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

For those of us who have been watching the covers of O Magazine, we know that Oprah had gained some weight. It happened slowly, but one day at the checkout counter a few months ago, I saw an O Magazine right next to a tabloid announcing that she had gained weight. I looked at Oprah’s magazine and realized, “Yes, she HAS gained some weight.”

Then, the January 2009 O Magazine hit the stands and Oprah is so open about it all:

• Oprah’s Battle with Weight Gain – O January 2009 Cover

I can’t believe that after all these years, all the things I know how to do, I’m still talking about my weight. I look at my thinner self and think, “How did I let this happen again?”

Weight gain can happen for many reasons. In Oprah’s case, she was having some physical problems. When she was finally diagnosed with hypothyroidism, she felt defeated.

It seemed as if the struggle I’d had with weight my entire adult life was now officially over. I felt completely defeated. I thought, “I give up. I give up. Fat wins.” All these years I’d had only myself to blame for lack of willpower. Now I had an official, documented excuse.

She is back on the road to recovery and has the kahunas to admit that she has a problem. Next time you feel like you just can’t do this, remember how brave Oprah is to show herself on her magazine next to her past self. It’s a before and after picture that is rarely shown, and Oprah deserves a pat on the back for her honesty.

Via: Oprah’s Weight Gain

People say the best workout partner is a dog. A big, energy-filled dog that needs a couple of walks a day is a good workout partner, but when it’s snowy and icy outside, your workout partner can pull you onto your butt.

I’ve been walking outside every day with NakedJen and her dogs, Stella and Buddha. They are huge black labs and when Buddha sees a cat, he could pull my arm right out of its socket trying to get it. Earlier this month, Jen started using the Halti Head Collars on both of the dogs and suddenly, I’m not so worried about getting pulled over. I could lead both Stella and Buddha with one hand if I had to. Now, when we walk over icy roads, I only have to worry about keeping myself stable instead of the double worry of slipping and/or being pulled over by the dog.

If you walk your dogs in the winter, a Halti might be the best exercise equipment you’ve ever bought. It will help keep you injury free and your walks with your dog will be MUCH easier.

The Vasa Trainers range in price from $900 to nearly $2000. That was the first strike against them. They look like a glorified Total Gym, but cost over three times as much.

The Vasa Trainer is supposed to be an exercise machine that can give you the same workout as swimming, but if you notice, you only exercise your arms or legs, you can’t do them both, so a workout with the Vasa machine would take twice the time that laps in a pool could do for you. If you have a coach checking your technique, then YES, maybe the Vasa is helpful, but if you want to get your workout done, you’re better to just go to the community pool during lap hours to get your workout done.

• Vasa Ergometer Swim Bench, Canoe and Kayak paddling machine, Vasa Trainer total gym

The more I watched this video, the more their trainers felt like a big waste of money.

If you want the workout of swimming, GO SWIMMING! Community pools and gyms have inexpensive options for keeping you fit. If you want weight training, buy a weight training bench. For about $170, you can get this Apex Weight Bench. Add a few weights and you have a BETTER home gym for less than $300.

Don’t let fancy gadgets fool you into thinking that you are getting a better workout than good old fashioned swimming.

Via: Healthacker.com » Blog Archive » Vasa Ergometer Swim Bench: Rowing Machine for Swimmers

Zen Habits had a great article last month:

• The 7 Keys to Turning Bad Habits Into Good Habits | Zen Habits

For each habit, identify your triggers. Whenever you are tempted to eat when you shouldn’t or skip a workout routine, find out what is going on right before those thoughts.

For every single trigger, identify a positive habit you’re going to do instead. If you like to eat while you’re watching TV, what can you do instead? Knitting? Origami? Skipping TV altogether?

For at least one month, focus entirely on being as consistent with your triggers as possible. Every time you are tempted to eat when you’re not really hungry, do the new activity instead. It’s very important to do it every time to imprint the new habit.

Avoid tempting situations. Sometimes it’s easier to avoid situations in which you overeat completely. Parties? Skip them for a month. Buffet Dinners? Insist on a different restaurant until you’re stronger.

Realize that your urges will be strong, but they will go away after a few minutes. These sorts of desires tend to come and go. If you can hold out for a while, then the urge to eat will go away and you can get back to life as normal.

Ask for help. This one is the hardest for me because I’ve failed so many times that my family just rolls their eyes when I ask for help. You need to be as SPECIFIC as possible, such as, “If you see me eating healthy, I need you to praise me. If I’m eating poorly, don’t say anything at all or I’ll bite your freakin’ head off.” Knowing exactly what you need will help them help you, but you have to figure out what you need first.

Staying positive is key! You can do this without keeping a positive attitude, but it’s a helluva lot harder that way. Every time you hear your inner voice give you permission to break your new habit, remember to tell yourself that you can do this!

If you fail (and many of you will, at least once), don’t give up. The only difference between the people who lose the weight and keep it off and the people who don’t is that the successful people didn’t quit. Never, never, never give up.

