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

I saw this advertisement from 1971 and I immediately smiled to myself.

It’s an advertisement for the hilariously styled, TrimJeans. The ad says:

Trim-Jeans with the Fabulous New Sauna Belt

Guaranteed to reduce your waist, abdomen, hips and thighs a total of from 6 to 9 inches in just 3 days or your money refunded

I laugh at this ad because I KNOW that TrimJeans didn’t reduce ANY part of my grandma’s body when she wore them. I know from experience that they just made her look silly when she wore them.

On the other hand, these sorts of products are still around today. Take the Avon/Curves Trimming Shorts:

When I posted an entry about them last year (Curves and Avon Embrace Quackery), they were staunchly defended by the Avon community, despite the experts in the field who say otherwise:

• Neoprene weight loss shorts? – Yahoo! Answers

Fat is not melted away by warm clothing…it is only lost when consumed by the body as a source of fuel. Do cardio for over 20 minutes and you’ll start to burn fat. The sweat under your shorts is just water trying to keep you cool…not fat.

Why are we so eager to laugh at 1971 when the SAME things are being marketed today? Sure, the neoprene shorts don’t look as silly as the TrimJeans, but there is nothing funny about their false promises.

TrimJeans Ad Via: LiveJournal: TrimJeans, 1971

I love this advertisement. It was for Best Foods Light Mayo, but it brings to mind a very important concept about food. It reads:

Not all love notes are written. Some are made.

Many times food gets all tangled up with love. This can be a very powerful concept that you can harness to your own benefit.

Food IS Love

Many times food becomes so embroiled in the idea of love, that it feels completely impossible to distinguish the two. This idea can be harmful and it can undermine my eating so quickly that I have to keep vigilant. Whenever I visit my mom and she pushes me to eat more, I have to consciously remind myself that she is only trying to tell me that she loves me. Sometimes I DO eat more and then compensate with exercise or good planning. Other times, I ask her to pack me up leftovers so that I can eat it later. Whether I eat it later in the privacy of my own home doesn’t matter, but I give her the chance to do something special for me.

Food MADE WITH Love

I’ve talked before about the concept of making food with love. You can read the entire thing here:

• Starling Fitness » Put Some Love In Your Food

Back then, I said:

Food made with anger and bitterness doesn’t quite taste as good as food made with love and joy. That’s why home cooking tastes so good. It was made for us with love. That’s why some restaurants just make mediocre food. It was made with indifference.

The next time you’re choking down a healthy meal that just doesn’t taste right, think to yourself, “Did I make this with love and joy? Did I just throw the ingredients together haphazardly?” Next time you make a meal, really think about who is going to eat it and the benefits that you hope they will receive from the meal. It will truly make a difference in how the meal will taste (at least to you, if not the others).

Food has become so mixed up with love and family that at times it is difficult to separate the two. When you are able to accept the love without the food, you make one step toward healthy living. When you are able to eat food made with love with the reverence it deserves, you make another step toward healthy living. Keep on making these baby steps and you will get to your goal weight with the power of love.

Shame on The New York Times for saying that Christina Hendricks is anything but the totally hot babe that she is. For their review of the red carpet for the Golden Globe Awards, their fashion critic wrote, “You don’t put a big girl in a big dress.” Apparently, only size zero is good enough for The New York Times.

Christina Hendricks is one of the stars of Mad Men and her curvy beauty makes all the men’s heads turn. What the frak could that fashion critic for the New York Times have been thinking?!! Just look at her give Betty the low down on the office here:

• Mad Men – Joan (Christina Hendricks) gives Peggy the 411

I first saw Christina Hendricks in the excellent science fiction series, Firefly, over eight years ago. She played the evil genius, Saffron, who nearly wiped out the brave crew of Firefly and almost outwitted Captain Malcolm Reynolds.

You can see her in her evil and busty glory here:

The next time a comment from someone makes you feel like your body doesn’t quite measure up, remember the idiotic fashion critic at The New York Times. There are always imbeciles out there whose sole goal in life is to bring other people down. Don’t let them decide how you feel about your body. Walk with the grace and swagger of Christina Hendricks and keep your head high.

What happens when being a vegetarian isn’t enough? When there are so many people out there who are also vegetarian, it doesn’t make you feel special enough, so you need to take it one step further.

You become a vegan.

But what happens when being a vegan isn’t enough? When there are so many people out there who are also vegan, it doesn’t make you feel special enough, so you need to take it one step further.

You become a raw food vegan.

But what happens when being a raw food vegan isn’t enough? When there are so many people out there who are also raw food vegan, it doesn’t make you feel special enough, so you need to take it one step further.

You become a freegan.

