly tips.

If you’re like a lot of people, you have given up on your New Year’s Resolutions, but are desperately trying to find SOMETHING that works. Somehow, you’ve found Starling Fitness. If this describes you, go back to New Year’s Resolutions: Week 1 and start from there.

If you have been faithfully following along since Week 1, this week is very much like last week.

Cut Your Intake By 100 Calories A Day

Your goal is to get to The USDA’s MyPyramid recommended daily calorie intake. If you complete their little questionaire, it will give you an idea of how many calories you should be eating every day. If you are still above that amount, then cut your intake by 100 calories a day.

If you are eating the right amount of calories every day, then keep it up. If you are eating LESS than the recommended amount, then increase your calories by adding healthy food. Never eat less than the USDA’s recommended daily calorie intake for your height and gender.

Save enough calories to eat two teaspoons of healthy oil each day

We talked last week about eating healthy oils. Increase your daily intake to two teaspoons. The USDA has a list of healthy oils that they recommend. My preferences are olive oil, flaxseed oil and sunflower oil. I don’t recommend just eating oil like medicine. Find a way to substitute healthy oils for other fats that you might use. How do I get my oils in? I cook with them and use them on salads. Sometimes I mix flaxseed oil with my cereal because I like the flavor of it.

Lean Proteins and Whole Grains

This week, manage your protein and “starches.” Choose lean meats with as little fat as possible. Choose whole grain breads and cereals over “white” bread. Choosing lean protein limits your fat intake and choosing whole grains increases your fiber intake. Both of these are supposed to be healthy. Once again, head over to the USDA’s MyPyramid to see the amounts recommended each day.

Plan One Non-Food Related Present Every Day

The longer you follow this program the more important it is to give yourself a non-food present every day. It will help you avoid the feeling of deprivation by finding non-food activities to nurture yourself. Since this is different for every person, think of some activities that you like to do. If you didn’t do this exercise, then go back to New Year’s Resolutions: Week 3 and work on finding out what these activities are for you.

Plan a non-food activity for yourself EVERY day and protect that time. It is your reward for eating healthy every day. You MUST reward yourself every day to stave off any feelings of deprivation that limiting your calories might cause.

Eat five servings of fruits and vegetables every day

One way to stay within your calorie range is to eat vegetables on a regular basis. You should be adding four to five 1/2 cup servings of fruits or veggies to your diet every day now. They are low in calories, provide essential vitamins and fiber and they keep you feeling full.

Save enough calories to eat two servings of dairy products each day

You need to make sure that you have enough calories saved up for two servings of dairy products every day. This is another healthy food to add to your diet. One cup of fat-free milk is approximately 110 calories. It’s probably your best option for adding calcium to your diet, so make sure you get two servings a day.

Increase Your Exercise

This week, I want you to increase your walking mileage to 2.0 miles five days a week. I want you to do it at the same time every day. If you want, you can increase your speed to really get yourself sweating, but if you end up sore the next day, you MUST slow down. It’s more important to exercise every day than to push yourself. Consistency is key. You need to learn the habit of exercising every day and that is WAY more important than going fast or covering a lot of miles.

If you are keeping track of your mileage, you can join us at Runner+ to track your miles and compete against other beginners.

Give Yourself Kudos

If you are still working toward your New Year’s Resolution, then you need to give yourself kudos. There are little boxes on the forms every day to give yourself a shiny sticker. Each day that you stay on the program, you need to acknowledge yourself and how good you are doing.

See you next week!

The Short Version:

• Reduce your daily caloric average by another 100 calories. Write down EVERYTHING you eat including measurements and calories.

• Choose lean protein and whole grains.

• Save enough calories to eat two teaspoons of healthy oil each day.

• Avoid the feeling of deprivation by finding non-food activities to nurture yourself EVERY day.

• Eat five servings of fruits and vegetables every day.

• Save enough calories to eat two servings of dairy products each day.

• Increase your mileage. Walk 2.0 miles five days this week. You are allowed to increase your speed to the point of sweating, but if you are sore the next day you MUST go slow again.

• Give yourself kudos for coming this far.

