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

This photograph was taken by Dru! and posted on Flickr. Whenever I exercise. I try to remember that I’m on the treadmill so that I can hit the mountain trails in summer. I want to see sights like this!

Dru!’s comments on this photograph:

“Fortuitous lighting on Elk Mountain near Chilliwack. I seem to be lucking out with the good light lately! This is currently the shot that I would most like to revisit, if someone gave me a time machine…”

Times like these are the reason that we eat healthy and exercise. This is where fitness can get you!

Via: Two-Heel Drive: February 2007 Archives

Starling Fitness is sponsoring Race Across the USA. It is a cooperative event using the Nike+ Challenge. This is a little different than anything Nike+ has on their website. The goal is to run across the United States. Going the route I chose, it would take 3,227 miles to cross the USA. The map above is the route that I have chosen.

We will walk to the following cities:

• Los Angeles, California – Starting Point
• Sacramento, California – 384 miles
• Salt Lake City, Utah – 1,036 miles
• Omaha, Nebraska – 1,971 miles
• Chicago, Illinois – 2,439 miles
• New York, New York – 3,227 miles

You can see the route in detail here:

• Across the USA Route

As you can see, we’re taking major roads on our Race Across the USA. By myself, I don’t think I could ever walk it, but if all of us add the miles that we run or walk every day, I think we could finish this walk in about a month.

A month?

Yep, if all the people who read Starling Fitness and work out with a Nike+ added their miles together, I think we could walk across the USA in about 40 days or so. A month if we pushed it.

That’s the goal: all of us together, to Race Across the USA and in one month.

To make it sweeter, I’m even offering prizes.

• 1st place – Most miles run – Four DVD set of Starling Fitness walking videos: Swami’s Beach, Sugarhouse, Moab and the as yet unreleased San Antonio Riverwalk.
• 2nd and 3rd place – Choice of three Starling Fitness DVDs.
• 4th and 5th place – Choice of two Starling Fitness DVDs.
• 6th through 10th place – Choice of one Starling Fitness DVD

To enter, you have to have a Nike+ and link it up to their online system. You cannot leave a message here to be sent an invitation. You must click on this link and ask to be added to the Race Across the USA on the Nike+ website:

• Race Across the USA

You will be invited to a Distance Goal race of 1 mile. You’ll be able to achieve that goal quite easily, but keep running. We’ll add the miles of everyone together. I will check the mileage every day. As soon as I notice that we have achieved the goal of 3,227 miles, I will stop the race and prizes will be announced. The Race Across the USA starts March 1st (Thursday), so come walk across the USA with us!

Since Nike’s system isn’t set up for a cooperative event like this, you will need to check here at Starling Fitness for progress and winners.

We reserve the right to limit participation in the challenge due to our time constraints or the limits of Nike’s system.

This event is not sponsored by Nike or Apple. Starling Fitness will choose the winners based on total mileage. Our decisions are final.

I have talked before about how ostracized I felt when I was overweight. Some of it was documentable exclusion, but the rest I just chalked up to paranoia. Now, I’m thinking that it wasn’t paranoia afterall.

• Rudd Sound Bites: Weight Stigma Overrides Group Inclusion

Dr. Pryor found that for non-stigmatized individuals, there is an “inclusion principal”—a tendency to reach out and include a group member that has clearly been ostracized. However, this inclusion principal did not apply to overweight group members, and Dr. Pryor concluded that the stigma associated with their size prevented others from including them in typical group behavior.

As if health issues weren’t enough, here is another glaring example of the benefits of eating healthy and exercising more. Next time I feel like bingeing, I’m going to remember this study. If I can stay fit and healthy, I’ll benefit in more ways than just health. People will actually include me more.

If you have been watching the Oxygen Network at the wrong time of the day, you might have seen the 30 minute informercial for Amaze RX. It’s a meal replacement shake that has about the same calories as a Slim Fast. Of course, it claims massive weight loss in short amounts of time.

