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

I love this commercial that portrays a lovely solution to the Internet Rage:

I wish sugar water could fix all that stuff, but it won’t, The song, however, might. I added it to my Workout Playlist and it makes me all kinds of happy.

• Show Me Love – Hundred Waters – iTunes Link
• Show Me Love – Hundred Waters – Amazon Link

I adore the lyrics to this song:

Though I may make mistakes

Don’t let me show ugliness

Though I know I can hate

And don’t let me show evil

Though it might be all I take

Show me love

Don’t let me think weakly

Though I know that I can break

Keep me away from apathy

While I am still awake

And don’t let me think too long

Of the one I’m bound to face

I had heard that Beyonce started a Vegan Meal Delivery service called 22 Days Nutrition. I looked at it and decided that even though it’s gluten-free, it wasn’t the kind of thing that would work for me.

What REALLY motivated me was this video from her YouTube feed, called 7/11:

You can buy the song here:

• 7/11 – Beyonce – iTunes Link
• 7/11 – Beyonce – Amazon.com Link

It’s such a fun and free-spirited video of her dancing in various stages of lazy day dress that I loved it. Not since Single Ladies, have I wanted to learn the dance moves to a video so much. With all the “Smack it in the air,” I just had to download the song. I’m still trying to talk on my foot like a phone. Gotta practice some yoga..

I might not be able to take diet advice from her, but even after all these years, she is still inspiring me to workout. Thanks, Beyonce!

This motivational poster from Library of beauty surprised me.

It reads:

Remember the compliments you receive. Forget the insults.

When I look at this honestly, I have found that the compliments send me back into overeating FAR more than the insults. I had been insulted by my grandmother since I was four years old. The kids at grade school called me Chug-A-Lug. It was all one huge insult, so much so, that it didn’t hurt anymore. Sure, call me fat. I AM fat.

The compliments, however, are jarring. “You must really be enjoying your skinny new body.” “You are looking so good, have you lost weight?” I had compliments like that back when I was still bingeing and purging with exercise.

I’ve had compliments like that now, and it feels different. It’s one of those rare times when “attraction, not promotion” is at work for Overeater’s Anonymous. I feel like it’s my duty to tell the person who complimented me how very grateful I am to OA. The compliments STILL make me want to binge, though.

I haven’t figured this out yet, because it seems like the polar opposite of what I should feel. Shouldn’t compliments make me want to work even harder? I really don’t understand what is going on in my mind when this happens, but quite honestly, I’d rather have neither compliments nor insults. I’d rather just live my life without anyone feeling that it’s within their right to comment on my body.

Overeater’s Anonymous does not endorse anything on this entry or blog. I speak only of my personal experience and not for OA as a whole.

This is one of those quotes that just makes me confused.

It reads:

Achievement is largely the product of steadily raising one’s levels of aspiration and expectation.

• Jack Nicklaus

I didn’t know if I agreed with that, mostly because I didn’t know what aspiration was. I thought that was breathing something into your lungs. I LITERALLY had to look it up.

as·pi·ra·tion

a strong desire, longing, or aim; ambition

It wasn’t until we got to the third definition that breathing came up.

So the quote is saying that as long as I hope and expect HARD enough, then I will achieve my goals.

Yeah, that’s complete bullshit.

You kind of have to DO things to succeed. I hoped that I would get thin. I wished on every damn eyelash that fell out of my head. That never helped me get thinner.

I even EXPECTED to get thin. I spent hours visualizing a thinner me. I never lost one pound from all that visualization.

I think this quote is fundamentally WRONG. Expectation and aspiration might send your mind where your body needs to go, but you need to DO the things to make your body go. For example, for my hard training runs, I visualize being able to easily complete them, but then I actually get my butt on the treadmill and DO the workout. Expectation and aspiration can only take you so far. You need to do that work, too.

My Facebook page is filled with posts from my friends talking about putting butter into your coffee. Here is a link to an article that is an example:

• Latest coffee trend is to put butter in your coffee | Fox News

The latest trend in coffee may boost your energy and help you lose weight. Or maybe you’ll just throw up.

Go ahead, put some butter in your joe.

Well, not just any butter, and not just any coffee.  The butter has to be unsalted and grass-fed, and the coffee beans have to be low-toxin – not the ones you find at the supermarket or Starbucks.

