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

Laura,

So many have the symptom of feeling cold after losing weight but no one has said why this happens and what they have done to fix it.

My friend just lost close to 200 lbs and is suddenly feeling cold and doesn’t know how to get warm. Any suggestions.

Marie

Marie,

I bring a sweater or cardigan wherever I go. I even bring it during the summer because so many places have the A/C blasting. REI (or a sporting goods store) has some jackets that fold up in a tiny little envelope that you can take out of your purse and wear if you suddenly get the chills.

I’ve stopped saying “It’s cold” when I’m feeling cold because everyone else argues. Instead, I say, “I’ve got the chills.” Everyone seems to understand that.

Good luck, Laura Moncur

GamerCycle says that it’s building healthy kids, but does it really?

• GamerCycle – Building Healthy Kids

They describe how it works here:

“The premise is simple – as long you keep pedaling, the television screen is “ON”… stop pedaling, and the TV screen goes blank. Go from 100% sedentary time to 100% exercise time! Need a break? Hit pause, then resume the game when you are ready.”

The first thought that came to my mind was, “They’ll just unplug the thing,” but GamerCycle has thought about that:

“Video lock box prevents unplugging of the cable from the GamerCycle.”

This idea might actually work if you have a child who loves video games or television. If they feel ambivalent toward TV or games, then the extra effort isn’t worth it.

This would do nothing for me. I can already play video games while I’m riding my bike on the trainer. What I want is a bicycle that controls the game. Then my performance on the game is dependent on how well I ride the bike. I want to go faster in the game if I turn up the resistance and I want it to feel like real life. I know that’s a lot to ask from video games and equipment. I just wonder why none of the big companies are seriously devoting programming and development time to this.

On those long bike rides, it’s good to keep water nearby. When your hands are busy with driving the bike, a hydration system like the Camelback makes it easier, but they are so expensive. This writer made a hydration system out of $7 worth of tubing.

• Cheap Hydration System

We don’t need the fancy toys to get healthy and strong. All we need is a little ingenuity and some aquarium tubing.

Via: MAKE: Blog: Cheap hydration system

Sports Bras aren’t supposed to be sexy. They’re supposed to hold things down and prevent chafing.

• USATODAY.com – Victoria’s Secret tries on sexy sports bras

Considering that all Victoria’s models are so obviously fake, why would they even need sports bras? Fake boobs stay aloft on their own. It’s us girls with the real thing that need sports bras.

I have all this anger at this move by Victoria’s Secret, but I do love their bras. Their underwire bras are the first I’ve ever enjoyed wearing. Why do I feel like they are completely unprepared to take care of me when I’m running 6 mph?

I guess it’s the advertising. I see those models and they don’t look fit and strong to me. They look fake and emaciated.

Try again Victoria…

Via: adfreak: Victoria’s Secret gets into sports bras

Mark, at A Passion for Running, has fully tested the new running skirts. He has included pictures and a video of him donning the bright pink running skirt and matching jogging bra. Is he insane?

Probably…

More importantly, he did it for charity. Urging his readers to make donations to thier favorite charities, he promised to wear and review the running skirts for everyone’s enjoyment.

You can read his review here:

• A Passion for Running » a manly man’s review of his pink running skirt

You can see the video of him in the skirt here:

• A Passion for Running » Mark “Feels Like a Woman”

If you would like to purchase a running skirt, you can do so here:

• Running Skirts for Women in Hot New Colors Women’s Fitness Running Gear

After reading his review, I know that I wouldn’t like the running skirt. There is only a panty underneath, so there is nothing to protect my inner thighs from chafing. That’s a lot less of an issue now than it used to be, but I’m still very sensitive about my exercise clothing. Mark looks cute, though.

Thanks to a watchful reader, Shawn Lea at Everything and Nothing. She left a comment on my entry about Brad Felt’s Treadputer which pointed me to this website about turning your treadmill into a treadputer.

