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

I love this animated GIF that I found on Turning day-dreams, into reality.

It makes me laugh to see Adam Levine attack a head of lettuce like a huge bunny or maybe a hamster. It reminds me of that Chris Traeger GIF:

I need to get some more fresh lettuce in my life. For the longest time, I’ve shied away from iceburg lettuce because my grandpa said that it was the least vitamin rich lettuce I could eat. I’ve chowed down on kale, watercress, and spinach in my salads, but honestly, iceburg TASTES the best.

If I have to eat a salad, shouldn’t I eat one that tastes buttery and crisp instead of bitter and floppy? I’m sure I would need a lot less dressing on an iceburg lettuce salad just because I wouldn’t need to hide the bitterness of Kale and spinach. The next time I am tempted to dutifully pile on bitter greens onto my salad, I’m going to remember that picture of Adam Levine chowing down on iceburg. If I have to eat a salad, I should ENJOY it.

Lettuce image via: The Cook’s Thesaurus

I saw this infographic on Fitness, Health, and Confidence and I wanted to post it here so I always have it handy.

There is some great advice there:

• Concentrate – You can cut your food intake in one sitting by 18% simply by turning off the TV and sitting at the dinner table, rather than eating from your lap.

• Stop Grazing – You are a grazer if you stand at the kitchen cupboard eating the food you have just removed from it. If you must snack, plate the food up properly to instill portion control.

• Recognize Hunger – Ask yourself if you are truly hungry or simply substituting food for an emotion, such as stress or sadness. Eating healthy and sensible portions for breakfast, lunch and dinner will help to recognize when your body needs food as you are less likely to have blood sugar imbalances throughout the day.

• Chew – This may sound silly, but have you ever counted the amount of times you chew one piece of food? The more you chew the more taste and texture you will get from each bite and the sooner you will be satisfied, meaning you eat less.

• Slow Down – If you are sharing dinner with a friend or even eating alone, take time to put your fork down between mouthfuls and give your brain time to register your food intake. Studies show the slower you eat, the less you eat.

All of these sound like good ideas. I’ve tried some of them like putting the fork down between bites and chewing my food a certain number of times. I don’t know if they helped me be more aware of my food, slowed me down so I felt full with less food, or just distracted me a bit, but they seemed to work.

I really like this poster from Make It Count.

It reads:

Learn to say no

not only to your cravings, but to the part of your mind that thinks it’s okay to give up.

That part of my mind that thinks it’s okay to give up is pretty strong. It has given up on Weight Watchers twice before. It has given up on low carb twice. It has given up on running. It has given up on DDR and a hundred other fun exercise things to do.

Learning how to say no to that part of my mind is something I haven’t mastered yet, so this poster is really helpful to me.

This motivational photo from Loving My Body Through All the Good and Bad really made me think.

It reads:

Your body keeps and accurate journal regardless of what you write down.

I’ve really been thinking about this since the ActiveLink made me realize that I was WAY over-counting my exercise. I wrote in that entry:

I just wish there was something like this for eating. What if I am UNDER-counting my food? I do my best to be accurate, but that was the case with exercise as well. I wish there was a little gadget that could analyze every morsel of food that I eat and record the points automatically. That would be one less place where I could screw up.

Ever since then, I’ve done my best to count my food correctly. When I am in doubt, I choose the one with higher points values or choose the serving size that is larger than I usually would estimate it.

Since then, I’ve steadily lost weight each week. There have been a few weeks where my losses have been only tenths of a pound, but that is SO much better than the stagnating I did last time I tried Weight Watchers.

I love this motivational poster from Funeral For My Fat.

It reads:

You are what you eat, so don’t be fast, greasy or fake.

Now, I might have to argue with the “greasy” part because healthy oils are ESSENTIAL, but surely, don’t be fast or fake, in real life or in your diet.

Almost three months ago, I had a freak out because I realized my weight was up to 220.9.

• Starling Fitness – Fitness, diet, and health weblog » 220.9

Since then, I have tried to lose the weight on my own. I used Lose It! and had a lot of support on that website, but I kept flaking on myself. Despite the lovely people there, willing to give me support, I didn’t follow through.

Low carb eating works best for my body, but I haven’t been able to stay on that diet any longer than I was able to stay low fat. The only diet that I’ve been able to stay on long-term is Weight Watchers.

I think it’s because of the accountability. Every week, I stand on a scale in front of a REAL person. Most of the times, it was my WW leader who weighed me. Something about that accountability is very motivating to me.

Of course, there are other forms of accountability. I could hire a weight loss doctor to weigh me each week, but that costs a lot more than the $12 a week that WW is costing me right now. I could go to OA meetings. Heck, I think they are even FREE, but then I have to accept a “higher power” and all that Jesus talk that I can’t swallow any more than I could swallow a Jenny Craig meal.

It seemed that the only option that I could see was Weight Watchers and seeing my weight on the scale at the office shocked me. I had bounced up to 226.4, despite all my efforts on my own to lose weight. I might not have lost weight the last time I struggled with WW, but I didn’t GAIN! Trying to do this on my own, I GAINED weight.

In 2011, I wrote about why I was leaving WW:

• Why I Left Weight Watchers

I said:

And I did it. I went to every WW meeting and I followed the program for a year. My progress was minimal at best. I lost approximately ten pounds in that year, which is better than gaining that same amount, but it was a CONSTANT struggle to even have those minimal results.

