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

This postcard from PostSecret reminded me of my high school days.

There is a weekly pill box with a tab from Monster Energy Drink in the Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday and Friday sections. It reads:

I haven’t eaten since Sunday.

When I was in high school, I thought the way to lose weight was to just not eat. Back in the Eighties, they didn’t know as much about metabolism as they do now (even now, they have just scratched the surface of human physiology). I remember starting some new diet pills and I decided that I could drink as many Diet Cokes as I wanted, but I wasn’t going to eat.

That worked for three days and then I ate an entire box of discount Twinkies from the bakery thrift store.

Now I know that I have to eat OFTEN to lose weight. It doesn’t need to be a lot, but it really helps if I eat every two hours or so. I feel fuller with the same amount of calories and I feel like I’m eating all day, because face it, I am. I’ve finally found what works for me. To lose weight, I need to EAT!

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.

While driving up to Oregon last year, we passed by this truck hauling milk across the Interstate.

I’ve seen these trucks many times, but that was the first time I was able to get a good photo of one. It says:

Milky-Way
Drink-A-Mug-A-Milk-A-Meal

Sounds like good advice to me, even if it was coined by the people trying to sell me milk.

My hair stylist was significantly skinnier. I had seen her a mere six weeks ago, so she had lost a lot of weight in a short amount of time.

“You look great!”

“Thanks! I’ve been doing a new diet.”

“Really? What are you doing?”

“It’s the HCG diet…”

She continued talking, but I froze up. That was that diet that was promoted by Kevin Trudeau and the FTC slapped him with a huge fine. I squeezed my eyes.

“Isn’t that the one with the injections?”

“Yeah. I go to a medical spa. I actually haven’t even met the doctor. I just go in once a week and the nurse hands me the injections that I give to myself every day. The doctor looks at my file, though.”

“Hmm…”

“Of course, you have to follow the diet, too. It’s really low fat and pretty restrictive.”

“Wow…”

I keep my mouth shut. Over the years, I have learned that people don’t want to hear me burst their bubble. They don’t want to know about double-blind testing against placebos. They don’t want to hear about the fact that they would have lost all that weight by themselves without those expensive injections. They don’t want to hear about the placebo effect. They just want to continue living their weight loss fantasy.

And who am I to burst it for her? Heck, the placebo effect is WORKING for her! I’m not going to get involved with the power of that.

If you want to know the SCIENCE, however, it’s pretty damning when it comes to HCG injections. Here are links to just two of the many studies that were conducted in a proper manner (1976 and 1990), showing that HCG is no better than saline solution when it comes to benefits of weight loss.

• Chorionic gonadotropin in weight control. A double-blind random cross-over study of the effectiveness of human chorionic gonadotropin (HCG) vs placebo in a wieght reduction program [JAMA. 1976] – PubMed Result

Two hundred two patients participated in a double-blind random cross-over study of the effectiveness of human chorionic gonadotropin (HCG) vs placebo in a weight reduction program. Serial measurements were made of weight, skin-fold thickness, dropout rates, reasons for dropping out, and patient subjective response. There was no statistically significant difference between those receiving HCG vs placebo during any phase of this study (P greater than .1).

• Human chorionic gonadotrophin and weight loss. A double-blind, placebo-controlled trial: Bosch B, Venter I, Stewart RI, Bertram SR. Department of Medical Physiology and Biochemistry, University of Stellenbosch, Parowvallei, CP. [S Afr Med J. 1990] – PubMed Result

Low-dose human chorionic gonadotrophin (HCG) combined with a severe diet remains a popular treatment for obesity, despite equivocal evidence of its effectiveness. In a double-blind, placebo-controlled study, the effects of HCG on weight loss were compared with placebo injections. Forty obese women (body mass index greater than 30 kg/m2) were placed on the same diet supplying 5,000 kJ per day and received daily intramuscular injections of saline or HCG, 6 days a week for 6 weeks. A psychological profile, hunger level, body circumferences, a fasting blood sample and food records were obtained at the start and end of the study, while body weight was measured weekly. Subjects receiving HCG injections showed no advantages over those on placebo in respect of any of the variables recorded. Furthermore, weight loss on our diet was similar to that on severely restricted intake. We conclude that there is no rationale for the use of HCG injections in the treatment of obesity.

