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

I don’t know how it happens, but even the blogs I read for fun end up to be eating lessons for me. I regularly read a blog written by Ward Jenkins, an animator who works for Primal Screen. He has worked on Space Ghost: Coast to Coast and probably a hundred other things, but I can’t find a complete resume for him. I started reading Ward-O-Matic because of his wonderful review, The Polar Express: A Virtual Train Wreck. It explained to me why the animation on that movie gave me the heebie-jeebies.

This entry, “More or less,” is about animation and developing the ability to work in that medium:

• The Ward-O-Matic – More or less? – by Ward Jenkins

He says:

“A new animator wants to put more drawings in, a seasoned animator wants to take more drawings out.”

When I read that, I felt the same thing about eating healthy.

“A new dieter wants to put more food into their diet, but a seasoned healthy eater wants to take more food out.”

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If you have lost weight by removing foods from your life, you’re probably feeling pretty desperate right now. You haven’t had this binge food for a long time and the more you think about it, the less control you feel like you have over it. Your house is clean of the food and has been for a while, but the thought of a life without that food doesn’t sound like it’s worth living. If this sounds familiar, you’re in luck. I’m going to tell you how to add former binge foods back into your life.

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This entry comments on the increasing trend of fiber being added to all sorts of foods, from yogurt to candy bars.

• Yahoo! Health Expert Blogs Eat Right, Stay Fit – Fiber

I think this trend in the food industry was originally spawned by the Atkin’s Net Carb thing. There was the idea that if carbohydrates were countered with fiber that they caused less of an insulin spike. Because of this idea, lots of products showed up on the market with added fiber, including candy bars and yogurt.

I think there is also an incentive to increase the fiber levels of typically fiber-lacking foods in order to lower the Weight Watcher Points values of food. The Weight Watcher Points system is a calculation based on the fat, fiber and calorie content of foods. Increased fiber, lowers the Points value. In order to play upon the popularity of Weight Watchers, food manufacturers are adding fiber to food. Weight Watchers is not the innocent victim in this game either, though. If you look at their food products, they are unusually high in fiber content as well.

In cases like these, it is always better to eat homemade food. A dinner made by you with fresh ingredients will always be more healthy than a frozen dinner. When you are choosing convenience, make sure you look at the label and try to find the products with the least amount of ingredients and the healthiest mix of carbohydrates and fat. Don’t be fooled by added fiber. It doesn’t necessarily make the food more healthy for you, even if the Net Carbs or WW Points are less.

The first question that needs to be answered when tackling this is, “Why?” Why do you want to cut a certain food out of your life? What’s the point? The best way to prevent the feeling of deprivation is not depriving yourself.

Weight loss isn’t enough. If you want to lose weight, I promise you that you can do it without removing that food from your life. It is possible to eat healthy with rare treats in order to stave off deprivation. If you think you have to cut foods out of your life in order to lose weight or prevent binges, you need to read this entry on Vulnerability Foods.

Getting fit is not enough. Unless you are an Olympic athlete, a rare treat of your favorite foods is not going to influence your performance. No matter how many personal trainers say, “Food is fuel,” it doesn’t make it the whole truth. If food were solely fuel, there would be no creme brulee. Food is about pleasure just as much as it’s about providing nutrition.

What if the food doesn’t give you pleasure, however? What if when I asked you, “Why do you want to cut a certain food out of your life?” you answered, “Because thirty minutes after eating, I always find myself in the bathroom defecating what feels like a diamond encrusted howler monkey.” Then that sounds like a valid reason to stop eating it. If you answered, “Whenever I eat that food, I get a mind-splitting headache,” that’s another good reason. It could even be something as simple as, “I just feel kinda yucky after I eat it.” If your reason has a clear manifestation, then this section is for you.

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After the last few years of Low Carb Everything, the pendulum has swung the other way. I tried the Atkins diet and it left me listless and grumpy. I was promised weight loss without hunger. I got low energy and nominal weight loss. I lost five pounds and then the scale stuck at 230. After that, I was pretty bitter. Low Carb hit the market like a tsunami and I was the first to ridicule it.

