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

This advertisement for Skechers Resistance running shoes in one of my fitness magazines puzzles me:

It reads:

Helps increase postural muscle activation up to 85%

Helps increase gluteus medius muscle activation up to 71%

Helps increase calf muscle activation up to 68%

Helps burn up to 13.2% more calories

That all looks technical and scientific to me. So many numbers and percentages means they MUST have research studies proving that, right? I looked at the Skechers Resistance Runner website and videos, but there were no links to any studies. The video features the designer, a runner and the founder of the company, but not a doctor among them. They show people running on treadmills hooked up to machines and computers, but WHERE is the research data?!

Without access to the actual data, I’m not believing it and I’m CERTAINLY not going to pay a hundred and fifty bucks for a shoe that might be no better than the twenty dollar trainers at Payless Shoe Source.

Shoe companies have been promising a workout in a shoe for a LONG time. Dr. Scholl’s Exercise Sandals promised beautiful legs to my grandma and she never once saw results from them, even after YEARS of wearing them.

I’m not going to believe that the Skechers Resistance Runner is any more able to “increase muscle activation” than the Dr. Scholl’s Exercise Sandal unless they actually SHOW ME THE DATA.

This postcard from PostSecret made me feel sad.

It reads:

I think my husband loves me “the way I am” because he doesn’t want me to lose weight & be attractive to other men.

This thought is very dangerous. It doesn’t matter whether your spouse wants you to stay fat or not. Thinking that your loved one doesn’t want you to be attractive is a very defeating idea. It gives you an excuse to live an unhealthy lifestyle. It makes you fearful of getting stronger because you might hurt your partner’s feelings.

Even worse, it makes you scared of being all you can be. The idea that the opposite sex will suddenly start to find you interesting when you get to a healthy weight is scary if you aren’t equipped to fend off advances. In all honesty, people can tell when you don’t want them to hit on you.

If this secret hit home with you, let’s make a deal. You start eating healthy and exercising regularly. When you get to your goal weight, make sure you give the “don’t even try it” vibe. If the opposite sex still makes passes at you, then here are some resources you can use to protect yourself:

• How to Politely Turn Down A Date
• How to Politely Turn Down a Guy | eHow.com

Don’t let your worries about social awkwardness get in the way of your health. You owe it to yourself to live a healthy lifestyle. Move past this fear and you will feel stronger physically AND emotionally.

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.

A couple of weeks ago, US Weekly had a little blurb about stars and how they keep their figures. You can see it here:

When are we going to stop this madness? People are LITERALLY starving themselves in order to keep their jobs in the entertainment industry. Here are the quotes:

Elizabeth Hurley: “I swear by almost nothing for breakfast. Mugs of hot water!”

Amanda Seyfried: “[My raw food diet is] sort of awful. Yesterday for lunch? Spinach… and some seeds.”

Kristin Bauer: “The other day I realized as long as I’m in this business, I’m going to be hungry.”

Julianne Moore: “Boring diet of, essentially, yogurt and breakfast cereal and granola bars. I hate dieting. I’m hungry all the time.”

The next time you compare your body to an actress, remember what these women said and repeat this mantra:

What I see isn’t always what I get on TV and in ads. It takes a lot of airbrushing, dieting, money and work to look like that.

It’s time we stop treating our bodies like their the enemy and give them what they need: healthy food, vigorous exercise and plenty of sleep.

This postcard from PostSecret came up a couple of weeks ago while I was out of town. It made me sad and angry to see it.

It reads:

Pretty please loose weight so my family can love you the way I do!

Firstly, I just wanted to smack the author of the secret upside the head. If you want someone to weigh less, you want them to LOSE weight, not LOOSE weight. Loose weight suggests that the fat is somehow not tight on the body. Maybe your beloved should break up with you just because you’re not smart enough to know the difference.

Secondly, if you loved them just the way they are, it wouldn’t matter what your family thought. Deep down inside, you’ll only love them if they get thin like you think they should be.

If you find yourself in this position, dump the person asking you to “loose” weight. They’ll never be happy no matter how thin you become. If you want to get healthy for yourself, that’s great. If you want to get healthy so you’ll live longer and be able to spend more time with your loved ones, that’s even better. If you want to lose weight just to earn love from the unworthy, then run away as fast as you can.

