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

It appears that someone has been working on their Photoshop Skillz by making thin models even thinner:

• The Museum of Hoaxes – Too Skinny?

I sometimes wonder at things like this. When I first saw the Photoshopped picture, I thought to myself, “That girl needs to eat a sandwich.” I almost felt justified. I may not be at my goal weight, but at least I’m not wasting away.

I almost think that pictures like these and those photos of Lindsay Lohan’s ribs serve a purpose for us, whether they are real or not. When I saw that picture, I felt that being fat was better than wasting away. It is, but the best option is to be a healthy weight. Maybe these sort of pictures serve the purpose of keeping us from realizing our dreams of achieving a healthy weight. Maybe they feed our fear of being hungry all the time.

Don’t let things like this distract you. When you get to your goal weight, you will be healthy and strong, not weak and skinny.

Via: The Museum of Hoaxes – Skinny Women

“Lose Weight Now, Ask Me How” The first time I saw that phrase, it was printed on a button on my store manager’s lapel. He was eager to talk about the patch that he was wearing on his inner wrist. He said that he had lost 10 pounds, but I couldn’t see any difference in his appearance. The year was 1986.

• Diet Blog – Herbalife: What’s The Deal?

Now, the phrase, “Lose Weight Now, Ask Me How” only haunts us from tattered bumper stickers on old cars. They may have ditched their slogan, but Herbalife, the diet product multi-level marketing scheme, has just celebrated its 25^th anniversary. I have a hard time celebrating twenty-five years of questionable marketing techniques and unproven efficacy.

My personal eating demon is bingeing, but the experts say that Anorexia has very similar patterns. This postcard showed up at PostSecret. We will only get better when we love ourselves so much that we want to make sure our bodies are healthy. If this postcard sounds familiar to you, make an appointment with a therapist to work through this issue. It’s worth it.

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.

The Museum of Hoaxes takes on Skinny Water, a new product from a European food conglomerate:

• The Museum of Hoaxes – Skinny Water

I checked out the website for Jana Skinny Water. There is a 3 minute commercial for Jana and its line of waters. There is also a section describing the clinical trials that supposedly supports the claims that Jana Skinny Water aids in weight loss. The clinical trial, however, was done on a product called CitriMax, which are capsules. CitriMax contains HCA, which has been promoted to aid in weight loss. The capsules were given to the study participants before each meal in 500 mg doses. There is no explanation about how this relates to Jana Skinny Water and there is a small message at the bottom of the section of clinical trials:

“These statements have not been evaluated by the Food and Drug Administration. This product is not intended to cure, mitigate, treat or prevent any disease.”

The website is also quick to mention the “American Epidemic” of obesity. There are so many companies out there eager to jump on the bandwagon of weight loss. Don’t let them take your money. Magic water from Croatian artesian wells is less likely to help you than determining once and for all that you are going to make it through this. You are far more powerful than anything you can buy in a store.

Rumor around town says that Coca-Cola and Nestle are creating a “calorie burning tea.” There is supposition about flavors, but very little talk about efficacy in the following Hungry Girl article.

• Hungry Girl – Monday Newsletter – Calorie Burning Tea

I am so wary of everything that I read from Hungry Girl. I somehow feel that they are just an advertising outlet for the food industry. Here’s the reason why: the article about calorie burning tea looks like it’s quoted word for word from the information from this article:

• Billings Gazette – Coke, Nestle developing calorie-burning tea

This article goes into depth about marketing gimmicks and whether the tea could possibly be effective, whereas Hungry Girl just froths about a tea that can boost your metabolism. Hungry Girl didn’t even touch on the best quote from the entire article:

“Consumers need to be aware of anything that says easy weight loss, anything that promotes a quick fix,” said Jessica Enders, a registered dietician at Emory University Hospital.

Remember, there are lots of companies out there trying to take your money. Don’t let them get you.

