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

Mindy asked the following question on this entry:

• Starling Fitness » Why I Don’t Trust Weight Watchers Points System

My question is this. Once you lose all the weight you want or need to lose….do you stay on the points system? I mean if you keep eating in your points wont you just keep losing?

Mindy

Mindy,

You’re right, if you continued to eat the same amount of points that you did while you were losing, you would keep losing weight. Once you get to goal, you need to adjust your points so that you’re not losing anymore, but not gaining as well. This is a highly individualized thing, so you really have to play with it for several weeks to get the correct number of points to maintain.

That’s why going to Weight Watchers is so helpful. Every week, you meet with the person at the scale and they help you through the maintenance as well as the losing. Since so many people quit Weight Watchers before they even get to goal, they don’t get that added support.

Great question, Mindy! Thanks for asking!
Laura

02/12/07 Bento-licious Brunch by Aylanah on Flickr

If you liked the pretty concoctions from Bentolicious, then you might want to try it on your own. Instructables has a step-by-step guide on the art of Bento.

• Instructables Crafting a Bento

In the past, I have said food is just food. Sometimes I feel like that. Sometimes I want to eat something pretty because it makes me feel like someone cares about me. I don’t like cognitive dissonance.

Via: Craftzine.com blog: Crafting a Bento

Mike makes this dinner for me when I’m low on Points. It’s only 3 Points a serving (about 150 calories) and is really filling. Considering that it’s only rice and broccoli with some spices, it’s amazing how tasting it is. Here is his recipe:

Broccoli Rice:

• 1/2 cup Brown Rice
• 1/2 cup Frozen Broccoli
• 1/2 tsp Garam Masala
• 1/2 tsp Curry Powder

These are the ingredients for one serving. It’s usually much easier to make five servings and put them in the fridge or freezer for several meals. Mike puts the rice and broccoli in the rice cooker and then adds the spices after the rice is fully cooked.

The rice cooker is voodoo to me, but I love it. Mike is able to make healthy rice for me using no oil. He fought for the rice cooker when we first bought it, but if it were to break, I would now let him buy whichever one he wanted at whatever expense. I have been the beneficiary of so many yummy, healthy meals because of that device. Broccoli Rice is merely one of them.

I got a question on this entry:

• Starling Fitness » Weight Watchers Form

Rona Says: July 1st, 2007 at 10:30 pm

Have you heard anything about the new flex points system? I read that you can now personalize your daily points, so rather than base your daily points just on your current weight, a variety of factors are considered.

Also, they say they now have 4 levels of exercise for calculating activity points. You once had the formulae for activity points here, do you by chance have the new formulae?

Rona,

They did change the points calculation a little bit. What changes they did make are very minor and won’t affect you unless you’re male or an aerobics instructor. Just go with the points that they listed on their patent. You can find out more information here:

• Starling Fitness » What You Need To Know About Weight Watchers

The activity points seem the same. The most important thing is to start moving every day and slowly work up in intensity.

Best of luck,
Laura Moncur

My neighbors across the street are having their annual Independence Day Neighborhood BBQ. Here is a copy of their invitation:

Join us on the Fourth of July around 4-ish or later, and bring something to BBQ or a side to share. Kids & pets welcome, as long as they’re nice! Call us if you have any questions.

I have a couple of questions:

• How am I going to go to this BBQ and not eat everything in sight?

• If I don’t eat everything in sight, how am I going to stop myself from feeling deprived and binge alone afterward?

It seems like these have been my two choices over the years. I can go to the party and overeat or I can go to the party and not eat anything. Only eating some healthy things hasn’t really worked for me because once I start eating in a social situation I don’t stop.

Sure, there’s the third option of not going to the party, but that just looks like the second option all over again except I didn’t get to see my friends.

“Today’s BBQ is a great opportunity,” I tell myself. “I have a chance to learn how to eat healthy in a social situation.”

That sounds like bullocks to me.

Here’s the plan. I go for option two. I won’t eat anything. I’ll drink Diet Coke and other calorie free drinks, but I’ll avoid all the food. I’ll enjoy the company and talk to friends.

That’s going to make me feel deprived, so I need to have a plan of action when I get home.

A special planned meal for at home after the party is going to be my reward. Sure, it’s just a variation of the bingeing alone option, but if I plan the portions and the food carefully, it will at least be healthy.

Maybe I can’t change my behaviors that have been ingrained in me since childhood, but I certainly can find ways to work around them.

Wish me luck!

If you would like some ideas on how to actually eat at a BBQ and keep it healthy, here are my tips:

• Starling Fitness » How to Have a Healthy BBQ

I have been able to have many, many healthy BBQs with just Mike and close friends. In larger groups, though, it has been difficult to stop at just eating the healthy food.

I just hit my breaking point with food snobbery after reading this entry:

• Accidental Hedonist – Food and Community

Kate just came back from a visit from Asheville, where the downtown area boasts that it only has one chain restaurant. For some reason, Kate thinks this is infinitely superior to the towns with a mix of chain restaurants and local flair:

A community gets the food culture it deserves, whether it’s one where Applebee’s and Albertson’s dominates, or one where local restaurateurs work with local farmers and consumers spend their money in a way that ensures that their dollars are re-invested in their community. Asheville has clearly chosen where it wants fits in this spectrum.

