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

I am out of town AGAIN, this time in Yellowstone Park in Wyoming and Montana. Yesterday, I filmed a new walking video for Starling Fitness going past Old Faithful, a bunch of pretty geysers and springs and up a mountain. I haven’t had a chance to look at the footage, but if it’s good, I’ll make it available to you.

What is your favorite kind of exercise while you’re on vacation?

Do you make sure your hotel has a gym?

Do you have a gym membership that works wherever you travel?

What sorts of activities do you plan? Are they active or sedentary?

I have found that I am willing to walk on the treadmill for days on end just so I can be fit enough to do active things while I’m on vacation. While climbing up the mountain yesterday, I realized that I haven’t been doing nearly enough hill work. I guess it’s time to use that incline setting on the treadmill again once I get home. I think you’ll probably be able to hear me panting up the hill on the video. It might even be bad enough to ruin the footage. Hope not…

I have read diet books with less helpful information about eating than is contained in this simple entry from The Diet Blog:

• The Diet Blog – What Do 300 Calorie Meals Look Like?

If you don’t desire much variety, you could only eat meals that are listed on that entry three times a day and you would definitely lose weight. In fact, if you weigh over 200 pounds, you could add a fourth meal from their list every day and still lose weight.

Me? The thought of only eating what I see on my computer screen makes me want to binge, but there are people who can eat the same thing over and over every day without any problems. If you’re one of those people, here is the most simple and healthy diet you’ll ever encounter.

Via: See what 300- to 400-calorie meals look like – Lifehacker

Remember when I wrote an entry about Greenwashed Food? Companies do little to make their products more healthy aside from the addition of few vitamins, maybe some fiber and a different package. Coca-Cola must have been listening because I have seen this floating around the stores lately.

Just because they added a few vitamins and minerals doesn’t mean it’s any healthier for you. If you enjoy Diet Coke, don’t bother spending the extra money for this. You don’t need a multi-vitamin in your soda when you eat whole foods in healthy portions.

Next time you’re tempted by a fast food advertisement, remember, what they show you isn’t always what you get. This website shows you the difference between what the commercial looks like and the actual food.

• Fast Food: Ads vs. Reality

Each item was purchased, taken home, and photographed immediately. Nothing was tampered with, run over by a car, or anything of the sort. It is an accurate representation in every case. Shiny, neon-orange, liquefied pump-cheese, and all.

Pictured above is the Arby’s Beef ‘n’ Cheddar. Here are the Nutrition Facts for that sandwich from the Arby’s website:

Is the sandwich on the left worth spending 445 calories and 21g of fat? Maybe, if I was craving it. If I was craving it and I got the sandwich on the right, however, I would feel ripped off. Television commercials, magazine ads and billboards make food look really good, but it might not be what you get when you order. Next time you’re craving something, take a look at this website and ask yourself if you’re craving the commercial food or the reality food.

Via: ExtraLife – Scott Johnson’s Comics, Podcasts, Blog, Artwork, Humor and MORE! » Blog Archive » Food ads vs reality

Testimonials are useless. Scientifically, testimonials are not considered valid proof and drugs are required to go through double-blind testing to be accepted. Supplements, however, are unregulated and don’t need to go through testing. They use testimonials all the time to “prove” that their products work.

But why go to all that trouble? Why find an actual person who lost weight with a product when you can just post an unrelated picture of someone who lost weight with a testimonial? Maree Briggs alleges that Metabo-Speed XXX did just that:

• Woman angry as her image used to sell diet pills – 22 Apr 2007 – Crime News – NZ Herald

Maree Briggs, a mother of two, says the photograph was used without her knowledge in an online testimonial for Metabo-Speed XXX, a dietary supplement touted as “the diet pill of the stars” and supposedly endorsed by Oprah Winfrey and Bette Midler.

While not sure how Lab 88 got hold of the photograph, Maree believes it may have been lifted from the website of an Australian-based company she was involved with in the late 1990s.

“It’s not the money, but the principle,” said Maree. “How dare they put my face to something like that. It’s a cock-and-bull story, it’s a lie and it’s conning people.”

Metabo-Speed XXX has removed the photo from their website, but Diet Blog was able to find a cache of it here:

• Metabo-Speed XXX Success Story 2

Next time you’re looking at those before and after pictures, remember, they might not be true. Don’t waste your money on diet pills or any product that promises you a perfect body without diet and exercise.

The buzz around the foodie circles is a new dessert that is supposed to be healthy. It’s called Pinkberry and it’s a frozen yogurt.

Yeah, frozen yogurt. Remember that? It was a fad in the late ’80s and early ’90s. Well, it’s back.

Pinkberry is supposed to be different because it tastes less like ice cream and more like yogurt. And, it’s “healthy.”

When you look at the nutrition facts, it does look really healthy. No fat, only 25 calories, but when you look at the serving size, it’s for 1 oz. You have to go to the menu page to find out how many ounces are served. The photo above is an 8 oz. serving, so your “healthy” dessert just jumped up to 200 calories. That doesn’t even count the fruit added. I give them props about the fruit because they serve only fresh, unsweetened fruit, so that IS healthier than most frozen yogurt shops.

