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

They didn’t talk about this at all on the show, but I didn’t miss it. Two weeks ago, Seth didn’t lose anything. Last week, Seth lost two pounds. This week, he dropped a whopping 12 pounds. After keeping his focus for three straight weeks, he finally got a payoff on the scale. They didn’t mention this on the show, but this is how normal people lose weight, except with more reasonable numbers.

Next time I find myself on a plateau, I’m going to keep going. I’ll keep following my program and hold on. A loss is just around the corner, and I’ll prove that scale wrong, just like Seth did.

What I really want to know is what Dr. Jeff is doing to lose double digits every week for six straight weeks. He has lost a total of 100 pounds since he started the show. I’m so proud that he was willing to do whatever Jillian told him to do. If we all were so dedicated, weight loss would be easy. When he got on the scale this week, they showed him kissing his bracelets that he always wears. They haven’t mentioned the meaning of those bracelets, but I imagined each of his daughters and his lovely wife. He has been separated from them for so long and he hasn’t partaken of any of the temptations because he promised his wife he wouldn’t.

Next time I’m tempted to binge, I’m going to think about Dr. Jeff. He has stayed away from money gambles and the chance to have the power to choose the teams. If he can avoid all those temptations, then so can I.

I don’t know if any of you noticed, but the prize for this week’s challenge was the NeXfit exercise bike. It connects to a PC computer and allows you to control games by riding the bike. They have one that connects to Xbox and Playstation 2 also, but the one they gave away was the PC version. Everyone was fighting for immunity, but I would have been fighting for the cool bike.

Previous Entries About NeXfit:

• Starling Fitness » neXfit Bike – Does it exist?

• Starling Fitness » neXfit Bike – Update

UPDATE 11-11-05: I received a comment from a reader:

“Saw they gave away one of these on the Biggest Loser the other night. Thought I would check and see what the company was up to. Bad news – there websites (US and Canada) are no longer up. When you call the number listed above – the now have at least say you have reached Nexfit – but no answer.” – James

The link worked on 11-09-05, when I posted this article, but James is right. They aren’t working right now. Maybe The Biggest Loser pushed their server over the limit, or maybe they don’t exist anymore. That makes me sad. I really love peripherals that endorse exercise with gaming.

Ben Goldacre with The Guardian wrote up this article explaining why most diet books make things more complicated.

• badscience – Nutritionist-free diets – by Ben Goldacre

His idea is that we all know that a healthy diet consists of eating your fruits and vegetables, some whole grains and some protein. Simple, right? Yes. It’s so simple that you could fit all the recommendations on a 3X5 card. Not much to fill up a book.

More importantly, when things are that simple, there is nothing left for marketing. If all we need to do is go to the Farmer’s Market to get healthy food, then we don’t need the prepackaged stuff. Atkins Nutritionals may have gone out of business, but the idea was genius. You can only buy a diet book once, but if the public becomes dependent on your food line, then you keep them coming in.

It’s one of the reasons that I feel uncomfortable with Weight Watchers. They have helped me lose weight, but they also have their fingers in the food industry. Can I really trust them when they assure me that their Weight Watcher shakes “count” as a milk? Should I even believe them when they tell me that I need 2-3 servings of milk a day? When the diet industry has their fingers in the food industry, suddenly everything is called into question.

Tyra Banks is donning a fat suit for her television show, The Tyra Banks Show. She describes the experience as one of the most heartbreaking days of her life.

• People.com – Tyra Banks Models Fat Suit for Show

She was shocked at the people that pointed and laughed at her. She was surprised by the people who stared at her.

Obesity seems like the last form of open discrimination that’s okay. I had no idea it was that blatant.

I wonder what Tyra’s life is like. What is it like to be shockingly beautiful? What is it like to never have experienced the taunts of people laughing at her “fat ass”? If one day in a fat suit is one of the most heart-breaking days of her life, I wonder what it’s like to be a supermodel. What does it feel like to go an entire lifetime without having someone call me a “fat broad”?

Whenever I feel like I don’t want to exercise, maybe I can remember the shock that Tyra felt on that day. Maybe I can imagine what it would be like to be gorgeous and unattainable instead of mocked and degraded. The hope of living a life without degradation is enough to get me out of bed and on the treadmill.

Via: Big Fat Blog: Tyra Banks Joins Fat Suit Club

According to an online survey conducted by ARAMARK Corp., a food services company, people want to have more information about the nutritional facts of the food they eat in restaurants and they also want to be able to order half-portions.

• USATODAY.com – Diners want more info and smaller entrees

When Ruby Tuesday provided the nutritional facts for all the food items on their menu, I was shocked at how high in calories and fat everything was. It was difficult for me to find anything on the menu that was within the amount of calories I had left for the dinner. I ended up ordering something and cutting it in half, throwing the rest away. It sure would have been nice to be able to just order half an entree in the first place.

• Nation’s Restaurant News: Ruby Tuesday halts on-menu disclosures: nutrition watchdog group CSPI sees end of 5-month-long effort as ‘step backward’

Now, Ruby Tuesday has stopped putting the nutrition facts on their menus and are putting them on tablecards instead. They say it was cost prohibitive to replace all of their menus whenever a recipe changed, but I suspect it might be the embarrassment of printing the hard, cold facts next to the pictures of yummy treats.

I know I can find something healthy to eat at whatever restaurant I go to, but having the nutrition facts easily accessible makes that so much easier. Being able to order a smaller portion would help me also. The restaurants won’t do it until we demand it. Let’s make our voices heard.

