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

I LOVE these two entries from my friend Jere Keys at Blind Prophecy. This one in June, he talks about getting fit, his memories of his father at the same age, and how difficult just jumping can be.

• Blind Prophecy » 06-03-08 » Jumping is my Kryptonite

[L]ast Friday when I was meeting with [my personal trainer], he decided to “go easy” on me by skipping our strength training drills and focusing just on cardio. First he had me doing sprints, which quickly accelerated my heart rate, but wasn’t impossible. Then he had me jump. Yes, just jump. First with random movements, then forward and back across a jump-rope, then side to side across the rope. And I nearly collapsed. I was embarrassed and mortified that at the age of 31 and with no serious health problems, I couldn’t jump for a minute at a time without losing balance or taking long rests between each set.

Just a month later, he was reveling in the approval from his personal trainer.

• Blind Prophecy » 07-01-08 » I have muscles?

My trainer today pointed out the difference between today’s workout and my first session with him. During that first session, I could barely last 25 minutes and nearly injured myself. Now, we’re doing 50 minutes with considerably higher intensity. He also pointed out that I actually have pretty big arms and chest, we just need to work on definition. So we worked on triceps and chest for about 15 minutes and he was pointing out how much my arms were starting to pop. I’ve still got a lot of work to do, but I’m getting there.

Jere had to move to Cincinnati for school, so I’m sending out a big karma hug to him in the hopes that he can find a personal trainer who can help him as much as Ben did in San Francisco.

It’s really easy to forget how hard a workout used to be when you are easily doing every day now. Take a moment today to look back on your workout history and give yourself a pat on the back for coming so far.

I came across this picture while I was researching gluttony the other day. It was labeled glutton.jpg.

Wendy, Ronald McDonald and The KFC Colonel all have been rendered pudgy in front of a landscape of nutrition facts. The question remains, does fast food make you fat?

When I lost my weight, I did it almost solely on fast food, so I can categorically tell you that fast food doesn’t necessarily make you fat.

I CAN tell you, however, that non-fast food will make you feel fuller.

When I eat fresh fruit, veggies, meat, eggs and dairy, I end up feeling fuller than when I eat the same amount of calories in fast food. Even if I make my own Egg McMuffin, I can do it with less calories and it tastes better.

So why eat fast food?

Duh, because it’s fast and convenient. Sometimes we just don’t have time for a healthy meal and we have to compromise. You just need to know that it’s possible to do that without looking like the restaurant mascots above.

This postcard from PostSecret showed up a couple of weeks ago.

Since I grew up considering myself a fat child, I EXPECT people to make fun of me. In fact, I tend to make fun of myself to head off the insults. It must be difficult growing up skinny and becoming fat later in life. I wonder how it feels to experience that shock as an adult.

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.

The iPhone Apps Store daily brings us new things that make our life better. Podphile recently reviewed RunKeeper, which is like a Nike+ app that runs on the iPhone and tracks your runs using its GPS features.

• Podophile » Blog Archive » Running With iPhone: RunKeeper Review

The review said that it works pretty well, but my iPhone thinks I’m in Minnesota instead of Utah most of the time, so I wondered how accurate it could possibly be when the iPhone GPS is THAT off. I downloaded the app and tested it compared to my Nike+ in the most difficult GPS area that I have found on my iPhone: my neighborhood.

Quite frankly, I was impressed. Not only did it give me the same accuracy as my Nike+ (which has always been good enough for me), it only took a couple of tries to get a GPS satellite signal. As I walked, I was happy to see that the mileage, pace and speed matched my Nike+ pretty well. So well that I secretly worried that it was just getting the signals from my Nike+ receiver in my shoe instead of the satellite signal. I couldn’t wait to get home and see if Runkeeper mapped my run around a neighborhood in Wyzata, Minnesota.

As soon as I got home, I checked my run on the Runkeeper website. The map showed me doing my run in Salt Lake City, where my home ACTUALLY is instead of Wyzata, Minnesota, where the Google Maps app on my iPhone thinks I am. I would show you the map here, but then you would know exactly where I live and I’m a little uncomfortable with that. Rest assured that the map was eerily accurate, right down to the spot where I crossed the street. I’ve tested it many times near my home and it takes about five minutes to get a GPS signal, but when I tested it in Las Vegas, last week, it only took two tries to get the signal.

The map is pretty accurate. It usually thinks I’ve crossed a street when I haven’t, but most of the time it’s right on. Here is a copy of my quickie run around the trails by the Las Vegas Hilton.

The coolest part of all is that I didn’t have it sync my iPhone to get my data to the Runkeeper website. It sends it directly from my iPhone. It also saves it on my iPhone so I don’t have to go to a stupid website just to see my runs. You would think that was a no brainer, but the Nike+ system has a problem with that and they’ve never fully solved it.

I was totally impressed with Runkeeper and the $10 price tag was MORE than worth the money. There are a few things that I wish it had:

• Calories burned: It doesn’t list the calories I’ve burned on the run and I can’t put my weight into the software to do it. My Nike+ does this calculation for me and it has been pretty accurate. I like the simplicity of Runkeeper, but that is one feature that is REALLY important to me.

