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

This comment showed up on my Treadmill Workout Spreadsheet entry:

I tried the very first of nine programs…since I’m new at this I apologize if I ask things that seem obvious….but is each workout done for a week, for a total of 9 weeks of training? and is the whole idea of varying between hills, intervals etc to simulate outdoor terrain even if the 5k I plan on running is flat land?

Any advice would be extrememly helpful.

Francesca

Francesca,

Interval and hill training make you stronger and faster overall. Here is an entry about it:

Starling Fitness » How To Run Faster

So, even if the 5K is on flat land, you should do one hill training a week and one interval training a week. And don’t forget to taper before the race.

Good luck on your race!

Laura

Hi All,

I joined WW on January 1, 2007. I lost 7lbs the first three weeks and now (my 4th week) I only lost 1lb. (weighed in today) I am so discouraged! I do a brisk 2 mile walk 5 days a week and stay within my point range. So, why the 1 lb loss?

Bridget

Bridget,

Go back to Weight Watchers right now and talk to a teacher there. Any time you feel discouraged about your weight loss, you should talk to the teachers at Weight Watchers. That’s what you’re paying for is that individual attention when you need it.

A one pound loss is amazing for the fourth week of Weight Watchers. The program is designed for a loss of 1/2 to 1 pound a week. If you lost a pound this week, you are doing everything exactly right.

Have the Weight Watchers teacher show you what one pound of fat looks like. She should have a model of how big one pound of fat really is. Just think of one pound of butter. Go to the grocery store and look at one pound of butter. You lost that much in only a week. From now on, one pound a week is the most you should be losing. If you’re losing more than that, you need to up your daily points allowance.

Good luck,
Laura Moncur

Via: My Pet Fat

Mike and I are technically entrepreneurs. We run our own business from our home. I don’t really consider myself an entrepreneur, though. Something about the title makes me think of multi-level marketing and short-lived dreams of making it big. What we do is smaller. In fact, what REAL entrepreneurs do is smaller.

Entrepreneur Magazine put out a diet book called The Entrepreneur Diet, which seems like a recipe for disaster, but instead, it’s an inspiring and HEALTHY way to get your life back in control.

Most importantly, I would say it’s a great diet book for everyone, not just entrepreneurs. Our physical fitness is directly related to how successful we are in our lines of work, whether we are self-employed or not. If you are healthy, strong and fit, you are much more able to deal with the stress of all work situations.

Being healthy will help your career, it’s true. That’s the premise of this book, but it goes beyond it and recommends slow and healthy steps. If you want to lose 25 pounds in 30 days, you might as well go somewhere else. This book gives you down-earth step to change your diet forever.

My only disappointment is that this book uses scare tactics to convince people that they need to lose weight. We all know that obesity aggravates disease. It’s still hard to lose weight, even when we know we should. They didn’t spend enough time talking about the rebel within us that makes us reach for unhealthy food when we have a healthy lunch packed and ready to eat.

The plan that they set out is healthy and very doable. It doesn’t make lofty claims and gives you plenty of ways to follow the diet. If you have ever felt like you didn’t get ahead in the business world because of your weight, this book is for you. It will give you good advice about dieting AND business.

A list of the chapter titles after the break: (more…)

The folks at Motion Lingo were nice enough to send me an Adeo GPS Training Device to review on Starling Fitness. I worked out with it until it got too cold and polluted in Salt Lake City to run outside. I don’t know which will clear up first, the air quality or the freezing temperatures. Either way, I am stuck indoors.

The Adeo is a very simple gadget that you plug your iPod (or ANY MP3 player) into and you plug your headphones into it. You can hear your music, but a voice will give you updates about your run. Similar to the Nike+iPod, it’s actually a very cool gadget. Here is a list of its best features:

• It measures everything, not just running: The disadvantage of gadgets like the Nike+iPod is that they only track your runs. The Adeo can track your runs, your bike rides, your ski runs and your hikes (with elevation tracking). Their software tracks all of your workouts in one place.

• The MotionTrak Software doesn’t need to be online: My biggest beef with the Nike+iPod setup is that all my stuff is online. I can’t just save all those cool graphs and charts on my own computer.

• It gives you updates how YOU want them: Using their MotionTrak software, you tell the Adeo how often you want updates and what kind. If you want to hear how far you’ve run every two minutes, you can set it. I have my demonstration unit set to give me a different update every few minutes: total time, distance run, time of the day, current speed, etc. Also, you can tell it to stop telling you things. I don’t care about my elevation on my runs because it doesn’t change, but if I was skiing or hiking, elevation might be pretty important. You can set up different update modes based on which activity you are doing.

