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

There are a lot of ways to keep track of the food you eat, but one of the simplest ideas is to use Twitter as a food journal. Since you can send a tweet from a computer or your cell phone, Twitter is with you WHEREVER you go. It’s pure genius.

For those of you not familiar with Twitter, it’s a social network site that asks the simple question, “What are you doing?” You have 140 characters to state what you are doing all day long. One of the most simple ways to keep track of your food is to use Twitter.

If you already have a Twitter account, you can follow me at http://twitter.com/lauramoncur/.

For a tutorial on how to set up an account, please read more: (more…)

People say the best workout partner is a dog. A big, energy-filled dog that needs a couple of walks a day is a good workout partner, but when it’s snowy and icy outside, your workout partner can pull you onto your butt.

I’ve been walking outside every day with NakedJen and her dogs, Stella and Buddha. They are huge black labs and when Buddha sees a cat, he could pull my arm right out of its socket trying to get it. Earlier this month, Jen started using the Halti Head Collars on both of the dogs and suddenly, I’m not so worried about getting pulled over. I could lead both Stella and Buddha with one hand if I had to. Now, when we walk over icy roads, I only have to worry about keeping myself stable instead of the double worry of slipping and/or being pulled over by the dog.

If you walk your dogs in the winter, a Halti might be the best exercise equipment you’ve ever bought. It will help keep you injury free and your walks with your dog will be MUCH easier.

The Vasa Trainers range in price from $900 to nearly $2000. That was the first strike against them. They look like a glorified Total Gym, but cost over three times as much.

The Vasa Trainer is supposed to be an exercise machine that can give you the same workout as swimming, but if you notice, you only exercise your arms or legs, you can’t do them both, so a workout with the Vasa machine would take twice the time that laps in a pool could do for you. If you have a coach checking your technique, then YES, maybe the Vasa is helpful, but if you want to get your workout done, you’re better to just go to the community pool during lap hours to get your workout done.

• Vasa Ergometer Swim Bench, Canoe and Kayak paddling machine, Vasa Trainer total gym

The more I watched this video, the more their trainers felt like a big waste of money.

If you want the workout of swimming, GO SWIMMING! Community pools and gyms have inexpensive options for keeping you fit. If you want weight training, buy a weight training bench. For about $170, you can get this Apex Weight Bench. Add a few weights and you have a BETTER home gym for less than $300.

Don’t let fancy gadgets fool you into thinking that you are getting a better workout than good old fashioned swimming.

Via: Healthacker.com » Blog Archive » Vasa Ergometer Swim Bench: Rowing Machine for Swimmers

The Apple Blog has a great article listing nine iPhone apps that can help keep you fit:

• 9 iPhone Apps to Keep You Fit | TheAppleBlog

Here are their choices:

• Restaurant Nutrition
• LIVESTRONG.COM Calorie Tracker
• Weightbot
• iPump Total Body
• iFitness
• GymGoal Lite
• RunKeeper
• FitView
• Fitnio

Of all of these, the only one I’ve tried out is RunKeeper. You can see my review of it here:

• Starling Fitness » RunKeeper: It’s like a Garmin on your iPhone

I’ve really enjoyed RunKeeper and how well it keeps track of my runs. Plus, now they have a free version, so you don’t have to pay anything to use it! Enjoy!

The idea for this Ab Solo is a cross between basketball and an Ab Roller.

I like the idea of the Ab Solo, but only as a way of kicking butt. I don’t really think it’s all that useful for sculpting abdominal muscles, but I’m pretty sure that little LCD display on the side could be used to count how many throws I did and see if I can kick my friend’s butt.

It looks like a game to me, but I can’t play it alone. I need to have a friend to play with me, which means that there needs to be two of those machines for it to be fun. At nearly two thousand bucks a pop, the likeliness of a gym buying two of them is pretty slim, so I can’t even imagine having fun with the Ab Solo.

