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

Once a week, I drive to NakedJen’s house to walk with her and her dogs. We go early so she can get to work on time. The benefit of a walk before sunrise is the spectactular view of the moon. This photo I took with my iPhone doesn’t do it justice.

The same neighborhood that you live your life within is different in the early hours of the morning. The sound of the few cars on the road is muffled. The house full of screaming children is strangely quiet, with abandoned scooters and bikes lying motionless on the lawn. I can hear things that go unnoticed during the daytime, like the sound of the wind whipping through the tree branches and furtive birds, announcing daybreak.

A walk before sunrise is far more than just an early morning exercise routine. It’s a touch of the divine.

• ran 1.65 mi on 3/23/2010 at 6:12 AM with a pace of 28'05"/mi http://go.nike.com/05m8k1cj #

Sometimes I forget how long diet soda has been around. Here are some commercials from the sixties and seventies for Diet Pepsi.

I have been drinking diet soda my whole life. It has never given me the “figure that girl watchers watch” or made me “come alive.” Maybe I should concentrate on drinking water instead.

At the end of December, Weight Watchers started including little magazine handouts at every meeting. This year’s New Year’s Resolution that I set was to attend Weight Watchers EVERY week so I could collect all of the handouts.

It’s funny how something as simple as a little paper handout can get my butt into the Weight Watchers door. The desire to “collect all 52” is so strong that I actually have attended meetings in Las Vegas and Del Mar already this year. Even though it was a pain in the butt to find a meeting in a unfamiliar city, I made sure that I attended my meetings.

Ironically, just getting my body into the door helps me every week. They always have something motivating to talk about and even if I HATE the teacher in the other towns, the members have stories that have kept me going.

I know Weight Watchers doesn’t work for everyone and I certainly accept that their program isn’t PERFECT, but attending the meetings every week has kept my motivation level far higher than it was last year at this time. And I can thank those weekly handouts for it all.

From the very start of this video from John Dilworth at Ignite Salt Lake City, I was so inspired!

We live our lives by a code of action. We’ve gotta keep busy doing everything we can to avoid doing nothing. We’ve been taught that doing anything is better than doing nothing.

Here are some quotes from his presentation:

There are good actions and bad actions, but there is another type of action, where we think we’re doing something good, but we’re really doing something bad that is harmful to ourselves and to others.

Inaction is instant. The very second you decide to do nothing, you’re done.

Inaction is inexpensive. If you don’t do crap that you don’t need to do, you save time and you save money.

Inaction is infinitely scalable. You can NOT do an infinite number of things simultaneously.

When you’re deciding what to do, remember that sometimes inaction is a viable option and sometimes it might be better than doing just anything.

How many times have I been so desperate to lose weight that I’ve tried a stupid diet? Umm… How about EVERY time a new stupid diet comes along?! It would have been so much better for me to just NOT try the diet. I didn’t keep the weight off anyway, so I ended up doing one of those actions that I thought was good, but was really doing harm to myself.

My long-time readers might think that this goes against my favorite quote from my grandfather:

Make a decision, even if it’s wrong.
– Jarvis Klem

You can always decide to do nothing. Just make the decision.

The next time you’re tempted to start a fad diet that goes against all that you know about healthy eating, remember the power of inaction. The next time you’re tempted to exercise too hard, risking injury, remember the power of inaction. It would be better to do NOTHING than to do something harmful to yourself just for the sake of doing ANYTHING.

This postcard from PostSecret says it all for me.

It reads:

F*** You, Asthma!!!

I can do ANYTHING! You can’t slow ME down!

There are so many excuses out there to not exercise. Asthma is a severe disease and can cause serious trouble, but your lungs CAN be trained. You have to start out slower and take longer to get to high levels, but with enough practice and work, you can exercise just as hard as anyone else. It’s not as easy as it might be for people without pulmonary problems, but it IS possible.

The same is true for ANY other excuse you can think of. Do you have bum knees? F-You, Bad Knees!!! I can do ANYTHING! You can’t slow ME down!

Do you have a binge eating problem? F-You, Bingeing!!! I can do ANYTHING! You can’t slow ME down! Sure eating healthy after years of bad habits and abuse to a body is difficult, but with enough training and practice, anyone can get past it.

Quit letting excuses get in the way. There is ALWAYS a way to work around any problem. Go over it, dig under it, build a door or just push that damn wall down. It can’t stop you.

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.

