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

I usually don’t talk about treadmill recalls, but the Cybex treadmills have been recalled TWICE now.

• Cybex International Inc. Recalls Treadmills Previously Repaired Due to Fire Hazard

Here is the list of treadmills that have been recalled:

This recall involves the treadmills “Cybex 400T,” “Cybex 410T,” “Trotter 510,” “Trotter 525”, “Trotter 535”, and “CXT+” that were recalled (link) on October 8, 2003 and later repaired. The treadmills are black with gray coloring, have rectangular uprights, and measure 69 inches long and 30 inches wide. The brands and models are written on the display panel. The “CXT+” model does not bear the brand Cybex or Trotter.

There have been five fires associated with these treadmills, so get this problem fixed before your house goes up in smoke.

Via: Treadmill recall stuck in endless, fiery loop – Engadget

I have to admit, until a couple of days ago, I had never heard of Kimkins. It’s a website and blog that promotes a very low fat and calorie diet with some amazing claims. It’s just the kind of thing that I would shake my head about, “200 pounds in 11 months? Gimme a break!”

Thing is, I didn’t shake my head at all. I never even noticed Kimkins.

Now that Kimkins has imploded and the writer of the blog, Heidi Diaz, has been accused of being a fraud, it’s just ANOTHER story of someone trying to take your money.

My question: Why didn’t I notice Kimkins? How did Kimkins fly under my radar?

I have a weakness for quick fixes. In the past, I was constantly searching for a quick fix. A few years ago, Kimkins would have been something that I looked at, knowing that it probably was a scam, but hoping it was true and TEMPTED. Yes, a few years ago, the claims of Kimkins would have tempted me.

Just look at the before and after picture of “Kimmer”:

I would have looked at those as if they were proof. The photo on the left has been identified as Heidi Diaz, from her Classmates.com photo, but the photo on the right is said to be from a Russian brides site.

A few years ago, I would have been researching Kimkins and desperately trying to figure out how they were trying to rip me off. I would have known it wasn’t real, but I would be just as eagerly hoping that it was.

Somehow, I never noticed it.

I guess I’ve stopped looking for that quick fix. I KNOW how to lose weight. I KNOW how to eat healthy. I KNOW that the program that I follow works when I follow it, so I’ve stopped looking for the next diet. Kimkins totally flew under my radar and I couldn’t be happier about it now.

As if to make it normal, plastic surgeons have created the phrase, “Mommy Makeover,” which is a combination of surgeries: breast implant, tummy tuck and liposuction. This video treats the surgeries like they are the new and fashionable thing to have:

Any one of those three surgeries are MAJOR surgery with potential complications that could kill you. Doing them all at once is courting disaster. Don’t let them convince you that hacking and slicing your body is normal or something you deserve. This woman, Christy, was beautiful enough without the surgery and so are you.

It looks like the Kansas State Board of Healing Arts has banned the use of phosphatidylcholine and sodium deoxycholate injections, otherwise known as, LipoDissolve:

• Lipodissolve proves popular despite lack of FDA nod – USATODAY.com

Patients have complained to the Kansas State Board about problems with LipoDissolve, including pain, nausea, diarrhea, elevated liver enzymes and lumps at the injection site.

That’s the problem, Mark Stafford, general counsel of the healing arts board, says: “We don’t know much about this product, because it has not been clinically studied. There might be some longer-range problems, but again, we don’t know. If this product is as effective and safe as its proponents say, then let’s have some clinical research.”

Proponents of LipoDissolve are trying to slide away from the FDA using the compounding pharmacy rules, but the FDA is not willing to let them:

“These are unapproved drugs for unapproved uses,” [FDA] spokeswoman Karen Riley said in an e-mail, noting the FDA is “investigating and evaluating” Lipodissolve. Meanwhile, she said, “Consumers need to know that this is a buyer-beware situation.”

I warned about LipoDissolve when I first noticed the billboards all over Salt Lake City advertising it:

• Starling Fitness » LipoDissolve Billboard

Any product that says it can melt fat without altering diet and exercise is suspect. Make them prove it to the FDA before you risk yourself.

Via: Consumer Health Digest, October 2, 2007 – Kansas battling over dubious injectables.

