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

You feel stuck. You’re stuck at the weight that you have been at for so long that you are starting to think that you will never be able to weigh any less. It’s not that bad. You can run and play. You can eat healthy food and you don’t think that your health is affected THAT much. You’re better than that 500 pound man you saw on television a couple of months ago, right?

But you want more. You want to be thin. You want people to look at you instead of look through you. You’re sick of that extra flab on your body, but you feel like there is nothing you can do to escape it. Guess what, you’re wrong. You’re not stuck and here is an article from Steve Pavlina that will help you break free from the black hole you’ve found yourself in.

• Steve Pavlina – You Need People

This week on Biggest Loser, the contestants were tortured with even more ridiculous situations. When they checked the kitchen, they were informed that the food was gone and that they would have to eat at restaurants all week. That sounded like a really good training session to me. Learning to eat healthy at every restaurant in the city is something that everyone who is watching their weight should do.

Unfortunately, they jumped right into Contrived Dilemna Land that pushes things past ridiculous. The contestants were separated and told that whomever drank the most milkshake shots would be exempt from having to eat at the restaurants and they would have a personal chef all week. This resulted in one contestant drinking more than a day’s worth of calories in one sitting in order to win. Are they really trying to help these people? It makes me wonder.

At another point in the week, they took the contestants to The Cheesecake Factory. This is a good way to teach them to eat in moderation because there are times when everyone in your circle of friends wants to gorge on cheesecake. Learning how to indulge softly is helpful in those situations. One of the contestants wasn’t learning how to indulge softly, however. He was sneaking bites of the cheesecake behind his napkin. Jillian caught him and poured salt all over his remaining food.

“You’ve got to change your behavior. You do not need to rely on willpower. Willpower is greatly overrated, and by destroying [the dessert], it will make it incapable for you to submit to temptation.”

Finally! One good piece of useful advice from this program. Take it and run because I’m sure next week they’ll find something demeaning to do to these poor folks.

Via: TVgasm – Biggest Loser: My Milkshake Brings All the Boys to the Yard…

This week’s StrengthCast is short and to the point. Jason answers a few questions from his forum and keeps it brief. He said he was losing his voice, but he sounds good. Give it a listen.

• StrengthCast – Motivation in Brief

My favorite quotes from this week’s StrengthCast:

“The shortcut to physical fitness is: cardiovascular activity, weight training activity and a diet that supports those activities (green vegetables, lean protein and complex carbohydrates). Eat when you’re hungry.”

“If you embark on an exercise program and it’s difficult, as it should be, you will stress your muscles. They will need to repair and rebuild. They repair by being adequately rested, have enough water in your body and you’re eating to support the activities you’re choosing.”

“I think that’s why people overtrain. It’s very easy to say, ‘Ok, I’m training now.’ And every day you train. It’s easier to train every day than it is to stay focused on your overall goal and train every other day, or maybe every three days in the beginning.”

“Managing your recovery is of crucial importance.”

This podcast is a really inspirational thing to listen to while you’re exercising or if you’re feeling like it’s all not worth it. I listened to it while I was walking on my lunch hour and I wished I had a paper with me to write down all the great stuff he was giving me.

I watched this commercial at work. I was supposed to be working, but I clicked on the link and watched covertly. I knew I shouldn’t have, but I did anyway. Fortunately, no one noticed my body shaking from hiding the laughter.

• Toyota Vios Ad – Don’t Let Anything Stop Your Run

Next time I’m on a run outside, I’ll remember the lesson from this commercial: Don’t Let Anything Stop Your Run.

Via: A Passion for Running – toyota running commercial Thanks, Mark, for almost getting me busted!

Have your workouts been feeling like work and drudgery lately? Here is a huge list of inspirational stories from people who have chosen running as their favorite form of exercise.

• A Passion for Running – we remember when…

I remember when I couldn’t run for more than a few feet. I would look ahead of me and say, “I’ll run to that garbage can.” Sometimes I didn’t even make it to the garbage can. Eventually, it got easier to run without resorting to walking, but running has never gotten easier. It is always a challenge, every morning, every run. That’s why it’s a sport that I can live with the rest of my life. That’s why I enjoy each run. There is something different to conquer each day.

Steve Pavlina has written a great entry about the difference between End Goals and Means Goals. It’s a great read and really applicable to weight loss.