• Walking While Working: How to Take Your Cubicle from ‘Fattening Pen’ to ‘Fitness Center’ – Squidoo Lens

I’m particularly interested in this modification:

It’s Rob Couture’s Treadputer. It looks so tasteful and simple that I wonder how I would modify my treadmill this way. It looks a little low to really work for typing, though. What keeps the laptop from sliding off?

I think I haven’t modified my treadmill is because I’m scared of damaging my laptop, treadmill or both. I just need to move past the fear and try it for myself.

If bare-foot running seems a little too extreme for you, these shoes are supposed to give you the same benefits of running barefoot while still giving you some protection from rocks, glass and pinecones.

• Vibramfivefingers

I don’t know if I believe it. It looks like hype to me. I know that barefoot running is supposed to protect some people from injury, but I am still addicted to my running shoes. I love how they feel and I never have any blisters. Of course, I’m running a lot less miles every week than the people who are benefitting from barefoot running, so I don’t have much to say about the stress and trauma that people training for a marathon endure.

Via: A Passion for Running » doctor romanov of pose method endorses vibram five fingers shoe

This is the ultimate computer treadmill that I have ever seen. This is his description of how they built it. I wish I had a “Ross” that I could just depend on to build me prototype exercise machines.

• Feld Thoughts – The Treadputer

He has a keyboard and trackball that he can use (a mouse is useless), but he also uses a voice recognition program, Dragon Naturally Speaking, for some of his word processing.

I doubted that Dragon Naturally Speaking would work while I was running, but it performs almost flawlessly after thirty minutes of training. I’m still finding my way around it – although it does remind me (by not recognizing anything) to slow down my running pace if I’m breathing too hard.

I like to imagine that in the future I’ll be able to just walk into Sear’s Roebuck and buy a treadmill that looks like this, but that is probably wishful thinking.

Via: The Treadputer – The Jason Calacanis Weblog

These bowls from Mesu are sized for portion control. They range in sizes from 1/2 cup to 2 cups and after using them for a couple of months, you should be easily able to estimate portions when you’re at a restaurant.

• Popgadget: Personal Tech for Women – Mesu Portion Control Bowls

It took me months before I was able to estimate a 1/2 cup of rice or noodles. Even now, I break out the measuring cups so verify that my eyes haven’t made the portions “grow.” If you have been lax about measuring your portions lately, maybe it’s time to have a refresher course for a week or so.

After a hiatus, I popped in Yourself! Fitness into my old Xbox and did an intense 60 minute workout. I thought it would be easy on me because I’ve been weight training on my own for the last two months, but Maya was able to give me a challenging workout and I felt it in muscle soreness the next day.

I was wondering what is going on with Yourself! Fitness and responDESIGN because it has been well over a year since they have produced anything new. Are they going to release a new version for Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3? Are they working on a more realistic Maya with changeable outfits? How about a sensor that can read the signal from your heart rate monitor and adjust the program accordingly? Even a version where we stretch more than just our quads and hamstrings would be nice.

After looking at their website, I was shocked to see that not much had changed. They still have a rabid fan base in the forums asking questions just like mine, but no one is there in an official capacity answering them. In fact, it took a lot of digging for me to even find any answers of any sort. Here’s what I found:

According to a press release buried deep in responDESIGN’s website, the original Yourself! Fitness will work on Xbox 360: Press Release: Yourself! Fitness compatible with Xbox 360: Only fitness game for all audiences among 200 titles

That’s it. No announcements about anything new in the works. Not even an easy way to link to their press release because of their broken Flash-based website. So, they are abandoning their fanbase in the forums AND not even bothering to advance their product. That’s a shame because the original Yourself! Fitness was a great starting point and I was excited to see what the future held. Too bad it looks like the future brought a sad sizzle instead of a burning fire of innovation.

See other entries about Yourself! Fitness:

• Starling Fitness » Yourself! Fitness for the Xbox

• Starling Fitness » Silver Status on Yourself! Fitness

• Starling Fitness » Yourself! Fitness for Playstation 2

• Starling Fitness » Gold Status on Yourself! Fitness

• Starling Fitness » Workout 35 on Yourself! Fitness