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

When I saw this postcard from PostSecret, I nodded my head and said, “I KNEW it!”

It reads:

I feel superior when my machine
is set at a faster pace.

There have been many times when I’ve been at the gym and I’ve noticed the person next to me looking at my treadmill display. Secretly, I’ve always worried that they were looking at how fast I was running and judging me. NOW, I know that there is at least one person out there who DOES.

I try to tell myself that they are just wondering why their machine is showing a heart rate. Since I wear a heart rate monitor that works with the treadmills at the gym, there is usually crosstalk and my heart rate displays not only on my machine, but also the two treadmills on either side of mine. I try to tell myself that even though they are running faster than I am, my heart rate is EXACTLY where it’s supposed to be and focus on that.

As much as we forget about it, exercising at the gym is a group event. You may not know the people next to you on the treadmill, but we are all there together, sweating it out. Next time you think that someone is looking at your treadmill display, don’t assume they are judging you. Maybe they just feel self-conscious because their heart rate monitor is announcing their heart rate on your machine.

---

PostSecret‘s beneficiary is the National Hopeline Network. It is a 24-hour hotline (1 (800) SUICIDE) for anyone who is thinking about suicide or knows someone who is considering it.

I first heard about Breurer heart rate monitors from Gear Live. Like so many gadgets blogs, they talk about products that are just impossible to buy in the United States. Two years later, it looks like they are finally available through Amazon.com.

• Beurer PM60 Heart Rate Monitor Watch at Amazon.com

You can understand why I might be interested in the PM60 Beurer watch because it looks so good. It’s the kind of watch that I could wear at the gym AND to a nice event. Most heart rate monitors look like ugly digital watches, but this one is as pretty as any of the best digital watches out there. Sure the Nike watches might look almost as good, but their bands are irreplaceable, so you only get to enjoy them for a year at most before you have to toss them out (couple of years if you baby the band like I have on my Nike Imara).

Long ago, I wrote a blog entry about what I wanted from a watch:

• Gadgets Page » I Hate the Watch Designers of the World

I wanted A LOT of things from a watch and to this day, I have never been able to find one that does them all. Even this watch from Beurer falls short, but I’m willing to give it a try. You can see the complete line of Beurer heart rate monitors here:

• Breurer Heart Rate Monitors

I can’t buy it in the States yet, but I love the PM110. Instead of a chest strap, it uses an optical sensor on the hand to track heart rate. Many watches use that sort of sensor, but they are impractical to use while running. Since the sensor is strapped to the hand so perfectly, it would be able to track your heart rate consistently.

I’m even a little excited about their Weight Management System:

• Beurer WM 80 Weight Management System (PM 80 HRM Watch, PG 55 Diagnostic Scale, SB 02 SpeedBox) at Amazon.com

It has a heart rate monitor, a scale and a foot pod that tracks your workouts like a Nike+. They all communicate with each other and it all goes into a software program on your PC computer. Here’s a video showing it.

Congratulations to Breurer for making the jump to the United States! I’m looking forward to seeing what they have to offer!

The excellent Wendy Bumgardner at About.com’s walking blog has a great list of essential gear for walking safely.

• About.com: 10 Walking Essentials by Wendy Bumgardner

Walking is the least gear-intensive sport around, but take her list to heart. You don’t want to find yourself stranded with chaffed inner thighs. You don’t have to spend much money, but you should follow her advice.

Here’s a quickie list:

1. Layered Clothing
2. Walking Shoes
3. Walking Socks
4. Hat
5. Pack
6. Water
7. Sunscreen
8. Route Plan
9. ID and Money
10. Keys

Wendy goes into detail about each item on her list, so click on over to About.com to read all about it!

Back in December of 2006, I warned you about Enviga, the purported “negative calorie” drink.

• Starling Fitness » Enviga Review on Big Fat Blog

Back then, I said:

Remember, weight loss is big business and companies think we are stupid. Don’t fall for it. Just because they slap a label on something telling you that it will make you lose weight, doesn’t mean it will or that it’s good for you.

