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

Valerie at iPortion has an interesting entry about binge dreaming.

• Iportion: Binge Dreaming

Like Valerie, when I am restricting my diet, I have dreams about eating a lot and “blowing” my diet. Whenever I have those dreams, I feel a harbringer of dread, as if I KNOW that I will start bingeing because I had that dream.

I don’t believe the dreams cause the bingeing, however. It’s the other way around. Restricting my diet too much causes the feelings of deprivation and the worry about blowing my diet. That stress comes through loud and clear in my dreams. By the time I have a binge dream, I’ve already made the mistake of restricting my diet too closely.

Instead a harbringer of dread, they should be an indicator that I haven’t been eating enough or haven’t eaten a wide enough variety of foods.

I just keep forgetting that…

I have been playing a game on my Nintendo DS while exercising for the last couple of weeks. I can do it while walking on the treadmill, but I need to turn the incline up pretty steep and keep the speed slow so I can play the game AND keep my heart rate up. It’s easier on the exercise bike. I can do both easily.

Do you multi-task while exercising?

Which workouts work well with multi-tasking?

What do you do (listen to music, read, watch TV, play Animal Crossing…)?

How do you make sure you are getting a good workout?

Do you think that being distracted while exercising is dangerous?

Do you think that being distracted while exercising affects whether it’s a good workout? How?

Some people believe that being “with your body” is the focus of exercising. What do you think about that?

Sometimes having a distraction while exercising is the only way I’m willing to workout. Other times, I really want to feel the workout, so I don’t multi-task at all. I don’t really know how I feel about it. What do you think?

The Question of the Week is meant to be an Inner Workout for you. Find some time during the week and allow yourself to write the answers to the questions posted. You can write them on paper, on a word processor or here in the comments section. Whatever works for you as long as you do it.

Keep writing until you find out something about yourself that you didn’t know before. I’ve also heard that it works to keep writing until you cry, but that doesn’t really work for me. Whatever works for you. Just keep writing until it feels right.

Each season has its traditional foods. We have just jumped back into Autumn and the days are getting shorter.

When you think of Fall, which foods immediately come to mind? Do you allow yourself to eat them?

Which foods do you usually eat during Autumn?

Are they healthy?

Have you found healthy ways to cook your traditional Fall foods?

Are there new, healthy Autumn foods that you now look forward to every year? What are they?

There are so many healthy foods that are finally coming to fruition right now like pumpkins, acorn squash and spaghetti squash. Now is the time to try something new and re-invent something old!

The Question of the Week is meant to be an Inner Workout for you. Find some time during the week and allow yourself to write the answers to the questions posted. You can write them on paper, on a word processor or here in the comments section. Whatever works for you as long as you do it.

Keep writing until you find out something about yourself that you didn’t know before. I’ve also heard that it works to keep writing until you cry, but that doesn’t really work for me. Whatever works for you. Just keep writing until it feels right.

Jean Paul Gaultier’s 30th Anniversary show was October 3rd and the world is still spinning. Gaultier put American model and actress Velvet d’Amour in his show. She has her head on right as far as physical image is concerned. When asked about other models and whether they are too thin, she replied,

“If you tell me somebody’s too thin, if you tell me somebody’s too fat, you’re still being prejudiced. The point is diversity.”

She’s right. We need to be just as accepting of the super-skinny as we are of the overweight. Sometimes I feel like the entire world is out to make fat people feel as if we don’t exist. When there are fat people in movies or television, they are usually portrayed by stick thin actors/actresses in fat suits. The few fat people shown are usually one-dimensional caricatures that are portrayed as people who are lazy, depressed and out of control.

Reality just isn’t like that. There are energetic and active fat people. There are overeating thin people. And now, thanks to Gaultier, there are overweight fashion models.

Via: Big Fat Blog: Gaultier Uses Fat Model; World Still Turning

What if your scale said this every day? What if you couldn’t measure how many pounds or kilos or stone you weighed? What if the only gauge of yourself is how you feel about yourself? How would you know if you are beautiful?

Guess what? That’s how life is. That number on the scale means NOTHING!!

Sexy is mostly attitude. Attitude and hygiene, actually. If you take care of yourself and you care about yourself, the sexy comes through no matter how heavy you are on the scale.

The scale is only a tool to measure progess. If you FEEL sexy, you will attract others. Work on your head as much as your body because when you get to goal weight, if you don’t feel sexy, you won’t look sexy, no matter how tight your butt is.

