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

I watched the movie Fat Head on Netflix the other day. It is a satirical look at Morgan Spurlock’s Supersize Me. Tom Naughton spent a month eating nothing but fast food and he LOST weight and his blood levels improved. He did it by limiting his carbs. It’s not all about Supersize Me, though. It talks about why low carb works when low fat really doesnt. It really helped me realize why I was STARVING on Weight Watchers all those years. This clip is kind of goofy and the animation is something out of a bad comedy routine, but it DOES explain why I was so hungry all the time:

The movie trends a little on the conspiracy theory side. I don’t believe the government is trying to make us fat. I don’t believe the food industry is trying to make us fat. I think they are all just trying their best to recommend the healthiest diet, but they didn’t have all the information. They could have chosen low fat or low carb and they chose the wrong one to recommend.

If you are feeling hungry all the time, even though you’re supposedly eating enough calories, watch Fathead. It might give you some ideas to tweak your diet in a manner that will keep you feeling fuller AND losing weight.

I may have left Weight Watchers, but I still get their magazine. As betrayed as I feel, I still find motivational things in every issue. Take this poster, for example.

It reads:

Not worrying about how I look is so liberating. I can finally walk on the beach and just appreciate the beauty of it.

• Lisa M., WWM Reader

I have never in my life not worried about how I look. I try to take the zen approach and assume that I look bad no matter what, so I shouldn’t worry about it, but that hasn’t worked very well for me. I wonder what it would feel like to just be so comfortable in my skin that I didn’t think about my tummy, legs or upper arms. I wonder if I will ever be able to do that, even when I am at my goal weight.

Maybe being comfortable with my appearance has more to do with my state of mind than my body.

Update 08-14-2011: Please read the comment from Benjamin Young, the CEO of Nexercise, below. The reason the app doesn’t multitask (and allow you to lock your screen) is because Apple doesn’t allow it with the current OS.

The new update of the app DOES allow unverified time, but it has crashed so many times on me that I’ve stopped using it. Perhaps the next update will fix those crashes.

I did win a $5 Amazon gift card while testing the app. That was a nice surprise and made me want to use Nexercise more, despite the bother it is to use it.

Update 08-31-2011: I’ve continued to try Nexercise with my workouts and I stand by my review. They do allow unverified time and it only beeps at me if I click away to take a picture or see my Runkeeper stats. The crashes, however, make it not worth the while. Just today, I had a 53 minute walk that failed to be submitted. It just sat there spinning, failed and then disappeared from my calendar.

NOT WORTH THE BOTHER.

I’ve been trying a free app on my iPhone called Nexercise. The premise is brilliant. It logs your physical activity and for every fifteen minutes you exercise, you get a chance to win prizes and badges.

Unfortunately, the execution isn’t as brilliant.

It’s easy enough to run the program and it doesn’t suck down my battery while it’s running, but it does NOT multitask. It’s kind enough to go into “sleep” mode so exercising with it doesn’t turn it off, but pushing the normal sleep button will pause the program.

Additionally, if I answer a call, it pauses the program. If I take a picture of something beautiful on my walk, it pauses the program. If I don’t run Runkeeper BEFORE I start Nexercise, it pauses the program. What is this? 2009? iPhones have been able to multitask for a while. Why doesn’t Nexercise?!

The lack of multitasking is irritating enough, but Nexercise also has the additional problem of pausing itself because it thinks you’re not moving enough.

I wouldn’t be bothered by this problem if it didn’t happen about once or twice each walk. Sometimes it’s because I have stopped to scoop doggie poo, but rather than waiting for me to let my dog do her business, it beeps me with an annoying sound with a reprimand.

Other times, it thinks I’m not moving enough for no reason whatsoever. Maybe I don’t jiggle enough when I walk or they’ve set the sensitivity wrong, but there have been times when it has paused for inactivity in the middle of a walk when I haven’t stopped moving. It’s the same irritating problem that Nike+ had without the benefits of tracking that Nike gave me.

Worst of all, when it has paused and I didn’t notice, sometimes it won’t give me any credit for my walk at all because it didn’t log fifteen minutes of activity while I was walking. Sure, my walk was an hour long, but the stupid thing paused itself and I didn’t happen to hear the irritating beeps.

