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

About two months ago, my leader at Weight Watchers brought up people who had gotten to their weight loss goal and achieved lifetime status (maintained the weight loss for six weeks). A lot of the people gave good advice in that meeting, but all I remember is a lady who has been at goal for a couple of years now.

My teacher asked the panel of people what they did for exercise to lose weight. The woman who answered was sheepish. She said, “I didn’t exercise at all to lose weight.” Everyone was shocked. She then added quickly, “but I allowed myself to sleep any time that I felt tired, no matter when it was. I think sleep is just as important as exercise.” I looked at her tiny frame and was amazed that she didn’t exercise to get where she was. She had lost almost 100 pounds without exercising. How did she do it?

This article might have an answer:

• SignOnSanDiego.com – Too little sleep raises the risk of being overweight, study suggests

“Those who got less than four hours of sleep a night were 73 percent more likely to be obese than those who got the recommended seven to nine hours of rest, scientists discovered. Those who averaged five hours of sleep had 50 percent greater risk, and those who got six hours had 23 percent more.”

We need eight hours of sleep every night just to maintain our weight at a healthy level. When we are restricting our calorie levels to lose weight, we might even need more. I know that when I’m tired, I will reach for food to wake me up. I’ve just recently decided that I’m going to let myself sleep whenever I feel drowsy or tired, even if that means taking a nap in the middle of the day. If given the choice between exercise and sleep, I’ll choose sleep every time.

The imagery of this small video is so vivid to me. Each of these Beauty Kits look like commercials for little girls. The look of excited anticipation of the little girl makes me think she got such a cool toy.

Next time you start comparing your body to the women on the magazine covers, remember the Beauty Kit and ask yourself if it is really worth it.

To View The Video: Go to Pleix Films, scroll down to the bottom and click on the Beauty Kit picture. You will need Quicktime to view them. It’s worth the download time.

Update 02-09-07: Now that plastic surgery has been performed on a 12 year old girl, this film just shows how prophetic it was…

• Starling Fitness » Does a Twelve-Year-Old Girl Need Liposuction?

Laura,

I’ve started having neck stiffness since I started running. I know it’s from running because the stiffness goes away on the weekends when I don’t run. I stopped holding on to the handrails on the treadmill and I even had someone look at my form when I run, but they didn’t notice any problems.

Do you know any neck stretches that I could do before and after exercise to help with the stiffness?

Thanks,
Mike

Mike,

Firstly, you might want to make sure your form is correct and there aren’t any underlying problems by seeing an orthopedic doctor or a physical therapist. After you’ve done that, here are a couple of stretches that might help with the stiffness and pain:

Ear-To-Shoulder:

• Stand up straight with your shoulders down.
• Lower your ear as close to your shoulder as possible.
• Raise your hand, place it on the top of your head and GENTLY lower your ear closer to your shoulder until you feel a good stretch.
• Hold the stretch for 20 seconds and repeat.
• Stretch the other side.

Intense Neck Stretch:

• Grab your wrist behind your back.
• GENTLY pull the arm toward the opposite hip.
• At the same time, lower your ear to your shoulder.
• Hold the stretch for 20 seconds and repeat.
• Stretch the other side.

These exercises stretch the upper trapezius (shown here). You should feel the stretch in the highlighted areas. If you feel the stretch somewhere else, check your form and try again. The stretch should not be intensely painful. Always check with your physical therapist for more information.

If you are experiencing pain elsewhere, then there are other exercises and stretches to strengthen that area. You can find more information at the Exercise & Muscle Directory.

Good Luck,
Laura Moncur

Every time I post anything about fat acceptance, I get blasted. I try to edit out the most offensive comments before anyone sees them, but the articulate ones are left to bring about discussion. Considering that I am writing about health and fitness, it might seem strange that I’m such an advocate for fat acceptance, so I’m here to tell you why I believe that we need to be willing to see more fat people on television, in magazines and everywhere else.

The opposite of fat acceptance is fat fear, fat disgust, fat discrimination. I’ve been on the receiving end of that spectrum and, quite frankly, it didn’t feel so good. Now that I’m thinner, people are nicer to me. I had less problems in the business world. Everything just got easier. Is that fair? I’m still just as competent and efficient as I was when I was fat, but no one infers that I’m lazy anymore. I’m still just as witty as I was before, but people laugh at my jokes more now. More people look me in the eye. My insurance premiums are cheaper.

Is that fair?