This entry from Diet Blog gives an unbiased view of the Low Carb phenomenon and tells us what good came out of all that hype:

• Diet Blog – Low Carb: Misconceptions Abound

In the end, we learned that “Fat is not evil. We eat too many refined carbs. Whole food is best.” I wouldn’t say that the Low Carb phenomena taught me these things. It took me years of experimenting with various foods and checking my hunger levels against what I ate to learn this. The funny thing is that I came to the same conclusion independently.

It feels like we are in a lull right now. The Low Carb fad is over and the new head of the beast hasn’t grown back yet. I’m wondering if the next fad will be “Whole Foods.” I wonder how the food industry will spin their products to fall into that category.

Everything online about Weight Watchers sounds like a commercial. Let me tell you the truth about it without all that sugar coating.

Why I Stay With Weight Watchers Even Though I Have The Points Program Memorized By Heart:

It’s not about the Points. If I could follow the program by myself, then calorie counting would have worked for me. Points is actually more complicated than keeping track of calories, yet it’s the first program where I was able to keep the weight off.

It’s not about the Core Food List. There is no magic food list that would have worked for me. I tried limiting my intake of food before. I did lose weight, but I gained it right back when I “fell off the wagon.”

It’s not even about the Tools For Living. They are very powerful and helpful parts of the system, but the first time I read them, they were useless to me. It wasn’t until I sat through several classes describing their use that I was able to use them.

The meetings and the accountability are the one thing that have kept me on track week after week. I suggest finding a leader that you love. Go to the same class every week. Get to know the people at the class. Be honest when you say how you’re doing. Participate in the class. You can’t replace the accountability that you will receive when you attend the same class at the same time with the same leader EVERY week.

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This is a very informative blog entry about the media’s constant attention on famous people and calling them anorexic. It makes one wonder if anorexia is the new diet fad.

• Diet-Blog – Anorexia: The New Diet Plan?

Skipping meals itself is not enough to be considered anorexic. It is, however, very detrimental to any dieting efforts you may be working on. This entry explains it perfectly.

This week, we are concentrating on diet and nutrition. It isn’t the only factor in weight loss. Any program that tells you that you can lose weight without eating healthy AND exercising is probably lying to you. This week, however, we are going to focus of tightening up our eating program. Here is a sampling of what we have in store for you this week:

• Low Carb Backlash – What did we learn from the last few years of fad eating?

• More Fiber in Foods – Why is there fiber in your yogurt?

• More or Less? – “A new dieter wants to put more food into their diet, but a seasoned healthy eater wants to take more food out.”

• How To Remove Foods from Your Life without Feeling Deprived

• How To Work Former Binge Foods Back Into Your Life

Stay tuned for these entries and more this week!

I regularly read The Food Museum blog. They tend to talk about places that I don’t live near and food that I may never eat, but every once and awhile, I find something interesting. Here is a link to their views on School Lunch Reform.

• The FOOD Museum – School Lunch Reform

My views on the subject are tainted by my experience with school lunch as a young adult. Once I hit high school, I felt like I was in heaven as far as school lunch was concerned. No matter what they served, I could always have a salad. Of course, I drenched it with ranch dressing, but I always felt like I had a healthy option.

Personally, I don’t think school lunch is the problem. I think that parents that don’t provide a good example are the problem. If your children see you eat healthy in every environment, they will do the same. If your children are sent to school with immaculately healthy food in their lunchbox, then they will eat healthy (aside from trading). I think school lunch reform has more to do with the home than government programs.

Everyone is all a-flutter about trans fat since New York City health officials asked their city’s restaurants to remove them from their foods:

• Yahoo! News – New York urges restaurants to trim trans fat off the menu

• SportsGeezer – Trans Fats: Bad, But How Bad?

• New York Times – The Panic Du Jour: Trans Fats in Foods

• Diet Blog – Trans Fat Troubles

Whether or not you want to include trans fat in your diet is still your decision right now. The FDA hasn’t made it illegal to use. Here are their thoughts on the ingredient:

• FDA – What Every Consumer Should Know About Trans Fatty Acids

I have talked about my fears about trans fat many times:

• Starling Fitness – Trans-Fats Could Make You Stupid

• Starling Fitness – More on Trans-Fatty Acids

• Starling Fitness – Kidney Stones and Cancer

• Starling Fitness – Hydrogenated Oil vs. Partially Hydrogenated Oil

Just the threat of stupidity was enough to get me looking at the labels. What you want to do is up to you. At least for now…