• I can’t use it on my treadmill: During the hot days of summer and the freezing days of winter, I use my treadmill ALOT. Runkeeper won’t work on a treadmill (of course), so the Nike+ still has more usability for me there.

• No Challenges: The Runkeeper site is very minimal. That is a VERY good thing because it loads quickly and is very easy to use. The only thing I would add to it is the ability to host challenges like I can on Nike+. That was the KILLER feature for me and it’s what keeps me coming back to the bloated Nike website every day.

If you own a 3G iPhone and regularly go on walks or runs outside, then you owe it to yourself to purchase Runkeeper. For only ten bucks, you can add the functionality of a Garmin or a Nike+ kit without all the extra gear taking up space. I can’t wait to see what the future has to offer for Runkeeper!

Update 09-01-08: After two weeks of using RunKeeper, I’ve found that if I turn off 3G before running the software, it will find the satellite signal almost immediately. There must be something wrong with iPhone’s 3G that is interfering with the GPS signal. RunKeeper runs perfectly if I turn off 3G before I use it.

Laura,

I went looking on the Nike site for some running shoes. Yes, I’m out running now. I’m working my way up using a podcast for interval running and my goal is to run a 5k in November.

Anyways, I was looking at shoes and the Nike iD caught my eye. I had no idea what that meant, so I clicked on it. You may know this already, but it allows you to customize each shoe with up to eight characters. Each shoe can be something different. These are too expensive for me to get right now, but I’m wondering…

What would you put on your shoes?

Take care,
Ernie

Ernie,

It’s SO good to hear from you! I’m glad you’ve advanced from running in place with the Wii Fit to running in the “real” world. Congratulations!!

I must admit, I’m attracted to the Nike ID shoes. Mostly because it allows me to choose my own colors of shoes. To answer your question, I would LOVE to put the words “Femme Fugit” on my shoes. It means “She Flies” in Latin. Unfortunately, they only allow eight digits, so I would end up putting “Moncur” on them just in case my personally designed shoes got mixed up with someone else’s. Here are the shoes that I designed for myself:

Ironically, I just bought a new pair of shoes from Nike. My old ones were over a year old and WAY over their mileage (they should be changed every 400 miles). I bought the Air Max Moto+6 (Nike XD 324492-162). It looks like this:

The funny thing is, I tried on four pairs of shoes that looked EXACTLY like this at the Nike store in Las Vegas. One felt like something funny was in my shoes along the inside of my foot. That one was for overpronaters, but I don’t have that problem. Another one felt like it was going to scrape my back heel raw when I walked on their treadmill. After trying the Vomero, the Equalon and the Pegasus, I can’t believe how different all those shoes felt because they all looked the same to me.

So, given the chance to choose my own colors and personalized message, I would pass it by just to get a pair of shoes that fit perfectly from day one. Fortunately, I was able to find that this time. Who knows whether they’ll still be around next year when I need new shoes.

You didn’t tell me. What would YOU choose to put on your shoes? I would suggest “Homme Fugit,” but it doesn’t fit either…

Best wishes,
Laura

If you are one of the many people who have bought a Starling Fitness Yearly Journal, then you know that the quote of the month is about getting stronger. You can see the quote here:

It is amazing how much crisper the general experience of life becomes when your body is given a chance to develop a little strength.

Frank Duff, A Coder in Courierland, 03-20-05

Frank Duff used to be a computer coder, but he traded it all in to be a bicycle courier. He wrote about his adventures here:

• A Coder in Courierland || kuro5hin.org

I found that quote over three years ago and the story still is inspiring today. Next time you think you can’t bike to work, read Frank’s story and you’ll know that you can do it.

If you would like to order your own Starling Fitness Yearly Journal, you can do so here:

• Starling Fitness » Order Your Starling Fitness Yearly Journal

If you order it now, you can choose the month you want it to start and it will last you a year from that date. You won’t have to throw away any unused days from the first of the year. You can start fresh now.

This LOL cat from I Can Has Cheezburger? is funny:

It says:

I no can haz peetsa,
YOU no can haz peetsa

For all of those not familiar with LOLspeak, he’s saying, “If I can’t have pizza, you can’t have pizza.”

How many times have I felt like this? If I have to eat healthy, YOU have to eat healthy. It not only extends to everyone within my house, but everyone in my family and even random strangers on the street. It even explains why vegetarians are so annoying.

Why? Why do I feel like I have impose my eating regime on everyone else on the planet? The longer I have been “good” the more I think others should be “good” as well. It even backfires on me. When I’ve been eating relatively well for a while, I impose ever-stricter rules upon myself until I can no longer eat without guilt.

It’s no longer good enough to just eat within my caloric requirements, I have to eat five fruits and vegetables every day. Then, eating more veggies just isn’t enough, I need to eat only whole foods. Then, after that, I decide to only get my protein from vegetable sources. After too long of following these ever-tightening rules of eating, I end up bingeing.

Does anyone have an idea on how to stop this because I’m at a loss and it’s seriously hurting me.