• It works with any MP3 Player: I really like that I can use any MP3 player with the Adeo. I tried it with my Treo, and it worked just as well with it as my Nano. This is not just another iPod accessory. It works with any music player, even your old cassette player or CD player. That’s a far cry from so many products who are jumping on the bandwagon to work with the iPods. The Adeo is completely backward compatible.

• It’s more accurate than accelerometers: Running shoe pods like the Nike+iPod depend on accelerometers and other devices to measure the distance. For some people they can be horribly inaccurate. Once the Adeo locks onto its satellites, you have a perfectly accurate measurement of the distance you ran (or rode your bike, etc.).

• You don’t have to look at anything: Since the totals and the updates are spoken over your music, you never have to check your watch or iPod to see how far you’ve gone. This is especially cool if you are skiing and couldn’t possibly check your watch even if you wanted to.

There are some disadvantages to this unit:

• It’s kind of big: Seriously, it’s amazingly small for what it does, but it is a little big to carry around. I worked out using the Adeo in the fall, so I had a coat with many pockets to stuff it and my Nano into, but during the summer, I’m suddenly pocketless and I would have to carry it in my hands.

• It takes about five minutes or so to lock on to the satellites: You can’t start locking onto the satellites while you’re in your house, so you have to go outside and just stand around waiting for it to fall into its routine. If you start running before it gets a good lock on the satellites, it won’t be an accurate measurement of your workout. I don’t spend five full minutes stretching before my workout. Do you? Even if I did, I don’t like to do those stretches outside. So, I just ended up standing like a fool outside just waiting for it to do its thing with the satellites.

• It doesn’t work on a treadmill: This is a no-brainer. Since GPS systems track how far on the Earth you’ve moved, they really are useless if you’re running on the treadmill. To the Adeo, it just looks like you’re running in place because you are. For some people, this isn’t an issue, but there are a good six months every year where I’m not going to run outside. It’s just not going to happen, especially when I have a comfortable treadmill calling to me. None of those treadmill workouts are recorded on the MotionTrak software.

• You can’t look at anything: You ONLY get updates spoken over the music, so if you want to hurry and check your mileage, you really can’t. You have to wait until the next pre-measured update. It would have been really helpful sometimes to have a screen to glance at. Auditory feedback isn’t enough sometimes.

I didn’t know the cost of this unit when I was testing it. I had assumed it was about three hundred dollars because that’s the going cost for a good GPS tracking device. When I saw that the Adeo was only $150 at Amazon, I was shocked. Suddenly, all those little complaints I had for it went right out the window. At $150, you’re getting way more than your money’s worth.

On the whole, the Adeo is a great gadget. If you already own a iPod Nano, then the Nike+iPod Sport Kit is a cheaper option for you and almost as accurate. If you own ANY other MP3 player, including a Video iPod, then you should definitely go with the Adeo instead of buying a Nano just to run with. It’s not only cheaper, but you get more accurate readings. Just make sure you have running shorts with pockets.

I love this photo of the Eureka Dunes from Jon Huang. Here is his description:

“Walking up a steep sand dune feels like being on a stairmaster. Every step upwards you take, it sets you back half a step. To prevent yourself from slipping back you need to make faster steps. The Eureka dunes are over 600 ft high from base to peak, probably the tallest dunes in N. America. Hiking up was quite a workout — especially with camera gear and tripod!”

Whenever I feel a little bored on the treadmill, I try to remember WHY I exercise. I walk on the treadmill and ride the exercise bike in the winter so I can hike and mountain bike in the spring, summer and fall. I want to be fit enough to see beautiful sites like this every day.

Via: Two-Heel Drive: January 2007 Archives

When I played Wii Sports, it was a fun diversion, but my heart rate rarely got higher than when I was sitting on the couch. I thought it would be fun to play, a good way to be a little more active, but not really an option for losing weight. It looks like I’ve been proven wrong. Read about the Wii Sports Experiment here:

• Wii Sports Experiment, Results!

His plan was simple:

Six weeks ago, I began what has become a huge obsession of mine. It is called the “Wii Sports Experiment” (Read my original announcement of this from Early December ‘06). I outlined a 6 week game plan for myself, the idea being that I would continue ALL normal activity and eating habits, and simply add 30 minutes of Wii Sports to my day. For the past month and a half, I’ve stuck to these guidelines very strictly.

What were the results? Shocking! In six weeks, he has lost nine pounds, his BMI went from 25.2 to 24.0, and he is noticeably thinner. He tested his calorie expenditure while playing and here is a list of the sports in order of expenditure:

• Boxing: Highest calorie burner
• Tennis
• Bowling: Lowest calorie burner

He didn’t test baseball and didn’t even mention golf. It’s quite obvious when you’re playing that Boxing is the highest calorie burner. It was the only activity that got my heart rate up into the cardio zone.