At this point, you find yourself rummaging through a dumpster to find your daily meals.

Maybe it’s time to reconsider the idea that your diet is supposed to make you feel unique, special or superior. When they said that you are what you eat, I don’t think they meant that as a judgment of your personality, just as a guideline for food choices.

Using your diet as a statement of your political beliefs is just as disordered eating as anorexia, bulimia or binge eating. If you need to feel good about yourself, your diet isn’t going to make you feel any better than earning a lot of money, wearing the coolest clothes or exercising a lot. There is ALWAYS someone out there doing more than you and you cannot outdo the crazy people of this world.

If you feel some sort of superiority from your diet of choice, it’s time to re-evaluate your emotions and find a way to aid your self esteem that doesn’t involve being better than other people.

Otherwise, you’ll find yourself eating out of a dumpster.

This hilarious commercial is from the movie The Invention of Lying. What if Coca-Cola couldn’t lie in their commercials. I suspect they would sound a lot like this:

The announcer says:

Hi, I’m Bob. I’m the spokesperson for the Coca-Cola company. I’m here today to ask you to continue buying Coke. I’m sure you’ve been drinking it for years and if you still enjoy it, then I’d like to remind you to buy it again sometime soon.

Basically, it’s just brown sugar water. We haven’t changed the ingredients lately, so there’s nothing new I can tell you about that. Uh, changed the can around a little bit, though. You can see that the colors are different there and we’ve added a polar bear so the kids’ll like us.

Coke’s very high in sugar and like any high calorie soda, it can lead to obesity in children and adults who don’t sustain a very healthy diet. And that’s it, it’s Coke. It’s very famous, everyone knows it. I’m Bob, I work for Coke and I’m asking you to not stop buying Coke.

If any soda was forced to advertise at this level of honesty, I don’t think anyone would drink it.

Video via: What If Advertisers Couldn’t Lie?

Just when the dieting world seemed to calm down and the mantra of “Eat Less, Move More” seemed to be the prevailing wisdom, Japan goes crazy for bananas.

• Japan Goes Bananas for a New Diet – TIME

The Morning Banana Diet regime is simple: A banana (or as many as you want) and room temperature water for breakfast; eat anything you like for lunch and dinner (by 8 p.m.). A three o’clock snack is okay, but no desserts after meals, and you have to go to bed before midnight. Sumiko Watanabe, a pharmacist in Osaka designed this stress-free diet to help increase the metabolism of her husband Hitoshi Watanabe, who had been rather overweight. In due course, Mr. Watanabe lost 37 pounds.

Here is a video explaining it:

If you notice, the most important part of the diet is number four:

Eat until you’re full, but not stuffed.

This simple concept is THE reason that people might lose weight on this diet. It’s an idea that Weight Watchers and many other diet programs have promoted for the last decade. Being able to eat until you’re satisfied, but not full is the biggest predictor of whether you’ll be able to lose the weight and keep it off.

This diet has caused runs on bananas in Japan and it looks like Dole is trying to create the same fervor in the United States. They are calling it the Dole Banana Diet. Look at this advertisement I pulled out of People Magazine last month.

According to Dole,

Bananas contain resistant starch which research shows blocks conversion of some carbohydrates into fuel, boosting fat burning by forcing your body to rely on fat stores instead – a sure aid to sustainable weight loss. Dole has created a delicious banana diet to help you stick to your New Year’s resolution.

Will the Morning Banana Diet make you thin?

Maybe… I think we need a lot more research on the “magical” powers of resistant starch. Replacing your usual breakfast with one banana could save you anywhere from 400 to 700 calories, depending on what you usually eat for breakfast. That amount of caloric reduction could result in a loss of a pound a week as long as you don’t over compensate at lunch and dinner.

Is the Morning Banana Diet hazardous?

Probably not. There is a risk of feeling REALLY hungry before lunch, especially if you deal with low blood sugar on a regular basis. I prefer to have protein with every meal because it makes me feel full. More importantly, eating a banana for breakfast every morning is a really good way to get sick of bananas and never want to eat them again. They are a GREAT addition to your diet but do you really want to make yourself sick of them?

Are you going to try it?

Sorry, Dole, I’m not buying it any more than I bought the Three Apple a Day Diet or the Dairy Diet. Sure, I’m going to eat bananas when they sound like a good breakfast, but the Morning Banana Diet just sounds like a way to make Dole very rich.

Watch out. Even the seemingly healthy ideas are backed by people trying to take your money. Choose a diet that is balanced and that you can live with. Adding more fruits and vegetables to your diet is a good option, but any plan that tries to convince you that one certain food is THE answer is just trying to take your money.

