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

This old advertisement has me perplexed.

It reads:

Drugless Health. 3 1/2 lbs. DIET SAND. $1.00 plus postage. Advice 50c. Prof. Ayer, 217 1/2 Pike, Seattle, Wash.

Really?! Sand?! As far as quack theories go, it has to be at the top.

Putting aside the risk of getting a parasite (like round worm) from the sand, what would happen if someone ate a lot of sand? Would it make them lose weight?

This article about preventing Sand Colic in horses gives us a glimpse into what would happen:

• Sand Colic: Durango Equine Veterinary Clinic – PDF Link

As the sand accumulates in the large intestine, it acts like sand paper and erodes the intestinal mucosa (lining of the gut). One of the large intestine’s functions is to absorb water. Due to the same accumulation and irritation to the mucosal lining, water is not absorbed well, resulting in watery manure. This same theory explains why horses with a lot of sand lose weight or are unable to gain weight well. The horse’s intestinal lining is damaged and does not digest nutrients as well. Because of the damage sand causes, this can cause discomfort and pain leading to depression, going off feed, or colic.

Remember that “watery manure” means painful diarrhea and “going off feed” is just a euphemism for “it hurts so bad that I don’t want to eat.” Many times, this gets so bad in horses that they need surgery to solve the problem.

If the horse has an enormous amount of sand and its pain cannot be medically controlled by a veterinarian, surgical intervention may be needed. This usually takes place on an emergency basis, when the horse is in extreme pain or can’t pass the sand with conservative treatment. The horse is sent to a referral surgical facility and the sand is “dumped” from the large intestine by a surgeon. Usually prognosis is good, but there is risk of the large intestine rupturing during surgery due to the heavy weight of the sand.

It doesn’t take a genius to realize that the Sand Diet isn’t healthy, but knowing the details of unpleasantness of it arms you against the next diet fad out there. If any diet guru out there jumps on the ancient Sand Diet bandwagon, remember the mommy from this video, “Yucky!”

Advert via: vintage_ads: Because ordinary sand is full of calories.

I absolutely LOVE this old advertisement for Life Cereal.

It reads:

Enjoy Life

That’s our message. This is the new box we put it in.

I love Life cereal. It first came out when I was a kid, so the taste of it is like a guilty pleasure of childhood. Fortunately, it’s pretty healthy. A 3/4 cup serving is only 120 calories with 1.5 grams of fat and 2 grams of fiber.

It’s nice to know that I CAN enjoy Life!

Advert via: vintage_ads: Оригинал   (751×1024)

This performance of Kings Firecrackers at the U.S. Naval Academy in April 2009, it freakin’ amazing! It’s long (a little over seven minutes), but totally worth watching!

The standing ovation is WELL deserved! Next time you are feeling like you just can’t get up the energy to exercise, pull up this video to watch and get inspired!

Via: Twitter / nakedjen: morning, peeps. after this …

There are some incredible deals available out there today, so if you’re out Christmas shopping on this Black Friday, please take a moment to read this entry about how to treat Christmas shopping like a workout.

• Starling Fitness » Christmas Shopping: The Workout

When you’re eating on the run today, make sure that you make good food choices. So many malls have Subway shops in them now, so I usually opt for that or Edo Japan. Make sure you choose food that fits in with your program so yesterday’s holiday doesn’t turn into a holiWEEK.

If you’re like me and you hate shopping on Black Friday, here is a list of alternatives for you and your family.

• Starling Fitness » Avoid Shopping Today And Avoid Weight Gain

Have a wonderful holiday and stay true to your healthy lifestyle!

If you are thinking of throwing your healthy eating out the window for Thanksgiving, here are a series of posts that will help you get through the holiday without giving up on your dreams.

• Starling Fitness » How To Enjoy Thanksgiving Without Guilt

• Starling Fitness » Thanksgiving Calorie List

• Starling Fitness » I Blew It On Thanksgiving! Now What?

• Starling Fitness » Dealing with Post-Thanksgiving Temptation

So many times, I have told myself, “It’s just one day. I can eat whatever I want on Thanksgiving.” EVERY time I’ve done this, that one day has turned into an entire weekend of overeating. It’s a holiDAY, not a holiWEEK and certainly not a holiMONTH. Don’t let this holiday get in the way of your dreams.

You would think that living within walking distance of tasty food would be BAD for your health, but the converse seems to be true.

• Living close to food is good for your waistline – Salt Lake Tribune

Living far away from food may make you fatter.

