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

I went in for my yearly exam last week. They always take my blood pressure and weigh me. I stood on the scale. She adjusted the balance and wrote down the number, 165. I felt like saying, “Um, it was 164 and that was with my shoes on,” but I thought that it was a moot point. It’s not like they are tracking my weight.

The first thing that my doctor said to me was, “I see you’re keeping the weight off. What are you doing? Exercise?” She didn’t have my file, but she did have the sheet of paper where the nurse had written my weight. It said, “165 down from 170.” I thought to myself, “Five pounds in one year. How pathetic.” I mumbled to the doctor, “I have been doing Weight Watchers. I’m not at my goal yet, so I kind of feel like a failure…” She shook her head, “Most people who lose the weight gain it back the next year. I see it all the time. You’re doing a really good job.” I shrugged, “Yeah, I guess. I’ve kept that initial fifty pounds off for almost three years now…”

I guess they ARE tracking my weight.

A couple of years before the 2002 Winter Olympics, the athletes started coming to train in our mountains. There was a lot of talk about hemoglobin and mountain sickness. This machine says it can give you the same benefits of training in the mountains. It does this and shows a woman relaxing on a chair: intense training.

• AltiPower for simulated altitude training

I have felt the draining effects of going up to the mountains and trying to do the same physical activity that I do in the valley. I have seen the same effects on physically fit friends who visit us from lower altitudes. I have felt like a superhero, able to run forever, in San Francisco and San Diego. I think there is something to training in the mountains, but I don’t think that machine will help you as much as getting your butt to Salt Lake City would.

Via: Engadget – The Altipower personal hypoxicator

Christian Finn has a no nonsense answer to questions about The Abs Diet.

• Christian Finn’s Facts About Fitness: What do you think of the Abs Diet?

The funny thing about finding an eating plan that works is that I don’t search around for diet plans anymore. The same is true for exercise. Now that I have so many options for exercise that I actually miss them when I don’t have time for them all. I don’t go looking for new exercise videos or games or machines.

“You have to put yourself first.” I hear this phrase a lot at Weight Watchers when the instructor is talking about losing weight. Every time it is said, I see one or two heads shake involuntarily. I think to myself, “Lost that one.” Sure enough, that person is gone within a few weeks. Attrition is high in all weight loss programs, but that is one moment that I can track as an observer.

The reason that the phrase, “You have to put yourself first,” sends people running is because it goes against what a lot of people have been taught and believe. Steve Pavlina talks about Selfishness vs. Selflessness on his motivational weblog.

• Personal Development Blog – How Selfish Are You? – by Steve Pavlina

Instead of service to self and service to others being in conflict, he states that we should do everything that we can to keep them in balance. Yes, you need to take care of yourself. Yes, you need to help others. They are both true. Living your life so that you get a little bit of both will boost your happiness.

The reason why the phrase, “You have to put yourself first” is so popular in the weight loss culture is that it is obvious that our lives are not in balance. If we were serving others and serving ourselves in balance, we wouldn’t be searching for the answers at Weight Watchers (or Starling Fitness). The speakers assume that we aren’t putting ourselves first and give us the advice that has worked for some, “Put yourself first.”

Ironically, my life WAS out of balance. I wasn’t spending all my time taking care of my family or work needs. I was out of balance the other way. I was so worried about my needs and that I would be hungry. I only thought about myself when I tried to lose weight. When I started being involved with the Weight Watchers community (talking to other members, answering questions, bringing in cool ideas that I had found) I flourished with my weight loss. Helping other people with their weight loss issues helped me far more than concentrating on myself.

Evaluate your weight loss progress. Do you need more time alone? Do you need someone to help you? Do you need to help someone else? Do you need to share more of your experiences? Make sure that your service to self and your service to others is balanced. Your journey will be easier because of it.

This fabulous article goes into depth about the reasons why you may be on a plateau.

• About.com – 10 Reasons You’re not Losing Weight – by Paige Waehner

Here are the basics, but for every item, there is a complete explanation and options to rectify the problem.