For more information about Kevin Trudeau:

• Starling Fitness » The Weight Loss Cure They Don’t Want You to Know About

The new season of True Blood started a couple of weeks ago and it reminded me of something Lafayette said last season:

A way to a man’s heart is through his stomach, that shit true as gold. You put some love in your food and a fool can taste it.
Raelle Tucker, True Blood, Cold Ground, 2008

In the episode, Sookie’s grandmother had been murdered and the entire town showed up with casseroles to console her. Tara and Lafayette were wondering what to do with all the food and Lafayette said they should just throw it all away, “Sookie don’t need no bad juju cookin’.” People were scared when they made the food and he could smell it. You can see the scene here (Warning: Strong Language):

I think Lafayette was right. 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).

This article from Rudd Sound Bites takes a fascinating look at Disney’s efforts to brand themselves with celery, bananas and blueberries.

• Rudd Sound Bites: Branding Bananas is Still Branding…

It’s hard enough to find unbranded versions of almost any child-related items (diapers, bottles, clothing, toys, just to name a few), but come on, cartoon-stamped eggs? Really? Do we need to turn fruits and vegetables into another “But I want the Mickey Mouse ones!” battleground? And do we really want kids to learn that you buy, eat or enjoy food because of a cartoon character’s ‘endorsement’? Whatever happened to food itself and to the pleasure of eating?

Unfortunately, Camille Lizarribar has completely forgotten what it was like to be a kid. COMPLETELY.

I, however, vividly remember being a kid. Observe this Bozo the Clown fork. It was part of a set of spoon and fork that I loved as a child. Even looking at that fork right now makes me feel happy and special. When I was a kid, my cereal tasted BETTER when I ate it with my Bozo the Clown spoon. I remember refusing to eat one morning because the Bozo the Clown spoon wasn’t clean. The vision of my frustrated mother hurriedly washing my spoon just so that I would eat my breakfast is burned into my mind. I think I was three or four years old because I wasn’t even in school yet.

I wasn’t the only kid with this obsession. My sister Stacey felt the exact same way. I’m the LUCKY one because I got the Bozo the Clown fork (the spoon was long ago lost or demolished). My sister was a full five years younger than me and never lived east of the Rocky Mountains. She had never even SEEN an episode of Bozo the Clown, yet she loved that spoon as much as I did.

Really, Camille? Do you not remember feeling like that when you were a kid? There MUST have been something that made you feel like that.

If plastering Hannah Montana’s face on bananas and strawberries urges children to eat healthy food, then I’m all for it!

What is food to one, is to others bitter poison.
Lucretius, De Rerum Natura

I think that part of the reason that there are SO MANY diets out there in the world is because of this known fact. A half a century before the birth of Christ, Lucretius knew that for some people certain foods are healthy and for others it is nothing more than poison. Sure, the diet industry is fueled by the desire to make money, but the reason that there are so many different diets available is because they ALL work.

Yep, you’ve heard time and time again that diets don’t work, but sorry, those people are WRONG.

Diets DO work. They just don’t work for everyone.

That’s why some people can lose weight on the vegan diet while others grow fat on it. That’s why some people thrive on the low carbohydrate diets while other people feel lethargic and exhausted. That’s why some people lose weight while eating as much pasta as they want while other people are literally sick from all the wheat and gluten.

The important thing is to find the diet that works for YOU. Take the time to see what kinds of foods are healthy for you and what kinds are poison. Once you know what works for you and what doesn’t, you’ll feel so empowered to follow your diet that it will mean more to you than anything said in a diet book or website.

I have been doing Weight Watchers for a LONG time. When I first started, I measured my portions faithfully, but over the years, I’ve gotten a little lazy. If you had asked me this morning how much a 1/4 cup of nuts looked like, I would have pulled out a small handful and shown you, safe in the knowledge that I was right.

But I would have been WRONG!

And not wrong how you think. This morning, I decided to measure my “1/4 cup” of almonds. I pulled out my handful measurement that I’ve been using for the last few years and put it into a 1/4 cup. Here is what it looked like:

For the last few years, I’ve been eating approximately 1/8 cup of nuts and counting it as 1/4 cup. I’ve been cheating myself out of food.

Whenever you eyeball your measurements, you have the chance of getting things wrong. Either you’re under estimating and you could be eating more food, or your over estimating and you’re eating more calories than you counted. If you haven’t measured within the last month, it’s time to get the measuring cups out and start using them again. You might be cheating yourself and you don’t even know it!

