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

I was looking for the new book from the American Heart Association, No Fad Diet, on my library’s website. Of course, it’s too new to be in their system. The search brought me to where the book would have been in the list, had they attained it. Instead of finding the latest health information from the American Heart Association, I looked at an unrelated list of titles that start with the word “No”. The book titled “No Fat Chicks: How Big Business Profits Making Women Hate Their Bodies and How to Fight Back” caught my eye.

Released in 1997, it is a little out of date. Fen-Phen is off the market. Plus-size clothing is a lot easier to find now. Even Karl Lagerfield has lost weight and published a horrible and degrading diet book. The author would have been livid at that one.

The book spends most of its time convincing the reader that overweight people encounter prejudice from employers, physicians and even the fashion industry. Anyone who has ever been fat knows this. We all have our stories of doctors that have insulted and demeaned us. We all have a list of stores that we will never step into, even though we’ve long ago lost the weight. We all have those dark suspicions about promotions and pay increases that we never received. We all have unrequited loves who rejected us strictly because of our girth. Most readers of this book don’t need to be convinced that we have been victims of prejudice. We’ve experienced it first hand.

The second half of the title, “And How to Fight Back” comprises only a couple of pages. I would have liked to see a section at the end of each chapter telling me how to talk to my doctor, which companies are the worst offenders and should be boycotted, and how to be a luscious and delectable woman that men fall for. The Fat Girl’s Guide to Life was much better at that than No Fat Chicks.

All in all, this is a really good book to read when you feel like you’re going crazy about your weight. It really helped me to realize that I’m not going crazy, I’m living in a crazy world where thinness is a religion.

Motivational writer Steve Pavlina is writing a series of articles on self-discipline this week, beginning with this great introduction to the topic:

Self-discipline is the ability to get yourself to take action regardless of your emotional state.

In this article, he applies the lessons of progressive weight training to building self-discipline, and suggests pushing your limits rather than setting goals that are far beyond your current performance. Whether you’re trying to stick to your diet or improve your performance at work, this is worth a read. Here’s another good quote:

Don’t compare yourself to other people. It won’t help. You’ll only find what you expect to find. If you think you’re weak, everyone else will seem stronger. If you think you’re strong, everyone else will seem weaker. There’s no point in doing this. Simply look at where you are now, and aim to get better as you go forward.

Steve’s weblog might be worth keeping an eye on beyond this series of posts, as he occasionally writes about diet and fitness topics. An example from last week: How to Give Up Coffee.

This is what bugs me about some weight loss “tips”:

• About.com – Your Daily Weight Loss Tip – Food Isn’t Your Best Friend

It’s always been there for you, but if you’ve binged until you developed a weight problem… with a friend like food, who needs enemies? When you’re feeling sad or stressed, pick up the phone, e-mail or ICQ a true friend — someone who you know can offer loving support and comfort. Be your own best friend and give emotional eating the cold shoulder!

Emotional Eating is so complicated that a pat answer like getting in contact with a friend isn’t a viable solution. There are so many things that trigger emotional eating. Sometimes, emotional eating can even be caused by being with friends. How would a call to a true friend help you at your next barbeque? In that situation, you’re surrounded by friends and food and every emotion you’re experiencing is telling you to “try some of this” and “just this once” yourself through the party.

Instead of pat answers, a better strategy is to write down a list of all the situations in which you have found yourself overeating in the past. Once you know the sorts of situations that can trigger overeating, come up with a few plans to keep yourself on track. Depending on willpower in those situations isn’t fair. Don’t set yourself up for failure.

Plan what you are going to say and what you are going to eat in each of those emotional eating situations. Go over your plan many times in your mind, rehearsing what you are going to say. Imagine yourself empowered over the food instead of at its mercy. You can do this!

Sunny Thoughts is a daily podcast that is so constructive. It doesn’t have anything to do with weight loss, but it is a nice resource for a daily positive affirmation. This is one of my favorites right now:

• Sunny Thoughts – I Thrive Because I Love Myself

Sunny Hill’s voice is a perfect start for your day. Just listen to one of his affirmations every day and you will feel happier. The best thing is that he keeps the affirmations short and sweet, so you won’t fill your iPod up.

This is not a diet book. This is not an exercise book. This is the first step to a healthier life.

This book will tell you that it’s just fine to stay fat. The author will quote the averages and help you realize that over half the nation is overweight. She will challenge the idea that being overweight will shorten your life. I love this book. I don’t agree with everything she says, but this book is the first essential step to getting healthy.

About a year before I attended my first Weight Watchers meeting, I decided that I was going to stay fat. I decided to never diet again. I decided that I would just eat what I want and exercise when I wanted. Without knowing it, I went on Margaret Cho’s F**k It Diet. I decided to become a Fat Girl.

There was something healing and liberating that happened to my mind when I decided to love myself as I am. Truly allowing myself to be me and truly accepting my body as it was helped me to get to where I am today. After a few months on the F**k It Diet, I realized that I didn’t enjoy eating the way I was. Sure, I liked eating the food, but I didn’t like feeling too full. I didn’t like the gastrointestinal effects of the food I was eating. When it stopped being about dieting and started being about feeling good, I started eating healthier.

At one point, I realized that I had no idea how to eat healthy. That was part of the reason I joined Weight Watchers. The other part was the support. Changing habits is difficult, even if you really want to change them. I needed to have a weekly booster shot of ideas and motivation. I still do.

