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

I has been a hard week and it only just started. Last week was just fine, but this week I have had problems every day. What did I try to do? I tried to limit my intake:

I reduced it by 100 calories a day. That’s it. Just a 100 calories a day. That’s like… an apple. Less than an apple…

Okay, a little more than an apple, but still it’s just a small, small, small amount. It’s like two Hershey’s kisses. A tiny, tiny amount.

Learning to eat healthy is still an adventure for me. Wish me luck!

It’s spring and I find myself going outside for my runs and walks lately. I’ve really enjoyed walking outside and I started wondering why I ever use my treadmill at all. I even started thinking that I wasn’t going to use it again.

That’s how long it took me to forget about winter… two weeks.

Two weeks of lovely weather and I have forsaken my beloved treadmill in favor of the great outdoors. I have to admit that I love exercising outside mostly because there is just so much interesting stuff going on. There are people to avoid, streets to cross, and lots of things to look at.

The other day, I took my camera with me on my walk and just clicked away. Here’s what I saw:

With this much to see outside, it’s no wonder that the treadmill holds no attraction for me. I’m just surprised at how quickly I have forgotten about the freezing winds and snow and wondering how long I can enjoy the beauty until the heat takes my breath and forces me back indoors.

I have wondered for a long time what use it is to be at my goal weight? I remember those rare times when I was thin. I wasn’t any happier back then than I am now. Why should I work so hard to be thin? Gretchen Rubin writes on her weblog, The Happiness Project, that people do feel happier when they feel more attractive:

• The Happiness Project: Does feeling more attractive make you happier?

People are willing to admit that their happiness depends on having friends, feeling close to their family, being satisfied with their work, etc…

But I think there are other elements to happiness as well—elements that we might not want to admit.

And one of those things is feeling attractive.

There have been times when I have felt attractive and they had nothing to do with how much I weighed. Learning to take care of myself and enjoy my appearance no matter what I weigh is an important step toward my goal. There were times when I was thin and beautiful, but I felt fat and bloated. It has nothing to do with how I actually look and has more to do with how I feel.

What can I do to make myself feel better about my appearance?

What will happen if I get to goal weight and I haven’t been able to like my appearance yet?

What if I loved the way I look right now? Would that stall my weight loss? Do I have to lose weight from a point of disgust or can I love the way I look AND lose weight?

How can I feel attractive right now? Is there something I can do with my hair, nails, face or clothing that will improve my opinion of myself?

It seems that I only get fired up when I feel unattractive. The problem with being “fired up,” though, is that I lose weight in such an unhealthy manner that I end up bingeing later. There has to be a better way.

A quick link to this entry from Tish Grier about faux-food and her reactions to it:

• love and hope and sex and dreams: Faux-Food Snobs

I love her response to the Faux Food Snobs:

“Oh. My. God. You eat POTATOES?!?”

Why, yes I do. They’re a great source of Vitamin C.

“But what about those CARBS! I simply can’t eat all those CARBS!”

Well, at least I don’t break out in a rash from potatoes.

“And you drink WHOLE MILK? what about all that FAT?”

Well, I’d rather have a glass of whole milk than eat a box of Snackwells–or some other “engineered” foodstuff…at least I know what’s in my milk (and it cures my sugar cravings really fast.)

I’ll never forget the day when I microwaved my Lean Cuisine for lunch and just couldn’t take a bite of it. I had eaten so many frozen dinners that I was just sick of even the smell of them. Rice was my savior then and Mike made good use of his fancy rice cooker for me. I never thought of potatoes. A potato sounds really good right now.

If you have become bored with the old salad routine, O Magazine has a Salad Mix N’ Match Chart that might spice things up for you:

• O Magazine Salad Chart

Stock up on the basics and you’ll be able to create something different every day for over a month. If you cringe when you think of eating another salad, it’s probably because you don’t have an interesting variety. Now, you don’t have that excuse!

Via: Oprah’s mix & match salad chart – Slashfood

I am finally able to talk to the camera again. Welcome me back!

My biggest fear happened a couple of weeks ago. I was so scared how my feet would look when my toenails finally fell off. I knew it would happen because both of them were hanging on by just a thread for so long. When I finally lost them, I was resigned to it.

If I squint, I can’t tell that I don’t have toenails on my two largest toes. A special thank you to the person who suggested that I just paint the nail bed. It has helped me so much to be able to look down and see what looks like a toenail there. My nails are only half grown back, but they look almost whole.

