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

Despite the recent study, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention are urging Americans to keep obesity under control.

• CNN.com – CDC chief tries to deflate obesity debate – Associated Press

They urge that the study is flawed because the data may have included subjects who were thin because of diseases, such as cancer or heart disease. Comparing death rates of people with diseases could have skewed the data, making thin people appear less healthy than overweight people. I suspect that subjects who were fat and had diseases were also included. If that is true, then their complaint is unimportant.

The most important thing is that we want to be healthy. Being slightly overweight doesn’t seem to negatively affect our health as much as they have been telling us for years, but everyone agrees about being obese. Negative effects from substantial obesity have been well documented.

This is the first exercise bike game controller I’ve seen that’s released by a well-known company.

• Reebok Cyber Rider

Reebok has developed a fully dedicated website for the Cyber Rider, but it crashes spectacularly on Internet Explorer. Try viewing it with Mozilla Firefox to see the details.

This game controller is made to work with the PC or with Playstation 1 or 2. Considering the lime green coloring, I’m shocked that it doesn’t work with Xbox or Nintendo Gamecube right now, but according to their documentation, there should be upgrades available to let them work with the other formats in about three months or so. I know of some PS2 to Xbox converter cables that are available, but I suspect things would run better with the upgrade from Reebok.

• Reebok Cyber Rider Owner’s Manual

How fast you pedal is how fast you go in the video game. You can control the other functions in the game using buttons on the handle bars. It looks like a really well-built bike that could be used by itself or as a controller for your game.

According to the owner’s manual, it looks like there is a lot of assembly required, which worries me. I’d hate to find out that the reason I can’t win any races on Project Gotham is because I put the bike together incorrectly. I guess I would figure that out pretty quickly.

If you are enjoying your spinning classes, this looks like a good alternative for home. You get to play some games, win some races and get some exercise. Now, we just need the game programmers to create a cool mountain biking game with calorie counting and workout modes.

This postcard showed up on PostSecret. I still live with this kind of shame, so it screamed to me.

My donuts of choice were Hostess Raspberry-Filled Powdered Donuts. They don’t come in dozens, but if you’re lucky, you can get the “two free” donut box and get eight. I could eat all eight without feeling sick unless you count the shame. Thinking about it now, I still feel ashamed even though I haven’t eaten a whole box for years.

I found a two-pack of those donuts at the convenience store last month. I ate one and shared the other with Mike. The terrible irony is that they don’t taste all that good. They were sweet, but more importantly, they were always easily accessible. Whenever I had a bad day, I could stop at the gas station, pick up a 32 ounce Diet Coke and a box.

Those donuts helped me through a lot of stress and I wore them on my body for a long time. It wasn’t until I learned to deal with my stress without turning to the donuts that they finally left my hips, stomach, back, arms, legs and face. Man, that was a hard journey and seeing that postcard made me realize that I’m still ashamed that I had to travel that far.

The risk of me finding weight loss inspiration on the cheap is that I’ll find something that you might not be able to find. Sure, it’s available at Amazon.com, but the likeliness that you’ll find it at your local library like I did is slim.

• Meditations for Weight Loss – by Allen Holmquist

This CD is pretty good to listen to. I wouldn’t recommend the track for preventing overeating when you’re in the mood to overeat. I haven’t tried it when I was in that mood, but after listening to it, I don’t think I could sit through it when I’m in that mood. That doesn’t mean it’s not a really good track to listen to, though.

I always feel a little hokey listening to meditation and hypnosis CDs. I cringe when I imagine my coworkers finding out what I’m listening to. The truth of the matter, however, is that they are really helpful. We are bombarded all day long on the television and radio urging us to eat. It’s time we started putting some positive messages in our head.

This CD has been around since 1997, so there is a chance that your library may have it available. What is more likely is that your library has another weight loss based meditation CD available. Try it out, even if you feel like a hippie. You might enjoy it more than you thought you would.

It’s not just small, fly-by-night companies that make unsubstantiated health claims about their products. In 2002 and again in 2004, Tropicana ran ads that claimed that drinking two to three cups of Tropicana orange juice each day would lower blood pressure, raise good cholesterol and a host of other health benefits. They have settled with the FTC.