So, you’ve decided to be a Fat Girl? I say great! Deciding to be a Fat Girl was my first step toward treating myself with more respect.

Great Quotes from The Fat Girl’s Guide to Life by Wendy Shanker:

“Most fat people are afraid to go to yoga or dance class or the swim club or they gym because they think skinny people will be mean to them, or at least think mean thoughts about them. Well, okay, that’s legit. But you know what? It’s a gym, not a playground. You’re a grown-up, not a kindergartner. You are a strong enough person to get over it and do what you have to do for yourself. Screw everyone else.”

“No one deserves to be at the gym more than you do.”

“Any doctor who blames you for your disease has his or her priorities screwed up.”

“It’s time to stop thinking that someone knows something that don’t, that someone has an answer that is being withheld from you.”

“Fat and beautiful are not opposites. They do not cancel each other out. I am fat and beautiful.”

Strength Radio is a podcast that is pretty much hit and miss for me. I’m a woman, so I’m not interested in getting my biceps bigger. I don’t believe the hype about kettlebells, so a twenty minute conversation about them is not something that is really interesting to me. There have been a couple of interviews that have been interesting to me. One of them is this one, where Jason White (the host of the show) interviews MARINA.

• Strength Radio – Confessions of a Food-a-Holic – MARINA

Marina hosts her own regular podcast, so it’s not surprising that she is an excellent speaker. I find her podcasts to be motivational tidbits to listen to while I’m driving to work. Check her out.

After obsessing over those 2 minutes 24 seconds for the last couple of weeks, I had forgotten about the reasons that I love to run. It took this article to snap me back to the reason I jump on the treadmill every day.

• UU World – Exercise as Spiritual Play – by Lisa Watts

Although I received this via my Unitarian Universalist magazine, this isn’t really a religious article and I believe it would apply to everyone.

“I’m sick of the news talking about obesity.” I had just written “Who Is To Blame?” Stacey, Dan and Mike nodded. They braced themselves for a Laura Tirade. “No matter where I look, there is some news program about obesity.”

Stacey surprised us all. “I think it’s the insurance companies.”

I crinkled my brow. “The insurance companies are to blame for obesity?”

She shook her head. “Obesity costs insurance companies a lot of money. I think they are promoting this idea that obesity is a problem so they won’t have to pay so much.”

She stopped the Laura Tirade in its tracks. Over a month later, I’m still thinking about what she said. I understand that the news moguls are controlled by the businesses that own them. I realize that insurance companies are big players in our economy. Could all those news programs be an underhanded method to absolve the health insurance companies from paying for obesity-related illnesses? Am I helping them out and doing their work for them?

For about a month, I have been fretting about whether I’m working for “The Man.” Martin Luther King, Jr. once wrote, “The church was not merely a thermometer that recorded the ideas and principles of popular opinion; it was a thermostat that transformed the mores of society.” Am I merely a thermometer of popular opinion instead of a thermostat of change?

After all this fretting, I realized the truth…

Obesity not only costs insurance companies money. It robs people of their lives and their quality of life. When I weighed 235 pounds, I was tired. I was relatively healthy, but I couldn’t tie my shoes without holding my breath. If I had let my bingeing continue, I would have ended up not being able to go grocery shopping without one of those electric grocery carts. I’m intimately familiar with where the path of obesity leads.

If I can convince just one of you to take charge of your health, then I am the thermostat for change. If just one of you decides to exercise today instead of skipping your workout, then I have achieved my goal. If just one of you decides to choose a healthy snack instead of the food that is tempting you, then I am working for you, not “The Man.”

I was reading “9 Steps to Effective Dieting” on eDiets. Just like all the articles that have a number in the title, there is a list of good ideas and advice. Step number two, however, was different than the normal “Eat Less, Move More” philosophy.

• Realize everything is connected! Jonny believes there is a solid connection between your weight and the rest of your life. Taking off those extra pounds is not as simple as eating less food. One of Jonny’s mottos is: “Change your life, change your weight.”

I have instinctively known this for a while, but to have it said to me so clearly was kind of a smack in the face. For me, there is a definitive connection between my weight and how I feel. If I let the rest of my life get out of order, my weight starts to creep up. If I am consciously working at making my life better, my body reflects that.

It is said that we wear our grief. That is true on many levels. When I don’t deal with my emotions, food is the only narcotic that works to hide from them. It’s part of the reason that I write in my journal. It’s part of the reason that I write for this weblog. The only way to keep my emotions in check is to constantly confront them every day. There is no room for hiding because I want to live a healthy life.

Via: Really Useful Fitness Blog

Is that the best title for an article about weight loss or what? Prevention’s success stories are one of the best reasons to buy their magazine.

• Prevention.com – How I Got an ‘A’ in Weight Loss – by Professor Lynne Logan

She chronicles her story of knowing absolutely nothing about health, nutrition and fitness to hitting the books and finally finishing with her at her goal weight. I love to read stories like this because it inspires me to keep going just like she did.

Lynne’s Good Advice:

• Burn more calories than you eat.
• Protien will make you feel fuller and more satisfied.
• Sugary sodas are high in calories. Limit them to cut your intake.
• After you’ve lost some weight, you may plateau. Kick it up by increasing your exercise or adding strength training.