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

This photo reminded me of the phrase, “You are what you eat.”

One of the commenters said, “I am glad my tummy is not transparent.”

But the more I thought of it, the more I realized that while our stomachs are not transparent, it is quite obvious to everyone around us what we are eating. Orson Welles said it best:

Gluttony is not a secret vice.

Whether my abdomen is transparent or not, everyone around me can see what I’ve been eating for my entire life. It’s plastered on my body in the form of bulges and fat. I may not be an ant with a see-through gut, but the idea that I can hide my years of eating is gone.

Photo via: Tasting The Rainbow: The Ants Whose Multi-coloured Abdomens Show Exactly What They’ve Been Eating » Design You Trust – Design and Beyond!

The other day, we were all at Craft Lake City. Mixed in among the art was a booth for GeekyCookies. Staring at me were Star Trek cookies and Pacman cookies. They even had Browncoat Brownies. Mike made a joke about how each time we go to the planet we have to eat a red shirt cookie and we all laughed. Then Mike bought a Pacman cookie.

“Now you know what it feels like when someone eats you, Pacman!” he said while biting into the sugar cookie.

I haven’t wanted a sugar cookie for AGES, but Pacman tempted me. Why?

Part of the reason is the artificial scarcity. It’s not every day that I could eat a Pacman cookie. Sure, it’s just a sugar cookie, but it’s a sugar cookies shaped like Pacman (or a Star Trek shirt or a Invincibility Star). It doesn’t taste any differently than a normal sugar cookie, but it seems rare because it’s something I don’t see every day.

I found myself reacting the same way when I saw these Donut Kitties.

They are just donuts, but I wanted to eat one just because they are so darn cute!

The next time you’re tempted to eat something that you wouldn’t normally eat, stop and think why. Is it just because the food is cute? Is it because you think that you may never get a chance to eat something like this again? Take the time to really analyze how you are feeling and don’t let the appearance of food affect your judgement.

Related article: Starling Fitness » Patriotic Food Can Screw Up Your Eating

I love this photo of a billboard.

It reads:

You are not stuck in traffic.

You are traffic.

Get a bike. Break free!

I’ve talked about riding my bike to work before. You can read some of the articles here:

• Starling Fitness » Is Riding Your Bike To Work Bad For The Environment?

• Starling Fitness » Riding My Bike To Work

• Starling Fitness » Save Gas By Walking or Riding Your Bike

• Starling Fitness » How To Ride Your Bike To Work

• Starling Fitness » PostSecret: Bike To Work

My commute was longer when I rode my bike to work, but when I realized that I didn’t have to take extra time in my day for my workout, it made up for it. Plus, the added worry about getting to work on time helped keep my ride energizing and in the aerobic zone.

If it is at all possible to ride your bike to work, you should do it. Not only will you slip past the gridlock of traffic, you’ll live longer and look better.

Photo via: image-33.jpg on imgfave

I absolutely love this video:

I love it at the 0:27 mark when he claps his hands and the birds go flying! Just seeing him walking through all of those exciting places makes me want to get out and take a walk of my own.

It looks like he also did a video called Eat:

It may not feature the healthiest of food, but it showcases the variety of food available. Next time you’re feeling sick of what you’re eating, watch this video to get ideas for something new that you can fit into your diet routine.

Via: Twitter / @scottharrison: This video is brilliant. M …

I originally downloaded Lose it! last May when I first started going low carb. I don’t think I used it for more than one or two days before abandoning it for two months.

The main reason I stopped using it was because their food list is kind of limited. I couldn’t find myzithria cheese (no matter how I spelled it) or a taco salad without the shell. There are other apps with far greater food lists and I used them.

The one thing those other apps don’t have, however, is support.

I’m not talking technical support. Quite honestly, Lose It! is so easy to use, I haven’t had to contact tech support. I use both the website and the iPhone app and they work seamlessly together (Hello, WW! Are you listening?! Your app sux!).