That was the surprising finding of a group of University of Utah researchers, who looked at the body mass index of 500,000 Salt Lake County residents and compared those who live within a half-mile of retail food outlets to those who don’t.

People who have closer food options — whether supermarkets, restaurants or fast food — were 10 percent less likely to be obese, they discovered.

When Mike and I moved to Sugarhouse, I instantly lost five pounds. Since we were able to walk for so many of our errands, we did. We walked to restaurants, we walked to the grocery store, and we walked to the post office. Even during winter, we would take regular walks.

The one downside of moving to Daybreak is that there is hardly anything to walk to. Until a couple of weeks ago, the closest restaurant was over a mile away. The grocery store is nearly a mile and a half. The post office is a whopping 4.5 miles away, making it nearly ten miles round trip. Suffice it to say that I NEVER walk to the post office anymore.

What this community lacks in close food options, they have made up for in walking trails and parks. With row boats and bike trails to choose from, there is no excuse not to exercise.

The same is true no matter where you live. If you don’t live within walking distance of restaurants, there must be SOME other option for exercise. The key is keeping your eyes open for those opportunities.

This old advertisement for Life Savers is an interesting snapshot of women and body issues.

It reads:

Shirley Simkin’s lost her sleek appeal.
She never stops eating from meal to meal.

Slim Sally Hayes stays light on her feet.
She makes Life Savers her ‘tween meal treat.

Looking at the artwork for this ad, BOTH girls are gorgeous. The copy makes us compare the two, but the truth of the matter is, both girls are beautiful.

The comments on the Live Journal site make that clear:

Shirley surely is appealing to me. 😛

Shirley is cute as can be and Slim Sally looks like a major bitch.

It helps that Sally is 6’2 and has legs as long as Shirley’s entire body.

Shirley Simkin is adorable. I wish I could constantly eat between meals and be shaped that way.

Even more interesting is this comment from nosyparker:

Interesting how they’ve put Shirley in muted earth tones and Sally in red, white and blue. Clearly Shirley is a COMMIE.

Eating cookies all day long isn’t healthy, but neither is popping Life Savers all day long. Sure, hard candy has less calories than cookies, but they BOTH are unhealthy habits. The next time an advertisement makes you feel bad about your body, remember that they are trying to sell you something by lowering your self-esteem. Don’t let them get inside your head.

Advert via: vintage_ads: Life Savers

• ran 0.22 mi on 11/20/2009 at 7:29 PM with a pace of 1:30'01"/mi http://bit.ly/5IHp2B/?sitesrc=twit_ab_plus #

Long ago, I wrote an entry about Charles Atlas and how his advertisements made me wary of muscular men because they are all bullies:

• Starling Fitness » Charles Atlas

It looks like Charles Atlas was just one in a long line of advertisements. Take this ad from Lionel Strongfort, for example:

With a name like Lionel Strongfort, how could he NOT be a virile man?! When I see ads like this, it makes me sad because I imagine guys looking at them and feeling bad for not being muscle bound. I prefer guys who look normal and I hate to see men working toward an ideal that seems less than ideal to me.

It’s ironic that I feel like this about men, but I can’t bring myself to feel like this about myself.

Advert via: vintage_ads: Before Charles Atlas… WAY before..

This postcard from PostSecret made me really think.

It reads:

Six months ago, I had gastric bypass, have lost 100 lbs. and have never felt better.

I am terrified that the conversations with my daughter about body image, self-confidence and loving who you are will make me a hypocrite.

I think gastric bypass is a bad idea. It’s dangerous (1 out of 200 die within 30 days of the surgery). I really don’t consider the risk of the surgery to be worth it.

Then again, we don’t know everything about the human body. It may be that in the future, we will know EXACTLY what causes obesity and one simple operation can be done to prevent or correct it. Will I think that surgery is a bad idea? No, I don’t think so. I think I’ll be all for it once we absolutely KNOW what causes obesity and how to fix it as long as the survival rates and post-surgery symptoms are better than they are now.

Is this woman a hypocrite? No. She did what she had to do to get to a healthy weight. I’m sick of all this moral judgment about gastric bypass surgery. She’s not a bad person for taking the “easy” way out, she was willing to take the risk of death and severe symptoms. I don’t find that risk acceptable, but everyone gets to make their own decision about it as long as they are FULLY informed about the potential complications.

For more info about the risks and symptoms:

• Starling Fitness » The Gastric Bypass Diet

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.