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

Laura,

I have had two really sad things happen in the last month and I’ve been dealing with it by overeating.

Can you give me some ideas on how to deal with the pain without eating myself to death?

I’ve tried writing in my journal, playing video games, watching movies and exercise. They all seem to distract me, but don’t elevate my mood the way eating does.

Any ideas?

Anonymous Email

Anonymous,

I wish I could say I had a huge bag of tricks to give you to deal with grief, but I don’t. Honestly, food is an intense mood enhancer for me and I resort to it more often than I should.

Second in line is exercise. The only problem with exercise (and you’ve probably encountered this) is that you can’t do it all day and the mood doesn’t last as long as overeating does.

Writing in my journal is also another way to deal with negative emotions, but it looks like you’ve tried that as well.

The only trick that I have that you haven’t mentioned is scheduling. When I’m really sad, I get out my Healthy and Happy List and schedule my day to include everything on that list. Now, what you need to be happy might be different than my list, but it’s a good place to start. Schedule the fun things as well as the work things into your life.

Then, follow the schedule.

Even something as small as getting up and showering can feel like an accomplishment when you’re really sad, so put it on your schedule and check it off when you do it. It’s the checking off that is pleasurable and you need all the positive in your life that you can get right now.

Try scheduling and tell me how things go for you.

Sending good karma your way,
Laura Moncur

Last week’s runners were awesome and it looks like we have some stiff competition going.

Another tight race this week, this time between Mary and manical. Mary squeaked a win with less than a mile lead!

It was an even closer race this week between mistyp and AirGar. I’m sure AirGar is smacking his forehead for letting mistyp beat him by only 0.18 mile! Next week, it’ll be payback!

runsomemore got out there and ran some more to take the win for the Level 3 Challenge!

Once again, SLBplus has won the Level 4 Challenge. Excellent work!

No one competed on Level 5 this week, so I won it with my measly 4.74 miles. That doesn’t seem fair, does it?

You would have to run 14 miles a day seven days a week to beat Rasmus. Are you up for the challenge?

Congratulations to all the competitors! Join us at Runner+ and show off your mileage!

If you exercise by running or walking, you can compete in the Starling Fitness Challenges on Runner+. All you need is an account at Runner+ (free) and you can log your miles there. If you have a Nike+iPod kit, then your runs will automatically be added, but the site will also allow you to add your runs manually. If you would like to compete against runners on your level, here are the links for this week’s challenges:

Level 1 weekly challenge from Starling Fitness. This level runs between 0-10 miles a week.

• Challenge: Starling Fitness Level 1 (10-01-07) – RUNNER+

Level 2 weekly challenge from Starling Fitness. This level runs between 10-20 miles a week.

• Challenge: Starling Fitness Level 2 (10-01-07) – RUNNER+

Level 3 weekly challenge from Starling Fitness. This level runs between 20-30 miles a week.

• Challenge: Starling Fitness Level 3 (10-01-07) – RUNNER+

Level 4 weekly challenge from Starling Fitness. This level runs between 30-40 miles a week.

• Challenge: Starling Fitness Level 4 (10-01-07) – RUNNER+

Level 5 weekly challenge from Starling Fitness. This level runs between 40-50 miles a week.

• Challenge: Starling Fitness Level 5 (10-01-07) – RUNNER+

Level 6 weekly challenge from Starling Fitness. This level runs between 50-60 miles a week.

• Challenge: Starling Fitness Level 6 (10-01-07) – RUNNER+

This is an interesting commercial from a few years ago:

I love the final line:

Reebok Whatever your goal.

Two years ago, I wrote about Bodybugg, which is an overpriced gadget that attaches to your arm to measure your caloric expenditure:

• Starling Fitness » Bodybugg – Weight Management On Your Arm

Sometime last year, 24 Hour Fitness jumped on the Bodybugg bandwagon, offering the Bodybugg for $350 instead of the original cost of $500. Since 24 Hour Fitness is a major sponsor of The Biggest Loser, all the contestants are wearing a Bodybugg.