To be fair, I’ve had a couple of walks with no pausing, but the added problem of loading up an additional app and dealing with the lack of multitasking just makes Nexercise not worth it.

As far as those rewards go, I haven’t won one. I HAVE earned a couple of badges and I have to tell you that it felt good to earn them.

Are the badges and the promise of gift cards worth the extra hassle? No, they’re not. If they get multitasking to work or if they change the sensitivity of the app so that it won’t pause itself, maybe Nexercise will be worth it. Until then, I’m not going to bother with it.

This photo from Two-Heel Drive is so beautiful, it made me want to get out there and take a walk.

I have been taking morning walks with Nina and not a day goes by when I don’t feel better for it. It’s like getting out into the sunlight and moving my body makes a great start to the day.

Via: Go toward the light | Two-Heel Drive, a Hiking Blog

This video of twin three-year-old boys playing Just Dance 2 on the Wii is so adorable! Watch the boy on the left at the 1:58 minute mark. He’s just the CUTEST!! If you play on Xbox 360, there is Just Dance 3 for Kinect, but it won’t be out until this October. I haven’t played any of my dancing games for a long time, but watching these kids play makes me want to play again.

Via: Littlest, Yellowest, Differentest

These patriotic cookies look tempting and delicious, but they give me pause. We are coming up on Independence Day and the grocery store is full of red, white and blue pastries and candies, tempting us at every turn. If you offered me these cookies, my first instinct is to take one (or maybe two because those stars are so very little). If you asked me if I wanted a normal sugar cookie, I can pretty much say no without any reservations, but the red, white and blue cookies are a definite temptation.

When I think about it, though, how are these cookies different from normal sugar cookies? They AREN’T.

The only reason the patriotic cookies are attractive to me is because they aren’t always available. How often am I offered cookies? Quite often, actually, so I don’t really feel like I’m missing out if I don’t eat one. Patriotic cookies, on the other hand, only come once a year. Even though they taste EXACTLY the same as normal cookies, they seem rare.

This is called Artificial Scarcity. Do not let artificial scarcity screw up your eating!

Do patriotic M&M’s taste any different than normal M&M’s? NO! Just because they are only available this time of the year, doesn’t mean that they are any more delicious. Creating red, white and blue packages of M&M’s (or Easter colors or Halloween colors), doesn’t change the fact that all that sugar and chocolate can derail your goals. They do it as a marketing ploy and, honestly, it works really well on most people. Don’t let it derail you.

Every time I see a magazine or blog recommend to people to “get a dog” for motivation to exercise, I cringe. I did just that in 2001 when we adopted Sid. Now, Sid was a saint of a dog for many reasons, but he was NOT a good dog to keep me motivated to exercise. He was a high energy dog and needed a lot of exercise, but he was completely unleashable. Despite all the training Mike and I gave him, he never in his life learned how to take a walk with us. Every time I walked him, it was only an exercise in frustration, fear and embarrassment.

If you need motivation to exercise, adopting a dog is NOT the way to go. Dogs are each unique and every time you adopt one, it’s a crap shoot. I adopted Sid so I could have a walking and running partner. He was a good friend and I still miss him, but he was NEVER a motivator to exercise for me.

That being said, I find myself in a strange situation. Sid died six months ago, so Mike and I adopted a new dog about three weeks ago. Her name is Nina and everything I wanted from Sid, Nina has given me. I finally have my walking partner.

Nina has her own problems completely different from Sid. The REASON I’ve been walking her two miles a day is because she refuses to go potty in our backyard. We take her out there and she will NOT do it, even if she is bursting with pee and we offer her a treat to do it. She literally needs to walk about a half mile from the house before she will release.

Just like I said, every time you adopt a dog, it’s a crap shoot.

These last three weeks have been bliss for me. Every morning, I wake up and immediately put on my gym clothes to take the dog on a walk. I don’t ever think that it’s not an option. The poor puppy needs to go potty and she won’t be able to go unless I walk her. Exercising has never been so automatic and easy for me, and the backyard has never been so clean and fresh smelling.

So, after these three weeks of happy exercise, would I recommend to people to get a dog for motivation? No. Having a dog is a big responsibility and if the only reason you want one is for company on your daily walks or runs, then do not adopt. You might luck out and get a dog like Nina, but then again, you might end up with a dog like Sid, who you love, but will never be a motivation to exercise. Adopt a dog for the company and joy they bring to your life. If they happen to be a good workout buddy as well, then consider yourself lucky.

