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

This week, Iportion had a wonderful entry about why she likes and dislikes her home gym:

• Iportion: Book News, Home Gyms, thankfull

Here are her ideas:

Why I dislike home gyms

• Can be distracted by the open fridge or home snack bar. “This is my biggest issue which is why I do a lot of walks”
• Can get distracted by the computer.

Why I like home gym

• I do not have to wait long time to use my equipment. If I want to use my stability ball I use it. If a family member wants it I just use another favorite equipment since everything is what I like.
• I have no monthly fees.
• I don’t have to find a baby sitter. I don’t have to wait till my husband comes home.
• I can exercise even when I can’t make it out.
• If I don’t use my equipment I am wasting money.

What about you? What are you doing for exercise?

Do you have a gym membership?

Do you have exercise equipment at home?

Do you even need exercise equipment?

I love my treadmill, but I also get a lot of benefit from exercising around other people. I don’t like cleaning up their sweat, though…

While we were traveling, I thought I would indulge. We bought a package of Oreos and we ate six. Why?

They just didn’t taste as good as Oreos used to taste. We couldn’t figure it out until we looked at the ingredients. They no longer use partially hydrogenated oil as an ingredient and have replaced it with palm oil.

Who knew that all I liked in Oreos was the trans fat. When I was craving Oreos, it wasn’t the chocolately cookie, it was the trans fat. I’m sure that’s the only ingredient that has changed and suddenly, they just don’t taste as good.

It’s not like my tastes have changed. I still crave Oreos and I can’t fulfill that craving now because they have removed that harmful ingredient. I know it’s better for me, but I still miss the flavor.

I had no idea that all I was craving was trans fat…

Keira Knightly has been fighting the tabloids. They have been writing articles about her body assuming that she has anorexia and she has even sued a few of them. Then she showed up to the premier of Pirate of the Caribbean in this dress and the rumors sparked again. One can understand why. She looks painfully thin in this dress.

A photograph is just one moment in time

The truth of the matter is, a photograph is just one moment in time. There have been times when I weighed less, but my photographs still made me look fat. There have been times when I weighed more and I looked fantastic. This photo of Keira Knightly is just one moment in time. She happened to be thin at the time and the dress revealed that. Was she thin the previous day? Yeah, but no one posted the photos of her schlepping around in a t-shirt and jeans that she probably wore that day because they weren’t controversial enough.

It’s really the dress, not her body that was so interesting

Because the dress was so revealing, the press jumped on it. If she had worn a different dress, she wouldn’t have received so much attention. Anorexia is a very complicated disease and you cannot tell if someone has it just by their body type, just like you can’t tell whether someone has bingeing problems just because they are fat. In fact, it’s possible to be rather skinny and STILL have trouble with bingeing. Just calling someone anorexic because they are thin is just as discriminatory and hateful as calling someone lazy because they are fat.

I can’t believe in the Thrifty Gene hypothesis. It’s the idea that certain people are predisposed to be fat. It’s the idea that I might eat less than a skinny person and still gain weight. Medical science hasn’t found the thrifty gene yet, but they so believe it to be true that they are scrambling to find it.

I’ve learned a lot about nutrition and healthy eating, but in the end, I have that nagging doubt that the theories could change on a dime. It seems like medical science is never finished figuring out about our bodies and tomorrow they could discover that one simple gene change could make all the difference or they could disprove the idea and throw away everything they have been telling us since I was a kid. There’s no better authority to trust than medical science, but they don’t seem very trustworthy when they can change everything based on a theory.

What’s the point of eating healthy if I have no control?

I can’t believe that it’s all in my genes. I can’t, no matter how much science tells me that genetically some people are more likely to be fat. If I believe it, then I feel like there is no point in my eating healthy and exercising. No matter how much I’m bombarded with the idea, I can’t believe it.

Is that sticking my head in the sand? Maybe. In the end, however, it will be healthier for me to deny belief in the thrifty gene theory because it gives me hope. I don’t want all my hope taken away by medical science. I want to prove them wrong. I want to break free of all the labels that called me fat as a child. I can’t believe in their hypothesis, even if they are able to prove it’s true.

The Philco-Ford Corporation released a movie in 1967 that would show us how our lives would be in 1999. Here is a kitchen scene with a mother, her son and her husband. What will the computer allow the husband to eat?

This video seems strange to me because I remember seeing short clips like this on television and being so excited for the future to arrive. Instead, 1999 came and went. I don’t have a flying car, but I also don’t have a husband who thinks it’s my responsibility to feed him. This conversation between the husband and wife (via TV Phone) is interesting:

Wife: Earl, how about chicken salad?

Husband: Ew…

Cheese omelet?

Cheeseburger with french fries and a nice cold bottle of beer.

I’ll see…

She pulls up this screen on the computer:

It suggests roast beef, green salad and no-cal beer, which is apparently a good enough substitute for Earl.

We’re living in the year 2007 and there are no flying cars and still no calorie-free beer! The future is NOTHING like they told me it would be!

Via: Cynical-C Blog – » What 1999 Will Be Like (A Film from 1967)

Sunday, I filmed another Starling Fitness walking video. I walked past Old Faithful and watched it go off like clockwork. I walked past a boardwalk full of small geyers and springs. I even climbed a mountain and looked over Old Faithful from the top.

The climbing part was hard and a surprising reminder that I need to get working on my endurance. See if you can hear me panting in this snippet from the video:

In the end, I don’t think my panting is that distracting and I’ll probably just leave it in the video. The tourists talking to each other while Old Faithful is showing its best, however, is another story…

Next time you think that you’re not fit enough to tackle a hill or thin enough to go hiking, remember me panting and puffing my way up this hill. If I can do it, you can do it.

If you like this video, it will be ready for purchase in a few months. In the meantime, you can look at what is available right now here:

• Starling Fitness – Fitness, diet, and health weblog » Walking Videos For Sale

Yesterday, Mike and I saw a black bear in Yellowstone and I got a pretty good video of him:

• Starling Travel – Black Bear in Yellowstone