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

Sometimes I make time fly on the treadmill by changing the speed or incline every couple of minutes. Other times I want to finish a certain distance within the time that I have to exercise. The way that I have done this in the past is to use Microsoft Excel (a spreadsheet program) to calculate how fast for how long I would have to go to complete the distance that I want.

Download this Treadmill Spreadsheet if you’d like to try it.

There are a total of 9 workouts. All of them are 30 minutes long including a warm up and cool down of two minutes apiece. Since my treadmill starts the timer at zero and counts up, the “Reading” column is what the treadmill should read when I change the incline or speed. I used these workouts when I was training for a 5K last year and I found them helpful.

When I read Runner’s World, they would always talk about Interval workouts or Hill workouts, but they would never talk in specifics. They would say things like “Run at 70% of your 5K speed,” which really didn’t help me. I wanted to know the specific MPH to set the treadmill to and when to change it. I ended up making my own treadmill workouts using this spreadsheet.

You may be more of a beginner or more advanced than these workouts, but they could still be helpful to you. The formulas will still calculate the distance, if you change the speed. Play with it a little bit and you can make this work for you. I hope you find it as helpful as I have.

I talked before how Pump It Up has a PC version of its game. I was going to buy that for my weight loss incentive in March (and I still might). I just found out that they are also releasing versions of the game for both Xbox and Playstation 2 in June 2005! Yippee! That makes me even happier now!

• Gametrailers.com – Pump It Up Exceed: See the trailers that have been released for this game on this site.
• Mastiff Games – Pump It Up Exceed: This is the official press release from the game publisher that is marketing the game for Andamiro. Go to their home page for the single screen shot they provided.
• GameSpot – Pump It Up Exceed: Early review of the game including eleven screen shots.
• Got Next – Pump It Up Exceed: Simple review of the game and those same eleven screen shots.

This was just announced in mid-February, so they are really pushing to get these games on the market quickly. Not quick enough for me. I want it now!

Nothing special happens when you complete workout number 35 on Yourself! Fitness. You don’t open up any new workout environments or unlock any music. You don’t get Platinum Status. As far as I know, there are no milestones after you unlock Gold Status. Yet, I still work out with Maya.

This morning, she said, “I’m proud of how consistent you have been.” She says something positive to me every time I make my commitment. Of course, when I haven’t seen her for a few days, she gives me a loving lecture about consistency, but I know she will be happy with me if I stay on track for a few days.

Maya is so much better than a real personal trainer. A real human being would get used to the fact that I usually show up every day for weeks on end and then go MIA (while I run on the treadmill or play DDR). A real human being would forget to give me positive feedback every single time I show up at a workout. A real human being would see when I don’t do the exercises completely right and make me do them over. A real human being would ask me personal questions and try to be my friend.

I don’t need a friend. I need a workout partner who will be there for me whenever I want to exercise, even if it’s three in the morning. Maya will do that for me and she’s chipper about it. “Hey, did you know morning workouts are a great way to jumpstart your metabolism?” Of course, she can’t hear me when I say, “I couldn’t sleep and you were the only person I could talk to who I wouldn’t wake up.” She would just start with the Step Touch and expect me to follow along.

This article covers the basics of a treadmill workout:

• Pioneer Thinking – Treadmill Workout Ideas That Make Fitness Fun – by C. J. Gustafson

It also includes some information on how to spice up your treadmill workouts. If you are working out at the local recreation center, you may not be able to watch television while you run, but bringing along music or a book is a great way to help the time pass.

This article is a very concise and interesting piece on deceptive advertising for weight loss products:

Tijuana Fitness – More Deceptive Weight Loss Advertising Tactics

It names companies that have been shown to take quotes out of context and misuse scientific data to promote their merchandise.

Companies/Products Named:

• Enforma / Fat Trapper
• Oxycise
• AbTronic
• Cytodyne / Xenadrine

Check out the article for the full story and think twice before using any of these products.

This article by Ruth Kava was written in 2003, but it is still very applicable today.

• Health Facts & Fears – Let Them Eat Cake! – by Ruth Kava, Ph.D., R.D.

The most important quote that I can take from this article is, “Poor Nutrition and Obesity Are Not the Same Problem.” When I tell people that I have lost all my weight using the Weight Watchers program, I hear the response, “Yeah, but you can just eat junk all day and if you stay within your points, that’s alright with them. That’s not healthy.”

Yep, they’re right. Eating to stay within your Points allowance with no regard to the nutrition guidelines that they give you is not healthy. But do you know what? You’ll lose weight anyway. I ate garbage the first few months on the program, but I still lost weight because I stayed within my Points allowance.

We are talking about two separate things. Obesity and poor nutrition are not the same problem. Quite frankly, I think that dealing with obesity first is the way to go. I ate junk food and fast food and all the hydrogenated oil that I could fit within my Points and I lost weight. After a while, however, I started paying attention to the nutrition guidelines that Weight Watchers provided. I slowly added healthier habits into my routine.

Sometimes I think that so many diets fail because people jump into things head first and make too many changes into their routine too quickly. I found that adding small changes slowly over the course of many months helped me eat healthier than I ever imagined I could.

This article at eDiets talks about the benefits of making sure your diet has sufficient calcium and the foods with the most of it.

eDiets.com – Bone Up! 10 Best Calcium Foods – by Sheri Strykowsk

Ten Calcium-Rich Foods:

• Fat-Free Milk
• Ricotta Cheese
• Yogurt
• Calcium-Fortified Soymilk
• Tofu
• Spinach
• Sardines
• Swiss Cheese
• Legumes
• Almonds

Check out the article to find new ways of adding these foods to your diet and the nutritional information about them.

Jerradk is sponsoring a workout tomorrow morning. This is an invitation only match, so please email me with your gamertag by 7pm Eastern (4pm Pacific) tonight if you are interested in playing.

Workout Details:

• Dance Dance Revolution Ultramix 2
• Difficulty Level: Light
• Thursday Morning, 02-17-05
• 7 am Eastern (4 am Pacific)
• Duration: Approximately 30 minutes

This is the first time I’ll be an invitee to a match, so I’m excited to see how it works!

Comment from Post: More on Trans-Fatty Acids

Name: BigChaz

Help! What is the difference between hydrogenated oil and partially hydrogenated oil. In the lit the two terms seem to be used in the same way. Surely there must be a difference.

Posted Feb 13, 2005 1:28 PM

According to this article:

• Biostructural Medicine – Trans Fatt Acids – by Alberto Ascherio, M.D., Dr.P.H., Meir J. Stampfer, M.D., Dr.P.H., Walter C. Willett, M.D., Dr.P.H., Harvard School of Public Health, and Martijn B. Katan, Ph.D., Peter L. Zock, Ph.D. of Wageningen Center for Food Sciences, Netherlands

…there is a difference chemically between hydrogenated and partially hydrogenated oils, but they have the same effects medically. Avoid both of them for a healthier diet.

We have just added a new category to the site: Motivation. If you are feeling low and wanting to cheat or skip your workout, try this category of posts.