This week, on PostSecret, there were tons of postcards that I found interesting. Here is one of them.

It reads:

Now that I’ve lost the weight, fat people disgust me.

This postcard just brings to light the stark reality of fat hatred. I’ve talked about this a couple of times before. The first time, I suggested that people don’t really hate fat people. It’s more complicated than that.

• Starling Fitness » Why Do Skinny People Hate Fat People?

It didn’t take too many comments to realize that I was totally wrong about that idea and that there are people out there who HATE the overweight.

• Starling Fitness » Why Do Skinny People Hate Fat People? REDUX

There is nothing that we can do about other people’s feelings about us. All we can control is our actions and our own feelings. Focus on yourself and let those fat haters stew in their own juices.

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.

Today, Mike and I drove to Las Vegas to cover the Consumer Electronics Show for The Gadgets Page. As appealing as a road trip sounds right now, I am faced with eating healthy while we’re on the road. I’ve been making this trip every year for nearly a decade and it’s hard to break old habits. I’m used to getting a treat in Fillmore and another one in St. George.

I can tell you what doesn’t work. When I bring my own healthy treats, I feel totally left out when Mike comes out of the gas station with his selections. In the past, I have brought apples, veggies and even Weight Watchers bars for my own treats, but no matter how good they were, I felt cheated.

I realized that part of the fun of being on the road is stopping at the truck stops. Even if I buy some veggies at the foodmart, they are better than veggies from home somehow. I have to go in the truck stop to use the bathroom and I feel left out if I don’t buy a treat.

This time, I bought veggies in Fillmore and a sparkly lip gloss in St. George. Both of them felt like a treat, especially the lip gloss.

When you’re out on the road, you don’t have to suffer to stay healthy. What you need is a chance to stretch your legs, take a potty break and get yourself a treat. The treat doesn’t have to be food related. It could be a funny bumper sticker or a novelty lighter. As long as you feel like you are getting something fun, it’s good.

New York is trying to help their residents be healthier by launching a “Don’t Drink Yourself Fat” campaign. They talk about it here:

• Physical Activity and Nutrition : Chronic Disease Prevention : NYC DOHMH

Here is the commercial they have talking about the dangers of sugary sodas. Warning, it’s kind of gross.

It says:

Drinking one can of soda a day can make you 10 pounds fatter a year.

Don’t drink yourself fat. Cut out soda and other sugary beverages. Go with water, seltzer or low fat milk instead.

It’s true that sugary sodas can pack on the pounds, but quitting them isn’t just as simple as switching to water. Many sodas have caffeine, which is a powerful drug that will kick you in the gut if you go off it cold turkey. Sensitivity to caffeine withdrawal is different for each person, but there are tried and true ways to stop drinking soda and minimize the symptoms. I wrote an article about it here:

• Starling Fitness » How To Quit Soda

If you are ready to stop drinking yourself fat, give yourself a few days to muscle past the caffeine withdrawal. Once you’re past them, you’ll be free to substitute water or seltzer for your soda.

Via: Rudd Sound Bites: Nauseating New Anti-Soda Ad

I saw Disfigured a few months ago and it messed me up. It’s the story of a friendship between an obese woman, Lydia, and an anorexic woman, Darcy. They meet when Darcy attends a Fat Acceptance group only to encounter the kind of prejudice and rejection that overweight people receive every day. Lydia is the only one willing to give Darcy a chance at friendship and healing. Their friendship takes a strange turn, however, when Lydia asks Darcy for “anorexia lessons.”

You can see the trailer for Disfigured here:

Anyone who has ever wished they could get anorexia has thought about it. When Lydia asked Darcy for “anorexia lessons,” I sat there in awe of it. Yes! I had always wanted someone to teach me how to get anorexia. If I had to have an eating disorder, why couldn’t it be the popular one?

Lydia and Darcy’s experiment goes wrong, of course, because it’s a story about loving yourself at any size, but that isn’t what messed me up. What really screwed me up and set my healthy eating back for at least a month was Darcy’s view of the world.

There is a scene when Darcy is giving Lydia anorexia lessons. They are sitting in the park, watching girls walk by and Darcy is ruthlessly commenting on their bodies. Any little flaws, whether they be muffin tops or minor bulges, are pointed out and criticized by Darcy in order to get Lydia into the anorexic frame of mind.

This is how it is. This is blood sport.

It made me think that if I were to get to my goal weight, I might become one of those skinny people who hate fat people. I didn’t want to be that judgmental person that Darcy was and it took me a while to realize that I wouldn’t become that person, but I have to tell you there was a lot of bingeing before I got to that point.

It was a good movie and it had a great message, but it messed me up when I saw it.