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

I hear this phrase all the time. I’ve thought about it a lot. “Nothing tastes as good as being thin feels.” It’s supposed to be a really inspirational thought. I’ve heard women say it to themselves when they are tempted to overeat. I have never found it inspiring.

I don’t know what “being thin” feels like. I have no idea if it compares to lavender creme brulee or carrot cake with cream cheese frosting. Those foods taste pretty damn good, so I’m thinking that being thin must feel incredible. The problem is that I’ve never actually felt thin, so I have no idea what these people are talking about.

Of course, when I look at my old high school pictures, I realize that I was thin. I never felt thin, though. I look at those pictures and I can remember the first time I ever saw them. “Man, I am so fat.” I thought, looking at my offending body parts. Now, years later, I realize that I wasn’t so fat. I was at the upper edge of the healthy weight ranges for my age, but I wasn’t fat. I never felt thin, though. I certainly didn’t feel better than carrot cake with cream cheese frosting.

I suspect that feeling thin has nothing to do with the number on the scale. If that’s the case, can’t I “feel thin” even if I’m fat? I know that I felt a lot thinner when I lost fifty pounds. I felt so thin that I actually considered just maintaining at that weight. Even though I was still overweight, losing those fifty pounds felt so good that I thought I was happy with staying there. In fact, I did stay there for about two years.

After a while, however, I got used to it. I started to see that I was still fat. Instead of feeling good about losing fifty pounds, I started pinching fat and trying to squish it into jeans one size too small. It only took two years to start “feeling fat” again.

What if it never ends? What if I get to my goal weight and I still “feel fat”? What if I never “feel thin”? What if I never understand what they are talking about when they say, “Nothing tastes as good as being thin feels”? Sure, the first year, I’ll “feel thin,” but after that, when I’m used to my body, will I start noticing miniscule bits of fat on myself? Will I just turn my critical eye to wrinkles or gray hair or my speech patterns?

I have no idea. I don’t know what it feels like to feel thin. I don’t know what it’s like to be a thin adult. All of this is undiscovered country for me. Exciting, isn’t it?

There are a hundred thousand excuses for not following your eating or exercise program. I could list them here, but they all fall into one category:

BOGUS

You’re rolling your eyes right now. You think I’m just being hard and callous, but you’re wrong. For every excuse, there is someone out there who moved past it. It’s snowing? I’ve seen people run in the snow. It’s too hot? I’ve seen people exercising in the Las Vegas heat and smog. It’s just one chocolate? I’ve known people who have eaten healthy for years, forgoing every hint of chocolate. I don’t care what your excuse is, there is someone on this planet who didn’t let that barrier get in the way of their health.

How do I do it?

(more…)

Even when I know why the scale is higher, I find it extremely hard to stay motivated. I wonder how it would be for people who don’t understand the physics of losing weight. Here is some important information that can affect your relationship with the scale.

Weighing Basics:

• Use the same scale each time you weigh yourself. No scale is perfectly adjusted and each will read a little differently.
• Weigh at the same time every day. You’ll weigh the least in the morning after you have used the bathroom.
• Wear the same clothing every time you weigh. The idea that your clothes might account for that extra pound will go away when you wear the same clothes every time.
• Weigh yourself on the same day each week. That means only weigh yourself once a week. There are daily fluctuations in your body, but a week is long enough to see progress (or lack of it).

If you show a gain and you KNOW you had a perfect week, remember the following:

• It may have been extra salt in your diet. A high sodium intake can make your body retain water.
• If you have just started a workout regime or just increased the intensity or time of your workouts, your body may be retaining water. If it has been over two weeks since your last weigh-in, the gain could be extra muscle. Use a measuring tape to see if you have lost any inches.
• Constipation can show a gain at the scale.
• Pre-Menstrual Syndrome has the symptom of water retention. If your cycle is about to start, you can attribute the extra weight to that.
• If you had a large loss the week before, it is normal to maintain your weight or even show a gain the next week.

Health Issues that can create a weight gain:

• Diabetes
• Thyroid / Glandular Problems
• Pregnancy

For these reasons, it’s a good idea to check with your doctor before starting any weight loss program.

In the end, the scale is merely a tool, and often not a very accurate one. If you follow your weight loss program faithfully, the scale will become an indicator or your success, not the final word on it.

Sometimes I make time fly on the treadmill by changing the speed or incline every couple of minutes. Other times I want to finish a certain distance within the time that I have to exercise. The way that I have done this in the past is to use Microsoft Excel (a spreadsheet program) to calculate how fast for how long I would have to go to complete the distance that I want.

Download this Treadmill Spreadsheet if you’d like to try it.

There are a total of 9 workouts. All of them are 30 minutes long including a warm up and cool down of two minutes apiece. Since my treadmill starts the timer at zero and counts up, the “Reading” column is what the treadmill should read when I change the incline or speed. I used these workouts when I was training for a 5K last year and I found them helpful.

