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

The BBC has created this BRILLIANT documentary called Super Slim Me. Dawn Porter is a healthy reporter who never had to diet in her life. She looks gorgeous at the beginning of the documentary, hires a team of doctors and nutritionists and embarks on the goal of getting to Size Zero.

She starts with a beautiful 33 inch waist and a VERY healthy BMI of 22. Here is part one:

She sets up a dietary regime with her nutritionist of 500 calories a day. All she eats during the day would look like this:

This is NOT a healthy diet and she knows it. That’s why she has a team of doctors monitoring her progress during this experiment.

Tune in next week to see Part two of the BBC’s Super Slim Me.

This postcard from PostSecret seems like a beam of hope to me.

It reads:

Now I believe that I am unique, sexy, worthy of love, and beautiful. Without my eating disorder.

Many of these postcards are damaged in the mail. Is there something missing from this postcard? It looks like there is room for another sentence.

The Ferris Wheel image makes me worry that bad times are coming again. If my experience with my binge-eating is any indication, whenever I feel like I’m finally in control again, I live in the constant fear that it will come back, and, of course, it DOES. My eating problems seem to cycle. It is the managing of the bad times and holding out for the good times that has kept me going.

When that Ferris Wheel goes down again, hold on tight, my friend.

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.

I’m sure the fashion industry considers this model a “plus” size, but honestly she’s a NORMAL sized woman and she looks freakin’ fantastic!

Hooray for Curvation for this spectacular advertisement. I can’t believe this ad showed up in the November edition of In Style magazine without being put right next to an article about exercise or diet. It was adjacent to Eva Mendes in an ad for The Spirit.

Next time you feel bad because you think you can never look as good as the women in the fashion magazines, remember this curvy beauty and know that you can do it!

I bought Life in Cartoon Motion by Mika because of the song Lollipop, but I was surprised today by a song a little further down the playlist. It’s called Big Girls (You Are Beautiful). It felt so nice to hear the lyrics:

No need to fantasize
Since I was in my braces
A watering hole
Where the girls are round
And curves in all the right places

I immediately added Big Girls to my workout playlist. It’s an upbeat song and it makes me happy.

You can see the video for the song here:

This is HARD. I’m at one of those points where I want to eat all the time. I don’t want to exercise. Heck, I don’t even want to get out of bed every day, but I really don’t have a choice in that matter. Eating healthy has become a chore.

It’s not always like this. Sometimes it’s EASY. I can’t remember how many times I’ve written in my personal journal the following phrase:

I ate healthy again today. It was totally easy and I didn’t even have to think about it. I wish it were always like this. I wish I could bottle up this feeling so I could use it on the days when it’s hard. I need to remember days like today when I get discouraged.

The last two weeks have been hard times. Ironically, going back and reading those happy journal entries when it was easy actually made it WORSE. Sometimes I get inspired by how excited I was, but mostly, it makes me angry that it’s hard right now.

How do I get past this?

When it’s hard, it only lasts for a few days (worst case lasts a couple of weeks), so I just need to hold on until I can get past these hard times. What do I do? Here are some of the techniques for holding on that work for me.

• Eat Low Carb: Firstly, I need to get my cravings under control and the easiest way to do that is to switch to a low carb diet. Still working within the framework of Weight Watchers, I choose to eat meat, cheese and vegetables. This has been the ABSOLUTE best way to kill the urge to binge.

• Visualize My Goal: I spend some time every day thinking about what I will look like and what my life will be like when I’m at my goal weight. This is incredibly hard to do when I’m not motivated, that’s why I set an appointment with myself every morning to do this when I’m feeling down in the dumps.

• Write In My Journal: Even though my journal entries sound like pathetic moaning, I write in my journal every day. It helps me muscle past the hard times.

• Make A New Commitment: It doesn’t matter what kind of commitment I make as long as I make one that I have to keep. I usually set up one day a week to workout with a friend. It gives me something to look forward to and it keeps me accountable to exercise. You could ask someone to review your food journal at the end of every day.

• Try Something New: I think most of my bad times are caused by BOREDOM. I have been eating the same thing for a few weeks. Sure it tastes good and it is perfect for losing weight, but I get sick of it and think that I can’t follow my program. Trying some new food that is healthy is a great way to break past that boredom. The same can be said for exercise. If the thought of working out sounds horrible to you, it might be that you’re sick of your workout routine. Try something new when you are exercising and you just might find that you can hold on for another day.

Let’s just be honest. THIS IS HARD! If it were easy, everyone would look like a supermodel. What you’re doing is difficult, but there are ways to muscle through the hard times. All you have to do is hold on for a few days and it will get easier again. These things come and go in waves, so you need to ride the dips and swells the best you can.

If you are feeling like eating something that you shouldn’t, try watching this meditation video:

Sometimes we eat just to relax. Here is a way to relax without putting food into your mouth. Enjoy this moment!

