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

I’ve been raving about the Nike+iPod running gadget, but I haven’t touched on the iTunes aspect of it all. They have been creating workouts that you can play on your iPod. I was unimpressed by celebrity trainers, so I didn’t try them. That was until they released a workout created by Crystal Method.

• The Crystal Method :: The official web site
• Drive (Nike+ Original Run) – The Crystal Method [iTunes Link]

I’ve long been a fan of Crystal Method and techno music in general is great for running. Now, they’ve created a workout mix that starts out slow for your warmup, heats up to a nice fast beat and then slows down for your cooldown. It’s a total of 45 minutes, so if you’re going on a longer run, it might not be long enough, but for most workouts, it’s plenty.

I really enjoyed working out with this music because it was tailored for a workout. The voice overs in the songs say things like “keep your eye on the road” and “I’ll show you! You ain’t never seen!” After three minutes of warmup, the singer tells me, “It’s your time. It’s time! Come on!” I couldn’t help but run. With five minutes left of the workout, the singer tells me, “So, we’ll say our last goodbyes now.” It’s a great cool-down song and a perfectly auditory signal that it’s time to stop running and walk.

I’ve really enjoyed this 45 minute song mix. Most of my workouts take about 30 minutes, but I have been going an extra 15 minutes just to hear the end of the song. It was totally worth the 10 bucks to buy it.

Treatment Online has an article about body dysmorphic disorder (BDD), which is an obsession with a certain body part that is perceived to be a defect.

• Treatment Online – Body Dysmorphic Disorder and the Cult of Celebrity

Whether it’s a little bump on your nose or a an ample set of thighs, this disorder, afflicts only 0.7 of the population right now. Treatment Online considers the relentless coverage of plastic surgery in tabloids as a risk factor.

While she says that there have been descriptions in medical literature for over 100 years of patients dealing with symptoms that indicated BDD, Dr. Phillips doesn’t let changing societal expectations off the hook:

Appearance has always been important. But I suspect it’s possible that the rate of B.D.D. is increasing, as women get bombarded with media images of perfection. Lots of studies have shown that the more you see images of perfection around you, and the more you compare yourself with those images, the worse you tend to feel about yourself.

If you have been feeling negative about certain aspects of your body, it might be in your best interest to avoid fashion magazine and celebrity tabloids. Enjoy your body as it is and leave perfection to someone else.

The heat has affected my appetite. I don’t really want to eat anything except cold food like fruit and veggies from the fridge, so it has made me eat more healthy. Exercising in this heat however has been difficult. I have been running in the early mornings to avoid the heat that barrels down on our city at about 9am. The sprinklers spray me and I don’t care. They feel good.

What do you do to keep up your exercise routine in the summer?

How has the heat affected your motivation to exercise and eat healthy?

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 entire North American continent is dealing with a heat wave, so exercising outside has become miserable for a lot of people. If you are considering buying a treadmill, check out Wendy’s tips on getting a bargain.

• About.com – Treadmill Tightwad: Finding Treadmill Bargains or Creative Alternatives by Wendy Bumgardner

One thing I would add to this comprehensive article is garage sales. New Years resolution end with garage sales. It’s really easy to cruise the garage sales looking for a treadmill because you can see from the street whether they have what you want.

Additionally, if you are really serious about getting a treadmill for cheap, you can ask at every garage sale, “Hey, I’m looking for a treadmill. I know they’re kind of heavy to move. You wouldn’t happen to have one to sell, do you?” The treadmill that is gathering dust in their basement but is too much of a long shot to go to the bother of carrying up for the garage sale might just find a home with you.

Finally, the most important thing to remember is to be willing to ask. Asking for what you want takes very little time, but many times it rewards you far more than you ever thought it could. You might just end up with a treadmill for free!

