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

With my IBS, the doctor told me a huge list of foods that I should avoid to alleviate the gut-wrenching pain. None of it worked, yet I stuck to cutting that food out of my diet in a desperate attempt to avoid pain.

It seems the IBS sufferers aren’t the only ones getting shoddy medical advice. Heartburn sufferers have also been victims.

• Heartburn not cured by avoiding foods – Slashfood

Ever since I discovered acidophilus and my IBS calmed to a minor and smelly inconvenience, I’ve noticed that other people have also been given poor advice about gastrointestinal distress. If avoiding spicy food isn’t working for you, it’s not because you’re not doing it right. It’s because your doctor is just spewing the same old wive’s tales that didn’t work way back when.

I struggle with binge eating and even I don’t understand competitive eating events. What possesses someone to try to win a hot dog eating contest and, even more strange, set a world record?

• SupersizedMeals.com – Kobayashi wins Nathan’s Famous with a new world record!

Susan McQuillan, a New York registered dietitian, commented on the amount of food consumed by a competitive eater during competition.

“In twelve minutes, they will consume a week’s worth of calories, 5 times the recommended daily limit for cholesterol, 17 times the daily limit for total fat, 21 times the limit for saturated fat, and more than 2 weeks worth of sodium.”

I don’t think any of my binges have been that amount of found in that short of a time. Why are these competitive eaters shown on ESPN2? They aren’t athletes, they have an eating disorder just like I do.

“I love every inch of my body.” How many of us can say that and really believe it. I can take my body apart and love some bits and pieces here and there, but do I love EVERY INCH of my body? It sounds strange to hear it. I love my legs. They’re strong and they take me lots of places. I love my brain. It earns me money and entertains me. I love my fingers. They type lots of words. Every inch?

Every inch includes the blackheads on my nose that I can never get rid of. Every inch includes the soft and sticky outy bits on my tummy. Every inch includes that knee I fell on back in college that gives me a twinge when I ride my bike. If I love them, does that mean I don’t want to change them? Is it okay to love my body even though it’s not perfect?

I have to think about this…

PostSecret‘s beneficiary is the National Hopeline Network. It is a 24-hour hotline (1 (800) SUICIDE) for anyone who is thinking about suicide or knows someone who is considering it.

Last week, I talked to you as my exercise buddy. I was exercising on my bike and my right knee was hurting a little bit. This video is 1:34 minutes long and talks about running, biking and my joints.

I always wonder what makes my body do the things that it does. I have had small joint troubles with my knee every since I slipped on ice in college. The scar on my skin and the occasional popping are innocuous enough, but sometimes it will bother me when I’m riding a bike. I thought bikes were supposed to be better for my joints…

Last year, I wrote an entry called “How to Have a Healthy BBQ” and there is little that I would add to it today. Go give it a read:

• Starling Fitness » How to Have a Healthy BBQ

The only thing I would add to this entry is that a BBQ seems to be an event that is focused on the food. There is so much food around. Everyone is gathered around the grill and everyone is bringing something. The truth of the matter is, it is an event that is REALLY focused on the people. You wouldn’t go to a BBQ with someone you hate. You go there to see people, relax and have a good time.

You don’t need to overeat to have a good time. You can have a healthy and enjoyable BBQ by focusing on the people and not the food.

Happy Independence Day!

We don’t just eat healthy at home. A lot of our time is spent at work, where we need to make healthy choices.

What do you do to make sure you eat healthy at work?

Do you exercise during lunch or at breaks? If so, how do you make that work? Do you shower afterwards? What didn’t work?

How do you get past the afternoon snack attack?

What are the most risky eating areas at work?

If there was something that you could change at work to make your life easier, 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.

How would it feel to get a 30-minute exercise break every day at work? What if your employer not only paid you to exercise, but provided you with a gym and personal trainer? That’s exactly what Clif Bar does for their employees.

• Treatment Online – Companies Get Creative to Cut Healthcare Premiums

So many companies have made the connection between exercise and good health that they are actually providing their employees with easy ways to exercise in an effort to cut healthcare costs. I would like to see more of this happening.

I actually worked at a company that paid us to exercise three times a week and provided a gym downstairs. Ironically, very few people took advantage of the facilities or benefits. The ones that did took advantage of the extra 30 minutes by walking to a local restaurant instead of driving. While I sweated away on my treadmill in the basement, I thought it wasn’t quite fair that walking to a restaurant counted. I guess it was better than driving.

This article says that companies that invest in health maintenance like providing a gym for its employees will save money on healthcare costs, but I would like to see some hard numbers. I didn’t really see people sweating it out during those extra 30 minutes at my former employer’s company. I wonder if policies like this are actually helpful or if they are just a bandaid on the problem.

Still, it was nice being paid to exercise three times a week…

When I exercised on my exercise bike last week, I put the camera in front of my face and just started talking. This video is 3:04 minutes and I am talking about hitting rock bottom and getting inspired to eat healthy again.

I really feel that staying healthy and keeping my bingeing in check is like a roller coaster ride. If I can keep the valleys from going too low, then I’m succeeding. Someday, maybe I’ll be able to get off the roller coaster and eat healthy for the rest of my life without relapses. Until then, I’m just learning to ride that roller coaster.

It looks like both Jan Ullrich and Ivan Basso are out of the Tour de France this year because of doping allegations. Both are contesting that they haven’t done anything wrong.

• BBC SPORT | Other Sport… | Cycling | Ullrich, Basso forced out of Tour

There are so many things that can tip off a drug test that the two of them might actually believe that they haven’t done anything wrong, yet some of their “supplements” might have caused this problem as it did with Kicker Vencill before the 2004 Olympics.

Remember, if a product is promising “performance” or weight loss without diet and exercise, they are either doping you up, or selling you sugar pills. There is no such thing as a magic pill that can make your fat go away or make you faster on your bike. Depend on yourself and healthy food.

Via: kottke.org

Over at Big Fat Blog, they rant about the fat hatred that runs rampant in the techie industry.

• Big Fat Blog: Tired of High-Tech Fat Hatred

“I read a lot of techie blogs. I’m a techie. I love the web, I love keeping tabs on memes, I love me some open source software. I’m a total geek, and I’m not ashamed of it. But I have had it with the tech blogs out there posting anti-fat entries, and/or allowing anti-fat comments to run rampant.”

A unkind entry on the 37 Signals website was the straw that broke the camel’s back. The worst thing to realize is that David Heinemeier Hansson, the author of that particular entry at 37 signals, is a high power executive who is making these comments.

Do you think he’ll hire an overweight programmer?

Fat discrimination is REAL. Someone who is overweight can be just as good a programmer as a thin one, but the fat person isn’t going to get the job.

That’s why I believe in Fat Acceptance.