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

Apparently, Redbook doesn’t think Faith Hill is beautiful enough for them and they needed to make her arms beyond skinny, her waist impossibly small (without a corset) and more. Not even the previous placement of her arm was good enough for Redbook.

This is the same magazine that screams, “Summer Party Ideas! Good Food! Good Fun!”

The next time you pick up a magazine and compare yourself to the woman on the cover, remember that it’s not real. Even Faith Hill is probably comparing herself to that woman on the cover of Redbook and nitpicking herself.

Lots of people are talking about this:

• Photoshop Of Horrors: Here’s Our Winner! ‘Redbook’ Shatters Our ‘Faith’ In Well, Not Publishing, But Maybe God – Jezebel: An animated comparison of the original photo and the Redbook cover.

• Photoshop Of Horrors: Responding To ‘Redbook”s Cover Lines – Jezebel: Points out the hypocrisy of the cover. “Love Your Life. Hate Your Body.”

• Faith Hill’s ‘Redbook’ Photoshop Chop: Why We’re Pissed – Jezebel: Analyzes why women of such importance and career stability still are evaluated like they are meat.

• Distort By Numbers: The Annotated Guide To Making Faith Hill ‘Hot’ – Jezebel: This entry imagines what was going on in the minds of the photo editor as he nipped and tucked Faith beyond believability.

If you are appalled by this, remember that ALL the magazines do this. Redbook just got caught. Don’t pay one more penny for women’s magazines. If you really want to read them, just read them in the grocery store and put them back. They don’t deserve your money.

Via: What’s With Skinny Arms? Faith Hill and Redbook

I have always enjoyed those children’s shoes with the flashing LEDs. They seemed like a great thing to have on running shoes, but none of the serious running shoe companies picked them up. Now, it looks like you can add small LEDs to your own shoes.

• Welcome to BamZ

This product seems to be marketed at children and teens, but they look like they would be a good option to keep you visible for night running. You can buy them online if you email them directly, but they haven’t set up an online shopping cart (?!). They are based in the UK, so it’s easy to get them there.

What are they? They are insoles that you place in your shoes and the LED connection snakes up the back of your shoe and displays at the back. If you have problems with blisters on the back of your heel, this might aggravate it.

If you have been running in the early morning or the late night to escape the heat, then these might be a good option to keep you visible in the dark.

Via: Shiny Shiny: Let your walking do the talking with the Bamz insoles

02/12/07 Bento-licious Brunch by Aylanah on Flickr

If you liked the pretty concoctions from Bentolicious, then you might want to try it on your own. Instructables has a step-by-step guide on the art of Bento.

• Instructables Crafting a Bento

In the past, I have said food is just food. Sometimes I feel like that. Sometimes I want to eat something pretty because it makes me feel like someone cares about me. I don’t like cognitive dissonance.

Via: Craftzine.com blog: Crafting a Bento

After reading Adria’s entry about combating dehydration, I sympathized with her fully.

• A mile in my Birks » Dehydration

I have had a much less intense experience with dehydration almost every time we camp. Because we have to haul in our water, it’s a precious commodity, so I am reluctant to drink as much as I need in this 103 degree weather. Her description fits to a tee:

My throat was burning, my head was pounding, and every muscle in my body hurt. I spent the rest of the day in bed but my body was wracked with pain & I couldn’t sleep.

Yeah, that pounding headache? It’s almost as bad as a migraine. I’ve mistaken it for a migraine in the past. The only difference is that half my face doesn’t go numb with dehydration.

For the full symptoms of dehydration, see here:

• Dehydration – Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

They aren’t easy symptoms to recognize at first, but if you are listening to your body, you should be able to catch them:

• Headaches similar to what is experienced during a hangover
• Visual snow
• Decreased blood pressure (hypotension)
• Dizziness or fainting when standing up due to orthostatic hypotension.

Adria drank Pedialyte to feel better, but they recommend water.

The best treatment for minor dehydration is drinking water and stopping fluid loss. Water is preferable to sport drinks and other commercially-sold rehydration fluids, as the balance of electrolytes they provide may not match the replacement requirements of the individual.

I’ve found that Gatorade watered down half and half works best for me, but each person is different. If you’re able to recognize the symptoms of dehydration quickly, then you won’t get a more severe case. Be careful out there. Sunburn isn’t the only way the sun can knock you out.

I just wrote something for the Quotations Page about The Picture of Dorian Gray. Dorian was blessed (or cursed) with a portrait that aged for him. All the scars, diseases and effects of his secret vices were shown on his picture instead of his own body.

The story got me thinking.

What if you were Dorian Gray?

