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

I ADORE this motivational poster I found on MotiveWeight!

It reads:

Time to photoshop my life. Touch up the edges, adjust the tones, blur out the background, focus on me, and crop people out.

I really wish meditation worked like this for me, especially the “crop people out” concept. My mind is so fleeting that I have never really been able to train it to calm itself when I am meditating.

Lately, I’ve tried directed meditation. I’ve written my vision for what I want in my life and each day, in my neatest handwriting, I re-write it. I spend about ten minutes consciously focusing on what I WANT from my life. It’s one of the few times in the day when I don’t think about what I DON’T want in my life.

It’s the closest I’ve ever gotten to being able to crop people out of my life, if only because there is no room for them when I’m focusing so intently on what I DO want.

If traditional meditation doesn’t seem to work for you, you might want to try my technique:

• Write a page explaining in detail what you want.
• Make sure you cover all the aspects of your life: health, family, career and emotional well-being.
• Write a few sentences for each of those things.
• Make sure they are POSITIVE. Don’t write what you don’t want. Write what you DO want.
• Each day, spend ten minutes or so re-writing that vision in your neatest handwriting, saying the sentences to yourself as you write them.

This technique has worked better for me than trying to quiet my “monkey mind.” I just distract the monkey with shiny toys and concepts. If you have given up on meditation, try my technique and see if it works for you as well.

I love this animated GIF that I found on Turning day-dreams, into reality.

It makes me laugh to see Adam Levine attack a head of lettuce like a huge bunny or maybe a hamster. It reminds me of that Chris Traeger GIF:

I need to get some more fresh lettuce in my life. For the longest time, I’ve shied away from iceburg lettuce because my grandpa said that it was the least vitamin rich lettuce I could eat. I’ve chowed down on kale, watercress, and spinach in my salads, but honestly, iceburg TASTES the best.

If I have to eat a salad, shouldn’t I eat one that tastes buttery and crisp instead of bitter and floppy? I’m sure I would need a lot less dressing on an iceburg lettuce salad just because I wouldn’t need to hide the bitterness of Kale and spinach. The next time I am tempted to dutifully pile on bitter greens onto my salad, I’m going to remember that picture of Adam Levine chowing down on iceburg. If I have to eat a salad, I should ENJOY it.

Lettuce image via: The Cook’s Thesaurus

In my workout playlist, I have a song by Britt Nicole called Gold [iTunes link].

I absolutely adore this song and it made me feel so good when I was exercising. I love the lyrics of the chorus:

This, this is for all the girls, boys all over the world

Whatever you’ve been told, you’re worth more than gold

So hold your head up high, it’s your time to shine

From the inside out it shows, you’re worth more than gold

Sometimes when I’m working out, I feel like total crap. I know you understand what I’m saying. Those exercise-induced endorphins don’t always show up, even when you work really HARD for them. That’s how I was feeling the day this song popped up on my shuffle play during my workout. The workout was still hard and I still wanted to stop, but I kept on running just because Britt told me that I was worth more than gold.

Original image via: Golden People love Gold Jewelry Robots by epSos .de on Flickr

When I saw this motivational poster on Funeral For My Fat the other day, I didn’t like it at first.

I read the first few words:

I will beat her. I will train harder. I will eat cleaner.

It sounded so competitive to me. There have been times when I have not liked how someone treated me and I hoped to be thinner and stronger than her, but this seemed FAR more than I had ever felt before. But, I kept on reading:

I know her weaknesses. I know her strengths. I’ve lost to her before, but not this time. She is going down.

She is going down?! I can’t think of anyone who I feel like that about.

I have the advantage because I know her well. She is the Old Me.

OH! The OLD ME! Oh, yeah, I hate that bitch! That bitch made me fat. Yeah, she IS going down…

I saw this infographic on Fitness, Health, and Confidence and I wanted to post it here so I always have it handy.

There is some great advice there:

• Concentrate – You can cut your food intake in one sitting by 18% simply by turning off the TV and sitting at the dinner table, rather than eating from your lap.

• Stop Grazing – You are a grazer if you stand at the kitchen cupboard eating the food you have just removed from it. If you must snack, plate the food up properly to instill portion control.

• Recognize Hunger – Ask yourself if you are truly hungry or simply substituting food for an emotion, such as stress or sadness. Eating healthy and sensible portions for breakfast, lunch and dinner will help to recognize when your body needs food as you are less likely to have blood sugar imbalances throughout the day.

• Chew – This may sound silly, but have you ever counted the amount of times you chew one piece of food? The more you chew the more taste and texture you will get from each bite and the sooner you will be satisfied, meaning you eat less.

• Slow Down – If you are sharing dinner with a friend or even eating alone, take time to put your fork down between mouthfuls and give your brain time to register your food intake. Studies show the slower you eat, the less you eat.

All of these sound like good ideas. I’ve tried some of them like putting the fork down between bites and chewing my food a certain number of times. I don’t know if they helped me be more aware of my food, slowed me down so I felt full with less food, or just distracted me a bit, but they seemed to work.

I saw this motivational poster on Loving My Body Through All the Good and Bad the other day and it really made me think.

It reads:

It only takes one person to change your life: YOU.

