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

If you have been looking at too many pictures of Nicole Richie’s shrinking frame, it’s time to watch this video by Pink. The vision of Pink with all those plastic surgery marks on her body just made me sick. Her body is perfect the way it is, but I’m sure that she gets pressure to have a boob job all the time.

Her body is PERFECT, yet she is under pressure.

It makes me start to think that it’s all hopeless. I’ll never be thin enough, so why bother?

It’s not about escaping pressure. It’s about choosing healthy food and moving my body so it doesn’t rust away. I want to be strong and fit so I can do the things that are really important to me. It’s not about social acceptance, getting people to like me or being perfect. It’s about taking care of myself.

Via: Drink. Drive. Go To Jail. – Stupid Girls?

I received an email with this graphic in it from Nike yesterday. The subject line said, “A Different Kind of Thank You” and says:

Thank you, ignorance.

Thank you for starting the conversation.

Thank you for making an entire nation listen to the Rutgers team’s story. And for making us wonder what other great stories we’ve missed.

Thank you for reminding us to think before we speak.

Thank you for showing us how strong and poised 18- and 20-year-old women can be.

Thank you for reminding a sports nation that another basketball tournament goes on in March.

Thank you for showing us that sport includes more than the time spent on the court.

Thank you for unintentionally moving women’s sport forward.

And thank you for making all of us realize that we still have a long way to go.

Next season starts 11.10.07

When I received this, I was thoroughly confused. I am so angry at Nike for discriminating against people who are overweight that I really forgot that they think that they are an athletic equipment company. It’s so cute. They think they had something to do with moving women’s sport forward.

The average woman won’t fit into Nike’s XL clothing.

Sorry, Nike. You don’t get to take any credit for whatever happened in the basketball world this year. You are merely a fashion industry company who is unwilling to let your precious clothing be seen on people who really NEED exercisewear.

Thank you, ignorance… I wonder what other great stories you’re missing because you refuse to acknowledge anyone over size 10.

There is a new book coming out that might give me a hint of why I am obsessed with being thin, even more so than being healthy. It’s called Perfect Girls, Starving Daughters: The Frightening New Normalcy of Hating Your Body. AlterNet has an interview with the author.

• AlterNet: Blogs: PEEK: The Un-Pretty Perfect Girl

The quote that really hit home for me is this one:

“It’s not just about Ivy League admittance or extracurriculars. It is about a nation of women buying in to the idea that their wellbeing is not as important as achievement and beauty.”

There was a time when I was willing to do anything to get thin. Take dangerous pills? Sure. Starve myself for days? Yeah, but I always ended up breaking and eating like a pig afterward. Have a serious surgery? If I could have afforded it, I would have jumped at the chance. I was willing to do anything to get thin except eat normal and healthy food in moderation.

The big question is: Why is being thin so important that I was willing to risk my health for it?

This book might have an answer to that question and I’m eager for it to be released!

Via: TDR Updates: Week of April 9

Just this morning, I looked at myself in the mirror. I was having an argument with the wild child inside me that wants to eat everything. Even though I felt sick to my stomach this morning, that little girl inside of me wanted to eat. “Why, why, why? Why won’t she let me eat healthy?” I asked her. “Why is it so important?” she asked me.

I don’t have an answer and it looks like thin people don’t either…

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.

Adrants hit the nail on the head in this article about childhood obesity:

• Adrants » Once Again, Obesity Equation is Backwards

“Who is the one person that is most influential in a child’s life and who is charged with that child’s education and upbringing? Any guesses? Not sure? We’ll tell you. The child’s parent. Yes, parents. Parents are the primary person in their child’s lives and the ones who should be charged with educating them on proper eating habits.”

Children will do what the parents do. There is no stronger force in a child’s life than parental actions. The way you eat has much more effect on your children than a million television commercials. If you want some tips on how to help your children to eat healthy, here is an article:

• Starling Fitness » Childhood Obesity

You have an imense amount of control on how your child perceives food and exercise. Far more than all the advertisers in the world.

Update 03-24-07 12:46 pm: I also found this EXCELLENT article explaining why it is such a fight to get children to eat certain foods and what you can do about it:

• The Expatriate’s Kitchen: Why Kids Eat What They Do (or Don’t)

Finally, the most important ingredient is you. In fact, the strongest predictor of fruit and vegetable consumption by children ages 2-6 is the amount of these foods that are consumed by the parents. It makes a lot of sense. Why would a child want to eat a food that no one else wants to eat? You, yes, you have to eat your vegetables, too. This role modeling is important, both for direct learning, “this is what we eat,” and indirect role modeling, “new foods are a fun adventure, it is healthy to eat well, and these foods are enjoyable.”

Don’t give up on them just because they say they don’t like it. Repeated exposure to healthy food creates increased ability to tolerate it.

The bill board in Salt Lake City says:

“Lose Fat Forever. No Surgery. No Sweating. No Kidding.”

Don’t believe it. If they had REALLY found a way to melt away your fat, they wouldn’t need to advertise it on a billboard.