It seems that Richard Blumenthal, the Attorney General of Connecticut, agrees with me:

Coca-Cola, Nestle and Beverage Partnership Worldwide (BPW) have been ordered to pay at least $650,000 in fines from the false claims.

• Attorney General: Attorney General Announces Settlement Resolving Weight Loss And Calorie-Burning Claims About Enviga

“The Enviga lesson is that weight loss requires sound diet and exercise, not simply a concoction of caffeine and green tea,” Blumenthal said. “Enviga’s calorie-burning claims led to credibility loss more than weight loss. Its new labels must now state clearly that calorie burning and weight loss requires proper diet and exercise.

“Enviga’s implied weight loss claims were scientifically weightless — unsupported by solid evidence. Enviga is no magic potion, capable of cutting pounds without pain.

“The larger message is that pound cutting claims are easy to swallow, but ultimately unsatisfying. Consumers deserve unadulterated truth — on food product labels as well as contents.”

The wheels of our system are SLOW. It took two and a half years for Coca-Cola to finally pay the piper. The fly-by-night scammers don’t tend to be around long enough for the government to finally put an end to them. If you ever see a product that promises to make you lose weight without diet and exercise, run away. And if you see a product that promises weight loss WITH diet and exercise, well, you can do that on your own without it. Don’t fall give them your money.

Via: Consumer Health Digest, March 19, 2009

This postcard from PostSecret made me feel so sad for the girl who sent it in.

It reads:

I only think about killing myself when I work out at the gym.
I know that no matter how hard I try
I’ll never be thin or even average.
I often wonder if any of the other big girls around me
are thinking the same thing.

I just wanted to take this girl in my arms and give her a big hug. I know it feels like you can’t do it, but that is just not true. You CAN get to a healthy weight.

In fact, it is only your belief that you’ll never be thin that is holding you back. If you can change that deep-rooted thought about yourself, you’ll be able to change your life. If there is only one thing that I could tell you, it would be, “You CAN do this!”

---

PostSecret‘s beneficiary is the National Hopeline Network. It is a 24-hour hotline (1 (800) SUICIDE) for anyone who is thinking about suicide or knows someone who is considering it.

When Budget Gadgets asked me if I was willing to review their Calorie Heart Pulse Watch, I didn’t have high expectations. I have loved my Nike Imara Heart Rate Monitor for over three years now and I doubted that anything could be good enough to take its place.

I was impressed with how good it looked. It’s hard to make a digital watch attractive, but the Calorie Heart Pulse Watch meets the bare minimum. It shows the date and time on the face of the watch, so that’s a plus.

The pulse is taken with a sensor on the right of the watch. You don’t need to wear a strap around your chest to get a reading.

This is good because you don’t have to worry about two pieces of equipment, but it is bad because your heart rate isn’t constantly monitored. You can only check your heart rate when you go to that mode.

Modes

The Mode button toggles between the Time/Date, Alarm, Chronograph, Exercise, and Pulse modes. The Up button in the Time/Date mode toggles between standard time and 24-hour time.

Setting Time/Date

In the Time/Date mode, hold down the Set button for two seconds. The year will flash on the screen. Use the Up button to change the year. When you get to the correct year, push the Set button once to get to the next item. Do the same for Month, Day, Hour, Minute, Birth Year, Birth Month, Birth Day, Sex, and Weight. In the weight section, the Reset button will toggle between Pounds and Kilos.

Unfortunately, there is only one direction when setting this watch, so if you miss your weight, you’ll have to scroll all the way up to 500 pounds before it wraps around to the beginning again. I’m glad they are accommodating for all sizes of humans, but I wish they had programmed a Down button in addition to an Up button.

Alarm

Set the Alarm just like you set the time and date. In Alarm mode, the Up button turns the alarm on and off. The reset button turns the hourly chime on and off.