Here is the official website for Ab Solo:

• Ab Solo – Rewriting Abdominal History

Via: AbSolo Combines an Ab Workout with Basketball into One Machine » CraziestGadgets.com

Anyone who has been reading Starling Fitness for any length of time knows how much I love exergaming. I love it when video games incorporate exercise. Four years ago, the idea of an active video game was pretty much relegated to Dance Dance Revolution and Yourself! Fitness. While DDR has flourished and is available at any game store in the country, Yourself Fitness kind of fell off the map. I’m so happy to see that Yourself Fitness has found a new life with Ubisoft:

• Ubisoft – Ubisoft Announce My Fitness Coachâ„¢

Ubisoft announced that it will publish My Fitness Coach™ exclusively for the Wii™ home video game system from Nintendo. Based on the original idea from ResponDesign’s Yourself! Fitness and Fitness! Lifestyle, My Fitness Coach will allow players to create, engage in and track their own fitness program. A virtual trainer, Maya, will guide players through more than 400 unique exercises, give valuable fitness advice and even provide a pep talk for extra motivation.

It looks like they have brought all the best of Yourself Fitness to the Nintendo Wii with My Fitness Coach. They still use exercises that work with a stability ball, step bench, and hand weights. Unfortunately, it doesn’t look like it uses the Wii Fit Balance board:

You can choose various places to workout. This is the Alpine Retreat. Keep on the lookout for the mountain biker riding by!

This looks like she’s exercising on a roof. It looks like a new venue to me.

You can set your commitment here. I haven’t played Yourself Fitness in so long that Maya is really going to give me a lecture!

It looks like you can track your progress as well.

I really loved exercising with Yourself Fitness, so I’m tempted to buy My Fitness Coach, even though it doesn’t look all that different from the original. If you missed this game the first time around, you are in luck!

Here are some entries describing the game in detail:

• Starling Fitness » Yourself! Fitness for the Xbox
• Starling Fitness » Silver Status on Yourself! Fitness
• Starling Fitness » Yourself! Fitness for Playstation 2
• Starling Fitness » Gold Status on Yourself! Fitness
• Starling Fitness » Workout 35 on Yourself! Fitness
• Starling Fitness » A Poem Dedicated to Yourself! Fitness

It has been a long time since I played with Yourself! Fitness, but seeing this makes me want to play again. I need to break out the old Xbox!

Update 12-13-08: I found a video that gives you a good idea of what the workouts are like:

I am coming down off a Seventeen Magazine binge. I went to the library and scanned a bunch of things that have become one with my mind. One of them is Dr. Scholls Sandals. This is the advertisement I found:

The ad reads:

Dr. Scholl’s Exercise Sandals. The more you wear them, the more your legs say “look”.

The one and only Dr. Scholl’s Exercise Sandals can make legs go from all right to dynamite. They’re smooth real wood – with the toe grip that makes toes grab on. And the more they grab on, the more your leg muscles flex up… shape up – lean and beautiful. So slip into the comfort of contoured wood. Soft, cushioned leather. It’s the comfortable way to walk your legs pretty.

Dr. Scholl’s Fitness Begins With Healthier Feet

My grandma wore Dr. Scholl’s sandals for YEARS thinking that they would give her great gams. They never did. In fact, they turned out to be mostly uncomfortable shoes. She faithfully wore them without any effect on the appearance of her legs or increase in fitness.

I’m sure you’re nodding your head and agreeing with me. Silly people from the 70’s and 80’s believed anything. Unfortunately, these sorts of things STILL go on. The latest are Yoga Sandals. Here are the claims from their website:

“Spread your toes” is a favorite yoga teacher mantra for a reason. Separating your toes improves your balance, flexibility and alignment. Worn around the house or on errands, our EVA microfiber sandals retrain your feet to do just that while also helping to relieve painful foot conditions.

The four thongs insure the sandal will not slide around on the foot or be accidentally kicked off with sudden movement, and the support of the heel protects your arch while the slope provides ambulatory stability. With each toe gently separated, there is a natural alignment of the foot bones and muscles, aiding posture and balance. In yoga training, there is an emphasis on separating the toes in the standing postures to improve the sense of grounding and balance, and these sandals re-train the toes to do just that, while exercising the foot muscles.

Will you get a yoga workout by walking around in these sandals? No. In fact, the only thing they seem good for is getting a pedicure.

And then there are the Fit Flops.

