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

Every day I carry boxes from where they are to where they should be. I pack a few. I unpack a few. I get one step closer to making this new house feel like home. Lucky thing I’m exercising so much because my eating is out of control right now. It’s like my ability to control the beast within me is inversely proportional to how much stress I’m experiencing. It feels like my only hope is to finish this move and get my house in order so I can go back to the business of getting my body in order.

If you’ve been exercising heavily lately, you might have been tempted to use a topical analgesic like BenGay, but according to a recent study, it might not help you much more than a placebo.

• BBC NEWS | Health | ‘No proof’ that muscle rubs work

They looked at 16 studies involving nearly 1,300 patients using creams containing salicylate – a close drug relative of aspirin.

Results from four of the studies showed topical salicylates performed better than dummy creams against acute pain, but when lower quality studies were excluded, the results were not statistically significant.

When it comes to rubefacients they do not work well enough to take any notice of them.

As a child, my grandmother used Icy Hot every night before going to sleep. The smell of that ointment reminds me of her to this day. It almost seemed like the act of rubbing in the balm was far more healing than the balm itself.

If you have been exercising heavily, take the time to give yourself a little massage and see if that helps ease the pain. If you feel any relief from using BenGay, it’s more likely coming from the act of rubbing it in than from the cream itself.

Via: Drop the Bengay and Aspercreme?

Wendy Bumgardener from About.com was flashed once while she was out walking on the trails. She didn’t look at the flasher and hurriedly walked away. Did she do the right thing?

• Walking About.com: How to React to a Flasher?

While most flashers are not immediately dangerous, some do progress to accosting, groping, and even rape. Calling the police with a good description and photo when possible is the right thing to do to protect others.

Walking and running outside are the best and most inexpensive methods of getting exercise, but there ARE risks. Flashers are only one of them, but they are incredibly RARE, so don’t let fear of pervs in the park keep you from your daily walk.

One of the biggest attractions for our move (and subsequent upending of our lives) was this trail map of Daybreak. We moved to this community so that we could live right next to a huge number of trails that go around lakes and through green areas.

Our last home was located near downtown Salt Lake City. There were lots of parks to enjoy. In fact, you can see the videos of all three of them here:

• Starling Fitness DVDS » Liberty Park
• Starling Fitness DVDS » Fairmont Park
• Starling Fitness DVDS » Sugarhouse Park

When we first moved downtown, I was so happy that I lived within walking distance of three parks. After six years of taking walks to them, I can still honestly say that they are just as wonderful now as they were when I first moved there. If Daybreak hadn’t had such accommodating trails all so close to my home (including a lake), I may have never been tempted away from the Sugarhouse area.

The truth of the matter is, no matter where you live, there is SOMETHING interesting to walk past. If you live in the heart of a big city, there are interesting restaurants, galleries and shops to peruse. If you live in the boondocks, there is wildlife, tall grasses and open skies to keep you company. The suburbs have parks and plenty of homes to walk past and compare with your own.

Stop reading my blog RIGHT NOW and go online to Google Maps to see what is near your home. Look for parks, shops, trails and back roads.

• Google Maps

Wherever you live, there is something interesting to walk and run past, I guarantee it. Explore your neighborhood right now because for all you know, your life may be packed up in boxes and you’ll be sleeping halfway across town within a month.

Mike and I are in the process of moving. Our entire life is packed up in cardboard boxes. Even my beloved computer has been broken down to it’s component parts: keyboard, mouse and monitor are all packed neatly into labeled boxes.

The bad part of this is that I’m barely able to work. I am tapping this entry out on my iPhone using an app I downloaded on a lark over a year ago. Even worse, I can’t send out any journal or DVD orders. If you want to buy anything, be forewarned that it will take an extra week to show up at your door.

The good part of all of this is that my real life is providing me with more than enough exercise. My muscles are stinging with the work of the last few days and there are many more to come. I’m ashamed at the pain I’m feeling in my legs and arms. Just when I think I’m a tough and strong bird, I find that my quads aren’t up for the challenge. I guess I need to increase my weight training when all of this is over.

My posting maybe sporatic over the next few weeks, but don’t be worried. I haven’t fallen off the wagon. I just don’t know where I packed it.

In Utah, the home builders periodically have The Parade of Homes, where they showcase their building skills. It allows normal people like me to tour huge mansions.

