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

Yesterday I decided to go for a run outside. I ran to Liberty Park, around the track twice and back. I learned an important lesson:

The treadmill is great, but nothing can replace a run outside.

I have been running on the treadmill for a few months now. When the weather got unbearably hot, I started using the treadmill and I didn’t try running outside again until yesterday. I forgot how much the wind blowing in my face can affect my run. I forgot how bad it feels when someone passes me on the track. I forgot how good it feels to finally pass someone else.

It’s getting cold here in Salt Lake City, but I think I need to add an outside workout at least once a week. The treadmill has made me a little soft, I think.

I really wanted to hate this show. I felt that it was an excuse to torture fat people. It seemed like an advertising tool for Diet Rite, 24 Hour Fitness and Prevention Magazine. It made me feel like boycotting my gym. I was pretty honest about my feelings when I first started reviewing this show.

The week Jillian poured the salt on Matt’s cheesecake, I sat up and took notice. I have been awed by the dedication that each of the participants have had. I gained even more respect for them the week Seth said,

“When you put in over 20 hours of exercise in a week, it’s hard for you to not look at [the small loss on] the scale and go, ‘Wow!’ But personally I feel that the scale isn’t a reflection of how I feel, and I feel healthier and I don’t need the scale to tell me that.”

This week, I was floored. (Spoiler Alert)

(more…)

They interviewed over 10,000 students at 650 schools. That’s only an average of 15 students per college. When are magazine editors going to take a statistics class and learn about statistically valid percentages?

• Men’s Fitness – America’s Fattest and Fittest Colleges

According to CollegeBoard.com, there are approximately 3800 colleges in the United States. With an average enrollment of approximately 2,800 students, there are over 10 million students in school right now. Do you really think the answers from only 10,000 students is statistically valid? That’s only 0.09% of the student population.

Magazines want to attract your eye with promises. They want you to think that they know the secret to becoming thin and strong.

“Which colleges and universities are helping their students keep their weight under control?”

Can you really believe what they have to say, when they can’t even grasp the basics of statistics? When are colleges going to start requiring advanced mathematics for their journalism degrees? They sure need it.

This postcard specifies that this happened when they were children, but I have experienced this as an adult. I remember the Halloween that only two kids came to our door. I had dressed up as a mad scientist, but my doorbell was silent. I sat watching TNT’s scary movie marathon and ate chocolate Twix bars and Reese’s Peanut Butter Cups. By the time the two kids showed up, I had already taken off my costume and showered. I gave them a pile of candy, but my stomach was sick with the disappointment.

This year, I know that I’ll have probably about five groups of kids. I live in a neighborhood that doesn’t have very many children, so I’m not expecting much. I’m just going to make up about 20 little candy bags and have a quiet evening at home. I find that if I make the candy up in pre-made little bags that I’m not tempted by the treats as much. The thought of opening the cute little bag and ruining some child’s treat is enough to keep me from sampling them.

Have a Happy Halloween and remember to take care of yourself!

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 me, Halloween is the most important holiday of the year. My Halloween party is more important than Thanksgiving dinner and Christmas combined. It’s hard for me to stop bingeing when I place so much emphasis on one holiday, but after years of practice, I’m able to do it.

• Bring something healthy: Our party is potluck, so I have no control over what food is going to show up at my door. I can only control what I bring, so I make sure that there is a vegetable tray so I can nosh on veggies when I’m nervous.

• Let yourself try the food: I also found that I would feel deprived if I didn’t eat anything that was brought to the party. Last year, I tried a very small taste of almost everything that was brought (except the purple glop that looked like it had a million eyeballs floating in it). I estimated the tastes at about 25 calories a bite. That way I was able to satisfy my curiosity without ruining my eating plan.

• Remember that you’ll get another chance: The biggest mistakes I have made is when I have told myself that I’ll never get another chance to eat that food again. Someone would bring something delicious to the party and I would eat large quantities of it just because I thought I would never see it again. I can prevent this by telling myself to ask them to make it for me (or bring it to the party next year). For some, I suppose that asking for the recipe would be enough to prevent the binge.