When I checked the nutrition facts for Golden Spoon, however, their 8 oz. serving of fat-free yogurt is 136 calories. The nutrition facts for TCBY’s non-fat frozen yogurt is a little more at 220 calories. What Pinkberry is doing isn’t amazingly low in calories. It’s very similar to the frozen yogurt of years past.

The difference is supposed to be the taste. Kristen at Accidental Hedonist went to Pinkberry with some of her friends and described it here:

• Accidental Hedonist – Pinkberry: how good could it really be?

We all tried to describe what, exactly, the yogurt tastes like. Eun-Duk thought it tasted like Japanese yogurt drinks while I thought of something similar: yogurt-flavored Hi-Chew candy. For lack of a better adjective, it’s very yogurty. It’s much like a slightly sweet, frozen, Greek yogurt, creamy without being fatty, with a very lactic, almost sour, tang. The fruit is extremely fresh, never frozen, and unsweetened.

My second thought: Did I seriously just pay six bucks for this?

In the end, I would rather have a half-cup of REAL ice cream than a full cup of frozen yogurt. With real ice cream, I feel like I am splurging for the same 200 calories. When it comes to dessert, it’s not about hunger or quantity for me. It’s about indulgence.

If you have been looking at too many pictures of Nicole Richie’s shrinking frame, it’s time to watch this video by Pink. The vision of Pink with all those plastic surgery marks on her body just made me sick. Her body is perfect the way it is, but I’m sure that she gets pressure to have a boob job all the time.

Her body is PERFECT, yet she is under pressure.

It makes me start to think that it’s all hopeless. I’ll never be thin enough, so why bother?

It’s not about escaping pressure. It’s about choosing healthy food and moving my body so it doesn’t rust away. I want to be strong and fit so I can do the things that are really important to me. It’s not about social acceptance, getting people to like me or being perfect. It’s about taking care of myself.

Via: Drink. Drive. Go To Jail. – Stupid Girls?

When I saw that this video, A Fat Rant by Joy Nash, was 7 minutes long, I was pretty much unwilling to download it. Let me tell you. It’s totally worth the download time!

This girl is RIGHT on! Here are only some of the best quotes from the video:

Tell people how much you weigh! It’s just a stinking number. It does not reflect on your intelligence, your work ethic or your character. And protest with your pocketbooks, people! Shops in stores that sell halter tops in triple-X. Forget about tent dresses! Don’t even think about trying to “squeeze” into normal sizes!

If [they] won’t open their eyes and make clothing that fits me, they don’t need my money!

The secret to staying permanently slim? Choose two thin parents. Ideally, choose four thin grandparents as well.

Stop putting life on hold!

Fat is a descriptive physical characteristic. It’s not an insult, or an obscenity, or a death sentence. When you see a fat person, look at them, in the face and smile… you should do that to everybody, but don’t forget to do it to fat people too.

There’s a whole ‘nother world out there, baby! Get happy in that skin you’re in!

If you have been putting your life on hold, wearing clothes that don’t fit, or hiding in any way, STOP IT! Right now! Go to Torrid or Lane Bryant and get yourself some hot new clothes that fit and look good. You deserve it!

Via: A mile in my Birks » Blog Archive » A fat rant.

I wore my Nike+ while walking in Disneyland the last couple of days. Apple programmed the iPod to pause when I stop walking (P.S. Apple, I HATE this feature, even though I know it saves battery time. I would much rather just have it still logging my miles, even though I stop every few minutes), so out of the twelve hours every day that we have been walking in the park, only about five hours were logged on my iPod. On the one day that I was vigilant and checked the iPod every couple of minutes to make sure it was still logging my steps, the Nike+ shows that we walked over 7 miles.

SEVEN miles!!

No wonder I have been so tired. If I hadn’t already lost my toenails, I would have black ones right now.

Unfortunately, I haven’t coupled this increase in activity with healthy eating, so in the end, I will weigh the same when I get home as I did when I left. At least I haven’t gained…

For more information about the Nike+, see this entry:

• Starling Fitness » First Glance: Nike+iPod

• Starling Fitness » Nike+iPod Starling Fitness Challenges

I received an email with this graphic in it from Nike yesterday. The subject line said, “A Different Kind of Thank You” and says:

Thank you, ignorance.

Thank you for starting the conversation.

Thank you for making an entire nation listen to the Rutgers team’s story. And for making us wonder what other great stories we’ve missed.

Thank you for reminding us to think before we speak.

Thank you for showing us how strong and poised 18- and 20-year-old women can be.

Thank you for reminding a sports nation that another basketball tournament goes on in March.

Thank you for showing us that sport includes more than the time spent on the court.

Thank you for unintentionally moving women’s sport forward.

And thank you for making all of us realize that we still have a long way to go.

Next season starts 11.10.07

When I received this, I was thoroughly confused. I am so angry at Nike for discriminating against people who are overweight that I really forgot that they think that they are an athletic equipment company. It’s so cute. They think they had something to do with moving women’s sport forward.

The average woman won’t fit into Nike’s XL clothing.

Sorry, Nike. You don’t get to take any credit for whatever happened in the basketball world this year. You are merely a fashion industry company who is unwilling to let your precious clothing be seen on people who really NEED exercisewear.

Thank you, ignorance… I wonder what other great stories you’re missing because you refuse to acknowledge anyone over size 10.