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

We are celebrating another Valentine’s Day the healthy way. You can read how to do it here:

• Starling Fitness » Have a Healthy Valentine’s Day

• Starling Fitness » Valentine’s Breakfast In Bed

• Starling Fitness » Choose a Healthy Valentine’s Dinner

So many times, we try to love each other by feeding. It’s a basic human drive to want to feed the ones we love. Our tribe must endure and if there is an abundance of food, they should eat as much as they can because we want them to be able to survive a famine.

Fortunately, our nation hasn’t seen a famine for a LONG time. The irony of our biological instincts is that sometimes they don’t work. In this case, it might be more loving if we DIDN’T feed our loved ones.

Remember that this holiday!

It looks like Sheldon finally noticed that Cookie Monster doesn’t eat cookies anymore. While I categorically disagree with removing that bit of Sesame Street lore from the beloved children’s show, I’m not against changing fairytales in general. Check out this comic from Dave Kellett:

• Sheldonâ„¢ Comic Strip: Daily Webcomic by Dave Kellett

In the fairytale of Hansel and Gretel, the children are lured into the clutches of a bad witch with a gingerbread house. Something BAD happens to them when they eat too much candy and sweets. That’s one fairytale that doesn’t need revamping for a healthy lifestyle.

Last year, I wrote a weekly plan to get you on track for a healthy and active life. If you followed the plan last week, then here is the link to this week’s plan:

• Starling Fitness » New Year’s Resolutions: Week 7

The Short Version:

• Reduce your daily caloric average by another 100 calories. Write down EVERYTHING you eat including measurements and calories.
• Choose lean protein and whole grains.
• Save enough calories to eat two teaspoons of healthy oil each day.
• Avoid the feeling of deprivation by finding non-food activities to nurture yourself EVERY day.
• Eat five servings of fruits and vegetables every day.
• Save enough calories to eat two servings of dairy products each day.
• Increase your mileage. Walk 2.0 miles five days this week. You are allowed to increase your speed to the point of sweating, but if you are sore the next day you MUST go slow again.
• Give yourself kudos for coming this far.

I got this question in the comments the other day:

Hi,
I am type 2 diabetic.May I use organic cane sugar as a sweetener instead of splenda?
Thanks
manoucher

Dear Manoucher,

Firstly, it’s NEVER a good idea to get medical advice from the Internet. My favorite quote from Chasing Windmills is true in every case:

If you trust Google more than your doctor then maybe it’s time to switch doctors.

Jadelr and Cristina Cordova, Chasing Windmills, 08-21-06

That said, it seems the question is whether organic cane sugar will affect a diabetic the same as NORMAL sugar. Can you use organic cane sugar instead of Splenda?

The answer to that question is NO.

Just because something is organic doesn’t automatically mean it’s healthy. Organic cane sugar is still SUGAR. It has the word right in its name. It will effect you the same way as white sugar or high fructose corn syrup or any of the other foods that are restricted for diabetics.

The reason why so many people prefer organic cane sugar to high fructose corn syrup is because they think it TASTES better. I’m not sure whether that’s true or not. Personally, I can’t tell the difference between USA Coca-Cola (made with high fructose corn syrup) and Mexican Coca-Cola (made with cane sugar), but a lot of people say they can tell the difference.

If you’re diabetic, however, organic cane sugar acts exactly the same in your body as beet sugar or corn syrup. They are all simple carbohydrates that break down easily in the body and wreak havoc on insulin levels.

Remember to talk to your doctor, but if you’re diabetic, I think you should stay away from ALL sugars.

Good luck,
Laura Moncur

Last year, I wrote a weekly plan to get you on track for a healthy and active life. If you followed the plan last week, then here is the link to this week’s plan:

• Starling Fitness » New Year’s Resolutions: Week 6

The Short Version:

• Reduce your daily caloric average by another 100 calories. Write down EVERYTHING you eat including measurements and calories.
• Choose lean protein and whole grains.
• Save enough calories to eat two teaspoons of healthy oil each day.
• Avoid the feeling of deprivation by finding non-food activities to nurture yourself EVERY day.
• Eat five servings of fruits and vegetables every day.
• Save enough calories to eat two servings of dairy products each day.
• Increase your mileage. Walk 1.75 miles five days this week. You are allowed to increase your speed to the point of sweating, but if you are sore the next day you MUST go slow again.
• Give yourself kudos for coming this far.

Mark Bittman writes the Bitten Blog for the New York Times. He has been trying to lose some weight and decided to log what he ate for a couple of weeks.