You may not recognize the company name of NBTY, Inc., Puritan’s Pride or Nature’s Bounty, but I’m pretty sure you recognize the name Vitamin World. They have been ordered by the FTC to pay a two million dollar fine for bogus weight loss claims.

• NBTY, Inc. to Pay $2 Million Penalty For Alleged Violations of FTC Order Company Distributes Dietary Supplements in the U.S. and Abroad

You see their stores in strip malls around the country and they have a strong presence on the Internet. They seem legitmate in every way, so it’s understandable that people might have been taken in by their claims.

The FTC alleged that, among other things, the company claimed falsely or without substantiation that its products promoted weight loss, increased muscle mass, decreased body fat, promoted hair growth, prevented premature hair loss, lowered cholesterol, and prevented arthritis. Under the terms of the order settling the matter, NBTY agreed not to make unsubstantiated claims about any dietary supplement and not to misrepresent the results or conclusions of any test, study, research article, or any other scientific opinion or data.

That takes care of them for now, but what happens when another company jumps into the fray, saying that you will lose weight with their product? Don’t wait for the FTC to protect you. These violations were from 1995. It takes the government a decade to knuckle down on offenders. Protect yourself by staying as far away from any product that promises that you can lose weight. All you need is within you.

Via: Consumer Health Digest, October 11 2005

Sometimes it all seems too much. Eating healthy, finding the right exercise program and keeping cravings under control can just seem overwhelming. When I looked at all the weight I had to lose, there were times when I felt like I was defeated before I even started.

“Getting Started” used to mean finding a diet, buying the correct food for the diet, preparing a food journal to keep track of the correct food on the diet, finding the correct exercise program, buying whatever items I needed to exercise with, setting up a journal to record the exercise that I did with the correct items, and the list never ended. I usually enjoyed “Getting Started” a lot more than actually following whatever fad diet I had latched my hopes on.

Following the diet meant being perfect. Every fad diet promises great results only if you are willing to follow the regime with exactitude. The second that I fell into old habits, I would feel like I had “Blown It.” “Blown It” has its own rules of behaviors that involved eating whatever I felt I had been denied when I was “Getting Started.”

It took years for me to realize that I didn’t have to do it all perfectly all the time. “Getting Started” doesn’t mean to me what it did before. I no longer need to purchase strange food or expensive exercise equipment. “Getting Started” means putting one foot in front of another every day. I don’t need to be perfect in order to be healthy and lose weight. I don’t need to ever endure another “Blown It” binge episode. All I need to do is get myself out of bed every morning and stay committed to making good choices.

Yesterday I decided to go for a run outside. I ran to Liberty Park, around the track twice and back. I learned an important lesson:

The treadmill is great, but nothing can replace a run outside.

I have been running on the treadmill for a few months now. When the weather got unbearably hot, I started using the treadmill and I didn’t try running outside again until yesterday. I forgot how much the wind blowing in my face can affect my run. I forgot how bad it feels when someone passes me on the track. I forgot how good it feels to finally pass someone else.

It’s getting cold here in Salt Lake City, but I think I need to add an outside workout at least once a week. The treadmill has made me a little soft, I think.

I really wanted to hate this show. I felt that it was an excuse to torture fat people. It seemed like an advertising tool for Diet Rite, 24 Hour Fitness and Prevention Magazine. It made me feel like boycotting my gym. I was pretty honest about my feelings when I first started reviewing this show.

The week Jillian poured the salt on Matt’s cheesecake, I sat up and took notice. I have been awed by the dedication that each of the participants have had. I gained even more respect for them the week Seth said,

“When you put in over 20 hours of exercise in a week, it’s hard for you to not look at [the small loss on] the scale and go, ‘Wow!’ But personally I feel that the scale isn’t a reflection of how I feel, and I feel healthier and I don’t need the scale to tell me that.”

This week, I was floored. (Spoiler Alert)

(more…)

They interviewed over 10,000 students at 650 schools. That’s only an average of 15 students per college. When are magazine editors going to take a statistics class and learn about statistically valid percentages?

• Men’s Fitness – America’s Fattest and Fittest Colleges

According to CollegeBoard.com, there are approximately 3800 colleges in the United States. With an average enrollment of approximately 2,800 students, there are over 10 million students in school right now. Do you really think the answers from only 10,000 students is statistically valid? That’s only 0.09% of the student population.

Magazines want to attract your eye with promises. They want you to think that they know the secret to becoming thin and strong.

“Which colleges and universities are helping their students keep their weight under control?”

Can you really believe what they have to say, when they can’t even grasp the basics of statistics? When are colleges going to start requiring advanced mathematics for their journalism degrees? They sure need it.

This postcard specifies that this happened when they were children, but I have experienced this as an adult. I remember the Halloween that only two kids came to our door. I had dressed up as a mad scientist, but my doorbell was silent. I sat watching TNT’s scary movie marathon and ate chocolate Twix bars and Reese’s Peanut Butter Cups. By the time the two kids showed up, I had already taken off my costume and showered. I gave them a pile of candy, but my stomach was sick with the disappointment.

This year, I know that I’ll have probably about five groups of kids. I live in a neighborhood that doesn’t have very many children, so I’m not expecting much. I’m just going to make up about 20 little candy bags and have a quiet evening at home. I find that if I make the candy up in pre-made little bags that I’m not tempted by the treats as much. The thought of opening the cute little bag and ruining some child’s treat is enough to keep me from sampling them.

Have a Happy Halloween and remember to take care of yourself!

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.