This postcard from PostSecret says EVERYTHING about someone who says they love you one minute and tells you you’re fat the next:

It reads:

My whole life, you told me I was fat. I had surgery to become thin.

Now I’m skinny. And you’re still an asshole.

This exact same thing happened to me (except the surgery part, I lost the weight on my own). The first time I tried Weight Watchers, I lost almost 75 pounds. I wasn’t to goal yet, but I looked world’s better than before.

I’ve made no secret that my grandparents starved me every summer in Billings. On one particularly dark night, I was feeling down. I felt like my grandpa never was proud of me. Mike told me that it wasn’t true and told me to call him and talk to him.

In tears, I called him and asked, “Are you proud of me? Are you proud of anything I’ve done?”

He answered, “Well, you really need to get your weight under control.”

No mention of the college degree. No mention of the prestigious job. No mention of the recent weight loss.

He died last year and right up to the end he was that kind of person. My mistake was ever trying to please him in the first place. Don’t get me wrong. That doesn’t mean I don’t love him. Whenever I tried to get any positive reinforcement from him, however, I always came away feeling worse than before.

In the end, I need to eat healthy and exercise for ME. Not for anyone else.

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.

I am coming off a magazine binge, but I wanted to share this article I found with you. Runners World had an Ask Miles question here:

• Ask Miles – November 2008

How should I react to rude comments? If I hear “Run, Forrest, run” one more time, I’m going to snap. —Owen R., Brooklyn

The best response to taunts is the very same response that Mr. Gump himself gave: No response at all. Wisenheimers aren’t trying to draw attention to you; they’re trying to draw attention to themselves. Any reaction from you is just fuel to the fire. Instead, go Zen. Keep your gaze ahead, your stride smooth. All of this assumes, of course, that it’s illegal to carry a Taser in your state. Otherwise, my advice would change dramatically.

My advice to Owen would be COMPLETELY different. If someone is screaming, “Run, Forrest, Run,” they might just be wanting to encourage you. I remember when I got black toenail. I wasn’t able to run (or even walk) for a couple of months. It was almost torture to drive past other runners because they were running and I couldn’t. A lot of times, I would give a quick beep or a wave at the runners on the road.

In fact, there have been a lot of times when people have beeped at me when I’m running and I’ve ALWAYS considered it a note of encouragement.

It’s all about your mentality. Every time you hear someone scream out their car at you, whether you can understand what they are saying or not, consider it a compliment or a word of encouragement. Sure, the mean guys screamed “Run, Forrest, run,” but so did his girlfriend and the entire stadium at the football game. Consider it a compliment and wave back!

For more motivation, here’s an inspirational video of Forrest Gump running:

I’ve decided that the key to happiness is low expectations.

Laura Moncur, Merriton, 06-04-08

When I wrote that chapter in Merriton, I had no idea I might also be talking about my own weight loss journey.

I have found that when I keep my expectations LOW, I last longer and stay happier. When so many self-help gurus tell me that I need to stay positive and aim for the sky, it seems very counter intuitive to me to keep my expectations low.

Let’s take my weekly experience at the scale, for example. When my expectations are low, I MEAN LOW. Expecting to lose more than 0.5 lb. a week is too high. If I plan on losing 0.5 lb. or less, I end up ecstatic when I lose 0.6 pounds.

On the other hand, if I have been shooting for the sky and I find that I’ve only lost 0.6 lb., I tend to get discouraged. I feel like “this isn’t working.” Sometimes, I even end up bingeing because I didn’t reach my goal. Even if my goal was as “low” as 1.0 lb. a week.

For some reason, the opposite of what all the gurus say is true for me. Instead of aiming for the sky, I do MUCH better when I aim for the ground. I’m pleasantly surprised when I actually hit something.

I just read about an advertising study that noticed that seeing thin women modeling a product makes you more likely to rate that product highly. Of course, you end up feeling insecure about yourself, but the marketing for the product is positive.

• Go figure: Skinny sells best

More importantly, seeing thin models also affects eating behavior:

Advertisers like to mess with your head and so do researchers, so here come the free cookies. The researchers tried to gauge the short-term link between seeing thin models and eating behaviour, and used the ploy of offering free Oreos as a thank-you to their study participants. Those who had just seen the thin models were almost four times as likely to refuse the cookies.

So, if you look through the latest issue of Elle magazine, is that good for you or bad for you? Your self-esteem might suffer, but your eating behaviors might improve.

Maybe these words from Jay Leno actually help in this case:

I think high self-esteem is overrated. A little low self-esteem is actually quite good…Maybe you’re not the best, so you should work a little harder.

Jay Leno (1950 – ), O Magazine, February 2003

Honestly, I think the whole self-esteem issue is moot. It doesn’t matter how you feel about yourself as long as you do what you need to do to be successful. Photos of thin models or not, the most important thing to keep you healthy is DOING what needs to be done to be healthy.

Via: Diet Blog: Women Prefer Products Pitched by Thin Models