• ran 2.06 mi on 3/16/2010 at 6:05 AM with a pace of 28'02"/mi http://go.nike.com/32kddgs #

Last Thursday, Mike and I went to the mall for some power walking. The weather had turned cold and windy and we wanted a change of scenery, so a visit to Southtowne Mall sounded like a good idea. Honestly, we didn’t get as good of a workout as we do when we’re walking along the trails by our house. We only walked one mile and neither of us got our heart rates high enough to be considered moderate exercise, much less high intensity. It’s better than skipping a workout, though.

On a lark, we walked into Forever 21. It’s a cool store that I’ve gone into a couple of times, but I always assumed that there would be nothing for me. I’d look at the jewelry and the purses, then leave. This time, we were trying to add mileage to our walk, so we walked through the entire store. That’s when I found the plus-sized section.

Sure, the plus sizes were hidden in the back of the store, like some shameful nod to the fact that there are women who might not be absolutely thin, but the fact that they included plus sizes at all seemed like such a blessing to me. Then, I noticed the beauty of it all!

Not only did they carry a wide variety of plus-sized clothing, they also had an incredible collection of workout clothes in plus sizes. I have commented before about how hard it is to find workout clothes when you’re fat, so the fact that they not only thought of workout clothes for me, but provided them in a myriad of colors and styles just made me LOVE them.

Kudos to Forever 21 for recognizing that fat women need to exercise just as much as skinny women! Now, I just need to get down to goal so I can fit in this little number!

This morning, I was disappointed with my cereal. I measured out a serving and the bowl looked so empty that I felt deprived. I knew that I needed a fruit serving, so I cut up my apple into bite-sized pieces and threw it in the bowl. Suddenly, I had a large bowl of food and I felt so happy to eat my meal!

What I didn’t count on, however, is that my half a cup of skim milk, which usually is enough for one serving of cereal wasn’t enough for this tremendous bowl of apple cereal. I didn’t want to spend the points on another half cup. I didn’t want to skimp on the milk for my coffee (man that stuff is bitter without some milk!).

Then I remembered a trick from when I was a kid.

A couple of times when I was a child, we were close to running out of milk. Mom hadn’t gone to the store to get more and we needed to make a little bit of milk last for both Stacey and me (my mom was a saint and didn’t eat that morning). Mom took the milk jug and added some water to the milk. She swished it around, mixing in the water and suddenly there was enough milk for the both of us! It was like magic to my eight-year-old eyes!

I tried the magic this morning. After pouring in my half cup, I poured in a half cup of water into my measuring cup. I swished it around to get every last drop of skim milk clinging to the sides and poured it into my bowl. Just like when I was a child, suddenly I had enough milk to last my whole bowl of apple and cereal.

After eating so many cereals with the word “apple” in their title, NOTHING can compare to the taste of fresh apple with cereal. I didn’t notice the watered down milk, but I certainly noticed the crisp squirt of apple between my teeth with each bite. Next time you’re feeling deprived by your small serving of cereal (make sure you measure, because cereal is one of those foods that you’ll accidentally serve yourself more of), add an apple. For only one WW Point, it makes a depressing bowl a full-fledged MEAL.

A long time ago, I told you about a recipe that I mistakenly called Toad in the Hole:

• Starling Fitness » Toad in the Hole

I learned last month that this dish is NOT called Toad in the Hole. That is a sausages in Yorkshire Pudding dish, which I have never made nor tasted. This dish is called Eggs in a Nest. Mike’s mom always called this dish Toad in the Hole, so that’s what I called it here (since he taught me to make it).

I love to make Eggs in a Nest, but eating it every day can get boring, so I made a variation of it that is a little like French Toast without the syrupy calories.

Eggs in a Nest

Ingredients:

• One slice of whole wheat bread
• One egg
• Non-stick cooking spray (or canola oil – add 1 Point per teaspoon)
• One packet of Stevia
• Cinnamon to taste

Directions:

• Spray the pan with non-stick cooking spray (or add the oil to the pan).
• Using a glass, cut a hole in the whole wheat bread and place the bread in the pan.
• Crack the egg into a bowl. Mix half the packet of Stevia and cinnamon with the egg and beat lightly. Pour the egg mixture into the hole.
• Sprinkle the rest of the Stevia packet and cinnamon over the toast and egg.
• Put a lid on the pan and cook for four minutes.
• Toast the round piece (or throw it away if you want to limit your Points).

Calories: Approx. 150 WWPoints: 3 (4 if you use canola oil)

You can see all of the photos here:

• Eggs in a Nest – a set on Flickr