They claimed:

Every step you take in the FitFlop helps tone and trim your legs. The FitFlop’s uniquely built multi-density midsole activates muscles midstep to help tone your thighs, your calves and your glutes. In fact, FitFlops are biomechanically engineered to absorb shock, lessen joint strain, and recreate the gait of barefoot walking – but with a powerful new built-in micro-wobbleboard workout-enhancing effect.

For years, shoe manufacturers have been promising that their shoes can make your legs look better. Promises that can only be achieved with healthy diet and exercise. If you go for a walk every day in a pair of shoes, it’s the WALKING that makes you fit, not the shoes. Don’t be fooled by their promises.

I have used Absolute Fitness [iTunes Link] off and on for about four months now. Even though I’m on Weight Watchers, I like to keep track of other details of my eating and Absolute Fitness is perfect for that. Not only does it track my fat, calories and fiber, it also keeps track of my carbohydrates, protein and cholesterol (among other things). I like how easy it is to add food to my journal. It’s also easy to calculate how many calories I’ve burned during my exercise.

After testing a ton of weight loss, diet journals and other fitness apps for the iPhone, this is the only one that I was truly impressed with. The others crashed my iPhone or just didn’t have what I needed. Absolute Fitness wins hands down for ease of use and stability.

The only downside is that it costs $14.99, which is a little higher than the cost of most iPhone apps. Honestly, if you have a choice between buying Absolute Fitness or three other iPhone health and fitness apps, go with Absolute Fitness. It won’t be a sucking disappointment like those five dollar apps will be. This is one of those cases where you really do get what you pay for.

Here are some other screenshots:

I love that they have a video tutorial that shows you HOW to use the program. It is such an overlooked thing in the software industry, but a simple video included in the program can solve so many problems. After watching the video, I felt like I could do anything using Absolute Fitness. It was a great addition and made the app worth it.

You can download Absolute Fitness at the iTunes Store:

• Aqua Eagle – Absolute Fitness – iTunes Link

Via: Apple iPhone Apps: Review: Absolute Fitness

If you bought a Wii Fit when they first came out, you’re probably a little sick of them calling you OBESE every freakin’ day. It’s probably gathering dust shoved under your couch…

Oh wait, that’s me…

Well, dust off your Wii Balance Board because Jillian Michaels (of Biggest Loser fame) has a workout game for you! It’s called Jillian Michaels Fitness Ultimatum 2009 and it will be available TOMORROW!

Jillian is the really tough trainer from The Biggest Loser and she’s the one that I like the best. Sure, she makes me angry when she berates her team members, but then again, sometimes they don’t do their homework and totally deserve it.

I really bonded with Jillian the second season of the Biggest Loser, so when they replaced her with a Barbie Doll in the third season, I refused to watch. Every year I SAY I’m not going to watch, but that year, I really didn’t. When Jillian came riding back last year on her black motorcycle and brought members of the Black Team to victory, I was so happy. Suffice it to say that I’m pretty stoked about this game!

Here are some screen shots:

So, if your Wii Balance Board is hiding under the couch, pull it out, get Jillian’s game and get ready to sweat!

Sandy Says: September 24th, 2008 at 12:29 pm

I was googling something else and came across this blog entry. How does one go about finding the right work out tennis shoe? My foot (specifically the arch area) hurts sometimes when exercising (aerobic videos at home)…my feeling is that it’s the shoe, but I don’t know how to choose the right shoe.

Thanks! Sandy

Sandy,

The best thing to do is to go to a professional running store. Wear your exercise clothes and be prepared to run on a treadmill in front of the staff. The best places (like Nike, New Balance and specialized running stores) have treadmills in their stores so you can test out the shoes in action. I always say that I have to run a mile in a shoe to know if it will hurt me or not. In actuality, I usually only need to try it out for a minute, but it is SO helpful to have a treadmill at the store to try out the shoes.

If you happen to live in an area without a specialized running store, your next best bet is Foot Locker. Try to go during a time when they are slow so you can get some personalized attention. My first shoes I bought at Lady Foot Locker and the girl there was so good she was able to find a shoe that felt good from the very first day.

Other than trial and error (which is FAR too costly when shoes can run in the hundreds of dollars), there is no better way to get running shoes than to go to a professional running store for a fitting. What you pay in embarrassment by running or walking on a treadmill in front of strangers, you save in dollars in your pocket.

Best,
Laura Moncur