If you are planning on wearing a skimpy and sexy Halloween costume, you have less than a month to get to your goal weight.

With less than a month to wear a sexy Halloween costume, how is that going to affect your decision?

If your body was exactly how you wanted it to be, which Halloween costume would you wear?

What is stopping you from wearing that costume right now?

When you are trying to hide your weight, what costumes do you prefer? Are they self-deprecating?

Don’t let your current weight stop you from wearing the costume of your dreams at the Halloween party this year. You deserve to wear whatever costume you want, despite what commercial costume companies create. If you want to be super sexy this year, create your own costume. If you start now, there is still time.

The Question of the Week is meant to be an Inner Workout for you. Find some time during the week and allow yourself to write the answers to the questions posted. You can write them on paper, on a word processor or here in the comments section. Whatever works for you as long as you do it.

Keep writing until you find out something about yourself that you didn’t know before. I’ve also heard that it works to keep writing until you cry, but that doesn’t really work for me. Whatever works for you. Just keep writing until it feels right.

The Halloween aisle is a long black and orange enticement at the grocery store. What are you going to do about it this year?

When do you buy Halloween candy?

Are you really buying it for the kids or is the “first wave” for you and you don’t want to admit it?

What are your favorite Halloween candy flavors?

Are those the flavors that you buy “for the kids”?

Are there good uses for Halloween candy?

The Question of the Week is meant to be an Inner Workout for you. Find some time during the week and allow yourself to write the answers to the questions posted. You can write them on paper, on a word processor or here in the comments section. Whatever works for you as long as you do it.

Keep writing until you find out something about yourself that you didn’t know before. I’ve also heard that it works to keep writing until you cry, but that doesn’t really work for me. Whatever works for you. Just keep writing until it feels right.

So many of our successes and failures can be attributed to our thoughts. What we think is so powerful and make or break us.

Who is your hero?

Describe that person, the good AND bad qualities that they have.

How do their good qualities help you?

How does emulating their bad qualities hinder you?

Our heroes are real people. We chose them as our heroes because they have done things that are important to us, but we need to remember that they are humans just like us.

The Question of the Week is meant to be an Inner Workout for you. Find some time during the week and allow yourself to write the answers to the questions posted. You can write them on paper, on a word processor or here in the comments section. Whatever works for you as long as you do it.

Keep writing until you find out something about yourself that you didn’t know before. I’ve also heard that it works to keep writing until you cry, but that doesn’t really work for me. Whatever works for you. Just keep writing until it feels right.

Five years ago, the World Trade Center crumbled to the ground in a rush of dusty fury.

Where were you five years ago?

Did you eat healthy and exercise that day?

What were you doing when you heard the news?

Did it affect the way you dealt with food?

What did you learn from that difficult time? What do you wish you had done better?

On September 11th, 2001, I had just started eating and exercising for my health. I hadn’t joined Weight Watchers, yet, but I did exercise regularly. Watching the World Trade Center get hit time after time on CNN was enough to send me into bingeing, though. Mike and I just sat in front of the television that night and watched the twin towers fall over and over again.

I wish I had learned to deal with emotions without food, but back then, I was still running to my addiction at every turn.

The Question of the Week is meant to be an Inner Workout for you. Find some time during the week and allow yourself to write the answers to the questions posted. You can write them on paper, on a word processor or here in the comments section. Whatever works for you as long as you do it.

Keep writing until you find out something about yourself that you didn’t know before. I’ve also heard that it works to keep writing until you cry, but that doesn’t really work for me. Whatever works for you. Just keep writing until it feels right.

Sometimes WHEN you exercise is as important as what you do and for how long. Choosing your time carefully can keep your exercise routine a routine or kill it in the water:

What time of the day do you exercise?

How often do you exercise?

Does this work for you? Are you able to keep your exercise appointments or are you tempted to skip them?

What would be the best time for you to exercise and how often?

What have you done in the past? Did it work?

The Question of the Week is meant to be an Inner Workout for you. Find some time during the week and allow yourself to write the answers to the questions posted. You can write them on paper, on a word processor or here in the comments section. Whatever works for you as long as you do it.

Keep writing until you find out something about yourself that you didn’t know before. I’ve also heard that it works to keep writing until you cry, but that doesn’t really work for me. Whatever works for you. Just keep writing until it feels right.