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.

I want to give a shout-out to Seventeen Magazine for their Body Peace Treaty. You can see it here:

You can read more inspiration here:

• Jess Weiner Body Peace Blog – Positive Body Image Advice for Teens – Seventeen

They were even featured on Huge (one of the best shows this summer):

Update 09-15-10: Here are some screenshots from Huge, where they sign the Body Peace Treaty.

I was looking through my old Seventeen magazines from the 80’s and I found this article in the November 1987 issue about Aerobikata. Actress, Christine Harnos, demonstrates the cool new workout craze from New York that was supposed to be a mixture of aerobics and karate.

Christine Harnos was best known for her part playing Jennifer Greene, the wife of Mark Greene on ER. The only thing I’ve seen her in was a guest spot on Star Trek: Voyager. It’s good to know that she went on to bigger and better things than Aerobikata.

The “workout craze” however doesn’t seem to exist on the Internet. Far from Japanese, the word aerobikata is Finnish and simply means “to do aerobics.”

• aerobikata – Wiktionary

As non-existent as the craze may have been, the moves shown in the magazine are pretty interesting and will probably get your heart rate going if you give them a try.

I especially like number 11. It’s the perfect depiction of a hamstring/calf stretch as you’ll ever see. Keep your back straight and you should feel the stretch in your straightened leg.

Whenever I read the fitness magazines of today, I’m reminded of articles like these from twenty years ago. Sure, it might look like the new fitness craze now, but in twenty years, it’ll be as silly as Aerobikata is today.

The brilliant Wendy Bumgardner at About.com has another article that really got me thinking.

• 10 Ways Walking Can Land You in Prison

There are things I didn’t even think about on that list:

• Jaywalking
• Trespassing
• Weapons Violations
• Destruction of Public Property
• Theft
• Public Urination/Indecent Exposure
• Assault
• Battery
• Leash and Scooper Laws
• Loitering

When you list them out like this, it seems like a no-brainer, but when Wendy goes into detail about all the ways you could accidentally break the law, I had a whole new appreciation for my daily walks through the neighborhood. From ground scores to desperately seeking a Porta-Potty, there are ten ways that you could land yourself in a cell. Check out her article and you’ll be as surprised as I was.

• 10 Ways Walking Can Land You in Prison

• Just completed a 2.98 mi bike ride with @runkeeper. Check it out! http://rnkpr.com/a98aeu #RunKeeper #
• Just completed a 0.54 mi bike ride with @runkeeper. Check it out! http://rnkpr.com/a98a2z #RunKeeper #
• Just completed a 2.49 mi walk with @runkeeper. Check it out! http://rnkpr.com/a918wi #RunKeeper #

I love this video of this little hamster just chowing down on the tiniest piece of broccoli.

The next time you’re dreading adding vegetables to your meal, remember this little guy and eagerly get some broccoli into your cheek pouches.

Video via: Check the Feet Flail at 1:05 — Cute Overload

I saw this advertisement from 1971 and I immediately smiled to myself.

It’s an advertisement for the hilariously styled, TrimJeans. The ad says:

Trim-Jeans with the Fabulous New Sauna Belt

Guaranteed to reduce your waist, abdomen, hips and thighs a total of from 6 to 9 inches in just 3 days or your money refunded

I laugh at this ad because I KNOW that TrimJeans didn’t reduce ANY part of my grandma’s body when she wore them. I know from experience that they just made her look silly when she wore them.

On the other hand, these sorts of products are still around today. Take the Avon/Curves Trimming Shorts:

When I posted an entry about them last year (Curves and Avon Embrace Quackery), they were staunchly defended by the Avon community, despite the experts in the field who say otherwise:

• Neoprene weight loss shorts? – Yahoo! Answers

Fat is not melted away by warm clothing…it is only lost when consumed by the body as a source of fuel. Do cardio for over 20 minutes and you’ll start to burn fat. The sweat under your shorts is just water trying to keep you cool…not fat.

Why are we so eager to laugh at 1971 when the SAME things are being marketed today? Sure, the neoprene shorts don’t look as silly as the TrimJeans, but there is nothing funny about their false promises.

TrimJeans Ad Via: LiveJournal: TrimJeans, 1971