I have been using Edibles for a few months now and I’m loving it. I love it even more after seeing how well it has worked for one of its creators:

• From Fat to Fit: GOAL!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

YAY! I made my WW goal last week! I was so nervous going in I almost didn’t want to step on the scale. I lost 2.5 lbs last week which puts my total weight loss at 91.2 lbs. I am now starting the “Maintenance Phase” of WW. It’s a little weird and a little scary to not be trying to lose weight. It’s been such a long time on WW that it’s almost part of me. I have to turn the weight loss mindset off and turn on the maintain switch on.

Here are her before and after pictures. These are the undramatic photos. Her boyfriend took some smokin’ hot pics of her as well, so you can see those on her blog here: From Fat to Fit: GOAL!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Congratulations, Dawn! After two years of following Weight Watchers, she has finally made goal! Kudos to ya, babe!

I found this question on the Diet Blog and I wanted to say WAY more than I should in a comment, so I posted my answer here.

• Is Gary Taubes Onto Something?

I just watched Gary Taubes’ Good Calories, Bad Calories lecture in Berkeley, and he seems so convinced and convincing about what he believes.

So, is there a flaw in his argument? And if “yes” what is it?

I’ve been on Weight Watchers in the past, and I know it works. But they preach the complete opposite of what Taubes quotes as scientifically proven.

So, how is it that you can lose weight while eating less fat, and as much pasta as you like, but on the other hand you can eat as much fat as you like, but no pasta – and this also works?

I’m just confused…

If you look at the Weight Watchers pamphlets closely, you can see that they don’t conflict with Gary Taubes’ views on carbohydrates. They recommend that IF you eat carbohydrates, to choose whole grains. They recommend that you limit your intake of processed sugars. Carbohydrates from fruit, vegetables and legumes are highly recommended by both Taubes and Weight Watchers.

Weight Watchers will probably never say that a low carbohydrate diet is what they recommend, but they make it very easy to follow one while on the Weight Watchers program.

The risk with making certain foods “bad” like Taubes has done is that restricted foods can have a mystical element to them. Once a food is deemed as “bad” it can seem FAR more appealing than it did before. I think that’s why Weight Watchers allows you to eat whatever foods you want as long as you stay within your Daily Points Allowance. Removing the judgment from food is the first step toward eating healthier.

Gary Taubes has focused on the health aspect of food, but has completely ignored the emotional aspects of it. Weight Watchers is taking BOTH into account by allowing you to eat whatever you want, but gently steering you toward healthier choices. It’s entirely possible to eat a low carb diet while on Weight Watchers as long as you can handle the idea of “bad” foods without spiraling into a binge.

Good Luck!

I received this comment on a post last week:

• Starling Fitness » My Symbiont Part 3 of 3

Nicky Says: June 3rd, 2009 at 9:08 pm

Hi Laura! Your 2006 video made me sad – I felt so bad for you. I hope every day today is not as much of a struggle.

I noticed that you actually use food as a reward for when you exercise…do you think that perhaps a non-food reward would help decrease your obsessional thoughts about food more effectively?

I’m also very concerned about your statement, “If I have a perfect day, I spend some time with a good friend either on the phone or in person.” Two issues – first, the focus on having a “perfect day”. You should feel good even if you have a “pretty good day.” Perfectionism is the route to self-hatred. Second issue – you need to reward yourself with positive social interaction WHETHER OR NOT you had a good or “perfect” day. Positive social interaction may be even MORE important after a “horrible” day – it can help you take better care of yourself the next day!

Good luck – and be good to yourself!

Nicky,

Thanks for the comments and email. Honestly, I still struggle, even after all these years.

As far as using food for a reward, the beast inside us is an animal and not even one that’s as smart as a dog. Food is an incredible reward for it and has helped me have less obsessed thoughts. I make sure the food is healthy, but it’s a great bribe.

For me, a perfect day includes eating all the things I’m supposed to eat:

• Five servings of fruits or vegetables
• Two servings of dairy
• Two servings of protein
• Two servings of healthy oils
• Whole grains
• Six glasses of water
• A multi-vitamin

It doesn’t mean that I have to stay within a caloric limitation or even stop a binge. I just have to feed myself a minimum of healthy food every day. It’s a pretty liberal definition of “perfect,” so there is plenty of wiggle room for me. It’s a little easier to achieve and less likely to cause self-hatred.

Thank you for all the positive comments. I really appreciate it!

Laura