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

The other day, I was running at the gym with Mike. I was using my Nike+, so my miles would be tracked for my challenges. I was wearing my heart rate monitor. I even added my weight into the treadmill so that their calculations would be accurate.

After I was finished, the Nike+ said I had burned 479 calories. The heart rate monitor said I had burned 502 calories and the treadmill said I had burned 345 calories. Which one do I believe?

Are your exercise gadgets getting in the way of your workout?

Do you find it simpler to just exercise with one gadget instead of more?

Is it easier to just go out and run or do our gadgets help?

There is a famous quotation:

“A man with a watch knows what time it is. A man with two watches is never sure.”

Segal’s Law

Sometimes I feel like that with all the methods I have to measure my exercise progress. The problem is, I don’t trust any of them enough to just believe it.

I like to stay at hotels with gyms. Most of the time, I’m pleasantly surprised at how well-equipped they are. There is usually at least one treadmill in working order, so I am able to at least get my cardio in. Weights, however are a different story. I usually have no idea how their weights compare to my own unless they have free weights. The weight machines are all different.

How do you exercise when you’re traveling?

What should you bring to make sure you can exercise when you’re on vacation?

How do you convert your weight training routine from home to the one at the hotel gym?

How do you factor in any extra activity you do while you’re on your trip?

Since my normal life is mostly sitting in front of a computer, I usually find myself hiking, walking and moving more when I’m traveling. I’ve never really found a way to account for that. What do you do it?

I just wrote something for the Quotations Page about The Picture of Dorian Gray. Dorian was blessed (or cursed) with a portrait that aged for him. All the scars, diseases and effects of his secret vices were shown on his picture instead of his own body.

The story got me thinking.

What if you were Dorian Gray?

What if you could eat all that you wanted and not an ounce of fat would show up on your body, only on your portait?

What if you never had to exercise again?

Would you live a life of “debauchery” like Dorian?

If you were to live a life of “debauchery”, what would you do?

Is there any way you can incorporate those foods or activities into your life without “falling into debauchery?”

Considering how Dorian turned out in the end, I am reluctant to say that I would gleefully eat whatever I wanted. More importantly, thinking about what I would do if I were Dorian Gray helps me realize how I have been denying myself and lets me plan these things into my diet and lifestyle without harm.

So… what would you do if you were Dorian Gray?

It just tipped over into miserable here in Salt Lake City. The thought of running outside just kills all my inspiration, so it’s back to the treadmill for me. I’ve been watching the Swami’s Beach DVD nonstop since I created it, so I can pretend I feel ocean breezes (they’re really a couple of fans hooked onto the treadmill).

Where do you exercise when it gets too hot?

I also head to the mountains because it’s lots cooler up there than down in the valley. The only problem with that is I’m much more likely to get burnt, so I have to grease up with sunscreen beforehand. What do you do?

I am totally motivated to eat healthy right now. After almost a year of struggling, I am happy to eat healthy. I have NO idea why.

Some of it is going back to Weight Watchers. I have to admit that I want to show a loss on that official form, but that isn’t all of it. Just going to Weight Watchers was caused by an inner motivation that I have no idea from whence it came.

What keeps you motivated?

What do you do to make sure you’ll eat healthy every day?

What do you do to make sure you exercise?

How do you stay motivated?

I wish I could bottle this feeling. I wish I could make it stay forever. Instead, I’m just doing my best to hang onto it right now while I have it.

They say that muscle weighs more than fat, but honestly a pound is a pound. One pound of fat is going to weigh the same as one pound of muscle. If you look at this photo, though, one pound of muscle is going to take up less space on your body than that one pound of fat. It’s also going to be a lot less lumpy under your skin than the fat is.

One pound is a lot. If you feel discouraged about “only losing a pound,” then go to the grocery store and find a pound of meat or a pound of butter and notice how MUCH you have lost.

Via: My Pet Fat

Every day, when I run outside, I see this red chair. When I see it, I know I don’t have much further to go. Any second now, the little guy in my iPod Nike+ is going to say, “400 Meters To Go!” Soon I will be finished with my run and I can stretch.

What do you see when you exercise?

What do you think about when you’re exercising?

Have you created any comforting thoughts or attached meaning to anything you see?

Sometimes running, walking or riding your bike around the same area ends up creating a map in my mind. When I drive past my old neighborhood in West Jordan, I see places where I had run too hard or maybe places that always felt good to run by because it was a nice stretch of flat road or maybe the air smelled like fried chicken.

Right now, the weather is perfect for running outdoors, so I have been taking advantage of it as much as I can. When I run outside, I end up seeing my neighborhood in a whole different light.

Janet Jackson was in US magazine again this year because she kept the weight off after losing 60 pounds in four months last year. Seeing her weight loss pictures really inspired me to do better.

But I hear from the “experts” all the time that continued exposure to photos of beautiful people makes young girls depressed and anorexic. I don’t quite know where they are getting their data for these assumptions, but it does make me wonder if I’m the weird one.

Do weight loss photos inspire you or depress you?

Do photographs of thin people make you want to eat healthier?

Do you cut out pictures of people who have the physique that you want?

Do you keep a book of these photographs to look at when you feel like eating poorly?

I feel like the photos inspire me. I keep a book, but I haven’t added to it in a long time. I haven’t even looked at it in a long time. I even had photos of what I wanted my hair to look like. I was finally able to get my hair to be “perfect” only to realize that it wasn’t worth 45 minutes of my time EVERY day. Now, I live with crazy curly hair and use the extra 45 minutes to write more. It makes me worry that weight loss might be the same.

Last year, Janet Jackson shocked all of us by losing 6o pounds in four months. I talked about it here:

• Starling Fitness » Janet Jackson Weight Loss

She has been able to keep the weight off for a year and according to the cover of the magazine, she will share her “secrets” with us.

What’s her secret?

Eating light and clean helps, but you really shouldn’t think of it as a diet, otherwise you feel like you are depriving yourself. If you crave something, you should have a little bit of it, then let it go and move on. Do a little extra exercise so you’re back on track.

She exercises six days a week doing cardio mostly. She has toned down on the weight training because she has injured her rotator cuff, so any workout that affects her shoulder has been cut out of her routine.

From the example menu and workout list, it looks like she is keeping things REALLY light in order to keep her size four frame.

I have to admit that seeing her look so good after a whole year is really inspiring to me. I think to myself, “Janet has been fighting this her whole life. If she can do it, then I can too.” Personal trainers and chefs? The fact that she has access to them doesn’t change my level of inspiration. I can plan my own meals. I can create a workout.

I really believe that 90% of weight loss happens in my head and the other 10% is what I do on the treadmill or put in my mouth. When I decide that it’s possible, nothing can stop me. When I decide that it’s hopeless, nothing can help me. Just seeing how well Janet has been able to keep off the weight really helps me get that 90% back into gear.

Read this and while you do, insert your own hated body part whenever she talks about her butt.

• skirt!features – Flat-Bottomed Girl

In the end, we all have to accept ourselves the way we are and enjoy the good.

I’ve accepted that I’m never going to have a rump like J. Lo or Scarlett Johansson. I’m never going to have a killer rack like Megan Mullally or Jessica Simpson. But I have made men walk into walls by wearing a short skirt, I will never “have to” wear a bra, and I’m the only member of my family gifted with slender ankles. So I’ll accept my flat ass and belt out my own version of “Fat Bottomed Girls” (changing the lyrics to “Flat Bottomed Girls”) when I strut down the street, knowing that no matter what my ass looks like, I can still make this rockin’ world go ’round.