What if you could eat all that you wanted and not an ounce of fat would show up on your body, only on your portait?

What if you never had to exercise again?

Would you live a life of “debauchery” like Dorian?

If you were to live a life of “debauchery”, what would you do?

Is there any way you can incorporate those foods or activities into your life without “falling into debauchery?”

Considering how Dorian turned out in the end, I am reluctant to say that I would gleefully eat whatever I wanted. More importantly, thinking about what I would do if I were Dorian Gray helps me realize how I have been denying myself and lets me plan these things into my diet and lifestyle without harm.

So… what would you do if you were Dorian Gray?

I love this commercial for Reebok! Sometimes it feels like the couch is calling to me, but I’ve never had it wrestle me away from the door. Next time you’re feeling like skipping your workout, just think of how hard it could be to get to the gym.

Here is the trailer from E3 for the Wii Fit. It looks like you’ll be able to keep track of your own progress separate from the rest of the people in your family (something DDR was sorely missing). I’m really excited about this one.

Via: Shiny Shiny: E3 2007 Nintendo Wii Fit trailer – who needs the treadmill?

Mike makes this dinner for me when I’m low on Points. It’s only 3 Points a serving (about 150 calories) and is really filling. Considering that it’s only rice and broccoli with some spices, it’s amazing how tasting it is. Here is his recipe:

Broccoli Rice:

• 1/2 cup Brown Rice
• 1/2 cup Frozen Broccoli
• 1/2 tsp Garam Masala
• 1/2 tsp Curry Powder

These are the ingredients for one serving. It’s usually much easier to make five servings and put them in the fridge or freezer for several meals. Mike puts the rice and broccoli in the rice cooker and then adds the spices after the rice is fully cooked.

The rice cooker is voodoo to me, but I love it. Mike is able to make healthy rice for me using no oil. He fought for the rice cooker when we first bought it, but if it were to break, I would now let him buy whichever one he wanted at whatever expense. I have been the beneficiary of so many yummy, healthy meals because of that device. Broccoli Rice is merely one of them.

Ever since my obsession with DDR and Yourself! Fitness has worn down, I’ve been looking for a new exergaming option. It looks like Nintendo is happy to feed my obsession with Wii Fit. It’s a new game with a new controller called a Balance Board. You can see the full story about the announcement at E3 at Engadget:

• Nintendo Wii Fit gets you stepping – Engadget

Here is some information on the Wii Balance Board:

“The Wii Balance Board is a Reebok Step look-alike, with dual sensors that can detect your weight and balance on each side as you exercise to the various on-screen Wii activities in Wii Fit. The board is wireless, and holds the potential of full-body games involving the Wiimote and the Wii Balance Board simultaneously.”

Yes! That’s what we’ve been waiting for. I had no idea that it would be Nintendo to fulfill my wishes.

I checked Nintendo’s website, but they haven’t put any mention of this new product on it yet. That’s one thing I like about Apple. When they announce things, they usually have something on their website about it the same day. Nintendo wasn’t ready for fan girls like me to bombard their site looking for more information. I guess we’ll have to wait. I’ll keep you posted.

I was playing with the Nike+ website, looking at the runs I’ve done over the last year. I bought my Nike+ at the end of July last year, so I have a number of runs to go back and look at. Here is what the last year looks like:

That tall month in December, I walked 54 miles on the treadmill. That’s when I walked so much that I ended up with black toenail. It kicked my mileage down quite a bit. January, I ran my 30 miles like I promised on my resolution, but I was in pain the whole time. I just didn’t want to go back to Weight Watchers.

Now, I’m back at Weight Watchers. Rather than a noose around my neck, it feels liberating. I have been gradually increasing my mileage. If I follow my program correctly, I will beat the December mileage without sacrificing my newly grown toenails.

I never really kept an exercise log before. I wrote things down in my food journal, but I didn’t keep as much data as the Nike+. Now, I can look over it and see how far I’ve come and what I can do to beat my “best” month. Runner’s World always recommended keeping a running journal, but I never realized how powerful it could be. Seeing my runs stack up like this makes me want to create a year where the mileage just keeps increasing.

You don’t need to own a Nike+ to keep an exercise log. You can keep that information anywhere. I used to keep it with my food logs, but to compare this kind of thing on my own, I would have to wade through all the food to find my workouts. It would have been better if I had kept track of my workouts in ONE place by themselves.

If you’re a crazy spreadsheet fan, like I am, you could keep track in Excel, letting it graph your progress for you much like the Nike+ has done for me here. Of course a Mead notebook would work just as well for you. The most important thing is to keep an exercise log because it can be more inspiring than I ever thought it could.