1. You’re not exercising enough
2. You’re not getting enough sleep
3. You’re too stressed out
4. You’re eating too much
5. You’re not consistent with your exercise and healthy eating
6. You blow it on the weekends
7. You haven’t given yourself enough time to see results
8. You have a medical condition
9. You’ve hit a plateau
10. You don’t need to lose weight

This is a truly inspiring StrengthCast and well worth the thirty minutes of your time to listen to it. It is an interview with a New York school teacher whose job was to teach physical fitness to his students without a gym. How did he get the aerobic training for his students? He took them into the stairwell.

• Strengthcast – Virgil Aponte

Of course, this program is completely useless to 85% of the listeners in the United States because we live in cities where the buildings rarely exceed three stories. They talk about taking the stairs instead of the elevator as if this were a decision that many of us had to make every day.

Don’t let the inspiration of this StrengthCast get lost in those details, though. The moral of this story is that this man was able to help his students without all that fancy equipment that most of us have access to at the local health spa or recreation center. Where there is a will, there is a way. Don’t let a silly thing like lack of equipment stop you.

Polar and adidas are teaming up to create a new line of integrated clothing. The adiStar Fusion shoes have the stride sensor, which communicates with the Polar wrist computer (it’s NOT a watch), which also communicates with the pulse sensor on the clothing. The pulse sensor snaps into the clothing so that you don’t have to wear a separate chest strap for the heart rate monitor.

Here’s the press release from adidas about the new product:

• adidas Press Room – adidas and Polar introduce the world’s first completely integrated training system

Personally, I don’t see the benefit of having a heart rate monitor that snaps into my very expensive shirt over wearing a chest strap and a cheap tank top. I also don’t trust the stride monitor to accurately calculate my speed and distance. I’m certainly not willing to spend $680 for a pair of running shoes (which may not work with my feet), one shirt, a heart rate monitor and a watch, excuse me, wrist computer.

I recommend the running shoes that work best on you, a cheap heart rate monitor (you can get them for as little as $30) and the Google Online Pedometer.

Via:

• gizmag – adidas and Polar introduce the world’s first completely integrated training system

• Engadget – adidas and Polar’s Project Fusion training system

This is a great article if you are a regular runner who wants to run faster or longer. They have 21 days of rest and workout for you. It is also supposed to get you in the habit of running, but anyone that can do these workouts is already a regular runner. I wouldn’t recommend these for a beginner.

• 21 Days to Better Running – Runners World – by Doug Rennie

I used to subscribe to Runners World and I found it very useful when I was training for my first 5K. I’ve found that my Treadmill Workout Spreadsheet is more helpful to me now, but I do find the articles and pictures motivating. It’s a good magazine that doesn’t overload you with advertisements.

Via: Fitness News – 21 Days to Better Running

Update 08-28-06: It looks like Runner’s World has pulled this article. It’s a shame because it was a kind of a good one.

Sometimes I feel like I’m the only skeptical food addict on the planet. Every weekday, I receive the Hungry Girl email in my inbox gushing about all the new fake food out there. It’s nice to know that there are others out there who are wary of the food industry and their Franken-Foods.

• Diet Blog – Whole Grain White Bread: Huh?

This post talks about the new Whole Grain White Bread which is supposed to be made of a new specifically-bred grain. It’s not genetically modified, just bred… um… bread.

Rumor around town says that Coca-Cola and Nestle are creating a “calorie burning tea.” There is supposition about flavors, but very little talk about efficacy in the following Hungry Girl article.

• Hungry Girl – Monday Newsletter – Calorie Burning Tea

I am so wary of everything that I read from Hungry Girl. I somehow feel that they are just an advertising outlet for the food industry. Here’s the reason why: the article about calorie burning tea looks like it’s quoted word for word from the information from this article:

• Billings Gazette – Coke, Nestle developing calorie-burning tea

This article goes into depth about marketing gimmicks and whether the tea could possibly be effective, whereas Hungry Girl just froths about a tea that can boost your metabolism. Hungry Girl didn’t even touch on the best quote from the entire article:

“Consumers need to be aware of anything that says easy weight loss, anything that promotes a quick fix,” said Jessica Enders, a registered dietician at Emory University Hospital.

Remember, there are lots of companies out there trying to take your money. Don’t let them get you.