Now that Bodybugg is $150 cheaper than it was before, do I think it’s worth it? Part of me says no. You can get all that information from a $100 heart rate monitor and a food journal. Why spend the extra money?

Of course, another part of me was surprised at how happy I was with the Nike+. I could have kept track of my runs with a running journal for almost free, but that $20 gadget changed my running habits for the better. I loved seeing the graphs of my runs and how well I was doing. Maybe the Bodybugg would do that for my eating.

Am I going to shell out the bucks for a Bodybugg? No, but I’m less certain about how worthless it is after experiencing the Nike+.

Nicole Lee bought the new iPod Nano with video and a Nike+ running kit to go along with it. Unfortunately, the Nike+ running shoes were killing her feet:

• Perfect Running Shoes | neekole.com

She decided to go to a specialized running store to have her feet fitted to the perfect running shoe:

This was the procedure: They measure your bare feet. Then they ask you to roll up your pant leg, and walk around as they look at your gait, posture, and so forth. After that, they get a sense of what your “problems” are — whether you over-pronate when you walk, or you tend to lean a little toward the left, etc (These guys are trained to notice these things).

He then placed them on my feet, and encouraged me to go walk around the store, run in place, even jog around the block and come back. And I have to say, these shoes are amazing. He even taught me a special “butterfly” lacing technique meant to secure the shoe further.

I don’t know why that whole procedure scares me so much. There is one of these stores in Salt Lake City and visiting it has been on my list of to-dos for a long time. I guess I’m scared of having these professionals judge my running and walking style. I felt more comfortable going to the Nike store in Las Vegas and running on their treadmill in front of the whole world to test the shoes than to be evaluated by a “professional.”

Not Nicole! Kudos to her for going in and getting the best running shoes for her feet!

I worry about this all the time. I learned to binge by watching my father overeat. Will I teach my unborn children to binge. It’s enough to scare me away from having children.

Of course, there is the opposite fear. My child will watch me binge, be disgusted with me and become anorexic.

I have no idea how to raise a healthy child eating unless I eat healthy myself.

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.

Last week’s runners were awesome and it looks like we have some stiff competition going.

It was a tight race betweenmephista and manical all week, but mephista won in the end.

At the last minute, mvb99 took the win for Level 2. He’s competing on Level 3 next week.

Sjanky won the Level 3 challenge and squeaked into next week’s Level 4 challenge with only one mile to spare.

After winning last week’s Level 3 Challenge, SLBplus has won the Level 4 Challenge. Looks like he’ll be running on Level 5 next week!

myztikjenz busted out of the Level 5 mileage and graduated to Level 6 with this week’s win.

Once again, Rasmus is the true running champion! He ran almost 90 miles this week! Props to Rasmus!

Congratulations to all the competitors! Join us at Runner+ and show off your mileage!

If you exercise by running or walking, you can compete in the Starling Fitness Challenges on Runner+. All you need is an account at Runner+ (free) and you can log your miles there. If you have a Nike+iPod kit, then your runs will automatically be added, but the site will also allow you to add your runs manually. If you would like to compete against runners on your level, here are the links for this week’s challenges:

Level 1 weekly challenge from Starling Fitness. This level runs between 0-10 miles a week.

• Challenge: Starling Fitness Level 1 (09-24-07) – RUNNER+

Level 2 weekly challenge from Starling Fitness. This level runs between 10-20 miles a week.

• Challenge: Starling Fitness Level 2 (09-24-07) – RUNNER+

Level 3 weekly challenge from Starling Fitness. This level runs between 20-30 miles a week.

• Challenge: Starling Fitness Level 3 (09-24-07) – RUNNER+

Level 4 weekly challenge from Starling Fitness. This level runs between 30-40 miles a week.

• Challenge: Starling Fitness Level 4 (09-24-07) – RUNNER+

Level 5 weekly challenge from Starling Fitness. This level runs between 40-50 miles a week.