This old advertisement for a bowling alley in North Dakota reminded me of the fun I’ve had this last year. In May 2010, Mike’s sister, Kristen, wanted her birthday party at a bowling alley. Our entire marriage, Mike had denied my requests to go bowling over and over because they required him to wear someone else’s shoes. I convinced him to try it for his beloved sister’s sake by telling him he could bring an extra pair of socks and throw away the “contaminated” socks after we were done.

To my delight, that suggestion started a year’s worth of bowling every week.

He loved bowling so much that he bought his own bowling shoes and we have enjoyed many days of activity. I have been able to get a little exercise every week and it feels like a party every time we do it.

The funny thing is how often bowling is shown in the celebrity magazines. Here is Kim Kardasian, in shoes that are NOT appropriate for bowling.

Here is Ben Stiller.

Here are a couple others:

Apparently, even Lady Gaga likes to go bowling, although the paparazzi didn’t get photos of her.

I’ve enjoyed the sport so much and even though it’s not aerobic, by any stretch of the imagination, it DOES give me a workout. The first few weeks of bowling, my back, hamstrings and arms ached as much as when I did weight training.

The next time you’re thinking of doing something fun for the evening, try bowling. It’s a fun time with your friends and you get the added benefit of a workout while you play.

Yesterday, Mike and I got our first weekly delivery of veggies from Petersen Family Farms. We signed up for their farm cooperative in January, so we have been eagerly awaiting veggies from them for months. After such a cold winter and spring, they are just now harvesting some for us.

Having a weekly shipment of veggies brought to us lets us try new things and urges us to eat more vegetables. You’d think that going to the grocery store and buying a couple heads of fresh lettuce and beet greens would be incentive enough, but when we picked up this box of produce, it was different. We met the guy who grew them, so it made me want to eat them instead of letting them go to waste.

If you have been having trouble getting more veggies into your diet, try visiting a local farm, farmer’s market or signing up for a farm coop. It won’t provide you with fresh veggies all year long, but during these glorious months of summer, you’ll have great tasting veggies.

• Local Harvest / Farmers Markets / Family Farms / CSA / Organic Food

I have been going to Weight Watchers since 2001. For those of you counting, that’s TEN years. I had some progress at first, but I was in a CONSTANT state of hunger and wanted to binge ALL THE TIME. Last year, for my New Years Resolution, I decided that I was going to go to EVERY Weight Watcher meeting. I was never going to miss one meeting. I also got my willpower going when I decided I didn’t want to be like Lindsay Lohan or Charlie Sheen. I was going to keep my addiction under control.

And I did it. I went to every WW meeting and I followed the program for a year. My progress was minimal at best. I lost approximately ten pounds in that year, which is better than gaining that same amount, but it was a CONSTANT struggle to even have those minimal results.

If you are like me, then you are reading this and thinking, “She really didn’t give the program a chance. If she had done everything correctly, there is NO WAY that she only lost ten pounds. She MUST have cheated. It goes against the laws of thermodynamics to eat that little food and lose that little.”

Let me assure you right now that I followed the program to the letter for a year and saw such paltry results that I KNOW for a FACT that Weight Watchers does not work for me. It did when I first started it in 2001, but something has changed and I can no longer lose weight on that plan.

I had been playing with the concept of low carb for a while. It appealed to me because my lactose and gluten intolerance were severely aggravated by the WW plan. When I followed low carb, they understandably went away. You know what else went away? My constant hunger and desire to binge.

Another thing led me to believe that maybe Weight Watchers isn’t telling me the whole truth. Jennifer Hudson, the WW spokesperson, was quoted at a Vanity Fair party to say:

“I just made sure I stuck to my Weight Watchers…I also took the extra mile to delete the carbs. I didn’t eat any carbs until today. I made sure when I felt the need to eat something crunchy I ate nuts instead and stayed away from the carbs.”

So, here we are in 2011. I’m giving it a year of following the low carb diet just as faithfully as I did WW. I’m going to see if I have any better results on this diet than I did last year.

Quote via Jennifer Hudson: ‘I didn’t eat any carbs until today’ | Jennifer Hudson | Skinny VS Curvy