For some reason, I am enthralled with the idea of making my own raisins. I can buy a box of them at the store for cheaper than the fresh grapes, yet I have the compelling urge to try this on my own. You can find the directions here:

• How to make raisins at home – Slashfood – by Nicole Weston

Nicole says that it took a week of blistering heat to go from fresh grapes to raisins. The true benefit is that you know there is nothing in your home-dried raisins. No one added sugar on the outside to make them sweeter. They’re just plump and juicy raisins straight from the sun to you.

My grandma used to make fruit leather during the summer heat waves of my youth. I found a site that gives you detailed instructions on how to make your own:

• MAKING FRUIT LEATHER

Remember, dried fruit and raisins are concentrated fruit. One serving is a quarter cup (instead of a half cup). If you eat large quantities of either, it’s the same as eating candy. Make sure you watch your portions and enjoy fruit in this unique way.

Slashfood has a great health gadget entry here where they give you a list of many of the different ways to keep track of your eating using your cell-phone or Palm.

• The wireless foodie – Slashfood

For more detailed reviews of some of the products mentioned, see my entries here:

• The Sprint MyFoodPhone: Starling Fitness – A Good Idea with Costly Execution

• Palm Diet Programs: Starling Fitness – New Year’s Resolutions with Palm

There are so many options to keep track of your eating. From a pad of paper to a software program in your phone, these are tools. If you don’t use them, they don’t work. You don’t need an expensive plan or feature on your cellphone to keep yourself eating healthy.

Archimage is trying to teach young adults and teens the importance of eating healthy and getting exercise by incorporating those ideas into their new video game: NanoSwarm. Here is a preview trailer for the video game.

I couldn’t help noticing that they gave me the perfect evaluation in the dialogue of the game:

“It’s bad. It’s bad as I’ve ever seen it.”
“How bad?”
“End of the world bad.”

I like to say that this video game will help kids eat healthier and choose exercise, but with writing like this, I wonder if they’ll be able to stomach the game enough to learn anything. Kids are incredibly good at spotting baloney. This videogame might set off that baloney-detector and sit unplayed in the cabinet under the television set.

Via: Video games for healthy eating – Slashfood

CNN has an article from sport nutritionists that talk about how to eat when you’re working out. Whether you workout in the morning, at lunch or in the evening, they have recommendations for you.

• CNN.com – Get the right fuel for your workout – Jul 25, 2006

I workout in the morning. Sometimes I can just wake up and go for a run with no problems. Other times, I end up shaky and needing to eat when I get home. If I eat beforehand, I’ve had trouble with nausea during the run.

The most important thing is to listen to your body.

I haven’t seen that recommended enough anywhere. CNN has given you guidelines on how to eat healthy, but they aren’t set in stone. Be aware of how your body feels and fuel it accordingly. That’s the best advice you can follow.

This article from Treatment Online talks about how Americans are eating so much. Not the why, but the how.

• Treatment Online – Studying the Rules of Consumption

It talks about unit food. We eat one banana instead of eating enough of a banana to feel satisfied. Since the units of our food are bigger (supersizing) we have been eating more.

It also talks about the differences of our culture from places where food is scarce and teaching immigrants how to eat healthy in a world of abundance.

For me, I know exactly how I eat too much. It doesn’t happen every day. It happens when I binge. It’s not food companies making my units too large. It’s me eating too much to compensate for feeling my emotions.

When I can conquer that, I will finally be healthy.

The Accidental Hedonist brings to mind the thoughts that have been plaguing me for years: why do people think French Food is so good?

• Accidental Hedonist – Is French Food All it’s cracked up to be?

Escargo? Tastes like gritty butter. Lobster bisque? Tastes like fishy cream. Smelly cheese? Well, it tastes like smelly cheese.

It has been even worse for me since the release of French Women Don’t Get Fat. Not only was French Food touted as the height of culinary cuisine, it was supposed to be more healthy for you too.

Maybe my palate is too undiscerning for French Food. I like mac n’ cheese. I like ramen noodles. Neither are very healthy for me, but if I’m going to splurge, I think I spend the evening with Kraft instead of Pierre.