So, I’m wrong. If you play Wii Sport religiously for 30 minutes every day, you could lose weight. Now, you just need to get your hands on a Nintendo Wii.

Via: Lose weight by playing Wii Sports (kottke.org)

I have decided to host runs at Levels 1-4. If you would like to join up, here are the guidelines:

• Level 1: 1-10 miles a week
• Level 2: 10-20 miles a week
• Level 3: 20-30 miles a week
• Level 4: 30-40 miles a week

I only have a few rules, one is if you join a level that is below your weekly mileage, I will move you up to the appropriate level when I invite you to the next challenge. It’s not really fair to join a Level 1 challenge if you KNOW you’re running 20 miles a week. You might win one trophy that way, but I’ll immediately move you to a higher level.

The second rule is no trash talk. I know that Nike+ has a “trash talk” button on their challenge page, but only positive talk is allowed there. I will warn you once if you are disrespectful to the other runners, but if you continue to trash talk, you will not be invited to the next challenge.

If you have a Nike+iPod, you can sign up for the weekly challenges here:

• Support Forums : Starling Fitness Weekly Challenge …

Telll me what level you would like to start at when you sign up and come run with us!

Remember? Remember what it felt like to run? Run when you were a kid and running was how you got from here to there? Remember when they said they knew a great place and let’s go there? How did we go there? You can only run to a great place! There’s no walking if we’re going to some place great!

If you made a New Year’s Resolution to exercise more, you’re probably to the point where you want to quit right now. That’s because you’re bored. You need a little motivation and support. There is no better way to start exercising than walking because it’s cheap and you already know how to do it.

Wendy Bumgardner at About.com has a 28-day walking course that will email you daily emails to get you from couch potato to walking demon. You can sign up for the email course here:

• Let’s Get Walking

If you are lacking motivation for the exercise regime that you set up for yourself, it’s not your fault. There might be a couple of things getting in your way:

• You are working out too hard.

• You are bored with what you chose.

• You have no one else to compare notes with.

• You injured yourself.

Whatever your reason, start with a simple program like Wendy’s Let’s Get Walking program. Ease yourself into exercise with a daily email to remind you of your goal. Don’t give up now, just switch things up!

Rob and Big is a reality television show on MTV. Rob is a professional skateboarder and Big is his bodyguard. A few episodes ago, Big decided to try to lose weight. I had never watched Rob and Big before I heard about this episode. I watched the whole thing on MTV’s website. You can see it here:

• Rob and Big | Episode Guide | Ep.4: Lets Get Physical | MTV

At the beginning of the episode, Rob is making fun of how big Big’s shirts are. He stuffs a big ball into one of the shirts and starts imitating Big. After a second or two of that, I just wanted to punch Rob in the face. Blissfully, Big did it for me, pushing him off the bed and onto the floor in one big swipe like a bear pushing away a baby cub. I instantly loved Rob and Big and had to watch the rest of the episode!

Big maxed out the scale they had at home, so Rob took him to Curves to be weighed. Unfortunately, Big maxed out their scale as well, meaning that he definitely weighed more than 400 pounds. That was a surprise even to Big. Rob says, “Extreme weight requires extreme measures,” and takes him to a recycling center to weigh him. He clocks in at 416 pounds. Rob takes him to a hypnotherapist, but Big just falls asleep. Fortunately, the dietician gives Big good advice:

“Here’s what we’re going to do. We’re going to reprogram you to stop eating when your stomach says it’s full. We’re not going to tell him what to eat or what not to eat. What I want you to do is get little Ziploc bags and take about a 1/2 a cup’s worth of whatever you’re choosing and prepackage them so they’re preportioned. When you’re done, you’re done. At the most, I want you to work out twice a week right now.”

When Rob objects to merely portion control and twice weekly workouts, she’s firm with him,

“I’m going to leave the skateboarding up to you and you leave the nutrition up to me.”

Big tried to leave the nutrition up to her, but Rob bugged him. He ended up working out a lot with Rob. Three weeks later, they returned to the recycling center and what did the scale read? 416.0 lbs. SAME WEIGHT… In desperation, Big goes back to see the nutritionist. She helps him through it,

“Chances are, you’re losing some fat and you’re losing some body weight. Just because it’s not showing up on the scale doesn’t mean that there aren’t changes happening. Continue with your exercise, continue listening to your body and no more scales. And, I want you to go have a burger this week.”

Anyone who has ever had a friend or family member try to “help” them lose weight will find a soft spot for Big and want to punch Rob in the mouth. Don’t listen to the Robs in your life who want you to go to diet boot camp. Listen to the dietician. Eat half of whatever you would normally eat and start working out no more than twice a week. Leave the skateboarding to the Robs in your life and take diet advice from the nutritionist.

Via: Rudd Sound Bites: Rob & Big