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

This photo was from Valentine’s Day in 2006. Back then, I didn’t know that I was sensitive to gluten, so this meal LITERALLY made me sick and I didn’t even know it back then.

What other Valentine’s Day advice have I given over the years that is poison instead of medicine?

Order whatever you want: Seriously. Quit trying to tell yourself that you can only have salad or chicken breasts. If you want a steak, order it. If you are dying for some pasta, stop denying yourself.

Nope, again, I can’t eat that pasta. Now, instead of thinking it’s denial, I remember the bloating pain in my abdomen that I suffered with for SEVEN years before we were able to figure it out. Sometimes you MUST deny yourself some foods because they just aren’t good for you, and the worst trick ever played on us is that those foods are different for each person.

Valentine’s Day is just one day. So is the Super Bowl and Thanksgiving and Christmas and your birthday and St. Patrick’s Day and Halloween and the World Series and New Year’s and Mardi Gras and Independence Day and March Madness and… There are enough holidays, sports events and birthdays in your life to warrant an excuse to indulge every week.

Okay, I was spot on with that one. There are so many holidays that having one isn’t an excuse to overeat.

You don’t need to eat the candy to accept the love.

I said that?! How many times in the last few years have I made that mistake? They are just trying to tell you that they love you. Accept the love and leave the candy.

You don’t need to overeat to celebrate.

I may have said this way back in 2005, but I have lived the polar opposite for far too many years. It’s time that I learn how to celebrate without overindulging.

As far as Valentine’s advice goes, I’ve done a pretty good job over the years, but I still can’t get beyond that image of those heart shaped pancakes. I should have posted this image instead. Eggs work much better for me.