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

This postcard showed up on PostSecret last week. I often talk about the first step toward a healthy life (Margaret Cho’s F**K It Diet, The Fat Girl’s Guide to Life, etc.), but I rarely talk about the first step toward failure. The first step that derails your mind and sends you on the road to desperation.

I call that first step, Bulimia, Diet Drugs and Stomach Stapling. It’s the mindset that says, “This isn’t working. I can’t do this on my own. I’m willing to do ANYTHING to get skinny, even if it hurts me.” I never even remember thinking the phrase, “I can’t do this on my own,” but that is the premise behind every step toward these weight loss methods. It’s a very harmful thought and it is promoted by companies everywhere trying to sell you something.

When I used to read up on the most recent medical procedures, the new diet drugs that are in the testing phases and was tempted to empty my stomach after a binge, something far more sinister was at work than just “keeping informed.” I was telling myself over and over again that I couldn’t do this on my own and that it didn’t matter if I was healthy as long as I was thin.

I AM NOT A CLOTHING SIZE!!! I am a smart, witty and enchanting person! I want to stay on this planet as long as I can, so I’m going to take precious care of my body so it doesn’t betray me early in life. I am going to exercise and provide it with healthy food. I’m going to protect it from chemicals. I’m going to protect it from scapel-happy surgeons, wanting to make a buck off the insecurities of humans. I’m going to protect it from binges and purges. I can do this!

And so can you.

Visualization is a powerful tool to prepare your mind for weight loss. For me, visualization works best with writing. If I sit down and write what I will look like, what I will be able to do and how I will feel when I reach my ideal weight, it works for me.

I’ve learned, over the years, that what works for me doesn’t necessarily work for everyone, so here is a list of ways that you can use to get your head wrapped around the idea of what it will be like when you’re thin:

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At first, I was training for a race, so I didn’t have time to play DDR. Then the race was over, but I got a new job that was only 5.6 miles from home, so I’ve been riding my bike to work, so I don’t have the time to play DDR. I’m getting my exercise in during my daily commute and it actually ends up saving me time in the end. I haven’t fired up the Xbox and danced my butt off for months.

The truth of the matter is that I miss playing DDR. I also miss going to the gym. I have so many options for exercise, that I am missing things when I don’t allow myself to do them. I never, in a million years, thought I would feel like this. I miss walking into the gym and having my choice of all the toys to play with. I miss dancing against other DDR players on Xbox Live, even though they kicked my butt almost every time.

I wish I knew what I did to get to this level. I wish I could bottle it up or list it out and hand it to you in a neat little package. (more…)

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.

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!

This is not a diet book. This is not an exercise book. This is the first step to a healthier life.

This book will tell you that it’s just fine to stay fat. The author will quote the averages and help you realize that over half the nation is overweight. She will challenge the idea that being overweight will shorten your life. I love this book. I don’t agree with everything she says, but this book is the first essential step to getting healthy.

About a year before I attended my first Weight Watchers meeting, I decided that I was going to stay fat. I decided to never diet again. I decided that I would just eat what I want and exercise when I wanted. Without knowing it, I went on Margaret Cho’s F**k It Diet. I decided to become a Fat Girl.

There was something healing and liberating that happened to my mind when I decided to love myself as I am. Truly allowing myself to be me and truly accepting my body as it was helped me to get to where I am today. After a few months on the F**k It Diet, I realized that I didn’t enjoy eating the way I was. Sure, I liked eating the food, but I didn’t like feeling too full. I didn’t like the gastrointestinal effects of the food I was eating. When it stopped being about dieting and started being about feeling good, I started eating healthier.

At one point, I realized that I had no idea how to eat healthy. That was part of the reason I joined Weight Watchers. The other part was the support. Changing habits is difficult, even if you really want to change them. I needed to have a weekly booster shot of ideas and motivation. I still do.

So, you’ve decided to be a Fat Girl? I say great! Deciding to be a Fat Girl was my first step toward treating myself with more respect.

Great Quotes from The Fat Girl’s Guide to Life by Wendy Shanker:

“Most fat people are afraid to go to yoga or dance class or the swim club or they gym because they think skinny people will be mean to them, or at least think mean thoughts about them. Well, okay, that’s legit. But you know what? It’s a gym, not a playground. You’re a grown-up, not a kindergartner. You are a strong enough person to get over it and do what you have to do for yourself. Screw everyone else.”

“No one deserves to be at the gym more than you do.”

“Any doctor who blames you for your disease has his or her priorities screwed up.”

“It’s time to stop thinking that someone knows something that don’t, that someone has an answer that is being withheld from you.”

“Fat and beautiful are not opposites. They do not cancel each other out. I am fat and beautiful.”

When you’re tired at Disneyland and the kids have dragged you all over the park, don’t take them to Innoventions. They will run in as many directions as there are kids. It’s noisy and there are lots of things to touch, but don’t fool yourself. There is no real learning going on there. It’s strictly entertainment.

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I’ve heard them called a lot of things: trigger foods, red-light foods, but I tend to think of them as my Vulnerability Foods. They are foods that I like to binge with. They are friends when I’m feeling vulnerable. Some of them are old friends (Mother’s brand chocolate cookies or bite size Reese’s Peanut Butter Cups). Others are new additions to my binging vulnerability (pretzels dipped in Nutella). They are foods that I search out when I don’t want to deal with my emotions. They are foods that allow me to consume a huge number of calories within a short amount of time.

Need to know how to deal with your personal vulnerability foods? Here’s a list of strategies, starting with the ones that don’t work for me and moving on to the ones that do work.

Advice That Doesn’t Work:

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There are a few things that I have learned about eating home cooked meals:

• Dish up the correct number of servings onto the plates in the kitchen. – When I was growing up, my family used to just bring a huge bowl of spaghetti noodles and another huge bowl of spaghetti sauce to the table. The bowls would be passed around and we could choose how much of each we wanted. Now that I have mastered healthy eating, we dish up all the food in the kitchen and bring the individual plates to the table. I found that serving a meal “Family Style” is too much of a temptation for me. I tend to take too much in the first place and go for seconds afterward.

• Dish up the leftovers into individual sized portions. – I use Ziploc Storage Containers because they are inexpensive and translucent enough to tell what has been stored in them. If the recipe says that it has six servings, I get a dish for me, a dish for Mike and four Ziploc bowls. I divide the recipe equally among the six dishes and put lids on the containers before taking our dishes to the table.

• Leave the leftovers in the kitchen. – If the leftovers (in their individually sized containers) are in the kitchen when I finish eating. I am reluctant to get up and dish up another serving. I would have dirtied a dish (and lid) for nothing and that’s one less lunch for me over the week. If you want to truly be committed to only eating one serving, put them in the freezer before you eat your meal. I guarantee that the idea of that same meal, growing ice crystals in the freezer will prevent you from overeating.

Controlling the amount of food I eat has been an important factor in my weight loss success. Whether I am eating at home or at restaurants, managing my portions has been essential. I don’t cook at home very often, but when I do, I find that these three tips prevent me from eating too much at home.

I have seen so many different calculations for Target Heart Rate that I really don’t know what’s true anymore. For years, it was always:

220-Your Age=Target Heart Rate

I vaguely remember a heart rate that took into account your current weight. I saw another one that used your BMI. I remember another one that had a different rate for women than men. I remember another one that took into account your fitness level. I’ve read about others that take into account your resting heart rate. There are now so many potential calculations for your Target Heart Rate that I can understand if you might be tempted to just forget about it.

One day, I decided that they all were bogus…

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