This might be the best explanation of my current state of football fandom. On Saturday afternoon I had to choose between watching A) Notre Dame vs. Navy on CBS, B) Penn State vs. Minnesota on ESPNU or C) Illinois vs. Indiana on an alternate feed of the Big 10 Network that for the first quarter did not have any sound. I chose C and I was damn glad I did (though when the announcers came back on I kind of questioned it.) Of all my teams Illinois may very well be the best and they are certainly the most fun to watch.
Notre Dame was just pitiful this week. Now Navy is a good squad but we should not lose to them and certainly should not lose to them three out of the past four years. In fact, I shouldn’t be able to say with pride that I was at the game the last time we beat Navy and the last time we beat USC. But it is not just that we lost. We were just pounded and could not stop Navy. Even the two times we forced them to pass they lit us up. That is just depressing. The fact is without joining a conference I don’t see the team getting any better. Right now we are just hoping to be a middling team that will probably be destroyed at home by Utah. You kind of hope for better than that.
Otherwise the most productive thing I did this weekend was put in 4.67 miles on the treadmill in an hour. For those wondering I have gotten my weight down to around 200 pounds for a loss of ten pounds since May. While I wouldn’t say that I am nearing the level of anything called athletic the fact is not that long ago I would have a hard time going at 4.7 miles an hour on the treadmill for more than a few minutes. Now I’m basically averaging that over the course of an hour and I just need to cut one minute off of my time in order to run three miles in under my age. I’m getting fit, which is a pretty sweet accomplishment.
Thinking about that and having read a few more articles on obesity in America it makes me wonder more and more about the Biggest Loser and just how bizarre a program that it is. While the show is inspirational in that you watch extremely obese people overcome myriad challenges and lose an insane amount of weight there are two really disturbing aspects to the show. The first is one that I often discuss which is that since it is a reality show contestants get voted off. Typically these contestants are the worst performers which means that they actually require the most help. So the show kicks to the curb the people who aren’t fit to be role models.
The second point is that in a two hour episode there might be two minutes of actual advice about how to lose weight that isn’t tied to a product endorsement. Sure, we see Bob and Jillian working out the contestants but we aren’t told what exercise routines they are doing, or for how long, or what they feel the best circuit to use is. We get occasional discussions about diet but nothing very concrete. If you want either of those you are encouraged to purchase one of their books or DVDs. On a show that is about fitness with a motto this year of paying it forward watching it actually teaches you nothing about what you need to do. I don’t expect Project Runway to teach me how to sew but the Biggest Loser should give me advice on how to lose weight.
Best of 120 Minutes: There are very few bands that I love more than The Sundays. They are easily in my top ten list of absolute favorite bands that I have ever heard. Life would be so much better if there were more bands like this out there.
The five random CDs for the week:
1) Soul Coughing “Lust in Phaze”
2) The Pat McGee Band “Shine”
3) The Mike Plume Band “Fools for the Radio”
4) Old Crow Medicine Show “Tennessee Pusher”
5) Alejandro Escovedo “Street Songs of Love”
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