When I first read it, I thought of all the people who have helped me in my journey. My WW leader, some of the members in my WW group, Mike and everyone else who has given me good advice about doing healthy things.

Sure, I was the one who DID the work to change my life, but these people helped as well.

I’ve struggled with this concept before and talked about it on my personal blog:

• Pick Me! – Pack Up Your Sorrows

It was back in 2003 and I still haven’t worked past this idea. Back then, I said:

Sometimes I would rather live in the “I Am An Island” world instead of the “No Man Is An Island” world. Simon and Garfunkel had it right.

There have been people who have carried me and soothed me over the years. I am grateful to those people and yet at the same time, I feel as if my accomplishments are my own. I did the work. I stayed away from the food. I ran the miles.

Is it true? Is there only one person who can change my life? I still don’t know and after TEN years of thinking about this concept, I don’t feel as if I am any closer to the truth.

Over the last few years, I’ve linked to little YouTube videos with some motivational talk. Just last week, I downloaded them as MP3s to put on my workout mix.

I wrote this entry a while ago about Finding Nemo and how motivational Dori is:

• Starling Fitness – Just Keep Swimming

Here is the MP3 of that video: Finding Nemo – Just Keep Swimming

I also talked about the scene in American Beauty where Kevin Spacey says that he wants to look good naked.

• Starling Fitness – I Wanna Look Good Naked!

Here is the MP3 of that video: American Beauty: I want to look good naked!

Here is this scene from American Psycho has more to do with staying away from food that can hurt me, but I still like it.

• Starling Fitness – You Can Always Be Thinner, Look Better

Here is the MP3 of that video: American Psycho – You Can Always Be Thinner, Look Better

I love this one from Parks and Recreation:

• Parks and Recreation- My goal is to run to the moon

If you find any more of these brilliant little clips, please tell me so I can put them here as well!

I can’t stop thinking about Chris Traeger and his goal to run to the moon. That’s a little much for me, but I can envision me running around the world. Heck, when I look at my Runkeeper stats, I have already run 1,817 miles. And that only counts only the runs that I have logged with Runkeeper.

I’ve decided that my goal is to run around the world. If I just ran around the circumference of the Earth, it would be about 24,906 miles, but that’s boring. I want to see every continent, so I’m going to use the path that I was going to use for a Race Around The World contest back in 2007.

I was going to sponsor a cooperative run in which all of us could add our miles and race around the world in a month, but I couldn’t get it to work with Nike+, so I had to abandon the idea, but it has lived in the back of my mind for the last six years. In fact, some of the songs on my workout playlist are named Around The World just because of this idea.

Here is the mileage and a list of the cities I would like to “visit”:

• London, England – Starting Point
• Paris, France – 207 miles
• Rome, Italy – 902 miles
• Berlin, Germany – 1,639 miles
• Moscow, Russia – 2,644 miles
• New Delhi, India – 5,322 miles
• Hong Kong, China – 7,675 miles
• Melbourne, Australia – 12,305 miles
• Antartica – 14,314 miles
• Los Angeles, USA – 22,977 miles
• Rio de Janeiro, Brazil – 29,272 miles
• Cape Town, South Africa – 33,047 miles
• Cairo, Egypt – 37,549 miles
• Back to London, England – 39,725 miles

Based on my miles, I’ve already been to London, Paris, Rome and Berlin. I’m currently making my trek to Moscow. I wonder how long it will take me to get to Russia.

Here are some motivational songs [iTunes Link] if you decide that this is your goal as well:

• Around the World (Radio Edit) – Daft Punk
• Around the World – Red Hot Chili Peppers
• Around the World – Aqua
• All Around the World (feat. Ludacris) – Justin Bieber
• Around the World – Christina Aguilera
• Around the World (La La La La La) – ATC
• All Around the World (Remix Lady B 128 BPM) – Workout Ultimate Hits 2013, Vol. 1 – Remixes Ideal For Gym, Fitness, Aerobics, Cardio

I loved this image set that I saw on Funeral For My Fat the other day.

It reads:

I have run 10 miles a day, every day, for 18 years. That’s 65,000 miles… a third of the way to the moon. My goal is to run to the moon.

Here’s the video of it and it’s even better in person!

If you want an MP3 of this to put in your workout playlist, here it is:

• Parks and Recreation- My goal is to run to the moon

Who is this Chris Traeger person and how can I be friends with him? I’ve tried watching Parks and Recreation, but I didn’t get past the first season. I keep meaning to start watching again, but now, I have a REAL incentive. Chris Traeger sounds like the kind of guy I would get really inspired by.

Here’s an animated GIF I found on That’s my dream; that’s my nightmare.

He said:

Fresh lettuce is my all-time favorite food!

I need to start watching Parks and Recreation again. I wanna be just like Chris Traeger.

I love this motivational poster that I saw on work sweat achieve the other day.

It reads:

Success Trains. Failure Complains.

When I think of all the ways I’ve failed and then complained about how my body is shaped because of that failure, I need to hang my head in shame. From now on, every time I feel like complaining about clothing that doesn’t fit or how I look, I am going to add a small workout to my day. It will be the thing I do instead of complaining because I want to be a success, not a failure.