More importantly, I can run and walk again. I have been building up my mileage. I can do two miles a day and a long walk of four miles once a week. I’ll eventually get back up to where I was before, but for now, I’m working up to it slowly.

In the end, black toenail is painful for a couple of weeks, but it’s ugly for months. I think the worst part was worrying about how it would look. Now that I know that this is the worst it looks, I’m less scared of getting black toenail in the future.

Previous Entries:

• Starling Fitness » Black Toenail

• Starling Fitness » How I Treated My Black Toenail

• Starling Fitness » Black Toenails: Final Update

• Starling Fitness » Black Toenail: Finally Healed

I find that I am reluctant to be in front of the camera. It’s because I weigh more now than I did last year at this time and I don’t like how I look. I don’t know how hiding behind a camera can change that fact, but somehow I have to be able to get past this.

Have you been hiding from cameras? Why?

What would you have to look like to feel good about being in front of the camera? Does hiding from the camera (or mirrors) change the way you look?

Does it change the way you feel about yourself?

Is it possible to love yourself no matter what you look like?

How would you go about accepting yourself as you are now AND working to make yourself better?

Are those contradictory terms?

I am going to get in front of the camera again, despite my weight gain. Avoiding the camera and mirrors is just my way of trying to forget that I gained weight. If I avoid the truth, I’ll never be able to be healthy.

Some time before 10:28 pm last night, we crossed over to New York and finished our Race Across the USA! Here is a complete list of all the participants:

The winners are:

• krisjames – 1st place – Most miles run – Four DVD set of Starling Fitness walking videos: Swami’s Beach, Sugarhouse, Moab and the San Antonio Riverwalk.
• filo666go – 2nd place – Choice of three Starling Fitness DVDs.
• SOKAR – 3rd place – Choice of three Starling Fitness DVDs.
• DatabaseDiva – 4th place – Choice of two Starling Fitness DVDs.
• SLB’s Nike+ – 5th place – Choice of two Starling Fitness DVDs.
• Rossanne – 6th place – Choice of one Starling Fitness DVD
• abelisle – 7th place – Choice of one Starling Fitness DVD
• uberjeph – 8th place – Choice of one Starling Fitness DVD
• noels71 – 9th place – Choice of one Starling Fitness DVD
• shornke – 10th place – Choice of one Starling Fitness DVD

Congratulations to everyone who participated (if you notice, I came in at 31st place)! I hope you had as much fun as I did imagining our run across the United States!

Last week, we bought Tiger Woods PGA Tour 07 for the Wii. Mike and I have been testing it for its exercise capabilities. Sadly, as far as exergaming is concerned, it comes up short. Most of the exercise that you get when you golf comes from walking from hole to hole. With this game, you get none of the walking. Sure, you get to swing your arms to take the shots, but it has no cardio impact at all and very little muscle training. I played two days in a row without any muscle pain, which is something that I would have never been able to do with Wii Sports or Rayman Raving Rabbids.

As far as keeping you in shape during the winter months, I don’t think this game would be good for that either. I actually think that it might have the potential to hurt your game depending on how you have to swing for the game compared to swinging with a real club. Since I’ve never played golf in the real world, I wouldn’t be able to compare those two, but I highly doubt that this simulation will keep you in practice.

That said, I actually love the game. I liked that I was able to make my avatar look as close to me as I could. I didn’t have to choose between ten men and one blond famous golfer, I was able to make a golfer that looked kind of close to what I look like. I was even able to make her as fat or as thin as I wanted. Creating my avatar was really enjoyable, actually. Playing golf with her is even more so. They have animated certain reactions to good shots and bad shots. It’s funny to see how my computer golfer reacts to my miserable performance.

Additionally, it’s a lot of fun playing the courses. They have beautiful scenery, lovely clouds and tweeting birds. I can play the game at midnight and feel like I took a walk in the sunshine through a gorgeous park. I love how the trees sway when there is a lot of wind. I love how my golf ball skips across the water when I aim poorly. I even love how my golf ball got stuck inside a tree. Even the bad programming has funny effects.

Is it exergaming? No. Did it get me off the couch and interacting with my family? Yes! Most importantly, it introduced me to a sport that I might want to try in real life. It taught me the rules and got me interested in something that I never considered before. If sport video games pique the interest in a real live sport, then I’m all for them. My verdict on Tiger Woods PGA Tour 07 for the Wii? Go for it! It is a lot of fun and it might even get you interested in real-life golfing!