When I read Runner’s World, they would always talk about Interval workouts or Hill workouts, but they would never talk in specifics. They would say things like “Run at 70% of your 5K speed,” which really didn’t help me. I wanted to know the specific MPH to set the treadmill to and when to change it. I ended up making my own treadmill workouts using this spreadsheet.

You may be more of a beginner or more advanced than these workouts, but they could still be helpful to you. The formulas will still calculate the distance, if you change the speed. Play with it a little bit and you can make this work for you. I hope you find it as helpful as I have.

This article by Ruth Kava was written in 2003, but it is still very applicable today.

• Health Facts & Fears – Let Them Eat Cake! – by Ruth Kava, Ph.D., R.D.

The most important quote that I can take from this article is, “Poor Nutrition and Obesity Are Not the Same Problem.” When I tell people that I have lost all my weight using the Weight Watchers program, I hear the response, “Yeah, but you can just eat junk all day and if you stay within your points, that’s alright with them. That’s not healthy.”

Yep, they’re right. Eating to stay within your Points allowance with no regard to the nutrition guidelines that they give you is not healthy. But do you know what? You’ll lose weight anyway. I ate garbage the first few months on the program, but I still lost weight because I stayed within my Points allowance.

We are talking about two separate things. Obesity and poor nutrition are not the same problem. Quite frankly, I think that dealing with obesity first is the way to go. I ate junk food and fast food and all the hydrogenated oil that I could fit within my Points and I lost weight. After a while, however, I started paying attention to the nutrition guidelines that Weight Watchers provided. I slowly added healthier habits into my routine.

Sometimes I think that so many diets fail because people jump into things head first and make too many changes into their routine too quickly. I found that adding small changes slowly over the course of many months helped me eat healthier than I ever imagined I could.

Keeping your body healthy is an expression of gratitude to the whole cosmos – the trees, the clouds, everything.
– Thich Nhat Hanh

Thanks, world! I’m so glad that my legs and arms and lungs and heart and head all work. They work really well, even though I left them dormant for so long. Sometimes they ache from the effort, but they keep moving.

(more…)

Lies you tell yourself:

• “It’s just one day.”
• “I have to be gracious.”
• “We deserve to celebrate our love.”

Don’t lie to yourself this year.

(more…)

Every few months, I lose my motivation. It happens quite regularly. In fact, because I’m such a statistician, I have tracked my dips in motivation. They happen for two reasons: I’m too strict with my diet or something hurt my feelings.

(more…)

It’s not enough that we do our best; sometimes we have to do what’s required.
– Sir Winston Churchill, British politician (1874 – 1965)

The sad truth is that you cannot buy yourself fit or thin, but the beauty of all of this is that the converse is also true. You don’t need extra money to lose weight and be strong. Just like when I walked into the door of Weight Watcher’s, I was willing to do whatever they told me. All you need to do is be willing to do what is required.

You can get fit for free. Walk around the block. Run around the block. Play with your dog. Play with your kids. Play with yourself. Run up and down the stairs at work. Do some jumping jacks and crunches. Carry your groceries. Carry your neighbor’s groceries. Volunteer to help your friend move. Lift cans of soup. Lift sacks of flour.

You can even get paid to get fit. Get a part-time job in a warehouse or for UPS or even at a department store. All of these jobs are very active and provide you with light to moderate exercise while you get paid. Instead of going home and watching television, getting a temporary job that is very physical might be a good option for you.

What is required: Thirty to forty minutes of intense exercise every day. You should be breathing heavy, sweating, and your heart rate should be at the cardio level.

You can lose weight and cut your grocery bills. Healthy and fresh food is actually cheaper than junk food. Fruit and vegetables are economical compared to chips and cookies. Frozen dinners are more expensive than the ingredients to cook it yourself. If money is your concern, you may have to sacrifice convenience, but it is possible to become thin without spending one extra dime.

What is required: Lower your caloric intake. Follow the Dietary Guidelines for Americans or the Eat More, Lose More plan from Prevention Magazine.

As long as you are willing to do what is required, there is nothing that can get in your way. As long as you are unwilling, there is nothing that you can buy that will help you get to your goal.

Sad as it may seem, you can’t buy yourself fit. You can’t buy yourself thin. No matter how much money you spend on yoga mats and fitness balls, you will stay at the same level of fitness if you don’t use them. No matter how much money you spend on health food, you will stay at the same weight if you eat too much.

Sadder still, you can’t learn yourself fit and you can’t learn yourself thin. No matter how many gyms you join or personal trainers you hire, you will stay at the same level of fitness if you don’t exercise every day. No matter how many diet books or magazines you buy, you will stay at the same weight if you don’t alter your eating habits. No matter how many nutrition classes you take… I think you get the point.

The only way to get fit is to exercise. The only way to get thin is to monitor your eating. There is just no other way around the physics of physiology. No matter how much money you have, you are still bound by the laws of physics.

(more…)