Most of the time, I don’t care at all for the homes. They are so large that I can’t even imagine keeping them clean, much less living in them. This year, however, I did fall in love with one aspect of one of the homes: The Canterbury Gym.

The house was on Canterbury Lane and their personal exercise room was gorgeous. On the wall was the following quote:

We are what we repeatedly do. Excellence then, is not an act, but a habit.
Aristotle

There were treadmills and elliptical trainers, but the most interesting feature of the gym were the light fixtures. They were a combination of light and rotating fans. Here is a little video of what they looked like.

Do you need a home gym like that to keep fit? No. All you need is enough room to move around or maybe a corner of a room for a treadmill. The fanciest home gym on the planet isn’t enough to get you fit if you don’t USE it. Those rotating fans were sure nice, though. What they provide more than a normal ceiling fan or even just a cheap fan clipped to your treadmill, I don’t know, but they looked pretty.

I was browsing through Flicker the other day and I found these runner photos. I thought you’d like to see them.

A long time reader, Ernie Wallace, sent this post to me and it was so good, I’m putting it here verbatim.

---

Before I started running, I would pass runners on the street and silently wonder to myself: “Why is he running on the street and not the sidewalk? Why doesn’t she get out of the way, so she doesn’t get hit by a car!”

Now that I run, I understand why. And there are plenty of reasons why I run in the street – safety, a path clear of tree branches or spider webs (I live in Florida), even footing to keep from stumbling. There is one sure reason why I run on the street, however, and I realized during one morning run that was later than usual so there were more cars on the street to dodge.

When I run – I’M NOT A PEDESTRIAN!

Merriam-Webster defines the word pedestrian as “going or performed on foot”.

Pedestrians are people who are walking from somewhere to somewhere. They are walking their dog, because they have to. They are walking to a neighbor’s house to borrow a cup of sugar (do people do that?). They aren’t walking for the sake of walking.

I run for the sake of running. I am out there just to be out there. Don’t get me wrong, I’ve run TO places before – because I needed to get there and it was within my running distance. Those runs different than my “running for the sake of running” runs.

So, why do I run in the street? Because (say it with me here):

I AM NOT A PEDESTRIAN!

This postcard from PostSecret made me crinkle my brow in confusion.

It reads:

I told everyone I ran the race…
But really, I went to Starbucks, enjoyed a latte, and watched everyone else run past the window.

My confusion was, “So what?” Races are held to earn money. If you paid the entrance fee, they got what they wanted. If you didn’t run the race, you didn’t get all the benefits of training, so anyone can tell that you didn’t run it. It all was a big confusion until I realized how different I am from a lot of people.

I don’t care if other people know I ran a race. The MOST important thing about running a race is that I know that I did it. It was never about impressing other people. I’ve been trying my best to impress myself all along.

Ironically, no matter how many races I run (or walk), I have yet to really impress myself. I might as well have sat at Starbucks for all the lack of self esteem I’ve achieved from race participation over the years. The only thing that has been better is that I am stronger. I can’t deny that, no matter how much I feel like I have to prove myself.

---

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.

When I first saw Project Natal, flashbacks of trying to get Playstation’s Eye Toy to work filled my mind. The disappointment of a new toy that doesn’t work was all I could think about.

It just looked like a marketing ploy and I had no hope that it would work.

Then I saw this video of Felicia Day playing with Project Natal:

• Felicia Day » Blog Archive » Project Natal

Just found this video of me doing Natal. It was pretty much the highlight of my E3. It is so fun and surreal to be IN the video game. Can’t wait to be able to cast a fireball with a single thrust!

Felicia Day is a long time World of Warcraft gamer, so I tend to believe her opinion a little more than the marketing spiel I saw from Microsoft, until…

I noticed that they have her playing on a white carpet in front of a white wall. How many of you have a stark white wall to stand in front of when you’re playing a video game? Not me. The video games are in the living room, so I’m standing in front of a couch. Sure, it’s easy for Project Natal to be able to see Felicia’s movements when she’s standing in front of a big white wall. Throw a couch and some friends on it and once again, I have SERIOUS doubts about whether this thing could work.

People have been saying that Project Natal is going to give the Nintendo Wii a run for their money in the exergaming market. I’d love for it to be true, but I think we’re going to have to wait ten years before technology is good enough for this to work in any living room.