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

Hi Laura:

I’m not a runner, but the idea of syncing my tunes up to how hard I’m working sounds excellent. Would I get any use out of the Sport kit even though I don’t run? (I mostly do treadmill or ArcTrainer, sometimes the bike, infrequently the Stairmill.)

Thanks!
Eh… not so much

Eh… not so much,

The Nike+ Sport Kit tracks your workouts with a little sensor that you put in your expensive Nike shoes or a Shoe Pocket (like I did). That little pod is an accelerometer, which means that it tracks how quickly your foot is moving. That’s how it registers how far you’ve run.

If you use the Nike+ on the treadmill (like I do for about half my workouts), you’ll notice that it will give you a little different mileage than the treadmill says you’ve run. I’m okay with that difference because it’s all just an estimate anyway. I like the Nike+ on the treadmill because it tracks my workouts. They show up on the Nike+ website and I can see my progress. I’m all about the external validation, so when I see the little trophy for exercising three times a week, I feel motivated to earn another one.

The Nike+ might register something when you use a stair climber or elliptical trainer, but I don’t know how accurately it will rate your workout. Considering that you can turn the intensity up really high on those machines and your foot fall would be the same as if you had low intensity, it’s not as accurate of a measurement. I’ve never tried using the Nike+ with those machines, but I’m pretty sure it will measure something. And again, remember, it’s all just an estimate anyway.

If you already have an iPod Nano, then the SportKit is only a $20 investment, so it might be worth your while. If you’re thinking of investing in a Nano just so you can use the Nike+, then you would probably be better served by a Polar Running Computer like this one here.

This unit costs $199 and comes with a heart rate monitor, watch, foot pod (accelerometer) and computer software to track your workouts. The reviews of the watch are very positive and technically, this will give you MORE information than the Nike+. Additionally, the calorie estimate will be more accurate because it’s based on your heart rate instead of the number of times your foot moves. It won’t talk in your ear like the Nike+ will. It won’t log your information on the Nike+ website and give you trophies for achieving your goals, but it might be a better option if you don’t already own a Nano.

Remember, tools such as the Polar and the Nike+ are just that: tools. They can’t force you to get to the gym, out of the house or on the treadmill. These things might be inspiring and motivating, but in the end, you can’t buy fitness.

Good Luck,
Laura

For the next couple of weeks, Starling Fitness will be updating once a day (instead of twice a day). Feel free to leave comments on this entry about that and how it works for you.

This postcard from PostSecret is for you. There is someone out there who is kicking themselves right now because they never told you how beautiful you are. They wish they had just had the guts to tell you how much they enjoyed the moment when you walked into the door every day. No matter who you are, there was someone in your past who felt like this about you and wasn’t brave enough to tell you.

Think about that next time you feel like skipping your workout or bingeing.

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.

This week we are reviewing many of the diet books that have shown up on the market recently. There is a lot of hype about all these diets, so I’m here to sift through all those chapters, recipes and pictures of exercise to tell you the nitty gritty about each diet book. Will they be helpful to you? Are they healthy or do they recommend some quacky ideas? All of this will be revealed this week.

Books to be reviewed:

• The Flavor Point Diet
• The Biggest Loser with Bob Harper
• Winng By Losing by Jillian Michaels
• Eating for IBS
• Living Cuisine: The Art and Spirit of Raw Foods
• Curves On The Go
• Helping Your Child Lose Weight the Healthy Way
• Weight Watchers: Stop Stuffing Yourself
• Weight Watchers: Weight Loss That Lasts

If you have been thinking of buying any of these books, wait until this week’s review.

This is called a Word Cloud and it was created based on what we’ve written on Starling Fitness. Somehow it seems like a good collection of words for this weblog. You can make one for your website:

• Create Your Own Word Cloud

They want to sell you a t-shirt, but you don’t need to buy one if you just want to see your weblog in words.

Via: ministrare: “Word Cloud”

Because of the new year, we are getting a lot of new visitors right now, so I thought I would introduce myself. My name is Laura Moncur. I’m the primary writer for Starling Fitness. At times, Michael Moncur writes, but most of the time, it will be just you and me learning about fitness and health together.

I wrote about my weight loss story so far here:

• Starling Fitness » My Weight Loss Story So Far…

I wrote that last year and I was determined to get to goal by October, but I’m not there yet. Bingeing is a difficult problem to deal with and I am still fighting it every day. Some days are easier than others. When I can string a bunch of them together, I make real progress. That’s what this website is about: stringing enough good days together to make a healthy life.