• Plan ahead: Decide what you’re going to do if you feel tempted to eat. Two years ago I decided to scan the room and talk to anyone who looked like they were lonely or neglected. Sometimes I talked to them for awhile, other times I introduced them to other people. Either way, I was able to head off bingeing before I even got close to the buffet table.

• Avoid Alcohol: I don’t know about everyone else, but when I get a little tipsy, I throw my diet out the window. Plus, alcohol has a lot of calories. Double-plus, you might have to be sober to drive home guests. Better to just avoid it altogether.

My Halloween party is the only big event I plan all year long. I want it to be fun, but I have finally learned that having fun doesn’t mean gorging myself on food. Sure, food is part of the joy of my party, but if I plan ahead, I can have fun, food and a healthy evening that I don’t have to regret at the scale.

Just in case those Halloween treats look good enough to ruin your eating plan, here are some treats that look gross enough to say no to. Nick Vagnoni highlights some of the grosser ideas for those holiday treats:

• Slashfood – Again with the baked body parts – by Nick Vagnoni

Every year we have a Halloween party. We offer a prize for the best potluck dish. The dishes that tend to win are usually unique and delicious. The foods that tend to remain untouched are the ones that look like things you shouldn’t eat. Gelatin brain molds, purple gunk that looks like a million eyes are swimming in it and the Jello Frankenstein hands are the dishes that just flopped on the table.

If you have ever thought of making a pumpkin pie out of your jack-o-lantern, be glad you didn’t. Most pumpkin pies are made out of a squash that is vastly different than the bright orange pumpkins you carve for the holiday. Sarah Gilbert has the inside “scoop” on which pumpkins are in the can.

• Slashfood – Canned pumpkin – is it really pumpkin? – by Sarah Gilbert

Two years ago, Mike and I searched the city for pumpkin pie pumpkins and finally found them at a specialty food store in the eclectic part of town. He cooked up some delicious pies with those pumpkins, but it was a lot of work. We decided that canned pumpkin was good enough for us in the future.

It’s easy to be confused about what is healthy and what is not. There are so many experts out there telling us conflicting rules about what we should eat. Erich Kuersten takes a humorous look at the implications of eating the Caveman Diet in Manhattan.

• Slashfood – A Cro Magnon in Manhattan – by Erich Kuersten

Considering the genetic diversity of our species, I don’t believe there is one diet that works for everyone. I think you have to experiment and find what works for you.

These postcards from PostSecret just call out to me every week. I wish I could talk to this person and explain what’s going on. This is actually a healthy habit gone wrong. Sometimes we are too close to our problems. When something is really hard and I’ve been thinking about it too much, I find it helpful just to abandon it for a little while. I don’t think about it. I don’t try to solve the problem while doing other things. I literally abandon the problem.

Coming back to it after hours or days, I can usually look at things with fresh eyes. Suddenly the answer to the problem is right there in front of me and I don’t have to wonder what I’m going to do anymore. It’s like my mind solves the problem when I’m not thinking about it.

Now, if we could just take the snacking out of the picture for this person. If I could teach him how to abandon the problem without resorting to food, he would have the healthy habit without the negative consequences. Here are some things that I do when I’m trying not to think about something that is hard:

• Go for a walk outside. It’s not for exercise, it’s just to see new things or pick up some garbage off the ground.

• Work on a hobby. For me it’s crochet or any systematic hobby that occupies my hands and mind so much that I don’t think about the problem.

• Play video games. I have to concentrate on what I’m doing in the game so that I can get a higher score. I don’t have any extra room in my head for thinking.

• Surf the web. Reading all that there is out there helps me forget what is going on here.

All I need is distraction for a couple of hours and I usually can get past whatever was bothering me.

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 don’t need to say anything, do I?

Via: The Diet Blog – McDonald’s Irony