Unfortunately, Quackwatch has revealed that their claims are deceptive.

• Amaze Rx is Marketed with Deceptive Claims

The before and after pictures are of people who used Amaze Rx in conjunction with lapband surgery and the commercial isn’t very clear about that “minor” fact.

Most segments of the program do not make it clear that the testimonial-givers were lapband recipients, which means that people who begin watching after the first minute may not realize this. The infomercial contains occasional text messages that the participants used Amaze Rx to “maintain” or “accelerate” lapband results. Some of these messages lasted about 5 seconds and were large enough to read. But others lasted only 2 seconds and were too small to read without pausing the video. During the eighth minute of the infomercial, Carter says, “You have seen some of the amazing results results of lapband procedure recipients, and you have seen other men and women other men and women, just like you, losing weight and inches daily.” The phrase “just like you” suggests that the product alone will bring about the pictured results.

Forcing yourself to gag down protein shakes instead of eating real, healthy food isn’t the answer. If it was, Oprah would have stayed thin back in the 80’s when she was on the Optifast plan. The only way to lose weight is to eat less and move more. We all know that, but the solution is difficult at times. Don’t make it harder by putting yourself on a fast.

Bad form, Dr. Rick Carter, bad form…

A special thank you to our regular commenter from iPortion for bringing this to my attention. Yourself ! Fitness seems to have gotten past whatever issues that were stalling them and are soon to be releasing a new product called Y!F Lifestyle.

• yourself ! fitness: A Letter From the responDESIGN/Yourself!Fitness Team

We are working on the next Yourself!Fitness title called Y!F Lifestyle to be released on the new game consoles and the PC. Y!F Lifestyle has many of the new features that you asked us to create and we will be releasing the details for this new product soon!

Please stay tuned for more great fitness gaming products from your friends at responDESIGN and Yourself!Fitness.

Of course, my imagination goes all haywire when I hear an annoucement like this. They said that they will be releasing this on the new game consoles and the PC. Does that mean the Nintendo Wii? Can you imagine how fun that would be? They could sell the game with a weighted Wii controller that you have to move how Maya says. It would be an even better upper body workout!

I’m excited to see what Yourself ! Fitness has in store for us!

Via: Iportion: Yourself Fitness, Oatmeal and You

Whenever you limit your food, you are taking away some of your ability to nurture yourself. Unless you are the kind of person who feels nurtured when you are starved, you probably get some satisfaction and warm fuzzy feeling from eating. We are hard-wired to feel good when we eat, so if you are limiting your food, how are you going to nurture yourself? That’s what this week’s question is all about:

How can I nurture myself without food?

What are the non-food activities that I can give myself?

What are the non-food rewards that I can give myself?

When I usually eat, how can I replace my usual treat with a non-food treat?

Make yourself a huge list of fun things you like to do that have nothing to do with food. You might surprise yourself at how varied it is. Did you used to like to draw but haven’t let yourself draw in a long time? Then reward yourself three times a day with some drawing time instead of food. If you are limiting your food intake, your body is going to start feeling neglected. Give yourself some nurturing without food and that feeling of deprivation will be abated.

After all the trouble with my feet, I have avoided running. I just didn’t want to hurt myself again. Now, I’m finally willing to join up on the challenge and run again. I signed myself up for Level 1.5, which is the group that runs 5-10 miles a week. My goal is to run one mile a day for five days in a row. That’s if my toes don’t start acting up again.

Level 1.5…

Yeah, that’s really low for my ego right now, but I refuse to hurt myself again. I’m going to run a mere one mile a day for five days in a row and see how my feet can handle it. I have new shoes with tons of room in the toe box and I’m ready to start running again, even if I have to start at the very beginning.

If you have a Nike+iPod kit and would like a challenge, come join the Starling Fitness weekly challenges.