• Steve Pavlina – End Goals vs. Means Goals

If you feel like you’ve failed, take another look. What did you fail at? Did you stop exercising every day? Did you overeat at the buffet? Did you lose your battle with bingeing? Did you buy another weight loss product at a high price only to find out that it’s useless? Whatever you think you’ve failed at isn’t the End Goal. All of those things are just a means to get to your End Goal.

The End Goal is to be at a healthy weight and fitness level. If you stopped exercising, that is just information for you. Whatever you were doing wasn’t your thing. You need to find something else that you truly love that will bring activity into your life. If you binged at the buffet last night, you didn’t blow it. You just overate one day. Today is a new day and a new chance to live healthy. Next time, you’ll know that going for more than one trip up to the buffet is not a good idea.

All those things that make you feel like a failure are nothing. Cull what information you can from them but keep your eye on the End Goal, not on those Mean Goals. There are a myriad of ways to get to a healthy weight and fitness level.

This StrenthCast is with Caroline Kohles, a NIA dance instructor. If you can stand listening to the guilt trip at the beginning about paying for the membership, this is a pretty good podcast.

• StrengthCast – Caroline Kohles

They don’t talk about NIA very much, such as what it is and what it can do for you. Caroline does give a good motivational talk, however. Here’s my favorite quotation from this podcast:

“Knowing what you want is a huge present because it gives us direction. If you’re ever jealous, then that’s great! That means you want what someone else has and then you know, ‘Wow! That’s what I want!'”

She recommends getting your body on a schedule because the body does better when you have the same routines every day. She also believes that it’s best to take the “shoulds” and “shouldn’ts” out of your life. Instead, you should pay attention to your body. What do you naturally move towards? What do you naturally shy away from? Are these tendencies helpful or harmful to you?

If you thought that you would feel better about your body once you were thin, you might be wrong. If you thought that you would feel better about your body if thousands of fans loved and adored you, once again, you might be wrong. According to Gunnar Peterson, a personal trainer to the stars, even his clients have body issues.

• National Nine News – Stars battle the bulge too, says trainer

If Angelina Jolie, Gwen Stefani, Jennifer Lopez and Cameron Diaz have body issues, is there no escape? The first time I heard this, I remember thinking, “What’s the point of dieting? I’m going to feel like shit about my body even if I get thin. I might as well eat whatever I want. Then I have a reason to feel inadequate.” It took me years to realize that the idea, “Then I have a reason to feel inadequate” was the whole problem.

It was like I was overeating to punish myself. I felt inadequate. Everybody does at some times. When I was overweight, I could just blame it on my weight. The big fear was that when I was thin, I would have no reason to feel inadequate and I would have nothing to blame it all on. If I didn’t get a raise at work, I couldn’t blame it on my weight. If someone pointed and laughed at me in the gym, then I couldn’t blame it on my jiggling hips. I wouldn’t have a scape goat anymore.

Once I stopped letting myself blame everything on being overweight, I was able to start clearing up those body issues. Here is the best quote from the above article:

“Those people are just people. They have two legs, two arms, a torso and a head,” Peterson said. “The body works in three plains of motion. It has a cardio pulmonary system. It has the same muscles and bones, they just happen to be on the screen.”

Once you realize that you have the same general makeup as all those stars and you have the same worries and concerns as they do, you can concentrate on the incredible and wonderful things that your body CAN do.

Via: About.com – Stars Are People Too – by Paige Waehner

Most people say that they read Playboy magazine for the articles. I “read” Dakota’s Weblog for the pictures. This entry, however, was a beautiful picture and an inspiring entry.

• Dakota – Embodiment

I love the way she describes this picture:

“This is a body/spirit(s) shot. Whether the spirits are coming or going isn’t clear, but, since I took the picture, I am going to assume that it is about my wish to embody my whole self, all of who I really am, and I will take it as a measure of my progress thus far.”

Lofty goal indeed!

Apparently, the Glasgow City Council is offering incentives to children who eat healthy. It actually reminds me of when the toothpaste companies sponsored a program to teach us kids to brush our teeth. We got a free toothbrush, toothpaste and some little red pills that show you how miserably you have brushed your teeth when you’re done. I would have liked to earn a Sony Walkman for my effort back then.

• BBC News – iPod lure to cut down junk food

Why don’t I live in Glasgow? I knew that whole Revolutionary War was a bad thing…

Via – Popgadget – Eat your greens and get an Xbox