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

The Dietary Guidelines for Americans 2005 has just been released. They have helpful recommendations for physical activity, food groups, fats, carbohydrates, sodium, alcoholic beverages, and even food safety.

• The Dietary Guidelines for Americans 2005

With this much down to earth information available, you’ll never need to buy another diet book again.

CNN noticed the large “Exergaming” section of CES this year. They highlighted the Kilowatt, LaunchPad and DDR (of course). I wish I could have been there and played with a Kilowatt myself. Seeing it online is nothing to being able to play with it in person.

• CNN – Gadgets get couch potatoes moving

I can’t wait for next year’s CES. I’m going this time and by then, all of these things will be perfected and I’ll be able to play with the second generation of exergaming technology.

Here is an interesting collection of tips from a fitness instructor’s blog.

• Resolutions 2005

This isn’t your ordinary “pump you up” pep talk. He talks about the reality of life teaching exercise classes. Check out the first few sentences:

“The gym was full today. There were several new faces in my spin class. At the beginning of the new year, I make my classes a little easier so that those trying to stick with their New Year’s resolution don’t get too discouraged. But, by the end of the month most of those new faces will be gone.”

The headlines scare me:

New Scientist – High-fat diet could harm the brain by Helen Phillips

BioEd Online – High-fat diet is bad for the brain by Jim Giles

Prevention – Are These Foods Really Healthy? by Dayna Winter, RD

Negative press is not new for trans-fats or hydrogenated oils. They have been implicated in heart disease for years now. Why do these headlines scare me when the others didn’t?

(more…)

I had no idea that little phrase would bring up so many advertisements on a Google search. I had no idea it would bring up so many books at Amazon. In fact, I have been so obsessed with nutrition and so isolated from the world of diets, that this phrase was completely new to me. I saw it in an advertisement and wondered about it.

I had no idea how little it was substantiated. After searching through pages and pages of advertisements pushing one diet or another with promise of fat burning foods or negative calorie foods, I finally found a voice of reason. I finally found an article that asks for the thing that we all should ask regarding every diet: Where’s the proof?

Diet Power – The Negative-Calorie Diet by Elena Serocki

If you think that celery contains fewer calories than it takes to digest it, then you need to read her article. There are a lot of companies out there trying to sell you their diet with their magic combinations of fat burning foods. Don’t fall prey to them.

Prevention Magazine has an article outlining the most down-to-earth diet plan I’ve seen in a long time. This is the kind of plan that you can follow for the rest of your life. It can be tailored to help you lose weight. It is based on the 2005 Federal Dietary Guidelines for Americans.

For the full plan and all its details, see the article: Eat More, Lose More. Here are the basics:

(more…)

I am hosting another workout tomorrow morning on Xbox Live. If you would like to participate, you need to email me your gamertag. This is an invitation only match, so I need your gamertag before 6pm tonight so I can add you to the list.

Workout Details:

• Dance Dance Revolution Ultramix 2
• Difficulty Level: Light
• Thursday Morning, 01-13-05
• 7 am Eastern (4 am Pacific)
• Duration: Approximately 30 minutes

I will warm us up with three 2-footer songs, give us time to stretch, and we will cool down with three more 2-footer songs.

E-Diets has a quick little article to get you back on track after the holidays. If you have already fallen off the wagon on your New Year’s Resolutions, here are three good tips to get you back on track and fulfilling the promises you made to yourself.

Three Post-Holiday Fit Tips

If you have been considering buying Dance Dance Revolution to lose weight, but don’t know where to start, DDR4Health has published a concise and informed article about it.

• Getting Started with DDR

From space considerations to pad and game selection, this article covers all the issues. The only thing that I would add is that there is a version of DDR for the PC. It’s not as hard to get it working with your computer as he would make it sound, but the game is difficult to find.

This article from the Behavior and Health Blog at John Hopkins Public Health brings up an interesting question. What can public health do about obesity? This quote from Daniel Hale, a pediatric endocrinologist at the University of Texas Health Science Center at San Antonio:

“The problem is, most of the potential solutions rest either on very large changes in public policy or very small changes that individuals and families must make in the context of their own home. [later] There is very little we in the public health community can do. We don’t have very much control over what children eat, we don’t have much control over safety, which affects where children play, and we’re not in people’s homes, where kids are taking part in the major sedentary behavior, known as television watching…….”

Do I want the government controlling what the nation is allowed to eat or do? Do I want public health aggressively addressing the obesity problem? The idea of public policy on this issue brings to mind a scene from 1984 by George Orwell…

(more…)