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

MSN has an online slideshow of a map of the United States showing the obesity rates from 1985 to 2004. You can see it by clicking on the map below:

The problem that I have is that this information is presented as fact when the map was created using questionable data:

• In 1998, the CDC changed the BMI numbers corresponding to obesity. With a change in accounting, suddenly the United States became “fatter.”

• The CDC is based on self-reported height and weight collected through telephone surveys rather than actually weighing people. Not only is this data based on heresay, it is only a measurement of people willing to answer telephone surveys.

In actuality, this map tells me nothing. Is Utah less fat than Texas? I don’t know and I can’t depend on MSN to give me a legitimate answer if they consider the phone surveys from CDC to be “good enough.”

It appears that the major media is really spreading the idea of the Obesity Epidemic. I’m not buying it. I want to eat healthy and exercise so I can live a long time and look good, but I don’t think anyone has been “scared straight” when it comes to eating healthy.

Via: Boing Boing: Animated map of American obesity 1985-2004

Bingeing isn’t always about exerting control over my life. Sometimes it’s about comfort. Sometimes it’s about protection. I have found other ways to give myself protection and comfort, but I have been pretty clueless about the fact that I binge when my life feels out of control.

The worst part of it is bingeing makes me feel MORE out of control.

Sure, I feel good when I’m bingeing because I am the one who gets to choose what I eat, not my grandma or the USDA. I get to pick the restaurant. I get to order whatever I want on the menu. When I’m bingeing, I feel a control over myself that is hard to describe.

Unfortunately, afterwards, I feel like my whole life is spiralling even more out of control. When I have to deal with the aftermath of a full stomach and pants that are too snug, my mood darkens and then I find myself bingeing again.

How can I consciously exert control over my life without resorting to food?

I don’t know…

Honestly, I really don’t know, but here are some of my ideas to prevent this type of bingeing in the future:

• Notice it: Most of the time, I don’t know why I am tempted to binge. Sometimes it’s actual hunger, believe it or not. Sometimes I’m thirsty. Sometimes I’m sad. Sometimes I feel threatened. Now, I have to add “Do I feel out of control in my life?” to the list. The list I have to go through before I binge is getting longer and longer as I discover all the reasons I turn to food inappropriately.

• Create a list: I need a list of things that I can do to exert control over my life. Some ideas: cleaning up the clutter, organizing my computer, cleaning out my email inbox, or creating simplicity in my home. It doesn’t need to be as labor intensive as all that, even. It could be as simple as being able to choose which movie I want to watch without having to think about the tastes of others.

• Exert Control on My Life Without Food: This is the part that’s hard. It’s easy to have a list of things to do. Eventually, it might even be easy to recognize that the reason I want to binge is because I’m feeling out of control in my life. The hard part is actually doing it. Consciously choosing to exert control on my life without resorting to bingeing is the choice that will make the difference between hovering near obesity and enjoying life at a healthy weight.

When I learned that bingeing was related to comfort, I lost about five pounds and they have never come back. When I learned that bingeing was related to protection, I lost about twenty pounds and they have never come back. Now that I am able to see that bingeing can also be about control, maybe I’ll be able to get my weight down to a healthy weight and never have to worry about it coming back.

Once again, Terry nails a food issue on the head. This entry, “Food as Power,” talks about some news events in which parents have starved their children:

• I See Invisible People » Food as power

For all those parents out there thinking about putting your overweight child on a diet, consider this:

“I’d be willing to bet that every fat person has been put on a diet by a parent at some time in their youth. Someone else decides what you’re allowed to eat, someone who withholds anything forbidden and doles out everything else on a schedule. Food becomes a battle, with the adult, who holds all the power, on one side and the child on the other. All control is taken from the child, leading to resentment and secret binges. The plan seldom works for this reason.”

Terry goes on to say that food is ultimately about power. Parental power over children. Familial power over siblings. Our power over ourselves.

“In all facets of our lives, food becomes a struggle for power. That’s not just for the overweight. It’s an issue for thin women, too. Food gets separated into categories of virtue and sin, and we monitor our intake as a measure of strength or weakness and fear it having power over us. Our weight is a visible sign of how much self-control we have.”

If you feel out of control in other aspects of your life, does it affect your eating? I’ve noticed that I binge more when my life feels out of control. Being able to eat whatever I want in large quantities seems to give me an illusion of control over the rest of my life. The same has been said for those fighting with anorexia. Refusing food gives them a sense of control in their lives.

So, the question for me is:

What can I do to exert control over my life that doesn’t involve food?

This is the office setup I want. A computer powered by me walking on my treadmill. Why can’t I buy this?!

