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

Steven Tyler is the lead singer of Aerosmith. He’s known for his thin frame and big lips. This weblog assumes that Steven Tyler has an eating disorder.

• Celebrity Gossip » Steven Tyler’s Eating Disorder

He is quoted:

“I have to watch what I eat because I have this ongoing nightmare that I’m going to put on weight and end up looking like some of the other rock stars of a certain age who bounce around the stage. You look at them and think, ‘Oh my God, what happened to you? How did you let yourself get like that?’ I always call Joe Perry, my bandmate, and say, ‘Do you still weigh 145 pounds?’ “For God’s sake I still want to be able to fit into those pants I wore on the last tour. I just live by the motto that nothing tastes as good as being thin feels. I don’t eat regularly during the day and in the evening I tend to stick to wild salmon and broccoli. Every night before I get into bed, I do 250 sit-ups religiously.”

He exercises. He eats fish and vegetables. He works hard to stay fit, but the gossip rags assume he has an eating disorder.

Is this right?

Two minutes. That’s all I ask. Two minutes of research. Really, is that all that much?

This article from the Wall Street Journal failed to do the two minutes of research that would have told us a completely different story.

• A Weeklong Tribute To Rock ‘n’ Roll King – WSJ.com

One of the paragraphs stated:

“Runners looking to tour their next destination on foot can check out Westin Hotels & Resorts Running Concierge, part of the company’s RunWESTIN fitness program. At 26 Westin locations around the globe — including Beijing, Boston and Melbourne — guests can take a three-mile morning run led by a concierge. After a round of warm-up stretches, the guide will take participants past the city’s notable sites. Jogging strollers are provided for parents. Runners of all levels are welcome.”

Not only was it shoddy reporting because they didn’t include a link to the Westin Hotels:

• Starwood Hotels & Resorts – Ready, Set, RunWESTIN

It was shoddy reporting because a two minute search of their website would have shown that very few cities have this program at their hotels and the cost for the rooms that do, end up being so overpriced that you could BUY a year-long gym membership if you stayed at a cheaper hotel.

For example, I looked for a hotel with this running program in my hometown, Salt Lake City, Utah. This is what I found: “No hotels were found in the location you entered. Please search a different location.”

Sorry, if I’m traveling to Salt Lake City, I’m not going to change my destination just because there isn’t a RunWESTIN hotel there.

Then, I checked San Diego, California. They should have one there, right? Yes, they did! When I checked the hotel daily rates, however, it was THREE times what I usually pay at my lovely Comfort Inn.

At $200 a day over a week’s stay, I would pay $1400 for the privilege of staying at the Westin and participating in their three mile runs. I could buy year’s membership at a gym for that kind of money.

So, if that’s bad advice, what’s the good advice?

I have quite a few options when I travel. The first is the hotel gym. Most of the time, they have a treadmill that is adequate. Sometimes, it’s just a broken exercise bike and a Tony Little Gazelle glider. In that case, I move on to option two.

My second line of defense is my gym membership. I’m a member of 24 Hour Fitness, so I can usually find a 24 Hour Fitness in the town that I’m visiting and go there for the same monthly cost I’m already paying. When I visit smaller towns, however, there usually isn’t a 24 Hour Fitness there. That’s when I shoot for option three.

My third chance at exercise options is contacting my hotel to see if they have an affiliation with any of the local gyms. Sometimes I can go to the gym with no extra cost. Other times, I have to pay a nominal fee (usually about $5 a day). When compared to the extra cost of $200 a day for the WestinRUN program, that five dollar charge to go to a local gym sounds great.

If the hotel has no affiliation with a local gym, then I strap on my running shoes and go running outside or around the hotel halls. I usually ask the hotel staff if it’s safe to run in the area. I have received brutally honest replies and ended up running up and down the halls, but I have also received great advice about places to run and even local malls that offer early morning runs within their doors.

In the end, there are SO many options for running that paying the extra $200 a day for a Westin Hotel is just bad advice.

Bad form, Wall Street Journal, bad form.

Via: Introducing: The News Roundup » Complete Running Network

I’m embarrassed by this. I am from Utah and seeing our “news” people participate in this commercial for Isagenix is just embarrassing to me.

They covered their back by talking to a real doctor who told them that cleansing isn’t necessary, but then focused on the short term weight loss of two people without a long term follow-up.

Where are the clinical studies? Where is the proof? Two people eating next to nothing for ten days is NOT proof.

Bad form, ABC 4 News, bad form.