This trend is supposed to give you a little extra fat in your diet, which is really what many of us DO need to inch out the carbs in our diet. The problem is, butter? Why butter?

For hundreds of years, we have been doing this. We have been putting “butter” in our coffee. It’s called CREAM. You DO know what butter is made of, right?

You wan’t a “creamy” latte? How about this radical idea? PUT CREAM IN YOUR COFFEE!

Bulletproof Coffee is just a food trend. It’s not a magic thing that will help you lose weight. It’s a fad. If you need a bit of fat added to your diet, add some cream to your coffee. Steer clear of the fad.

This commercial from Weight Watchers is SPOT ON about how I feel about food.

Weight Watchers is a great diet, but it never helped me get beyond the bingeing. Even when I got down to 150 pounds on their diet, I was still bingeing and purging with exercise. It’s a great diet, but I just couldn’t follow it.

That’s because, in my experience, the eating problem is not just diet and exercise. That is only the physical aspect of the problem. There is also an emotional and spiritual aspect as well. For me, working the Steps of the Overeater’s Anonymous program helped clear up the emotional side of my problems. Meditating every day helped me with the spiritual side.

It was only when I had ALL THREE working and cleared up did the bingeing go away. Weight Watchers gave me a diet and it’s a pretty good one if you want to follow it. But what I needed was more and I didn’t find it until I lost every bit of pride and walked my butt into the door at Overeater’s Anonymous.

Overeater’s Anonymous does not endorse anything on this entry or blog. I speak only of my personal experience and not for OA as a whole.

I found this quote today and it made me feel better about the journal writing I do every day.

It reads:

The palest ink is better than the best memory.

• Chinese Proverb

I spend a half hour writing in my journal every day. I credit it with keeping me sane and it very well do that, but at the same time, I begrudge the time. In that thirty minutes, I could get my exercise done, or play video games or read. There are so many other things I could be doing in that time that don’t feel like a chore.

But I have seen a marked correlation between my sane times and the times when I write in my journal faithfully. Oh, and it’s great for keeping track of my life because I can turn back to that time and check my facts. That quotation is correct. The palest ink IS better than the best memory, because there are lots of times when I have remembered things incorrectly and my journal fixed it or proved me wrong.

If you have been struggling, try keeping a journal, not of your food, but of your emotions, history and thoughts. You might find that it’s easier to keep eating sanely when your crazy ideas are out of your mind and on the paper.

In addition to doing the Color Run in Las Vegas, I’m doing one in Salt Lake City in August! They just opened up the registration, so you can register and sign up with my team: Starling Fitness. It will save you some money if you sign up with my team instead of running on your own.

• Salt Lake City, UT Official Page – The Color Run™ – The Happiest 5K On The Planet!

If you are unfamiliar with the Color Run, it’s the run where you do 5K and they throw paint and glitter on you. Here’s a video:

I am so excited for the run in February because I have been training so hard. Now, I have another one to look forward to once the Las Vegas one is over!

I’ve never taken a yoga class. I’ve been thinking about it, because the yoga videos I’ve watched are HARD to do because I can’t do the moves and watch the TV at the same time. They should show me HOW to do the move first, then tell me the NAME of the move and THEN we should do it together. I’m trying a BEGINNING yoga video for a reason!! I’ve never done it before, except in Yourself Fitness, which was even worse…

But what if an experienced person like Gandhi took a yoga class. Would he have trouble too? This video cracked me up when I saw it.

When he starts losing his cool because she’s playing a ColdPlay song, I lost it. YES! That is exactly why I’m scared to take a yoga class. That and the scolding about “appropriate yoga attire.”

I guess I’ll just stick with my videos…

Update 02-02-15

I think I like this video because this is how I imagine it would be for me to go to a yoga class while being fat. No matter how good I am at it, yoga bitch gonna offer me some blocks and straps. Oh, and she’ll gladly tell me about “appropriate yoga attire” and refer me to a store that doesn’t carry my size.

I apparently have some pent up rage about exercise classes. I don’t think I have ever forgiven that brown haired bitch for the Bosu Ball Incident. I just reread that entry and I am still as hurt and angry as I was ELEVEN years ago when it happened. ELEVEN! That brown haired bitch has probably pumped out five children in that amount of time and weighs more than I do by now.

I need to let that go…

This girl can do…

Don’t nobody tell me I can’t!