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

Sometimes, getting five servings of fruits and vegetables is difficult. Sometimes it feels like a chore to eat that many. When I start feeling like that, I break out the Bloody Mary glasses and make myself a Virgin Bloody Mary.

Ingredients:

• Margarita Salt
• Ice
• 1 small can of V-8 juice
• 2-10 drops of Tabasco Sauce
• 1/4 cup lime juice
• Ground pepper to taste

Directions:

• Wet the lip of the glass and dip it into the margarita salt.
• Add ice, V-8, Tabasco sauce and lime juice to the glass and mix well.
• Grind some pepper on the top of the liquid.

You can also add olives and celery, but I usually don’t have those sitting around my house when I’m in this situation, so I just drink it with a straw. For some reason, dressing tomato juice up like this makes drinking my serving of vegetables a little easier. It makes me feel like I am having a treat.

Last February, my good friend, Braidwood, took me to the Slow Food Mixer at the Wine Vault in San Diego. I had been religiously following the Weight Watchers program, so I was a little nervous going to an event that focused so heavily on food.

I shouldn’t have worried. Instead of a binge-fest, it was a pleasant gathering of interesting people. Every bite of food was a intriguing delight of goodness.

They fed us tiny amounts of food. Each item was no more than one or two bites. I didn’t get to taste everything, but I did get a photo of every thing. What I loved so much was being able to have so many different flavors without eating a lot of food.

The focus of the event was choosing organic and locally grown food. They showcased the best that southern California had to offer.

Of course, locally grown food is a lot easier to come by in a place that has a growing season like California does. Back home in Utah, we’re stuck with apples and potatoes all winter if we only eat local.

The thing that surprised me the most is how filling everything was. Each item was only a bite or two, but I felt full after an evening of talking and eating. I ate tiny amounts of really good food and I felt much more satisfied than I would have if I had eaten a huge meal at McDonalds.

The next time you’re hungry, cook yourself up some glamorous appetizers in tiny serving sizes and have one of each. You may find that you get fulfilled on far fewer calories than you would have if you had made a single entree.

To see all the photos:

• Slow Food Mixer at Wine Vault & Bistro – a set on Flickr

I saw Stephanie Klein speak at SXSWi 2009 this year and because of it, I bought a copy of her book, Moose: A Memoir of Fat Camp. In the book, she relates the tales of being sent to fat camp every summer.

I really expected her experience to be similar to mine. Every summer, my sister and I were sent to Montana to stay with our grandparents. Every summer, we dropped weight because our grandma was starving us and sending us to so many active classes that our bodies had no choice but to get slim. I ended up scarred with bingeing behavior built right into my personality, but Stephanie’s experience with fat camp was completely different.

Instead of damaging her self-esteem, it seemed to help her be stronger. Here are some of the awesome quotes I gleaned from her book:

I’d heard it all the time, ‘Live in the moment.’ But if I did that, I’d weigh more than a dump truck. Losing weight wasn’t about the moment at all; it was about having faith in the future. It was about knowing there would be another meal in a few hours.
– Stephanie Klein, Moose, 2008

I already knew to eat clean and listen to my body, to only eat when I was in a calm mental state. Everyone knew. But when you’re fat in the head, it’s never about knowing the answers. It’s about living them. – Stephanie Klein, Moose, 2008

When we die, no one remembers us for what we weighed. Our weight isn’t etched into our headstones.
– Stephanie Klein, Moose, 2008

That’s the thing about being a former fat camp champ: when asked if I’d change my past if I could, I always answer no. The pain of being an overweight kid, the humiliation, make you think twice before ever cutting anyone else down.
– Stephanie Klein, Moose, 2008

There’s something almost perfect in the ugly duckling syndrome. Because a sensitivity is tattooed on a part of you no one else can see but can somehow guess is there.
– Stephanie Klein, Moose, 2008

If you have been looking for a good summer read, check out Moose: A Memoir of Fat Camp by Stephanie Klein. It was great fun for me to read and even healed my damaged soul just a bit.

Sometimes I wake up and I just don’t want to exercise, but watching a video like this is enough to get my butt on the treadmill or out the door.

I have to admit that when I was running outdoors in all sorts of weather, I was much more able to handle any extreme. Now that I depend on my treadmill so much, I tend to be more of a wimp during extreme weather.

Next time you are feeling like skipping your workout, take four minutes and watch this video. It will get you moving!

Via: Quadrathon: The often asked question…

• @ddrdiva Shucks, I was hoping MTM was some cool DDR variant game. Since you’re the DDR Diva, I thought I was missing out on some new fun! #

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The Diet Blog posted this message from their community forums the other day:

• Why do Skinny People hate Fat People?