Conspiracy theories don’t sit well with me. I’m already paranoid. I don’t want more paranoia swimming around in my head. So when Kevin Trudeau released The Weight Loss Cure They Don’t Want You to Know About, he already had one strike against him in my book.

It seems that Diet Scam Watch is also skeptical of Kevin Trudeau’s conspiracy theories:

The book claims that “an absolute cure for obesity was discovered almost fifty years ago” but was “suppressed” by the AMA, the FDA, and “other medical establishments throughout the world.” He further claims that until now, “this miracle weight loss breakthrough has been hidden from the public so that drug companies can make billions of dollars selling their expensive drug treatments and surgical procedures for obesity.” Trudeau’s alleged cure consists of injections of human chorionic gonadotrophin (HCG) plus 50 to 60 required and recommended do’s and don’ts. HCG is a hormone found in the urine of pregnant women.

HCG has been touted as a weight loss aid for a while.

More than 50 years ago, Dr. Albert T. Simeons, a British-born physician, contended that HCG injections would enable dieters to subsist comfortably on a 500-calorie-a-day diet. He claimed that HCG would mobilize stored fat; suppress appetite; and redistribute fat from the waist, hips, and thighs. However, scientific studies demonstrated that the injections didn’t cause weight loss and regulatory actions by the FTC and FDA have curbed their use in the United States.

It seems that Trudeau didn’t get the memo from the FDA. Since 1975, they have required the following labeling on the product:

HCG has not been demonstrated to be effective adjunctive therapy in the treatment of obesity. There is no substantial evidence that it increases weight loss beyond that resulting from caloric restriction, that it causes a more attractive or “normal” distribution of fat, or that it decreases the hunger and discomfort associated with calorie-restricted diets.

Of course, if you’re truly paranoid, you believe that the FDA and all of those doctors behind the studies are in on the suppression of HCG.

Don’t let your paranoia get the best of you. The reason why everyone in Hollywood is thin is because they kick out the fat ones. They don’t have a secret cure to obesity, they just don’t put fat people on the screen. Injecting the urine of pregnant women into your body is not the answer.

Via: HCG Worthless as Weight-Loss Aid

Even the computer geek cartoon noticed the study that said that your friends make you fat.

• The Joy of Tech comic… laughter is the best tech support.

I know it’s a scientific study and all, but I’m uncomfortable blaming other people for my food intake. If I were perfectly thin and fit, I would be pretty pissed if someone said, “The only reason you’re thin is because your friends are thin.”

Don’t blame other people for your weight. Look first to yourself.

Apparently, Redbook doesn’t think Faith Hill is beautiful enough for them and they needed to make her arms beyond skinny, her waist impossibly small (without a corset) and more. Not even the previous placement of her arm was good enough for Redbook.

This is the same magazine that screams, “Summer Party Ideas! Good Food! Good Fun!”

The next time you pick up a magazine and compare yourself to the woman on the cover, remember that it’s not real. Even Faith Hill is probably comparing herself to that woman on the cover of Redbook and nitpicking herself.

Lots of people are talking about this:

• Photoshop Of Horrors: Here’s Our Winner! ‘Redbook’ Shatters Our ‘Faith’ In Well, Not Publishing, But Maybe God – Jezebel: An animated comparison of the original photo and the Redbook cover.

• Photoshop Of Horrors: Responding To ‘Redbook”s Cover Lines – Jezebel: Points out the hypocrisy of the cover. “Love Your Life. Hate Your Body.”

• Faith Hill’s ‘Redbook’ Photoshop Chop: Why We’re Pissed – Jezebel: Analyzes why women of such importance and career stability still are evaluated like they are meat.

• Distort By Numbers: The Annotated Guide To Making Faith Hill ‘Hot’ – Jezebel: This entry imagines what was going on in the minds of the photo editor as he nipped and tucked Faith beyond believability.

If you are appalled by this, remember that ALL the magazines do this. Redbook just got caught. Don’t pay one more penny for women’s magazines. If you really want to read them, just read them in the grocery store and put them back. They don’t deserve your money.

Via: What’s With Skinny Arms? Faith Hill and Redbook

After reading Adria’s entry about combating dehydration, I sympathized with her fully.

• A mile in my Birks » Dehydration

I have had a much less intense experience with dehydration almost every time we camp. Because we have to haul in our water, it’s a precious commodity, so I am reluctant to drink as much as I need in this 103 degree weather. Her description fits to a tee:

My throat was burning, my head was pounding, and every muscle in my body hurt. I spent the rest of the day in bed but my body was wracked with pain & I couldn’t sleep.

Yeah, that pounding headache? It’s almost as bad as a migraine. I’ve mistaken it for a migraine in the past. The only difference is that half my face doesn’t go numb with dehydration.