• What I Ate Last Week – Bitten Blog – NYTimes.com

As I left on a tour for my new book, I had this notion that it would be interesting to log my eating for a day or two. My compulsive tendencies took over, and I wound up writing down everything I ate, and then some. As everyone knows, eating well on the road is tough, what with instability, temptations, and tight schedules.

• What I Ate, Week 2 – Bitten Blog – NYTimes.com

Still, in other years my weight swelled as I became more sedentary, and that doesn’t seem to be a problem now. I do feel as if I’m not eating the variety of food I want to, but I attribute that to a lack of home cooking because of the need to travel.

I’m always surprised when people who EAT for a living are thin. It looks like eating fresh foods in small portions during the other meals is a good way to compensate for the luxurious meals in the evenings.

Via: Littlest, Yellowest, Differentest – Mark Bittman logs what he eats for a week

Last year, I wrote a weekly plan to get you on track for a healthy and active life. If you followed the plan last week, then here is the link to this week’s plan:

• Starling Fitness » New Year’s Resolutions: Week 5

The Short Version:

• Reduce your daily caloric average by another 100 calories. Write down EVERYTHING you eat including measurements and calories.
• Save enough calories to eat one teaspoon of healthy oil each day.
• Avoid the feeling of deprivation by finding non-food activities to nurture yourself EVERY day.
• Eat five servings of fruits and vegetables every day.
• Save enough calories to eat two servings of dairy products each day.
• Increase your mileage. Walk 1.50 miles five days this week. You are allowed to increase your speed to the point of sweating, but if you are sore the next day you MUST go slow again.
• Give yourself kudos for coming this far.

I laughed out loud when I saw this tweet from Felicia Day on Twitter:

Felicia Day: It’s the post-production phase of eating fast food that takes the experience all downhill.

For me, fast food can cause “explosive” results, so I immediately assumed the worst. The rest of her followers must have done the same because within a minute, she responded:

Felicia Day: I meant I had a tummy ache but I can see how that could be misinterpreted LOL.

How does eating fast food affect you? To me, it tastes GREAT and gives me a little rush when I eat it. It’s only HOURS later that I suffer the consequences. That’s why it took me years to even make the connection between overindulging in convenience and the lower intestinal pain I experienced. If I keep my intake at a low level, I’m just fine. It usually takes a couple of fast food meals in a row to knock me out.

Felicia Day is the creator (and star) of the online serial, The Guild. You can see the first episode of Season 1 here:

She was also in Dr. Horrible’s Sing-Along Blog and some episodes of a little show called Buffy the Vampire Slayer.

The unstoppable MissBHavens started the new year with a modified South Beach plan. She is cutting out some carbohydrates in her diet and she thought she would try Stevia with her coffee. Unfortunately, the results weren’t even near to palatable for her.

• MissBHavens » Blog Archive » Truvia? FALSIA!

One thing that tripped me up last time was that I have a zero tolerance policy for artificial sweeteners. They’re vile. I’ve tried Equal, Splenda, Sweet n’ Low and even the 50/50 Splenda/sugar baking blend to no avail. They’re hellagross.

Stevia? I had high hopes.

The sh*t is nasty. It makes my coffee taste contaminated.

Honestly, out of all the sweeteners, I like Stevia the best. They all have a sickly sweet taste. They all taste wrong when compared to sugar. In the end, it might be better to just give up coffee altogether, MissBHavens. After my fights with caffeine, I am to the point where I won’t touch the stuff.

Read more about caffeine here:

• Starling Fitness » How To Quit Soda

• Starling Fitness » Avoid Caffeine

Read more about Stevia here:

• Starling Fitness » Stevia: Is It Safe?

• Starling Fitness » Liquid Stevia

Last year, I wrote a weekly plan to get you on track for a healthy and active life. If you followed the plan last week, then here is the link to this week’s plan:

• Starling Fitness » New Year’s Resolutions: Week 4

The Short Version:

• Reduce your daily caloric average by another 100 calories. Write down EVERYTHING you eat including measurements and calories.
• Avoid the feeling of deprivation by finding non-food activities to nurture yourself EVERY day.
• Eat four or five servings of vegetables every day.
• Save enough calories to eat two servings of dairy products each day.
• Increase your mileage. Walk 1.25 miles five days this week. You are allowed to increase your speed to the point of sweating, but if you are sore the next day you MUST go slow again.
• Give yourself kudos for coming this far.