Chronograph

Chronograph mode is a standard stopwatch. Press the Up button to start and stop it. Press the Reset button to bring it back to zero. If you change modes while the Chronograph is running, the timer will stop. You have to keep the watch in Chronograph mode the entire time you’re using the stopwatch feature. There is no lap feature on the Chronograph.

Exercise

Exercise mode is the mode you want to use if you want to know how many calories you burned during your workout. It works like a normal chronograph. To start it, press the Up button. To stop it, press the Up button again.

If you change modes while the Exercise clock is running, it will continue to keep timing your activity. It doesn’t stop itself like the Chronograph mode does. This allows you to go to the Pulse mode and check your heart rate in the middle of your workout.

The calorie calculation is an estimate of your caloric burn based on a single snapshot of your workout. It is NOT a running total like the Nike Imara keeps. To find out how many calories you’ve burned in your workout, you must press the Up button to stop the watch. Then you press the Set button once. You will see a heart on the screen. Press and hold the Set button for two seconds and it will ask to take your Pulse. Based on your heart rate, it will calculate the number of calories burned.

When I took a calorie reading right after a spurt of running, it gave me a HUGE number of calories burned that didn’t match my treadmill or my Nike Imara readings. When I took my heart rate after my cooldown, however, it was VERY close to the treadmill readings.

You can also estimate how hard you worked and use the watch to calculate your calories based on that. For instance, if you were unable to get the pulse meter to read, but you KNOW you ran as hard as you could run, then you can use the watch to estimate based on perceived effort. To do that, press the Up button to stop the watch. Then press the Set button. You’ll see a heart, when you press it again, it will show one intensity level, press again and it will show two intensity levels. You can choose your intensity from one to five. Once you’ve chosen your perceived level, then hold the Set button for two seconds and it will calculate your calories burned.

Pulse

The Pulse mode is a convenient way to take your pulse during your workout. Hold down the Set button for two seconds until it says, “Touch Sensor.” Then place your finger on the sensor on the right of the watch.

A LIGHT touch is all that is needed. If you press too hard, the watch won’t be able to get a reading. I was able to check my pulse while I was walking and during a light run, but it’s impossible to get a reading during a hard run. I would have to stop running and grab a pulse reading right after my sprints to get an accurate heart rate. I checked it against the readings on my Nike Imara and it was spot on 90% of the time.

The readings that you take in Pulse mode do not affect the calorie calculations in Exercise mode. You must stop the Exercise stopwatch and take a pulse reading within Exercise mode to get a calorie calculation.

Is It Worth It?

I’ll be honest. Learning to use this watch was HARD. The directions given with the watch were cryptic and written by a non-English speaker. I’m pretty good with watches, so I was able to figure out almost everything, but I would have never learned how to calculate calories without the sales staff from Budget Gadgets. Fortunately for you, I’ve done all the hard work for you, so all you need to do is read this review to learn how to use the watch.

Is it as good as my Nike Imara? No, it’s not, but it only costs $10.56 with free shipping. Compared to the 120 bucks I spent on the Nike, it’s a freakin’ bargain. It does 90% of what the Nike Imara does at 10% of the price. If you are looking for an inexpensive watch to time your workouts and tell you how many calories you burned, I haven’t seen a better watch.

Budget Gadgets gave me the watch for free to test out, but if I had to choose all over again, I would go for this watch instead of the Nike Imara. With the hundred bucks, I would have saved, I could buy a lot of different toys.

---

Update: 04-06-09: The folks over at Budget Gadgets have given me a discount code for the readers of Starling Fitness. If you make an order, use the coupon code LM5OFF2 and get a 5% discount on your order! Isn’t that awesome!

This postcard from PostSecret made me realize one of the things that scares me about getting to goal weight.

This is the front of the card:

This is the back of the card:

It reads:

I couldn’t find love when I was young and attractive, because all everyone wanted was sex.

I can’t find love now that I’m old and fat, because all everyone wants is conversation.