I’m talking about weight loss support. There are TONS of people using Lose It and if you make some of them your friends (and set up your privacy settings), they can see your workouts, your weight losses and your food log. They can give you kudos for getting out there and exercising. They be a shoulder to cry on if you show a gain on the scale. They can even be an inspiration to you when you see that they exercised their butts off when you sat on the couch yesterday.

It’s everything that WW promised me about their meetings, but I never got. That’s a bit of a lie. I had one friend at WW and seeing her every week was the only thing that kept me going that last year. I’ve kept in touch with her via email, but I really do miss seeing her in person every week. All the people on Lose It! have filled that void for me.

There are so many people using Lose It! that I have been able to find a whole group of friends that are eating low carb. It has been refreshing to have a group of people who eat the same way I do without the constant lecturing about the “benefits” of whole grains and fruit.

Lose It! isn’t a program for people following low carb. It tracks calories, but it also allows you to watch other macronutrients, so I have it tracking calories AND carbs. Lose It! isn’t about dictating a diet to you, it’s just a tool that allows you to formulate a diet of your own that works specifically for you.

I absolutely LOVE Lose It!’s reports. I can analyze my nutrients so that I am sure that I’m eating a high fat, moderate protein and low carb diet. I’ve never been able to do that analysis before, so it gives me a piece of mind to know that I’m on the right track. There are many other reports for exercise trends, favorite foods, and calorie expenditures that give a visual reminder to keep on track or change course. I adore how they crunch my data for me so I don’t have to pull out a spreadsheet.

And the badges! I love getting little prizes for working toward goals and Lose It! badges are PERFECT for that. I’ve earned a couple of small badges, but seeing all the things I could earn on other people’s profiles makes me want to work harder. One of my friends had earned these badges and I am on a mission to earn them as well.

I love how they reward you for exercising regularly and tracking your food consistently. It’s so inspiring to me!

Once I’ve earned those badges, I can order a t-shirt with one of them on it. When I get that Die Hard badge, I’m definitely getting a t-shirt. Oh, and the Goal Achieved badge, too. In fact, I’ll have to order a t-shirt for the Exercise King badge, as well. I can’t wait until I can do that!

Of course, if you’re shy about sharing your information, Lose It! has privacy settings that allow you complete secrecy. Your friends can only see what you allow them to see, and the rest of the world is blind. Or the entire world can be blind to you. You have that option and I love Lose It! for it.

In the end, I have been extremely happy with Lose It! If you feel like your diet is getting a little stale, log onto their site and see if it helps you as much as it has helped me.

• Website: Lose it!
• iPhone App: Lose It! – iPhone
• Android App: Lose It! – Android
• Book in Paperback: Lose It!: The Personalized Weight Loss Revolution at Amazon.com
• Book at the Kindle Store: Lose It!: The Personalized Weight Loss Revolution at Amazon.com

Update 09-20-11: I’ve found two more badges that I’d like to earn: The Pool Shark and Om badges.

Of course, neither of them have gotten me to swim or do yoga yet, but they are even more badges that I can work toward.

I watched the movie Fat Head on Netflix the other day. It is a satirical look at Morgan Spurlock’s Supersize Me. Tom Naughton spent a month eating nothing but fast food and he LOST weight and his blood levels improved. He did it by limiting his carbs. It’s not all about Supersize Me, though. It talks about why low carb works when low fat really doesnt. It really helped me realize why I was STARVING on Weight Watchers all those years. This clip is kind of goofy and the animation is something out of a bad comedy routine, but it DOES explain why I was so hungry all the time:

The movie trends a little on the conspiracy theory side. I don’t believe the government is trying to make us fat. I don’t believe the food industry is trying to make us fat. I think they are all just trying their best to recommend the healthiest diet, but they didn’t have all the information. They could have chosen low fat or low carb and they chose the wrong one to recommend.

If you are feeling hungry all the time, even though you’re supposedly eating enough calories, watch Fathead. It might give you some ideas to tweak your diet in a manner that will keep you feeling fuller AND losing weight.