Many weight loss facilities don’t allow pregnant women to participate in their programs. I know Weight Watchers will keep your membership active, but won’t allow you to come when you’re pregnant. That seemed a little crazy to me and I wondered why they didn’t just up the points allowance a bit to compensate.

Here’s why:

• Treatment Online: Children of Hungry Mothers More Susceptible to Addiction

In 1944, Germany starved the Netherlands with an embargo. Many starved to death and the women who were pregnant during the embargo were restricted to approximately 1000 calories a day. The children born at that time ended up with a high incidence of addiction.

We still don’t know why, but theories abound:

This heightened risk was most strongly correlated with exposure during the first trimester, when crucial brain development occurs. It is not clear exactly how starvation predisposes the brain toward addiction. One possibility is that decision-making and reward centers of the brain do not grow properly because there is a dearth of chemical resources. Another possibility is that the fetus senses the scarcity of food and comes out prepared to voraciously grab whatever pleasurable things that it can find.

So, if you’re pregnant, you shouldn’t be restricting your calorie intake. Follow the recommendations that your doctor gives you and worry about losing weight AFTER you give birth to a healthy and unscathed child.

When I was watching this video, I was surprised at how sexy the main character of it is. She’s fat. She’s what the doctors would say morbidly obese, but she’s so cute.

Is it possible to be sexy and fat? What if you lose weight, does that make you even MORE beautiful?

I don’t know if you noticed, but the main character in this little animation is named Avant, which means “Before.” She was the before picture cut out of a weight loss advertisement. If you watch after the credits, she comes back and kicks the Apres (After) picture out of her spot and poses for the camera once again.

The fashion industry doesn’t care about me. The movie industry doesn’t care about me. All they want to do is sell clothing and DVDs. They are like the food industry, actually, trying to find the perfect mixture of flavor that will sell their products to as many people as possible.

So, I ask again, can you be sexy and fat? Hell ya! Remember that next time you’re getting ready for your day. You can be a red hot sexy machine and all you need to change is your attitude.

Via: Living and Loving Yourself Now and Not Only When You Reach Your Thin Dream! « HoneyBee’s Blog

When I think of silly diets, the Grapefruit Diet comes to mind. I never went on the grapefruit diet, but I watched my weight obsessed friend try it and the funny little pills that they sold for it so long ago. Brie Cadman has a list of her top ten most ridiculous diets.

• The Top Ten Most Ridiculous Diets by Brie Cadman : DivineCaroline

The quick version is here:

• Dr. Siegal’s® Cookie Dietâ„¢
• The Subway Diet
• The Cereal Diet
• Cabbage Soup Diet
• Slim Fast
• Blood Type Diet
• Russian Air Force Diet
• The Three-Day Diet/Hot Dog Diet
• The Apple Cider Vinegar Diet
• The Writing Diet
• The Atkins Diet

There are remnants of some of these diet fads that remain. For example, the cabbage soup diet lives on at Weight Watchers with their zero point soup that you can eat for zero points. If you are low on points, you can just make up some of their cabbage soup and fill up on that.

I had never heard of the Russian Air Force Diet or the Writing Diet. I love Julia Cameron, but I never heard of her book, The Writing Diet: Write Yourself Right-Size. Honestly, I’ve been writing about my emotions every day in my personal journal for years. I truly believe that writing does help me, so this might be a good book for me to try in the future.

For now, I think I’ll try the “Putting Less Food In My Mouth” Diet. It has worked for me for a while.

Via: Digg – The Top Ten Most Ridiculous Diets

Here is a heart breaking story from Bev Sykes.

• Airy Persiflage: I Hate Myself

Bev was happily planning to attend her daughter’s baby shower for a long-awaited grandchild until she saw the fine print:

And there it was.

Rules for “people of size.” It appears that because I am a “person of size” (i.e., fat), I may not be permitted on the plane unless I buy a second seat.

I’m already seeing the number of times I can see our grandchild diminish because of the whole damn 300 mile distance thing and because the airline may feel I’m too damn fat to fit on their plane.

Even if I were to start dieting again now, it would be over a year before I could be considered a regular size person.