Click here to see the full comic:

• PC and Pixel: 07-09-06

There were times when I tried to find exercise clothes to fit me and left store after store in tears. I kept thinking to myself, “Don’t they know that I need exercise clothes more than skinny people?” It was such an ordeal to find exercise clothes that when I finally found some that fit, I bought all they had. Now, you can find plus size exercise clothes in all the best brands from Greater Salt Lake Clothing Company.

• Greater Salt Lake Clothing Company

“The GSLCC offers the opportunity for all women to be active and to participate in sport and exercise. Plus size women are no longer held back by the lack of appropriate and attractive clothes THAT FIT. The GSLCC will continue to seek out genuine outdoor wear and specific sports wear for your active lifestyle.”

A great big shout out to GSLCC for bringing exercise clothes to us easily. They have online shopping, so anyone can get biking shorts, ski bibs and running tights from them.

Update 01-30-08: It seems that Greater Salt Lake Clothing Company has changed since July 2006. I wouldn’t recommend buying anything from them now and I’ve removed the link to their site.

That’s a shame, really. Is it possible to retract a “shout out?”

Negative self-talk has been my biggest problem lately. I have been consciously listening to the things that flow through my head and noticing which ones are positive and, worse, which ones are negative.

What is the worst thing you say to yourself on a regular basis?

What is the best thing you say to yourself on a regular basis?

If there was one thing you could have repeating to you over and over again without effort, what would it be?

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.

Colleen Wainwright had a stomach incident with a bowl of cherries and it showed her what people who purge deal with on a regular basis.

• communicatrix » Blog Archive » Poetry Thursday: Things that make you go hurl

She has never had a problem with bingeing and purging, but a trip to the porcelain goddess can educate quite well what some put themselves through:

and as I tried not to look
at the film of yuck
coating the porcelain
because seriously,
if I didn’t already have to puke
it would have made me…

it occurred to me:
those skinny, skinny girls
who look so sick to me
probably are.

Probably worse than I know.

Because seriously—
would you do that
if you didn’t have to?

Frankly,
whoever did make them think
they had to—
those are the sick ones.

For me, my bingeing is caused by not taking care of myself. If I limit my calories too drastically, it sets off a binge. If I start talking to myself negatively, I binge. If I let my head get into a sad spot without taking care of my emotions, I binge. It all has little to do with fashion magazines and celebrity gossip. I don’t blame anyone for my eating problems except myself.

It’s nice to know that other people understand a glimmer of how I feel, though.

Margaret Cho has been very open about her eating troubles over the years. She received a letter from a man who is struggling with bingeing and she responded with what is currently working for her.

• Margaret Cho’s Weblog – Dear Margaret

I love her advice on keeping healthy:

“I think that eating disorders are very common, much more than anyone realizes. Millions upon millions of people have them. Some of them die, but most live with the disease, and are constantly in varying degrees of pain, and you have to think, ‘Is that life? I might as well succumb if I have to go on like this….'”

“I watch myself. Kind of like when I used to diet, but now instead of limiting calories, I will not allow negative self talk. I cut out insults like I cut out carbs and it is hard as hell because I crave self abuse like hot, fresh sourdough bread, but you know you have to be nice to you if you are going to live together.”

If you are feeling like eating healthy and exercising is not worth it, interrupt that thought right now. You are worth it. Eating healthy and exercising are just ways for you to take care of yourself and you deserve it. Be like Margaret and concentrate on cutting out negative self talk. If you have been insulting yourself with that inner voice, stop now. You are worth it.

Yesterday, I talked about the hot dog eating contest that was sponsored by Nathan’s Hot Dogs. Rob Parrish was at a bar when the contest was televised and posted this video.

• Hopper Video: Dog Eating Contest

We are at war with a country far, far away. People on both sides are dying. To celebrate our nation’s birthday, Nathan’s Hot Dogs sponsored an event that just makes them hate us more: a twelve-minute spectacle that glorifies gluttony.

No wonder they hate us…

This article is talking about governmental regulation of “junk” food.

• NEJM — Obesity — The New Frontier of Public Health Law

Not only does this article suggest that the government should create regulation concerning the food industry, it alludes to the idea of creating an environment of “social disapproval” of obesity.

“Several factors have led to a reexamination of the historical view that food consumption and physical activity are inappropriate subjects for government regulation. Among the ‘triggers to action’ that have catalyzed government intervention in other areas of private behavior, such as alcohol and tobacco use, are the development of a scientific base and social disapproval. Both these triggers are now in play with regard to obesity.”

I think that people who are struggling with weight issues have enough disapproval to deal with. We don’t need the government to come in and tell us what is wrong and what is right. If Twinkies are outlawed, then anyone who is overweight will be under scrutiny. People will assume that overweight people are eating “contraband.” Being fat could be excuse enough for a police search of our homes and vehicles.

The last thing I need is the government to watching over every bite I take.

Via: Consumer Health Digest, June 27, 2006