You may have seen this short film from Dove. It’s called Evolution and it shows exactly how different a normal beautiful woman goes through before she is deemed “worthy” by advertisers. Not only are the women in magazines and on billboards, made up, hair sprayed, and lit within an inch of their lives, they are then digitally manipulated. Is this real beauty?

Dove just released a new short film called Onslaught:

A frame by frame analysis shows the amount of “beauty” images we are exposed to just by walking down the street. Additionally, it shows the everlasting pimping of products and pills. Finally the daily ritual of weighing on a scale and the toll it can take on the body.

Of course, all of this is coming from Dove. Does real beauty sell more lotion or fake beauty? I’m voting for the real kind.

For more information: Dove Campaign For Real Beauty

I worry about this all the time. I learned to binge by watching my father overeat. Will I teach my unborn children to binge. It’s enough to scare me away from having children.

Of course, there is the opposite fear. My child will watch me binge, be disgusted with me and become anorexic.

I have no idea how to raise a healthy child eating unless I eat healthy myself.

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.

Another reason to go the healthy eating and exercise route to weight loss:

• Treatment Online – Obesity Drug Linked to Anxiety, Suicidal Thoughts

It looks like there has been a snap in the approval process for Accomplia:

The drug, which has been in development for some time and is already available for prescription in 18 countries under the name Acomplia, has proven quite successful in earlier trials, with patients consistently losing weight and keeping it off while also showing signs of better-regulated blood sugar and cholesterol levels. If approved, the drug will be marketed in the United States as the potential bestseller Zimulti. It was initially advertised as a double-purpose weight-loss/ smoking cessation aid, but in 2005 officials raised concerns when it came up for approval in that capacity due to a “lack of efficacy” and, again, possible psychiatric side-effects.

Don’t be the guinea pig. When this drug comes out, let everyone else try Accomplia and wait until it has been on the market for at least five years. Then you’ll know whether it works or not.

It looks like the company, Transdermal Products International, have been caught making false claims regarding their patches.

• Weight-Loss Patch Manufacturer Banned From Selling Weight-Loss Patches, Will Pay $180,000

According to the FTC, Transdermal Products International Marketing Corporation and William H. Newbauer sold a supposed weight-loss patch to about two dozen domestic and foreign retailers, and provided them with sample deceptive advertising and bogus substantiation materials, including purported expert endorsements and clinical studies of their weight-loss patch by Marvin Kaplan. The retailers in turn used these materials to sell the weight-loss patches to consumers in the U.S. and abroad. The sample advertising made false or unsubstantiated claims about the product, including that it caused weight loss and that the main ingredient, sea kelp, had been approved by the FDA for weight loss.

There are over two million search results on the Internet for the words “weight loss patches.” Transdermal Products International surely isn’t the only company that is lying. They’re just the only one the FTC was able to catch.

Don’t trust any advert that tells you that you can lose weight just by taking its product.

Via: Consumer Health Digest, September 11, 2007

I just finished watching this video from Jennifer Lopez. The song is called Do It Well. It’s a pretty good song, but it has absolutely NOTHING to do with the video.

In the video, Jennifer is roaming the back rooms of a fetish bar to rescue a young lad washing dishes. While looking for the child, she explores various rooms depicting fetishes: a man wearing makeup, a man being whipped by dominitrix and a man watching a obese woman eat food. The clip goes by so quickly in the video that you might miss it, but I grabbed a screen shot here:

Has it gone this far? Is eating now a perversion?

What is the matter with our society? VH1 gives a television show to a gossip blogger named Perez Hilton. Here is an example of his writing:

• Celebrity gossip juicy celebrity rumors Hollywood gossip blog from Perez Hilton » Blog Archive » An Open Letter To Britney Spears

If you clicked on the link and were able to get past all the f-bombs, you might have noticed the postscript:

P.S. Your beer belly looked hot!

He reamed her for a lackluster performance and scrawled derogatory terms over her photo:

After all that, he made the crack that she has a “beer belly.” Sorry, Perez, she doesn’t have a beer belly. Time for some REAL perspective.

All of this coming from a man who looks like this?! Why did VH1 give him a television show? Is this the image they think is appropriate? Why does anyone take him seriously?

Britney has had two children back to back and her figure has bounced back considerably. It’s true that her performance was less than spectacular, but that doesn’t have anything to do with her body.

Seeing talk like this is so discouraging to me. If Britney Spears is considered fat right now, there’s no hope for me. Why should I even try?