I really don’t know what I think about these policies. The airlines are stretched to the breaking point as it is and are barely able to make a profit. Making the seats bigger and able to fit normal people would probably put them out of business. Requiring someone who can’t fit into their tiny seats to pay for two is criminal. Then again, I’ve been on the receiving side of sitting next to someone who should have paid for a second seat.

I might have more sympathy for the airlines if they spent less money on in-seat televisions. I REALLY don’t want an advertisement flashing in my face for three hours. I would gladly sacrifice that stupid TV for two more inches of butt room.

The worst of it all is the title of Bev’s blog entry, “I Hate Myself.” This is an issue of airline economics. How did the airlines make us feel guilty for being unable to fit into their tiny seats?

Her words say it all:

I may have finally done it. I may have eaten myself out of an early relationship with my long-awaited, already much loved grandchild.

The whole thing makes me want to cry…and probably eat, dammit.

According to Size Wise, the measurement of the width of airline seats ranges from 17″ to 21.5″. I just measured the width of my own butt and it’s 18″ wide. Am I a person of size? Do I have to pay for another seat as well? Even the thinnest of people are uncomfortable in airplane seats.

There is the concept of personal responsibility and there is the concept of airline economics. There has to be a happy medium between the two and until we meet it, it’s time to boycott companies that try to pass the blame solely to us.

Sometimes getting all your fruits and vegetables eaten is a challenge and sometimes it’s easy and delicious. Take the recipe for microwave apples, for example.

Microwave Apples

• One apple (1 point)
• 2 teaspoons of cinnamon (0 points)
• 1 packet of Splenda, Stevia, or Sweet N Low (if desired)

Total: 1 point

With a apple slicer, cut up an apple into bite-sized pieces. Sprinkle the apple pieces with cinnamon and sweetener (if desired). Cook in the microwave on high for two to three minutes.

Your house will smell like freshly baked apple pie and you will think you just ate some fresh apple pie as well. I used to make this on my break at work and all the engineers would come out of their offices to see where the yummy apple dessert was.

My favorite apples to do this with are Honeycrisp. I don’t care for Red Delicious, but I’m sure they would work with this as well. I’ve done this with Granny Smith, but they are so sour, not even a packet of Stevia can make them taste like apple pie.

Try this recipe out and tell me what you think.

Yet another gadget in a long line of silly exercise machines, the Hawaii Chair is supposed to work your abs with no effort while you go about your day. Ellen was able to get her hands on a couple of them and tried them out.

Commercials can make anything look good, but when you actually see the products in real life, the veneer is gone and you can see how silly they are.

Next time you’re tempted to buy an exercise gadget that promises you the body you’ve always wanted, remember the difference between the commercial for the Hawaii Chair and the reality of Ellen trying to sit on one. It will save you money, but it will also save you false hope.

Eating wisely and exercising moderately will get you further than any exercise gadget on the planet.

Via: Hilarious Clip: Ellen DeGeneres Tries Hawaii Chair (Video) | TV Crunch

Every week, I’ll be giving you some direction for how to actually KEEP your New Year’s Resolution to lose weight or get more active. If you’re short on time, scroll down to the end and read “The Short Version” to get your weekly tips.

If you’re like a lot of people, you have given up on your New Year’s Resolutions, but are desperately trying to find SOMETHING that works. Somehow, you’ve found Starling Fitness. If this describes you, go back to New Year’s Resolutions: Week 1 and start from there.

If you have been faithfully following along since Week 1, this week is very much like last week.

Cut Your Intake By 100 Calories A Day

Your goal is to get to The USDA’s MyPyramid recommended daily calorie intake. If you complete their little questionaire, it will give you an idea of how many calories you should be eating every day. If you are still above that amount, then cut your intake by 100 calories a day.

If you are eating the right amount of calories every day, then keep it up. If you are eating LESS than the recommended amount, then increase your calories by adding healthy food. Never eat less than the USDA’s recommended daily calorie intake for your height and gender.