The next time you think that eating poorly or skipping your workouts is “just how you are” remember that you CAN change yourself. You can eat healthy and ENJOY exercise. Do it one habit at a time and you’ll find that you suddenly have all GOOD habits and no bad ones.

As you’re enjoying the holiday today, remember to:

• Keep the meals light: No matter what is served at Christmas you can keep your meals light by choosing small portions. Don’t deny yourself the traditional foods that you only get once a year, but keep the portion size SMALL and you’ll give yourself a present this year.

• Put away the food after the meal: Leaving the food out is an invitation to graze all day long. After the meal is over, put the food away.

• Take a walk with your family after Christmas Dinner: You’ll burn off some of the calories and prevent food coma.

• Play in the snow with the kids: Christmas is the one time of the year when parents actually PLAY with their children. Make it an active time and throw some snowballs or built a snow fort in the backyard.

• Remember it’s a holiDAY, not a holiWEEK: Christmas is ONE day. Don’t continue celebrating with food after today is over.

As always, have a happy holiday and be here bright and early tomorrow morning for more inspiration!

Laura,

Hi, very interesting website…I have been a ww member for 25 years. Lifetime, but I do keep repeating the program. I am looking forward to the momentum, something new…a little challenge, at least or 4 weeks, when you really get to know the program.

my question, are you affiliated or sponsor’d by WW

thanks,
Elie

Elie,

No, I do not work for Weight Watchers and they do not sponsor my site. I attend weekly meetings just like a normal person. In fact, I came back from my last meeting of the year yesterday (the Utah WW affiliate closes between Christmas and New Year’s). I lost 1.8 pounds this week. I love to be able to keep losing AND enjoy the holiday.

Best,
Laura

I found this advertisement for LaCoste clothing in the November In Style magazine. I thought it was the perfect inspiration for staying on program during the holiday months.

I never think of winter as a very motivating time to stay on program, but looking at these models being active makes me want to go outside and play in the snow.

While I was scouring old Seventeen Magazines for cool things, I found this workout routine in the May 1983 edition. It features one of their models, a pre-diva Whitney Houston.

Here she is showing off some leg workouts:

Here are some arm workouts:

The ab workouts are here:

Finally, take care of your skin. It’s interesting that “maximum protection” was SPF 15 back then:

I almost feel a little cheated by this article. When I read Seventeen Magazine, I used to think that the workouts that they showed me were actually performed by the models. I believed that the reason they looked good was because of the workout routines shown.

Call me naive, but I was sixteen years old. If you can’t be naive at sixteen, when can you? I’m glad that Seventeen Magazine has changed so much over the years. I loved the magazine that they used to be, but I really don’t think they were that healthy for me.

Something has gone terribly wrong at JCPenney. They have started a new clothing line called A.N.A.

• JCPenney : Womens Clothing : A.N.A

Their signage says that A.N.A means, “A New Approach,” but either they are consciously trying to get the pro-ana girls to buy their clothing or they are COMPLETELY out of touch with teens.

The pro-ana movement is a group who believe that women with anorexic bodies are beautiful. They don’t believe anorexia is a disorder. They aren’t necessarily an organized group, but there are MANY pro-ana sites on the Internet that glamorize the anorexic form. Wikipedia has a good article about it:

• Pro-ana – Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

In fact, JCPenney’s advertisements could be used on a pro-ana site for “thinspiration.”

I don’t believe that JCPenney could be evil, so I have to deduce that they are just clueless about the pro-ana movement. They need to think of a new approach in naming their clothing lines from now on.

You can only buy Clementines during this time of the year, and lately, you can only buy them in a HUGE bag. I’ve talked about Clementines before:

• Starling Fitness » Clementine Season

My favorite aspect of clementines is how easy they are to peel and the fact that they have no seeds. I DON’T like that I have to buy a huge container of them instead of being able to just buy a couple at a time. The big box of clementines inevitably goes bad before I can finish them all.

NOT THIS YEAR!

This year, Mike had a great idea. We took half of the clementines, peeled them and put them in plastic bags to freeze them.

“I don’t think you can freeze citrus,” I told Mike. “They’re going to go bad anyway, so let’s just try it,” he replied, “Maybe they’ll be like frozen grapes.”

Just last week, I tried using the frozen clementines in a smoothie and they worked PERFECTLY!

Clementine Smoothie

• 1 cup frozen clementine sections
• 1 cup skim milk
• 2 tsps of healthy oil (I like to sneak it into treats so I don’t notice it)
• 1 packet of Stevia (or Splenda) – optional (most of the time the clementines are sweet enough)

Put all the ingredients into the blender and mix on high until smooth.

1 serving – Approximately 250 calories – 5 WW Points – 2 fruit, 2 oil and 1 milk serving.

The smoothie tasted like a healthy dreamsicle, and I LOVE that I get to check off so many boxes on my food journal.

Clementines are only available for a short time each year, so make sure you grab a bag of them and enjoy them both fresh AND frozen.