Update 04-28-08: Looks like albaum has removed this photo from his collection on Flickr. It doesn’t stop them, though, here is a screen shot of another company in Utah promoting LipoDissolve.

There is a competitive side of me that likes to play. Even if I lose, I like to be in the game. Recently, a friend in the geek community started a weight loss challenge called Fat Twits. You pony up five bucks, join the weight loss challenge and whoever has lost the most weight in the group wins the pot. It sounded like fun to me, but there were a lot of problems with it.

Firstly, it’s a bunch of guys. Guys typically lose weight faster than girls, so a mixed sex competition usually is fruitless for the girls.

Secondly, I promised the wild child in me that I would never starve her again. That animal part of me doesn’t believe me and is sure that I’ll go back on a restrictive diet again. Honestly, it has been a hard promise for me to keep.

Lastly, a weight loss competition is just the sort of thing that I would jump into and end up causing a massive binge after the competition was over. I have done this enough times to finally recognize my own patterns.

After some serious thought about it, I decided not to enter the challenge. Phil’s a good friend, but I have to decide on my own health first. Then, Phil called me out on it:

• Phil801 – Geek Blog » Vacation Update, FatTwits Update

It’s one thing to decide on my own not to join something, but it’s entirely another one to be asked specifically to join.

“Speaking of which, Laura Moncur hasn’t joined the challenge yet – I’m counting on you Laura! 🙂 Anyone that’s interested in competing with geeks to lose weight, join the competition! So far the pot is at 30 bucks – winner takes all!”

I wasn’t insulted that he might think that I need to lose weight. That didn’t even occur to me until another friend pointed it out. For me, I was struggling with my competitive nature. I like to compete, even if I know I’m going to lose. It was so hard for me to say it, but I had to decline:

“Sorry, Phil. I won’t be joining the weight loss challenge. It’s just the kind of thing that would cause a huge bingeing episode after the competition is over. I promised the wild animal inside of me that I would never starve her again. It’s amazing how hard it is to keep that promise.”

Ironically, just thinking about joining that challenge sent me into a little bit of a binge the last couple of days. I think I was able to avoid an eating disaster.

What are you doing right now because of peer pressure? Have you ever joined a weight loss challenge? Do you think they are a good idea? I’m wondering your thoughts on the matter. Did I make the right decision?

I have always felt alone with my bingeing. Whenever I read about eating disorders, they always talked about anorexia and bulimia. It turns out that binge eating is three times more common than either of those eating disorders.

• Treatment Online: Binging is America’s Most Common Eating Disorder

So, if bingeing is more widespread than anorexia or bulimia, why doesn’t the media talk about it? This article has a clue:

In the public eye, binge eating springs from a faulty sense of self-discipline rather than a diagnosable physical condition, but it is very much a clinical disorder, often occurring in tandem with major depression and anxiety.

People believe that bingeing is a self-discipline issue, but anorexia is a mental disease. The entire weight loss industry hinges on the idea that obesity is a self-discipline issue and the idea that we might need to heal our brains before we can think about eating healthy would put a lot of fitness gurus out of work.

It looks like Peter Pan peanut butter is being recalled because a salmonella outbreak has been tracked back to their product. With e.coli on your spinach and green onions and salmonella in your peanut butter, is there anything we CAN eat?

• Salmonella Outbreak Due to Peanut Butter – washingtonpost.com

So many times, nutritionists tell us that we should be eating whole foods. My spinach is a whole food, but because of the way it is packaged, it can become unsafe for me to eat. Now, peanut butter is very processed, but the machines that grind peanut butter in the health food store aren’t all that clean either. Which should I trust? Neither?

Over a hundred years ago, Upton Sinclair wrote The Jungle. It blew the lid off the food processing industry, revealing the lack of cleanliness in meat packaging plants all over the nation. Here we are one hundred years later and we are still dealing with these issues. Is the only option to grow our own vegetables? How do I assure that I don’t accidentally get e.coli on my own spinach? I can’t even imagine slaughtering my own meat. I would HAVE to get my protien from homemade peanut butter.

Eating has never been easier for the human race. We have more food than we can consume and when we try to consume it all, we end up dealing with obesity. The only problem is that we have placed the production of our food in the hands of other people and I have no way of knowing if they washed them.

Via: food museum blog: Yucky Peanut Butter

I have talked before about how ostracized I felt when I was overweight. Some of it was documentable exclusion, but the rest I just chalked up to paranoia. Now, I’m thinking that it wasn’t paranoia afterall.

• Rudd Sound Bites: Weight Stigma Overrides Group Inclusion

Dr. Pryor found that for non-stigmatized individuals, there is an “inclusion principal”—a tendency to reach out and include a group member that has clearly been ostracized. However, this inclusion principal did not apply to overweight group members, and Dr. Pryor concluded that the stigma associated with their size prevented others from including them in typical group behavior.

As if health issues weren’t enough, here is another glaring example of the benefits of eating healthy and exercising more. Next time I feel like bingeing, I’m going to remember this study. If I can stay fit and healthy, I’ll benefit in more ways than just health. People will actually include me more.