Two years later, I’m looking at a constant struggle and I’ve GAINED over twenty pounds since I left WW. Those “minimal results” are looking pretty good compared to the last two years of failure.

So, I’m back at the beginning. I went to WW yesterday and it was really good to see my leader. It was really good to see my old friends. It was even BETTER to see the lifetime member who lost 150 pounds in 1995 and has kept it off since then. She goes to WW EVERY week, even though she has kept the weight off for so long.

What the HECK was I thinking? If that lifetimer has to still go to WW every week for YEARS in order to keep those 150 pounds from creeping back, why did I think I could do this on my own?!

And now, I have to start over…

Well, if I’m sick of starting over, I need to stop quitting. I’ve seen it time and time again on Pinterest. It’s time to take it to heart.

I love this tweet from Tara Stiles.

It reads:

It’s all in the food. Eat better, feel better, never get sick, have a great mood, loads of energy, and look fantastic. #saynothankstojunk

The thing that really caught my eye was the hashtag, “Say No Thanks to Junk.” It is so hard for me to do it. Not only do I have a hard time saying no thanks to other people, but it’s SO hard to say it to myself. I crave all the worst in food and just saying no to it is as hard as they told me it would be to say no to drugs.

Tara Stiles is a Yoga instructor and she has many yoga videos for sale at Amazon:

• Tara Stiles This is Yoga
• Yoga Transformation: Weight Loss & Balance
• Tara Stiles – Yoga Anywhere

I also found a workout on YouTube, but I don’t know how long it will stay there:

She seems focused on Yoga, yet she tells us that it is all about the food. If we can control our eating, then everything else will fall into place.

Via: Fun, Fit, and Fabulous

I found this image on Fat Kid Goes Paleo the other day and it really reminded me of what I have been doing wrong lately.

It reads:

Food is the most widely abused anti-anxiety drug in America, and exercise is the most potent and underutilized antidepressant.

• Bill Phillips

Bill Phillips is the Body for Life guy, which is a plan that never worked for me, but he is spot on with this quote.

I have continually turned to food to alter my mood when I SHOULD be turning to exercise. I need to have a note on my fridge or pantry that tells me to jump on the treadmill.

The always funny Jenna Marbles has decided that she needs to confess her junk food transgressions. BTW, she has a minor swearing problem, so don’t be surprised about the swear words that come out of her mouth. She’s still funny.

So many of the things she said were really funny, but she starts it all with this little zinger!

It’s just got to the point where my underwear is getting a little tight.

Here are some of my favorites:

At one occasion, I would eat macaroni and cheese until I couldn’t feel feelings anymore.

I would even eat lying down, like I can’t even SIT UP to eat.

One time, I didn’t have any real food to eat, so I just ate a bag of croutons.

I eat so many Doritos Locos tacos, because once you eat the Doritos ones, you can’t go back to regular tacos. The shell is just so boring. I want that one covered in cheese. And then, of course, when the Cool Ranch ones came out, I had to eat those, because I needed to see what all the rage was about. It was about hating yourself.

Spring comes EVERY year, and yet EVERY year, it manages to surprise me by sneaking up on me and reminding me that I’m not ready to put on my bathing suits yet.

She hopes that by sharing her confessions that she will get a new slate and start eating healthy again and stop being so “squishy.” I wish her the best of luck!

After years of suffering in food service under the hand of food obsessed elitists, he gets a little nervous every time he goes into a Trader Joe’s Grocery Store.

• My Trader Joe’s Phobia | Waiter Rant

But let’s face it; many people are organic because they want to feel better about themselves. For them food isn’t sustenance, it’s a statement. It’s often a quick, easy and rather masturbatory piece of faux virtuousness. How else can you explain purchasing organic vodka? Are you kidding? You want to pickle your liver and stroke your social consciousness too?

I feel the same way. After years of being told to eat more whole grains, my digestive tract was bleeding me dry. The minute I disregarded the Food Taliban, I started healing. Fortunately, Trader Joe’s has options for me.

No matter whether it’s veganism, vegetarianism, organic proponents, or whole grain pushers, whenever someone thinks they have THE answer for everyone, I start to back away. Food elitism isn’t about being healthy. It’s a religion.

I’ve talked about this before:

• Starling Fitness: Compare Groceries
• Starling Fitness: When Food Snobbery Goes Beserk
• Starling Fitness: Food Snobbery

In 2010, I said:

Maybe it’s time to reconsider the idea that your diet is supposed to make you feel unique, special or superior. When they said that you are what you eat, I don’t think they meant that as a judgment of your personality, just as a guideline for food choices.

Using your diet as a statement of your political beliefs is just as disordered eating as anorexia, bulimia or binge eating. If you need to feel good about yourself, your diet isn’t going to make you feel any better than earning a lot of money, wearing the coolest clothes or exercising a lot. There is ALWAYS someone out there doing more than you and you cannot outdo the crazy people of this world.

In the end, there is no ONE way that is best for everyone. We are all the same species, but we evolved over vast distances, eating many different types of food. That’s the beauty of being human: we get to figure out what works best for our individual bodies. Even more interesting, our bodies are constantly changing and what worked for us at one stage of our lives might not work very well at another.

Whenever someone tries to tell you that they know the one secret to eating properly, be wary of them. Don’t spend seven years in horrible pain with a bleeding digestive system before you realize that the prevailing “wisdom” just doesn’t work for you, like I did. Be smarter than I was and reject any form of food elitism or snobbery within yourself or others.

Photo via: Flickr: Kathy at Trader Joe’s in Modesto – Day 94