Save enough calories to eat two teaspoons of healthy oil each day

We talked last week about eating healthy oils. Increase your daily intake to two teaspoons. The USDA has a list of healthy oils that they recommend. My preferences are olive oil, flaxseed oil and sunflower oil. I don’t recommend just eating oil like medicine. Find a way to substitute healthy oils for other fats that you might use. How do I get my oils in? I cook with them and use them on salads. Sometimes I mix flaxseed oil with my cereal because I like the flavor of it.

Lean Proteins and Whole Grains

This week, manage your protein and “starches.” Choose lean meats with as little fat as possible. Choose whole grain breads and cereals over “white” bread. Choosing lean protein limits your fat intake and choosing whole grains increases your fiber intake. Both of these are supposed to be healthy. Once again, head over to the USDA’s MyPyramid to see the amounts recommended each day.

Plan One Non-Food Related Present Every Day

The longer you follow this program the more important it is to give yourself a non-food present every day. It will help you avoid the feeling of deprivation by finding non-food activities to nurture yourself. Since this is different for every person, think of some activities that you like to do. If you didn’t do this exercise, then go back to New Year’s Resolutions: Week 3 and work on finding out what these activities are for you.

Plan a non-food activity for yourself EVERY day and protect that time. It is your reward for eating healthy every day. You MUST reward yourself every day to stave off any feelings of deprivation that limiting your calories might cause.

Eat five servings of fruits and vegetables every day

One way to stay within your calorie range is to eat vegetables on a regular basis. You should be adding four to five 1/2 cup servings of fruits or veggies to your diet every day now. They are low in calories, provide essential vitamins and fiber and they keep you feeling full.

Save enough calories to eat two servings of dairy products each day

You need to make sure that you have enough calories saved up for two servings of dairy products every day. This is another healthy food to add to your diet. One cup of fat-free milk is approximately 110 calories. It’s probably your best option for adding calcium to your diet, so make sure you get two servings a day.

Increase Your Exercise

This week, I want you to increase your walking mileage to 1.75 miles five days a week. I want you to do it at the same time every day. If you want, you can increase your speed to really get yourself sweating, but if you end up sore the next day, you MUST slow down. It’s more important to exercise every day than to push yourself. Consistency is key. You need to learn the habit of exercising every day and that is WAY more important than going fast or covering a lot of miles.

If you are keeping track of your mileage, you can join us at Runner+ to track your miles and compete against other beginners.

Give Yourself Kudos

If you are still working toward your New Year’s Resolution, then you need to give yourself kudos. There are little boxes on the forms every day to give yourself a shiny sticker. Each day that you stay on the program, you need to acknowledge yourself and how good you are doing.

See you next week!

The Short Version:

• Reduce your daily caloric average by another 100 calories. Write down EVERYTHING you eat including measurements and calories.

• Choose lean protein and whole grains.

• Save enough calories to eat two teaspoons of healthy oil each day.

• Avoid the feeling of deprivation by finding non-food activities to nurture yourself EVERY day.

• Eat five servings of fruits and vegetables every day.

• Save enough calories to eat two servings of dairy products each day.

• Increase your mileage. Walk 1.75 miles five days this week. You are allowed to increase your speed to the point of sweating, but if you are sore the next day you MUST go slow again.

• Give yourself kudos for coming this far.

These billboards have shown up all over my town. Can I just say that it has taken me over a month to realize that it’s advertising a government website that is supposed to help you lose weight? Heck, it took me over a month to realized that it’s a picture of a belly with a valve like a beach ball. I guess following the plan on smallstep.gov will help “deflate” your gut.

I checked out the website and almost everything they recommend is a really good idea.

• Smallstep

There are a bunch of recipes there, a list of 100 steps you can take to live a healthier life, and resources you can turn to if you need to lose weight.

I know a bunch of people worked really hard on this website, but I have my doubts about how helpful it will be. For example, their page about portion control is a huge block of text, when a few pictures would be so much more helpful.

• Smallstep – Portion Control

A photo of what a serving of rice should look live versus what I am usually served at a restaurant is far more helpful than talking to me about limiting my portion sizes. Give me useful information, don’t preach at me.

If you need a link to the US Department of Health and Human Services, then Smallstep has your back. If you really need to lose weight, you are going to have to dig a little.