Fat discrimination runs rampant throughout our society and it is accepted by people who would scream bigot if someone made similar comments about race or sexual orientation. Prejudice is fear and hate and I will fight both as ardently as I can. The reason people are prejudice against the obese is because they both fear and hate them.

Fat Hate:

People hate (or resent) fat people because they think fat people can eat whatever they want. They assume that the obese have never dieted a day in their lives. They rationalize that if someone is fat, they are lazy. It’s prejudice, plain and simple. People make assumptions about the obese based solely on their body type which have little to do with reality.

When I was fat, I was constantly starving. I was always on a diet or recovering from one. Exercise was harder for me back then than it is now, because I was packing 75 extra pounds. When I exercised, I burned more calories than I do now because I was so overweight. It was harder, yet I did it every day.

When I was fat, I worked hard at my jobs, yet I had to defend myself against implications that I was lazy all the time. Weighing 235 pounds had absolutely no effect on how many phone calls I could answer or how many insurance claims I could process every day, yet I was constantly defending myself against insults about laziness. Not even my daily performance, which was one of the highest in my group, could protect me from those insults. Only losing the weight changed their perception of me.

Fat Fear:

“Oh my God! Look at that woman! How does she live like that?! Oh please, don’t ever let that happen to me.”

Thoughts like these are far less detrimental to the obese than the prejudice of Fat Hate. They are far more detrimental to the person thinking them. People fear overweight people because they fear the prejudice of others. It doesn’t help that the media is constantly feeding the fear with threats of obesity causing diseases (as opposed to aggravating diseases that are already present).

Living in a state of fear is harmful. It is one of those low-grade stressors that accumulate in your mind and you wonder why your shoulders are tight all the time and you have the beginnings of an ulcer. Learning to accept fat people will lesson that fear and will help you more than you can imagine.

The day I decided that I was going to accept my body (fat and all), was the day that I let go of the fear. After a few months of truly accepting and loving my body for what it was, I started eating healthier to take better care of myself. I started exercising to make my heart healthier. I did all of these things to take better care of my body. I even joined Weight Watchers to learn how to eat healthier because I was so confused by all the diets I had put myself through during my fat years.

The lack of fat people in advertising, magazines, on television and in movies is just a form of Fat Fear. Hollywood is the worst offender in this category. Because being fat can kill the career of an actor or actress, is it any wonder that they fear? That’s why I applaud every magazine that features real-looking people. Don’t feed your fear of fat by only allowing images of the bone thin into your life.

Getting rid of Fat Fear is something that you do for yourself. When you are able to completely accept fat people without prejudice, you are actually helping yourself be healthier. Let go of the fear. It isn’t helping you. It’s harming you.

What I Don’t Agree About Fat Acceptance:

I hear the phrase “Diets Don’t Work” in the Fat Acceptance circles. I hate to disagree with them, but they are wrong. When you eat a healthy diet and consume less calories than you burn, you lose weight. It’s physics physiology. There is no way around it. Fad diets typically don’t work, but a healthy diet does.

I hear stories about people who insist that they ate correctly, but still didn’t lose weight. I think if someone had followed them around all day and kept meticulous track of what they ate and how they exercised, I’m sure they could have found the problem. When we are truly honest with ourselves, we know when we are cutting corners. Now that most food has nutrition facts, it is so much easier than it used to be.

I don’t believe that Fat Acceptance means giving up responsibility. Just because someone is fat doesn’t mean that they deserve the kind of abuse that I received. I believe fat people should be protected from discrimination, but I also believe that being thinner helps a lot of health problems. I chose to lose weight because I wanted my body to be healthy and last a long time, but I don’t think anyone has the right to discriminate against someone who is fat.

Mary has a nice entry about an article in More Magazine about two women.

• Mary’s fitness blog: a tale of two women

The way the article is presented, you either have to accept your size 12 body and eat treats or live a rigid and food-measuring lifestyle to enjoy a size 6.

Mary added that it’s not an either/or proposition. It’s possible to be at a size 6 AND occasionally enjoy treats. She quotes the findings of the National Weight Control Registry that stated that those who are able to keep the weight off use portion control, exercise and healthy food choices rather than a regime of strictly measured food.

Unlike me, Glen, from Videogame Workout, was able to try out the Gamerunner Treadmill at CES. He talks about his experience here.

• Videogame Workout: GameRunner Treadmill

“There’s an upper limit on travel speed – if you run faster than that your character doesn’t go faster. This is probably good from an exercise perspective – game controllers shouldn’t encourage players to collapse of exhaustion to get a better score – but it does takes some getting used to. Walking backwards has no effect.”