It just makes me shake my head. I want to pat Kate on the head and tell her, “It’s just food, honey. It all comes out smelling poorly in the end.”

We live in a society where food snobbery has become a method of proving that you’re better than someone else. Guess what. We’re not. Food is meant to keep me from passing out from hunger and low blood sugar. When I feel dizzy and hungry, Applebee’s works just as well as some snooty restaurant.

Try going hungry for a couple of days, Kate. Even “the food you deserve” will taste like a godsend after that.

Update 12-09-08: I have created a new version of this form that works with the new Momentum Plan. You can download it here:

• Momentum Weekly Tracking Form 5 1/2″ X 8 1/2″ – Requires Microsoft Excel

• Momentum Weekly Tracking Form 8 1/2″ X 11″ – Requires Microsoft Excel

Update 03-03-08: A special thank you to Kelly for creating a version of this form that will fit into your 3 3/4″ x 6 3/4″ planner from Daytimer or Coach.

Update 11-19-07: If you like these forms, but aren’t really spreadsheet savvy, I can print up a year’s worth for you and send it to you for $25. For more information, see here:

• Starling Fitness » Order Your Starling Fitness Yearly Journal

I love to create forms. Every time I start a new project, I usually fire up Microsoft Excel to create a form for it. I don’t know why. I think it might be genetic because when I taught my biological father to use Excel, he loved it as much as I did.

So, I started Weight Watchers on Monday and by Tuesday, I was creating a form for myself. In the past, I used to keep track of my points on my Palm, but Weight Watchers made the creator of the software stop, and it’s kind of buggy, so I decided to keep track on paper. The Quick Track that Weight Watchers gave me, however, will not fit in my journal, so I made a weekly sheet that would be easy to carry and when I was done with the week, I can put it in my handwritten journal with the rest of my pages.

You can download it here:

• Weight Watchers Weekly Tracking 5 1/2″ X 8 1/2″ – Requires Microsoft Excel

A special thank you to regular reader, Kelly, for creating a version of this form that fits in a smaller planner:

• Weight Watchers Weekly Tracking 3 3/4″ x 6 3/4″ – Requires Microsoft Excel

There is room to check off all the good health guidelines and even check off your multi-vitamin, which is strangely missing from the Quick Track now. There is room each day to write down everything you eat, track your fitness goals, and the Flex Points.

Of course, this form is for the Flex Plan. I’ve never tried the Core Plan, so you’re on your own with that one.

Hope this helps someone besides me!

I can’t do it. I seriously can’t do it on my own. I have no idea why, but for some reason, going to Weight Watchers makes it possible and not attending makes it impossible. Almost a year ago, I stopped going to Weight Watchers and I have been fighting bingeing and gaining weight ever since.

It makes no sense to me because I KNOW what I need to do. I know how to follow the plan without even thinking. In fact, the minute I returned, I was able to slip right back into the routine I had before without feeling deprived.

Why?

Well, I know a real human being is going to weigh me next Monday. That’s part of the incentive to follow the program, but it’s not all of it. If it was merely shame that made me want to follow the program, I would have been able to eat healthy all those times my grandmother weighed me. It actually has NOTHING to do with shame.

I just have no idea what it is.

For some reason, the second I walked back into Weight Watchers, it all became easy again.

Magic? Man, I don’t like to believe in magic, but I have no words for it right now. All I know is that I’m right back on track after months of struggling.

02/12/07 Bento-licious Brunch by Aylanah on Flickr

Aylanah creates beautiful Bento boxes for herself and takes a picture of them to share with the world. When was the last time a simple meal of fruit, cucumbers and rice looked so beautiful? You can see the entire collection here:

• Bento-licious! – a photoset on Flickr

Next time you’re feeling sick of your food, try making it a little prettier. The exact same food will taste better, I promise!

I wrote before about this advertising campaign in Utah.

• Starling Fitness » Intermountain Healthcare Doesn’t Get It

They STILL don’t get it and have paid to move all the billboards around to different places. I have since been able to get photos of the other two:

This is what happens when people who don’t really understand what it takes to be healthy design advertising campaigns for health. It’s not the creme-filling. It’s not the cupcake. It’s the fact that I ate three or four cupcakes in one sitting. It’s not the food, it’s the quantity.

A cupcake every once and a while is just fine. It’s when it’s a habit that it becomes dangerous for me. They’re not creme-filled lies. They’re just food. It’s my lack of control over the food that’s the problem, not the food.

This one makes a little more sense, but it’s still offensive. Eating treat foods in moderation are just fine, but super-sizing your food and eating fries on a regular basis could be a problem. I know it’s hard to gain weight eating too many carrots, but the fact is, these foods are part of our lives. We need to learn how to incorporate them into our diet AND be healthy.

Creating a stigma regarding certain foods, merely creates a Good Food – Bad Food dichotomy in my mind. When I’m feeling negative, I end up eating too many Bad Foods. If I can knock down the idea of Good Foods and Bad Foods, I end up eating a lot healthier.

Bad form, IHC, bad form…