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

• ran 2.25 mi on 4/19/2010 at 7:19 AM with a pace of 21'01"/mi http://go.nike.com/2eeb8a8 #
• ran 1.15 mi on 4/12/2010 at 9:59 AM with a pace of 17'31"/mi http://go.nike.com/08lp921k #

For the next few weeks every Monday, I’ll share a playlist of songs that I have in my Workout Playlist on my iPhone. I’ll include clips to listen to, where you can buy them and why I have them in my list. Just so you know, I do get a portion of the sales of these songs from Amazon, so if you buy them, you’re helping me out.

Get Up! (Before The Night Is Over) by Technotronic: I love this song at the beginning of my workout because those first few steps, I’m really tempted to just quit. I’m still close to home and I could just turn around. This song tells me to “get up and move that body” so many times that I just keep running, even if I’m feeling like going back home.

Sound Of Letting Go by David Guetta – Tocadisco – Chris Willis: This song has a great beat and it starts out with the phrase, “This is the point of no return because this is where we crash and burn. And now every time I face this pain, I can hear it coming back again. It’s the sound of letting go.” I know this song is about breaking up, but sometimes I just need to let go of my images of my old self. Sometimes I need to break up with the person I used to be.

Naturally by Selena Gomez and The Scene: The catchiness of this song is a given, but I love the idea of exercising coming naturally. I like to think that I’ll eventually become the kind of person for whom “everything comes naturally.”

Growing Pains by La Roux: This song reminds me that I am changing and I might run into stumbling blocks on the way. “Oh, I make mistakes and you just say it’s growing pains. When I feel ashamed you tell me it’s just growing pains.” Instead of continuing a binge, I can stop myself, put this song on my iPod and take a quick walk around the neighborhood.

I Gotta Feeling by The Black Eyed Peas: I absolutely love this song. It has been playing EVERYWHERE, but despite the repetition, I still love this song. Will.i.am is telling me over and over that tonight is going to be a good night. Sometimes I need that kind of positive reinforcement. Fergie tells me that when I feel stressed out and I wanna let it go, that I should go way out and space out. Plus, this is the first pop song to use the phrase “mazel tov” since The Fiddler on the Roof Soundtrack.

You Da Boss by SkinnySongs: “This is your conscience talkin’. You don’t need that piece of pie. Gotta let it go pass you by.” This week’s song from Skinny Songs is a reminder that I’m in charge, not the food. I like to sit down and listen to this song when I’m tempted to eat, but I also keep it in my workout mix to remind myself of why I’m exercising. I’m the boss of my body, too.

Knock You Down by Keri Hilson: I know this song is talking about love, but there are a ton of other things that can knock me down on this journey. The chorus says, “Just get back up when it knocks you down.” I remember this when I slip up with food.

If Today Was Your Last Day by Nickelback: If today was my last day, I would eat all the food I ever wanted to eat. THAT is the kind of thinking that makes me binge because I deny myself when I don’t need to. Why should I hold off on my life until my last day? Every day, I try to eat something that I would have wanted to eat on my last day so that I don’t feel neglected. I work it into my caloric restrictions and I live every day like it was my last. Oh, and there’s all that other positive stuff that Nickelback says in this song.

Runaway by Cher: This song starts with the words, “Nobody said it would be easy. Nobody gives you guarantees.” It’s okay if exercise isn’t easy. It’s not supposed to be. If it were easy, EVERYBODY would have a hard body. Keep working and don’t focus on perfection. Cher continually singing for me to “run away” keeps me running when I want to walk and there is NO better motivation than Cher looking as awesome as she does in her sixties!

Listen to the clips for these songs. If you find just one song this week that motivates you to exercise, then buy it and make it your powersong when you’re working out this week. I bet you’ll find that you’re more willing to get your butt to the gym and your workouts are easier.

I ran this race to get a baseline. I wanted to get a time that I could aim to beat. Well, I have it. It took me 48 minutes to run a race that used to take me 40 minutes.

I guess I can only go up from there. I’ll post my time from my next race and we’ll see how much I have improved.

You might think that getting a pedicure or massage has nothing to do with losing weight, but I’ve been shocked to realize that they do. I went to my favorite nail shop today to get a pedicure and I was surprised by how good it made me feel.

I use food to make myself feel better. I know I’m not alone in this. Not everyone who is overweight uses food to pamper themselves, but an awful lot of us do. When I’m eating healthy, I don’t get that nurturing effect from carrot sticks and hummus as I do from potato chips and sour cream.

Pampering myself with a pedicure gives me the same relaxation and comfort as eating an entire box of cookies, but what works for me might not work for you. You need to ask yourself what makes you feel nurtured and pampered.

What do you avoid doing because it costs too much money? I always think that pedicures cost too much, but the truth of the matter is that they cost less than a binge at a fast food restaurant. If getting a new coat of polish on my toenails prevents me from eating us out of house and home, it’s totally worth it.

The next time you’re tempted to binge, try something different that will make you feel pampered. You might just find that food doesn’t work nearly as well as the other options available to you.

• ran 1.02 mi on 4/8/2010 at 10:33 AM with a pace of 16'56"/mi http://go.nike.com/077aik4l #
• ran 1.12 mi on 4/6/2010 at 5:02 PM with a pace of 21'29"/mi http://go.nike.com/01sc4f36 #

Yesterday morning, I woke up after a night of not enough sleep and too many dreams of driving across the Nevada desert. I cringed at the thought of running on the hotel treadmill. Despite the clean room and state-of-the-art equipment, I didn’t want to be trapped exercising around other people.