I have been playing my Xbox while I ride my exercise bike. The bike isn’t connected to the Xbox in any way, but it is an enjoyable distraction while I work my body.

Mark, from A Passion for Running, has dealt with injuries for the last few months and he’s back to running.

• A Passion for Running » mid-day shower, how i didst miss thee

He talks about his first run of 2006 and his first lunch-time run since the injury. It feels so good to get back to running when I have taken a break from it. All of my breaks from running have been because I got obsessed with some other form of exercise, but it feels just as good to be back.

Welcome back, Mark! I’m glad you can enjoy yourself again!

After trying to work with the software from FitCentric and failing miserably (incompatible with iFit machines, even though the website says they might work), I loaded my new laptop with i2Workout. Since my old laptop died, I haven’t been using i2Workout, but now that I have a new one, I can easily create a workout and run it on my laptop hooked up to my treadmill.

I pulled up this workout dated 07-11-04. I remembered this workout to be really tough, but I’m so much stronger now, I thought it might be a good interval training for me that wouldn’t be too hard. I loaded it up, connected my laptop to the treadmill and started the run.

This workout kicked my butt!

I was so surprised and a little discouraged that I’m not as strong as I thought I was. It’s two years later, and this workout is still difficult to me. I remembered that my goal was to be able to do this workout without slowing down the high intervals. I was able to do the entire workout without slowing it down, but I’m still a little disappointed. I thought I was so much stronger than I was two years ago, but the truth of the matter is, I’m just barely getting to to the point where I wanted to be so long ago.

This is a reality check for me and I’m so glad that I’m using i2Workout on my treadmill again. I’m so lazy that I usually won’t do an interval workout. This workout will help me grow and maybe get me going a little stronger over the next two years than I have grown in the previous.

If you have an iFit treadmill and are using i2Workout, you can download this workout here:

• i2Workout: Interval Training 07-11-04: i2Workout uses .txt files, so just right click, choose “Save Link As…” and use it with i2Workout. Happy Running!

When I was sick last week, I spent a lot of time watching VH-1 and saw a commercial for a “metabolism breakthrough” called Fahrenheit a few times. The woman shown in their commercial was not just thin, she was cut with muscles in the exact proportion to be appealing.

This is the actual transcription of the commercial:

“Announcing a metabolism breakthrough for women, Fahrenheit. Two years in development and government patent pending. A formula so powerful it literally makes Ephedra obsolete. Turn up the metabolic heat with Fahrenheit. A breakthrough for women so advanced it has to be experienced to be believed. Fahrenheit – Let it burn.”

If you notice, the wording of the commercial, it is very careful not to promise weight loss. It just says that it makes Ephedra obsolete. Their website is just as careful not to make any promises. In fact, if you read fully, their recommendations are pretty sound.

The Fahrenheit Metabolism Repair Plan:

• Take Fahrenheit tablets
• Don’t let yourself get hungry. Eat every 3-4 hours.
• Avoid processed foods.
• Combine protein with your carbohydrates and fat, but don’t combine fat and carbohydrates.
• Use portion control instead of counting calories.
• Eat as many vegetables as you want with any meal.
• Eat healthy fats, those found in fish, avacados, nuts, flaxseed oil and olive oil.
• Keep a food journal.
• Add activity to your day, but avoid overdoing it.
• Build muscle with weight training.

All of these steps should sound familiar. They are the sorts of things recommended by nutritionists everywhere. In fact, if you follow the steps 2-9, you won’t need step one. The Fahrenheit tablets are unnecessary if you follow the program that they list out.

They have a Metobolic Calculator that will give you the recommended daily calories. If you follow their program and eat the number of calories they provide on the calculator, YOU WILL LOSE WEIGHT. You don’t need to take the pills for it to happen. The formula that makes Ephedra obsolete is the program that they recommend and you can follow that for free.

Remember when I warned you to Steer Clear of the Free Diet Pills? The FTC has finally been able to crack down on one of the companies pulling that scam.

• Telemarketers Settle FTC Charges of Costly “Free” Samples, Do Not Call Violations, and Worthless Weight-Loss Patches

The fact that the FTC has ruled that the Pounds Off and the Carbs Off patches don’t work is secondary to all the other shady practices that this company has been dealing in. Your best bet is to just stay away from any company that promises weight loss without changes in diet and exercise. You can change your diet and start exercising without shelling out money for expensive products that don’t work.