If you have an iPhone, there is an application that can track your Weight Watcher Points as well as calculate the points for certain foods. You can find out more about it here:

• Park East, Inc. » iPoint Calculator

You can easily add what you ate and save your favorite foods so you can easily add them the next day. Right now, it only keeps track of one day and then you have to clear it to start again the next day. Additionally, the activity points don’t deduct from your used points. They also don’t account for Flex Points. You have to work them into your daily points total.

Park East, Inc. have the following updates in the works:

• Weekly point recording
• Ability to export your log to formatted email
• Addition of other fields, such as “oil”
• Flex points (which will deduct from)
• Exercise points (also will deduct)

I have seen other programs like this for the Palm format that have been served cease and desist papers by Weight Watchers in the past, so hurry and download iPoint before it mysteriously disappears.

When I looked for the patron saint of the chubby, I found St. John Climacus, but somehow, I missed the writings of St. Thomas Aquinas. He argued that gluttony could also include an obsessive anticipation of meals, and the constant eating of delicacies and excessively costly foods. Here are his six methods of committing gluttony:

• Praepropere – eating too soon
• Laute – eating too expensively
• Nimis – eating too much
• Ardenter – eating too eagerly
• Studiose – eating too daintily
• Forente – eating too fervently

The idea that eating can be a sin is prevalent in our society. Almost every disdainful look at a person because of their weight can be linked to the thought that gluttony is a sin. There is some innate human preference to a thinner appearance, but most of the aversion is because of the concept that being fat is sinful. This hasn’t really helped our society, and in some cases, I believe it has made things worse.

When it comes to healthy eating, however, did St. Thomas Aquinas have a good idea?

• Praepropere: I can’t deny that it is harmful if I eat too soon or eat when I’m not hungry. My biggest problem is recognizing that I’m hungry. Too often, I have let myself get too hungry and then I wolf down WAY more food than I need. Recognizing the proper hunger signals is a skill that few of us are taught.

• Laute: During the Middle Ages, St. Thomas Aquinas suggested that eating food that is too expensive was a sin. I hear this argument even today when people say that eating meat is too much of a strain on the environment and if you want to reduce your carbon footprint, you should eat vegetarian. It is the underlying assumption for the whole food movement. Eat simply, is the battle cry of laute. I have eaten both ways and I honestly feel better when I eat fresh, whole food, so maybe there is something to this argument.

• Nimis: Anyone with a full stomach after too big of a meal agrees with the idea that eating too much might be a sin. There is actually pain involved, so it’s hard to argue with something that actually causes pain.

• Ardenter: Eating too eagerly is kind of ambiguous to me, but it seems to mean eating too quickly. I know if I eat slower, I eat less. Taking small bites and chewing my food completely helps with my stomach problems AND helps me eat less food.

• Studiose: – When I first wrote this entry, I had no idea what eating too daintily might mean, but the excellent Raven left a comment saying that she thinks it means being too picky. I have to admit that I was brought up to eat whatever I was offered, even if I didn’t like it, so I’ve never really had this problem. I can understand how St. Thomas Aquinas might consider this to be a problem, however. Rejecting food because it doesn’t please you can be just as wasteful as eating it when you’re already full.

• Forente: Does eating too fervently count as eating too quickly? Is it just another wording of the same thing or am I missing something here?

On the whole, St. Thomas Aquinas had some good ideas about healthy eating. I think the idea that overeating is a sin has harmed us far more than helped us, but the ideas of eating slowly only when we’re hungry and not eating too much are classic concepts that shouldn’t be shunned.

In the left corner, weighing it at 105 pounds, you have Vanity. In the right corner, weighing in at 250 pounds is Gluttony. Who will win in this Battle of the Deadly Sins?!

Vanity

My whole life, I was told that being vain is wrong. Maybe vanity was never properly defined for me, because I feel vain whenever I care about my looks. Is merely looking into the mirror a deadly sin? The dictionary defines vanity as an inflated pride in oneself or one’s appearance. Is it just the inflated part that is wrong with vanity or is it any pride in one’s appearance.

Does dieting count as vanity?

Gluttony

Is the fact that I’m fat mean that I’m a glutton? What about all those days that I starved myself? What if I’m fat and I don’t eat today. Am I still a glutton? The definition for gluttony is more simply defined as excessive eating or drinking, but the simplicity doesn’t make it any easier for me. Is drinking fifteen glasses of water a day gluttony? Is gluttony a permanent thing? What if a skinny person eats a lot of food all the time?

The Loser

The true loser is humanity. The seven deadly sins were first coined by Evagrius Ponticus, a 4th century monk. Nowhere are they listed in the bible. Focusing on the sin aspect of pride and eating has been the biggest detriment to humanity.

It’s alright to care about what you look like.

It’s alright to eat when you’re hungry or even eat for pleasure.

It’s when either of those aspects of life start to threaten your health or happiness that they can be detrimental to you.

Don’t worry so much about your looks that you’ll have risky surgical procedures or starve yourself.

Don’t eat so much that it is wasteful or harmful to your body.

We do so much better when we look through life without the coloring of sin. If you are hungry, eat. If you feel attractive, rejoice in it.