(more…)

I’m taking a couple days off writing, so I’ll see you after the holidays. May you have a healthy holiday this year.

Happy Chrismahanuhkwanzakah!

Whatever you do or don’t celebrate this season, may it be a joyful one!

In this Ask MetaFilter thread, someone wants to know why the food at their favorite restaurant makes them feel full despite the small quantities. He even goes so far as to wonder whether they’re adding some mysterious “fullness powder” to the food.

Imagine the demand for such a powder if it existed! I’m not sure why restaurants would use it—they want you to eat more food, after all—but you could make a killing selling it to dieters.

Sadly, the consensus seems to be that a less mysterious substance is causing the feeling of fullness: butter—lots of butter, and other fats. Someone posted this great quote from Kitchen Confidential by Anthony Bourdain:

“Butter. I don’t care what they tell you they’re putting or not putting in your food at your favorite restaurant; chances are, you’re eating a ton of butter. In a professional kitchen, it’s almost always the first and last thing in the pan. We saute in a mixture of butter and oil for that nice, brown carmelized color, and we finish nearly every sauce with it (we call this monter au buerre); that’s why my sauce tastes richer and creamier and mellower than yours, why it’s got that nice, thick, opaque consistency. Believe me, there’s a big crock of softened butter on almost every cook’s station.”

While this might be a good reason to avoid eating out too often, I think there’s another message here: the low-fat (or no fat) diet foods aren’t always good for making you feel full, so you might want to try a bit of butter to add bulk to a meal. Just don’t use as much as your favorite restaurant uses…

This week, we are concentrating on diet and nutrition. It isn’t the only factor in weight loss. Any program that tells you that you can lose weight without eating healthy AND exercising is probably lying to you. This week, however, we are going to focus of tightening up our eating program. Here is a sampling of what we have in store for you this week:

• Low Carb Backlash – What did we learn from the last few years of fad eating?

• More Fiber in Foods – Why is there fiber in your yogurt?

• More or Less? – “A new dieter wants to put more food into their diet, but a seasoned healthy eater wants to take more food out.”

• How To Remove Foods from Your Life without Feeling Deprived

• How To Work Former Binge Foods Back Into Your Life

Stay tuned for these entries and more this week!

It’s only natural that I feel sad that we weren’t on the list, but one of the “blogs” that they listed isn’t even a weblog.

• Forbes.com Best of the Web – Health and Fitness Blogs

Here is the list of Forbes’ Favs:

• A Trail Runner’s Blog – A good specialized weblog about trail running. The author is a runner who gives you the inside look. Recommended entry: Where does all the money go?

• AllYourStrength.com B-Blog – This weblog is written by a company that sells personal training (over the phone?!). I don’t care for this site because they promote the over-muscled and bulked up image for men. I don’t think that sort of body abuse is any more healthy than being overweight and I don’t think men need that pressure to look like a steroid addict.

• A Passion for Running – Another very specialized weblog about running. I knew about this site, but I don’t read it because this guy is into more running than I can comfortably relate to.

• Diet Blog – The Truth About Diet and Weight Loss – This weblog is the only one that I regularly read on this list. It’s a pretty good resource for information. They won’t feed you full of commercials or hype.

• Health and Fitness Blog – Note to Forbes: I would call this blog an Echo Chamber. This is a weblog that is run by a company that sells fitness equipment (getfitsource.com) The posts are mostly just links to other websites’ articles with little original content. I know of at least 10 other weblogs that are better than this one, so don’t bother.

• ActiveLog Health and Fitness Training Blog – Note to Forbes: Just because it says “blog” in its title, doesn’t mean it is one. This is a program that you sign up for to “log” your daily exercise and eating. You can read other peoples’ “logs”, but it’s not the same thing as a weblog.

• Genetics and Public Health Blog: All about genetics and public health – This is a professional weblog that has little to do with weight loss. It is categorized correctly for Forbes, but I don’t want to read about genetics on a regular basis.

• Male Pattern Fitness – This is a new one on me. It looks pretty good and I will keep reading it. Somehow, I like the fact that he’s willing to use guttural language when he’s angry about things. I tend to just use big words.

It seems like the boys at Forbes called their friends and asked them, “Hey do you know any good weblogs?” Their friends in suits said, “Well, my company has a weblog and there are a couple others that I know…”