For the full symptoms of dehydration, see here:

• Dehydration – Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

They aren’t easy symptoms to recognize at first, but if you are listening to your body, you should be able to catch them:

• Headaches similar to what is experienced during a hangover
• Visual snow
• Decreased blood pressure (hypotension)
• Dizziness or fainting when standing up due to orthostatic hypotension.

Adria drank Pedialyte to feel better, but they recommend water.

The best treatment for minor dehydration is drinking water and stopping fluid loss. Water is preferable to sport drinks and other commercially-sold rehydration fluids, as the balance of electrolytes they provide may not match the replacement requirements of the individual.

I’ve found that Gatorade watered down half and half works best for me, but each person is different. If you’re able to recognize the symptoms of dehydration quickly, then you won’t get a more severe case. Be careful out there. Sunburn isn’t the only way the sun can knock you out.

Alli is an over-the-counter weight loss drug that recently came out. There have been some commercials for it.

Unfortunately, the commercials don’t tell you about the embarrassing side effects. Even if you go to their website, they don’t give you full disclosure of the side effects.

This parody of the commercial is a little more honest, if not vulgar:

This video would have been MUCH more effective if it had only included the REAL side effects instead of adding all those fake ones. There are enough real side effects as it is. Here is the complete list of Alli side effects from Ask Doc Web:

• Abdominal discomfort or pain
• Anxiety
• Arthritis
• Back pain
• Diarrhea, generally mild and goes away
• Dizziness
• Earache
• Fatigue
• Fatty or oily stools – 20% of patients
• Fecal urgency or incontinence – 22.1% of patients
• Flu
• Gas with fecal discharge, generally mild and goes away – 23.9% of patients
• Gum problems
• Headache
• Increased defecation
• Incontinence (fecal) – 7.7% of patients
• leaky stools in some patients temporarily
• Menstrual problems
• Muscle pain
• Nausea
• Rectal discomfort or pain
• Respiratory tract infections
• Skin rash
• Sleep problems
• Stomach cramps
• Tooth problems
• Urgency to have a bowel movement
• Urinary tract infections
• Vaginal inflammation
• Vomiting
• Less common side effects may include dry skin, ear/nose/throat problems and joint disorders.
• Side effects that usually occur after the first year of treatment include depression, leg pain, swollen feet and tendonitis.

With all these risks, I can’t imagine why anyone is even buying Alli. I deal with symptoms very similar to this when I have an outbreak of IBS. I wouldn’t wish them on my worst enemy. Don’t spend your hard earned dollars to make yourself so sick that you will eat healthy.

I was sitting in the drive-through line at McDonalds when the Walgreens sign flashed me. “Alli is here!” it screamed. While I waited for my six Chicken McNuggets and XL Diet Coke, I thought about Alli. All the grocery stores are advertising the new over-the-counter weight loss drug. It’s Orlistat without a prescription, but will it really help you lose weight?

I’ve talked about this drug before:

• Starling Fitness » Xenical Nearer to OTC

This drug is only recommended for use for six months. It’s supposed to teach you how to eat healthy by giving you unpleasant gas and greasy, oily stools if you eat too much fat.

You don’t need to punish yourself. There is no need to put yourself through digestive distress to teach yourself a lesson. You can learn how to eat healthy without Alli, just like I ordered the 6 piece Chicken McNuggets instead of the Big Mac. Sure, it’s not perfect, but it’s better than the alternative.

Don’t waste your money on drugs that put you in pain and embarrass you if you eat poorly. You deserve better than that.

They claim to be able to tone your thighs, calves and glutes. How could a shoe do that?

• The Fit Flop

Here is their explanation:

Every step you take in the FitFlop helps tone and trim your legs. The FitFlop’s uniquely built multi-density midsole activates muscles midstep to help tone your thighs, your calves and your glutes. In fact, FitFlops are biomechanically engineered to absorb shock, lessen joint strain, and recreate the gait of barefoot walking – but with a powerful new built-in micro-wobbleboard workout-enhancing effect.

Since they are sold in Great Britain, they’re not under the strict advertising laws of the FCC. I don’t know what kind of false advertising laws Great Britain has, but I want to see proof before I’ll buy them. I want to see tests from REAL universities. Nothing on their website gives me any inkling that these have been tested. Their FAQ just tells me how to buy them.

Plus, I have enough time balancing and tripping. I don’t need a micro-wobbleboard under my feet at all times.

Via: Popgadget Personal Technology for Women: Fit Flops: gym in a sandal?