For a moment, I considered blowing off my workout.

It’s always a temptation when I’m out of town. Even if I’m on a trip because of work, I get a vacation mentality and the urge to skip my workouts is strong.

Instead of shirking my exercise routine, I put on my running shoes and ran outside around the street by my hotel. I had to go around the block three times to finish my workout, but I got my mileage in. I was able to escape the hotel exercise room and get out into the sunshine and fresh air before spending another day trapped in a car.

Next time you’re tempted to skip your workout, remember me running around Professional Circle outside my hotel in a strange city. If I can get my butt out the door, so can you.

Mike and I were arguing about our daily workout.

“It’s cold outside.”

“Yeah. That wind is WAY too cold for a bike ride.”

“I guess I’ll walk on the treadmill tonight.”

“No, let’s just go outside for a quick walk.”

After much complaining, I got him to put on his coat and brave the icy wind and dandruffy snow for a walk by the lake.

“It’s bloody cold.”

“Yeah, but it’s pretty.”

We found ourselves in the lee of a hill, so the wind abated, but the sun tucked itself behind the clouds, keeping it cold. I pointed at the sky in awe.

“If we didn’t go for this walk, we wouldn’t be able to see that.”

“Yeah, I guess sometimes exercise is worth it.”

I was haunting one of my favorite antique stores when this soda bottle jumped right out at me.

The soda was called Like and the tagline was, “Diets Like Like.”

What was even more interesting was the subtitle:

Artificially sweetened special dietary carbonated beverage

Nothing says delicious like the words “special dietary.”

It took me a while to track down exactly WHAT Like Soda was, but I finally found a footnote on Wikipedia:

• 7 Up – Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Diet 7 Up: Originally introduced in 1963 as Like (not to be confused with 7 Up’s Like Cola from the 1980s), it was discontinued in 1969 due to the U.S. government ban of cyclamate sweetener.

The history for cyclamate is interesting as well:

• Sodium cyclamate – Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Controversy developed when in 1966, a study reported that some intestinal bacteria could desulfonate cyclamate to produce cyclohexylamine, a compound suspected to have some chronic toxicity in animals. Further research resulted in a 1969 study which found the common 10:1 cyclamate:saccharin mixture to increase the incidence of bladder cancer in rats. The released study was showing that eight out of 240 rats fed a mixture of saccharin and cyclamates, at levels of humans ingesting 350 cans of diet soda per day, developed bladder tumors. Other studies implicated cyclohexylamine in testicular atrophy in mice. On October 18, 1969, the Food and Drug Administration banned its sale in the United States with citation of the Delaney Amendment.

Abbott Laboratories claimed that its own studies were unable to reproduce the 1969 study’s results, and in 1973, Abbott petitioned the FDA to lift the ban on cyclamate. This petition was eventually denied in 1980 by FDA Commissioner Jere Goyan. Abbott Labs, together with the Calorie Control Council (a political lobby representing the diet foods industry), filed a second petition in 1982. Although the FDA has stated that a review of all available evidence does not implicate cyclamate as a carcinogen in mice or rats, cyclamate remains banned from food products in the United States.

Apparently, Diets DON’T like Like…

Fitness Magazine provided me with a complimentary subscription in exchange for a monthly review of their magazine.

Once again the cover of the magazine seems incredibly inappropriate for the current weather. This is what it looked like outside my house the first day of April. Do they really expect you to “Walk Your Way Slim” in a bikini when the weather is like this?

That bikini is a FAR cry from the exercise clothing I wore this morning on my run. I find it strange that Fitness Magazine is perpetually in a state of sunshine and summer when the majority of their readership is still suffering with snow storms and icy wind pushing against them on their morning runs. It’s as if they aren’t connected to the earth the way the rest of us are.

They did have one good article about eating healthy when you’re eating out called “Fast Food Lite?”

Aryen Jackson-Cannady, a Fitness Magazine writer, tried eating out every day at lunch and she found a great selection of healthy things to eat. It IS possible to lose weight and eat out every day as long as you choose wisely. I love that they were willing to admit that amid this war on fast food.

I also liked Caroline Hwang’s Fit Test article about the TrekDesk, which is a big desk that fits around your treadmill and allows you to work while you exercise.

This month’s FitnessFix was about a woman who LOVED spinning class, but was afraid to get on a real bike. It is the best article in the magazine this month, highlighting that you should get a bike that fits you. I can’t stress how important this is. My bike is a 13 inch frame, which is usually a size for kids, but it is the only bike that has fit me. No matter what you need, make sure you get a bike that fits your body.

This month’s Fitness Magazine is definitely worth the money. Pick up a copy and tell me what you think!

• ran 0.94 mi on 4/5/2010 at 7:42 AM with a pace of 20'24"/mi http://go.nike.com/81l5ok6 #
• ran 1 mi on 4/2/2010 at 4:14 PM with a pace of 18'16"/mi http://go.nike.com/7gqo12k #
• ran 1.09 mi on 4/1/2010 at 4:49 PM with a pace of 14'49"/mi http://go.nike.com/067oeopa #
• ran 1.1 mi on 3/31/2010 at 7:13 PM with a pace of 15'31"/mi http://go.nike.com/2djffbh #