• Level 1.0: 0-5 miles a week
• Level 1.5: 5-10 miles a week
• Level 2: 10-20 miles a week
• Level 3: 20-30 miles a week
• Level 4: 30-40 miles a week
• Level 5: 40-60 miles a week

I only have a few rules, one is if you join a level that is below your weekly mileage, I will move you up to the appropriate level when I invite you to the next challenge. It’s not really fair to join a Level 1 challenge if you KNOW you’re running 20 miles a week. You might win one trophy that way, but I’ll immediately move you to a higher level.

The second rule is no trash talk. I know that Nike+ has a “trash talk” button on their challenge page, but only positive talk is allowed there. I will warn you once if you are disrespectful to the other runners, but if you continue to trash talk, you will not be invited to the next challenge.

If you have a Nike+iPod, you can sign up for the weekly challenges here:

• Support Forums : Starling Fitness Weekly Challenge …

Telll me what level you would like to start at when you sign up and come run with us!

If you have ever had trouble with binge-eating, you need to buy this book today. Seriously, stop reading this review and buy The Four Day Win by Martha Beck. I have been dealing with my bingeing for years and this book has the best thing for me ever since I realized I had a problem.

Unlike most diet books, she starts at the beginning. Most diet books jump right into what you should eat and how you should exercise. They spend most of their pages on recipes and exercise descriptions. Not so with The Four Day Win. She spends most of the book helping you heal your brain and body from all the dieting damage you have been doing over the years.

Damage? Yeah, the psychological damage of starving yourself every time you go on a diet. THAT damage.

Remember Margaret Cho’s F**K It Diet? Martha Beck has taken it to the next level to help you heal that child within yourself who has been starved over and over.

Remember how I told you that you shouldn’t get rid of all your favorite food in the house like EVERY other fitness expert tells you that you should do? Martha tells you why that it is so important to keep lots of your favorite foods in the house.

Remember how I told you that you could eat anything you want? Martha gives you even more ways to heal yourself so that when you eat, you are able to keep yourself healthy.

This book is EVERYTHING that I knew instinctively about my own bingeing, plus a bunch of ways to make myself able to eat healthy. If you have ever had trouble with bingeing, buy this book right now.

If you have been thinking about buying a pedometer, either to replace that free one you got with your McDonald’s salad last year or to start logging your walking, Product Dose has a good introduction to pedometers and how to choose one:

• Pedometer Primer | productdose.com

At its most simple, the Nike+iPod is just a pedometer with style. I find it interesting that it wasn’t mentioned in this collection, especially since it only costs $20 if you already own an iPod.

The most important thing to remember is that a gadget won’t make you thin, healthier or fitter. YOU are the one that makes yourself thinner, healthier and fitter by using it. If having the gadget motivates you to get out there, then it’s worth the money. In the end, though, you don’t need fancy pedometers to lose weight. You can do it on your own just by getting out the door every day.

By the way, if you DO have a Nike+ iPod, come join the Starling Fitness Weekly Challenges. Run against other runners at your same level and compete for the challenge trophy every week. You can sign up for the challenge here:

• Support Forums : Starling Fitness Weekly Challenge

Make sure you tell me which level you want me to add you to:

Level 1.0: 0-5 miles a week
Level 1.5: 5-10 miles a week
Level 2: 10-20 miles a week
Level 3: 20-30 miles a week
Level 4: 30-40 miles a week
Level 5: 40-60 miles a week

This recipe has been sitting in my queue since August. Something about it looked good, but I didn’t want a warm, soupy kind of dish in the weather that we were having last August, but now, it looks delicious. Fortunutely, you don’t need to depend on the farmer’s market to make this dish.

• A Veggie Venture – Warm Tomato, Corn & Okra Salad

If you use canned okra, tomatoes and corn, this dish is a snap to make. Instead of broiling on a cookie sheet, pour the contents of the cans into a pot and heat them up. I would use a lot more spices than suggested on the recipe including garlic and oregano. If you have been wanting a warm soup for dinner, this is an easy way to enjoy your veggies!