• FTC – FTC Puts the Squeeze on Tropicana’s Orange Juice Claims

Weight loss and “health” is a big business. Orange juice provides many essential nutrients, but it isn’t a miracle food any more than dairy or three apples a day. Just like there isn’t a “magic bullet” pill that will melt away fat without effort, there is no “miracle food” that will solve all your health problems or make weight loss easier. There is no substitute for a healthy and balanced diet.

Via: The National Council Against Health Fraud – Consumer Health Digest

I guess I’ve never posted these pictures because I’m so embarrassed by them. The longer it goes since I had these taken, the less that person seems like me. I can barely see myself in her eyes.

I remember that day vividly. You know before pictures always suck. They are some random picture that someone clicked that convinced the person to get healthy. Their makeup and hair are a mess or at least faded. I decided that I was going to take the best before picture I could. I straightened my hair, did my makeup perfectly, bought new exercise clothes and even did my nails before I had Mike click these.

Looking at them now, I can’t believe that I thought I looked good. No amount of new clothes, makeup or hair product can make up for being thin and healthy.

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I’ve mentioned this website in passing once, but I didn’t give her enough credit.

• Dotti’s Weight Loss Zone (DWLZ)

Dotti has one of those stories that everyone likes to hear. In 1998, she lost 95 pounds using the Weight Watcher’s Points program. It’s the kind of dramatic weight loss that inspires people to start their own journey on the path to health.

The most beneficial section of DWLZ is the restaurants section, where she and many others have compiled the points of restaurant food from all over the nation. They use the nutrition facts supplied by the restaurant chains and the Weight Watcher Points Slider to calculate the points and Dottie has been nice enough to sponsor the website to maintain all of it.

The restaurant section is really helpful even if you’re not using the Weight Watcher system. Many of the collections have the nutrition facts that were originally supplied by the restaurant chains. It’s the perfect centralized location for all the information you need to make healthy choices next time you eat out.

Considering the dangers of gastric bypass surgery, I would think that covering it would be a recipe for surging costs for the Medicare program. I don’t think I like the idea of my tax dollars paying to make people even more sick.

• CNN.com – Companies ask Medicare to cover more obesity surgery – Reuters

If you read this article carefully, you’ll notice that it’s the companies that make the stomach bands and other devices used in the surgeries that are fighting for the coverage. It just goes to show me that the weight loss industry is all about money. If they actually cared about the health of the people receiving these surgeries, don’t you think they would make it safer? One out of every 200 people who have the surgery die within 30 days. I want better odds than that.

There are so many descriptive words on the packages of food. Do they really mean anything. If something is “natural” does that mean it’s “organic”? Is it all a bunch of hype or is there some meaning to it all?

• MSNBC – Deciphering Food Labels

There are regulations about the word “organic” and you can look for the approved symbol. Other words like “natural” are used a lot but mean nothing. Check out this informative article.

This is what bugs me about some weight loss “tips”:

• About.com – Your Daily Weight Loss Tip – Food Isn’t Your Best Friend

It’s always been there for you, but if you’ve binged until you developed a weight problem… with a friend like food, who needs enemies? When you’re feeling sad or stressed, pick up the phone, e-mail or ICQ a true friend — someone who you know can offer loving support and comfort. Be your own best friend and give emotional eating the cold shoulder!

Emotional Eating is so complicated that a pat answer like getting in contact with a friend isn’t a viable solution. There are so many things that trigger emotional eating. Sometimes, emotional eating can even be caused by being with friends. How would a call to a true friend help you at your next barbeque? In that situation, you’re surrounded by friends and food and every emotion you’re experiencing is telling you to “try some of this” and “just this once” yourself through the party.

Instead of pat answers, a better strategy is to write down a list of all the situations in which you have found yourself overeating in the past. Once you know the sorts of situations that can trigger overeating, come up with a few plans to keep yourself on track. Depending on willpower in those situations isn’t fair. Don’t set yourself up for failure.

Plan what you are going to say and what you are going to eat in each of those emotional eating situations. Go over your plan many times in your mind, rehearsing what you are going to say. Imagine yourself empowered over the food instead of at its mercy. You can do this!