Firstly, I wonder exactly what the writer imagines “love” to be. If it’s not sex and it’s not conversation, then I’m at a loss. Throw in a little devotion and I’m all set. Maybe my standards are low…

More importantly, however, I worry about getting to goal weight. When I am thin, will people take me as seriously as they do now? Will I suddenly be classified as a ditz just because I’m physically fit? Will they only think of me a sex object and never listen to a word I say? This is something that I thought I had dealt with long ago, but I guess it’s something that still frightens me a bit.

Of course, another side of me thinks that after a lifetime of being taken seriously, it might be a little nice being treated like a sex object for once…

---

PostSecret‘s beneficiary is the National Hopeline Network. It is a 24-hour hotline (1 (800) SUICIDE) for anyone who is thinking about suicide or knows someone who is considering it.

This postcard from PostSecret shocked me.

It reads:

I think she looked more beautiful before.

The reason this postcard shocked me is because I have seen that woman a hundred times before. She is in an ad for Hydroxycut diet pills in the back of every magazine I’ve read over the last few months. When I was looking for a good photo to use for visualizing myself at the end of my weight loss journey, I actually considered using this one.

I can’t say that I think she looked more beautiful in the before photo. I think both snapshots have been photoshopped beyond recognition. It’s one of the reasons I chose not to use the after photo for my own visualization. It didn’t look real.

As far as I think I’ve come with fat acceptance, I can’t look at the before photo and think she looked better that way. I wonder if I every will…

---

PostSecret‘s beneficiary is the National Hopeline Network. It is a 24-hour hotline (1 (800) SUICIDE) for anyone who is thinking about suicide or knows someone who is considering it.

Sometimes it’s unavoidable. Everyone in the group votes on Dairy Queen and you find yourself at a dieter’s worst nightmare. Whenever this happens to me, I feel like there is no possible way for me to eat healthy, so I do one of two things. I throw caution to the wind and eat everything in my path, or I don’t eat at all, feel left out and binge in private later.

There HAS to be a better way, and there is.

You can enjoy yourself AND eat healthy. You have to do some digging, but there there ARE smart choices at Dairy Queen. Here is the complete listing of nutrition facts for their menu:

• Dairy Queen Calorie Counter (CalorieLab)

You might think your best bet is the Grilled Chicken Sandwich, but it clocks in at 340 calories. Ironically, the Homestyle Hamburger has less calories. So does the hot dog. Here is a list of the best bets for eating healthy at Diary Queen:

If I go to Dairy Queen, I definitely want a dessert. There are some low-calorie choices like the Fudge Bar and Vanilla Orange Bar, but I want something GOOD, so I would save my calories for the Small Chocolate Sundae. That, combined with a hamburger and a side salad clocks me in at 630 calories, which is HUGE, but far less than a binge would have done to me.

Next time the group decides to eat at a place that you feel you can’t eat at, don’t deprive yourself and don’t jump in with two forks. Do your research, find the nutrition facts online and choose something that both feels like a splurge AND fits into your calorie allotment for the day. You can do this, I promise you!

Photo via: Found in Mom’s Basement: Old Dairy Queen sign in Benson, Arizona

This poster is from a 1940’s campaign from the American Meat Institute. You can click on the poster to see it full-sized. It reads:

Swiss Steak… put it in the pan… turn on the heat and sniff its steaming fragrance as it simmers, bubbles and browns… smothered in its own gravy.

That’s hearty flavor for you.

But meat offers far more than flavor. All meat, regardless of cut or kind, is a generous supplier of complete protein, the kind of protein that children need for growth – the kind we all must have for life itself.

As silly as the advertising sounds, it’s right. Meat is a great source of protein and gives you more bang for your calorie than even beans. Too many times when I am watching my calorie intake, I tend to scrimp on meat so I can eat sweets. Ironically, I feel so much fuller when I eat the same number of calories in meat than carbohydrates.

Next time it feels like you’re hungry all the time, make sure to add lean meat to your diet. You’ll be surprised at how little you need to fill you up.

Poster via: Found in Mom’s Basement: 1940s posters from the American Meat Institute