• Challenge: Starling Fitness Level 5 (09-24-07) – RUNNER+

Level 6 weekly challenge from Starling Fitness. This level runs between 50-60 miles a week.

• Challenge: Starling Fitness Level 6 (09-24-07) – RUNNER+

Our friend, SLB+, wrote a review of his Garmin Forerunner 305. It looks like it keeps track of EVERYTHING: heart rate, elevation and pace.

• Quadrathon: Back in the flow…

When I tested the Garmin Forerunner 205 at CES a couple years ago, they were unable to be REALLY tested because they didn’t work within the building.

• Starling Fitness » CES: Garmin GPS and Heart Rate Monitor

Because of the bulk of the unit and the lack of ability to work when I am running on a treadmill (half the year), I decided that my Nike Imara was better for me than the Forerunner. After enjoying the tracking that the Nike+ does, however, the Forerunner looks even better. Too bad it costs $240 right now. I think I’ll stick with my Nike Imara and Nike+.

Another reason to go the healthy eating and exercise route to weight loss:

• Treatment Online – Obesity Drug Linked to Anxiety, Suicidal Thoughts

It looks like there has been a snap in the approval process for Accomplia:

The drug, which has been in development for some time and is already available for prescription in 18 countries under the name Acomplia, has proven quite successful in earlier trials, with patients consistently losing weight and keeping it off while also showing signs of better-regulated blood sugar and cholesterol levels. If approved, the drug will be marketed in the United States as the potential bestseller Zimulti. It was initially advertised as a double-purpose weight-loss/ smoking cessation aid, but in 2005 officials raised concerns when it came up for approval in that capacity due to a “lack of efficacy” and, again, possible psychiatric side-effects.

Don’t be the guinea pig. When this drug comes out, let everyone else try Accomplia and wait until it has been on the market for at least five years. Then you’ll know whether it works or not.

I didn’t watch The Biggest Loser all last year because I hated the new “Barbie” that they replaced Jillian with. This year, however, Jillian’s back and she’s out for blood.

They started The Biggest Loser out with a bang by having a race across the desert to be the team captain. Once you won the race, you could choose who you wanted to be on your team. The only problem was, you could only choose five people and that left six people never picked for a team. Those six were to go home while the two teams worked out with “Barbie” and Bob.

When Jerry picked Kae for the Blue Team, she was the first to be chosen. The look of shock and joy on her face for being the first one picked was genuine.

She said, “Jerry picked me as the first person and that’s why I was so surprised. Me?! First?! I’ve never been first before!”

I’ve never been picked first before either. In fact, every fat kid knows the feeling of being last or almost last, just praying that they pick your best buddy after you just so you won’t be last.

Yes, The Biggest Loser vividly recreated that feeling of being picked last for six people right off the bat. But instead of being picked last, they weren’t picked at all and told they had to go home. As the people who were never picked for the team were waiting for their bus to go home, I felt that sick feeling in my stomach of never being picked.

Julie said, “I feel like the fat kid at camp. As a person who’s overweight, you deal with disappointment a lot, but this felt like just one more rejection.”

Then a black motorcycle pulled up.

Julie predicted it perfectly, “Who is that?! Please, God, tell me that’s Jillian!”

The motorcyclist pulls off her helmet, and Julie got her wish. Jillian is back! She screams, “You’re not going home! We’re the new Black Team! You’ll wish you were goin’ home, Dude!”

While the Blue and Red Teams are competing in the typical Biggest Loser fashion, Jillian’s Black Team has been hiding in the desert, training with bags of sand and abandoned industrial tires. For every kid who got picked last, the Black Team is there. Jillian won’t let them forget it. She screams while they work out:

“I expect NOTHING less than the BEST! Aren’t you the ones who were not chosen? Don’t let me find a reason why! Why weren’t you chosen?”

Julie answers,

“Because I wasn’t strong enough.”

Jillian replies,

“Show me you’re strong enough!”

Next time you’re thinking about skipping your workout, remember what it feels like to be chosen last for a team, get to the gym and show me that you’re strong enough.

This season is going to kick ASS!