It is my belief that when man is given a choice to work, or not to work, he will choose not to. That is why the invention of a machine that will do all of man’s work for him will be the destruction of our society. The human condition is not prepared for the drastic change that will be inflicted by such a machine. It will remove the sense of purpose that man has unknowingly needed throughout all of recorded time.
– Joe Popp, Maxwell : A New Rock Musical by Joe Popp
icanhascheezurger.com
It has been often said that being optimistic is incredibly helpful when you are struggling to lose weight. Admittedly, it is hard to be optimistic when you are faced with choking down that eighth glass of water for the day or you are trying to learn to love vegetables, but the fact of the matter is that modern dieters have it easy. Not only do we have a plethora of products that are packaged to help us with portion control, but many diets these days are loaded with foods that are, quite frankly, delicious.
It wasn’t always this way, my friends.
I grew up in a dieting household. When I was growing up my Mother (and, by extension, her children) took part in just about every diet craze that was out there. I can recall tuna fish diets, grape fruit diets, diets that involved granular shakes, and diets that with daily calorie intakes that would have the Olsen Twins duking it out in a cage match over a Snickers at the end of the day.
But what I remember the most is the liver.
A lot has been said over the years about the medical benefits of eating liver. From a health perspective, it is one of the best sources of Vitamin A, a compound that promotes healthy vision, bone growth, and assists in fighting off infections. It is also thought to help regulate blood sugar and aid weight loss efforts.
It is also…well…liver.
Please understand – I don’t want to take anything away from those of you who actually like eating liver, but you have to admit that for a large number of people even the thought of eating liver is enough to bring on a serious case of the DO NOT WANTS. That being said, there was a time when it was a regular staple in our household. You see, back in the early 70’s the folks over at Weight Watchers decided it was so important to eat liver that it was REQUIRED that you do so at least once a week. My Mother cleverly disguised it of course. She never told us we were eating liver, but that we were eating braunschweiger. It worked for a while, too, but eventually one of us actually read the packaging when she brought it in from the store and the jig was up.
The other day my Mom gave me a Weight Watchers cookbook from the early 80’s. By this point in the program history they had moved away from requiring liver, but it was still a pretty big focus of the recipe book – so much so that Liver has its very own section. Now I’m all for trying new things, but some of these recipes sound downright revolting, but my “favorite” has to be the Fruit ‘N’ Rice-Filled Liver.
In fact, I’m so grossed out by this particular recipe I’m gonna share the love.
I haven’t made a post here in almost a month, and all I have is the really lame excuse of “I was busy with the holidays and rehearsing for a show.” I’m still really busy, actually. I just started a new semester of classes at Saint Petersburg College (I’m taking the classes necessary to get into their B.S. Technology Management program).
That being said, my creativity is kind of at an all time low – which really sucks because I’m working on a super-secret new project with some friends that is going to require quite a bit of creativity from me in very short order.
The preceding two paragraphs were a lame setup for the cheesy premise of the post that follows. I’m going to take some of my tweets from the last month and expand on them.
So lame.
Image courtesy of ajimixx
Video game players do not have a reputation for being paragons of physical fitness (with the possible exception of freakishly strong thumbs). In recent years, though, there has been a growing trend of console based games that have gotten us up off the couch. From party games like Dance Dance Revolution, Rock Band, and Samba de Amigo to games specifically designed for physical fitness like Yourself Fitness and Wii Fit, the video game industry seems determined to help us shake off our couch potato reputation.
Hoping to capitalize on the popularity of these trends, many youth oriented activity centers are using video games to entice children into burning more calories. Not only are fitness centers like the YMCA installing consoles to appeal to kids, the school board of Stafford County, Virginia, has jumped on the bandwagon as well. Over a dozen schools in the district now have fitness centers with a “technology twist.”
It seems likely that this trend will only continue to grow. Despite its lack of “next gen” graphics and titles designed to appeal to traditional hard core gamers the Nintendo Wii was yet again the hottest selling console during the most recent holiday shopping season. It is only a matter of time before Sony and Microsoft jump on the bandwagon and expand their catalog of games that get us moving, and while they may not turn us into super models they might help to counter all those Doritos we suck down while playing.