I’ve always found diet or fitness infomercials annoying as hell. Imagine being bombarded by them while having a workout. It’s driving me nuts!
My health club is equipped with over ten 52″ flat panel LCD TVs adorning the cardiovascular and anaerobic areas. Whether you’re lifting weights or on one of multiple cardio-machines, you always have one TV program or another within easy viewing. The channels include the news, sports programs, network and cable channels. The cardio machines have those nifty wireless receivers to which you can plug your headphones. There are also buttons that allow you to select from which TV to hear sound and volume adjustment. Pretty convenient high tech stuff!
I workout in the mornings, which means I always have the previous evening’s sports highlights and that day’s news broadcasting over those TVs. While I’m on the treadmill, I am able to view eight TVs broadcasting eight different programs simultaneously. I can, if I so choose, watch the local morning news for five minutes, then switch to ESPN for ten minutes, then tune in to CNBC for another five minutes, before sticking to one program or repeating that cycle. Barring the possibility of information overload or becoming schizophrenic, having access to multiple TVs while muddling through my 3 to 5 miles on the treadmill actually helps to keep my mind occupied, taking it off the pain that exercise sometimes comes with.
For some reason, the time between 5am and 8am is also when those dreaded diet and fitness infomercials seem to be on, where they advertise a variety of nutrition systems and/or an exercise contraption that will “revolutionize the fitness industry.” While the health club management may believe that tuning the TV to these programs in the morning can act as inspiration–an aid in visualizing ourselves as leaner, healthier, more fit–they are actually having the adverse effect on me. When those programs start flashing those crazy results (i.e. “Melissa lost 156 pounds in 5 hours! Amazing!”), I start getting irritated.
Firstly, those results aren’t typical, and are often coupled with other factors such as high metabolism (which I don’t have) and heavily restrictive diets (at which I’ve been unsuccessful time and time again). Secondly, it makes me think, “Why the hell am I on this treadmill if that blasted contraption on TV is what will actually yield better results?” Lastly, some of those diet or fitness programs or equipment cost major moolah (which, again, I don’t have). What’s worse is that I’ve given in to over a dozen of those informercials in the past and have had disastrous results!
I suppose I just shouldn’t watch those programs and just focus on the other TV shows that are less annoying. But I can’t help it; I know it’s there and begs to be viewed. Sigh…wish me luck.
I couldn’t agree more Jon.
The gym that I’ve frequented only has the one tv in the corner, it’s a 14″ portable and thankfully they don’t put adverts for gym equipment on.
It’s bad enough on the television “look at me, I’m 50 and I have a bowflex body” (I wish!) or “this equipment folds down to store under the bed and gives you a great body within a month by working out for only 10 mins three times a week,” (folds down and goes under the bed to be left there more like!)