I am over weight and I am a very friendly, kind nice person and I notice that when I go to church or to the store people don’t seem to want to be around me. I take care of myself I have very nice clothes and I get my hair done. I just don’t get why beautiful people can’t talk to or be friends with me. I know that I am fat & maybe I am ugly, but I just don’t understand.

I have noticed this behavior with some people, but it’s very rare. Some skinny people DO hate fat people, but they are the exception, not the rule.

So what is this woman experiencing at church or at the store? Did she fall into a den of fat haters, or is there something else going on?

I don’t know, but personally, I have found that if I’m friendly with people and expect them to treat me nicely, that’s usually how they treat me. That was true when I was fat and that was true when I was at my thinnest.

When I was in high school, I suffered from the disease, Blame The Fat. Everything that went wrong in my life, I blamed on being fat. I wasn’t even fat back then, but if anything wasn’t absolutely perfect, I blamed it on my fat. Junior year, I dated a guy named Sean. I liked him and it seemed like he liked me. He was a sophomore and we were both friends with Clark. We went to a dance together, but soon afterward, he broke up with me. I immediately assumed it was because I was “fat.”

After a month of starvation dieting, I was skinnier than ever, but Sean still didn’t want anything to do with me. Finally, I asked Clark if he knew what happened. Clark said that Sean didn’t like the fact that I was older and had a car. He felt embarrassed that he couldn’t drive me to the dance and that I had to drive them.

I sat in my desk in our Literary Magazine office and didn’t say a word. I was thinner than I had ever been in high school and Clark was telling me that my old boyfriend broke up with me because I had the gall to drive us to the dance. I imagine I must have frozen up for a second or two while I absorbed the information.

It had nothing to do with my fat.

I don’t know why the people in that woman’s church are stand-offish, but I am nearly certain that it isn’t because she’s fat. I could think of a half a dozen other reasons why they don’t associate with her.

• They get new people all the time who don’t stick around, so they don’t accept new visitors into the fold until they’ve stuck around for a year or so.
• They assume that someone else has befriended them.
• There is a committee that is supposed to fellowship new members, but it isn’t doing its job. The people who weren’t picked to be on the committee are bitter and angry. They think, “It’s not my job.”
• They figure she came to the church because she knows someone there.
• They are jealous of her nice clothes and perfect hair. They think she thinks she’s too good for them.
• She seems so shy and insecure that they don’t want to make her feel even MORE uncomfortable by making her talk to strangers.

The only way to know for sure is to ASK. Back in high school, I didn’t have the balls to ask my ex boyfriend why he didn’t want to date me anymore, so I asked his buddy. Now, as a grown-up, I’m perfectly willing to ask anyone to their face. Want to know what I find out? It’s quite surprising:

• I don’t hate you. I’ve been really preoccupied because my husband got laid off…
• You think I hate you? God, I barely even know you!
• Yeah, I hate you. You’re so loud and obnoxious. I wish you would just shut the bleep up.

Most people like me. Some people hate me. Not one person has said, “I just don’t like to be seen with you because you’re so fat.” Even when I’ve been at my fattest. It’s NEVER about the fat. It’s ALWAYS about something else. There are a very small minority of people who hate fat people, but they don’t have any where near the power over your life as your own mind and attitude. The next time it feels like someone is snubbing you because you are fat, catch yourself. You’ve come face to face with the disease, Blame The Fat. Don’t let it conquer your mind. Keep being friendly and open to everyone and you will open far more doors than a skinny butt ever could.

I love this little animation of a yellow guy running. It really gives a good idea of the quiet and calm that I can get from an early morning run.

Running on the treadmill never felt like this, so that’s why I started filming the Starling Fitness Walking Videos. Now I get that same sense of calm and wonder on my treadmill as well.

Via: Spokane Al: Another Nice Video

• @ddrdiva What is MTM? I’ve never heard of it. #

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• @ddrdiva What is MTM? I’ve never heard of it. #

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Last week’s Sheldon had me laughing and cringing in embarrassment. Arthur, the duck, is so proud of his accomplishment. You can see the whole comic here:

• Sheldonâ„¢ Comic Strip: Daily Webcomic by Dave Kellett: May 4, 2009

What did Arthur do that was like running a marathon? I won’t ruin it for you, but just suffice it to say that even I haven’t achieved this sort of “greatness.”

The next time you are tempted to the dark side, remember Arthur and how silly he sounds when bragging about his foibles.