Dear Laura,

I have recently stopped taking aspartame. My son and I have been drinking diet lemon lime sodas almost exclusively. I have seen information about aspartame and decided that it was time to get off it. We switched to bottled water, but have each been drinking about one diet drink daily. We both have dry mouth after decreasing to one a day. I have also experienced bed wetting 3 times. I am not sure if that is because I’m not drinking the aspartame or not. I’ve tried drinking less in the evening, but my mouth is so dry. Normally, I wake in the night to use the bathroom, but these 3 times I didn’t. I think I increased diet soda drink each time after wetting and didn’t wet the following night. I have awakened 2 times with severe pain in my left elbow. One of those times, my hand and arm were very swollen. I added over the counter potassium to see if that helps. I don’t like to admit taking an old prescription of HCTZ, but I did, to decrease the swelling. Are dry mouth, fluid retention, bed wetting and increased pain possibly be symptoms of aspartame withdrawal?

Leaving Lemon-Lime

Dear Leaving Lemon-Lime,

I really don’t know the symptoms of aspartame withdrawal, if there are any. Considering your symptoms, I think it would be best to see a trusted doctor.

Laura

It’s everywhere. I can’t pick up a newspaper or turn on the television news without hearing about Childhood Obesity. Every article has tips for parents on how to deal with obese children. What they need to do and what they need to feed their kids.

Let me tell you, as a former obese child, there is no way that your children don’t know that they are fat. They get it every day at school. They hear the rhymes: “Fattie, fattie, two by four. Can’t fit through the bathroom door.” There is no escape from the hell that they experience at school. If you start treating them like they are fat, then there is no escape, period. If they get the torment at school and then get it at home, they might as well…

I’m speaking from experience and here is what I might as well did: vomiting after each meal, starving myself, overeating in frustration, living in depression, and contemplating ending it all. And I was lucky. I only dealt with a home situation that called me fat during the summers when I lived with my grandmother. Three quarters of the year, I lived in a loving and nurturing environment.

So, what do I recommend parents do?

“If you want to make the world a better place, take a look at yourself and make a change.”
– Michael Jackson, The Man in the Mirror, 1987

Your children learned their habits from somewhere. If you want your child to eat healthier food, don’t say a word to them. You need to eat healthy food as an example. That means if you’re making a healthy dinner, they eat it too. If you want a snack, make sure you’re snacking on fruits and vegetables.

If you want your child to stop watching television and playing video games, don’t say a word to them. Get your own butt off the couch. “Hey, I’m going on a bike ride. Do you want to come with me? No? Ok, have fun.” Several weeks of them missing a nightly bike ride, they will join in. It works with anything, “I’m going to go shoot some hoops, wanna come?” “I’m going to take a walk over to the park, wanna come with me?” Don’t force them to come. Don’t reprimand them for not coming. Just give them a good example.

No amount of nagging will make them eat healthier or exercise more. Enrolling them in classes and watching television the whole time they’re gone, just makes them resent you. Forcing them to eat food that is healthy and sneaking off to stuff Hostess Cupcakes in your face just proves to them that “our family is just fat.” Don’t make their homelife the living hell that school is. Provide them with a good example and let them make their own choices.

The full title of the webcomic is: “I hope, someday, to spend some time in a world like my own,” but it’s “A World Like My Own” for short. I don’t know what the answer to her dilemna was. She cut her hair after this.

Body image is such a nebulous thing. I’ve never had an experience like this because there never was a time in my life where I felt I was thin. I had been overweight since I was four. The rare times I had been thin, were the result of summers of starvation at the hands of my grandmother, so they don’t really represent a positive time in my life.

I think that comparing myself to a past me is just as useless as comparing myself to someone else. Past Me is a different age and has had less experiences than I have. Another person has lived a completely different life.

Self-loathing is never the path to a healthy weight. You need to love yourself so much that you are willing to treat your body with respect. Treating your body with respect is the key to getting to a healthy weight. A healthy body image will follow, don’t you worry.

It looks like the FTC has cracked down on Cytodyne for their claims about Xenadrine CarboCurb. Surprise, surprise… Those claims that their product would cause dramatic weight loss weren’t substantiated. Imagine that…

• FTC Takes Action Against Marketers of Xenadrine EFX

• FTC Warning Letter to Cytodyne LLC

More importantly, Cytodyne is currently marketing other products that are supposed to increase your energy within 30 minutes and help you burn calories. Since they have come under the scrutiny of the FTC before, don’t trust them.

Via: Consumer Health Digest, July 26, 2005

Remember: The first step toward healthy weight loss is loving yourself so much that you want to keep your body healthy and strong for a long time.

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. As of June 26^th, over $3,000.00 has been raised.