TV in my life
Its 4 pm. And the local TV stations are competing which one has the crappiest show on air. TV1 is currently leading with a crappy locally made animation Si Botet. Even the name suggests that it is stupid. I don’t know what age group is this show targeting, but I can assure you, even my 3 year old sister wouldn’t watch it. She might prefer the Australian animation on TV2. The characters were two koalas and a platipus. At least it was a proper animation, to say the least. But I still would call it crappy.
In my attempt to sleep early last night (morning, actually) I slept at half past one. But I woke up at 5 am. I think my body thinks I was napping. A very long nap at that. Since the day before I woke up at 1 pm. So its only 12 hours. Its like waking up at six am and napping at 6 pm. You’d wake up around 10. Since the modem was off and there’s no internet connection, I switched on the TV. Surprisingly, I caught the Torino Games live closing ceremony broadcast on TV1. It was the only channel broadcasting at the time. The closing ceremony was quite something. A lot of people in white bridal dresses with veils and stuff, holding a single stem of…lily? I think it looks like casablanca. Anyway, the flower was big and white. A special breed, perhaps.
After the Torino Games closing ceremony ended, the channel continued broadcasting while waiting for the morning show which would have started in another half hour anyway. Specifically, it aired ‘Misteri Kristal’. Crap show that nobody are really interested in. Good slot though. But maybe they thought crystal lovers always wake up early in the morning because it coincides with their birthstones or birth crystal at that. You know, something like "on the time of birth this and this on this date and that, your birth crystal is sapphire. If a sapphire-oriented individuals get up early in the morning, they will get rich quick". Kinda reminds me of feng shui.
But naaaah. They just stuff the program there to fill that gap. When that boring show came up, I went down and made myself breakfast. I was yearning for this scrambled egg recipe I found in soyouwanna.com. I guess I was fine without the recipe since I used very little milk so the eggs didn’t get all soaky. Added in deliberate amount of salt and pepper and wrapped them in toast. There. Done.
Afterwards I spent my morning away watching Whose Line Is It Anyway (yay!) and Oprah. After Oprah I went back to bed heh heh.
And when I woke up, I saw a TV shopping commercial. I like watching one of these. I like to see if some of these stuff really works or they are just gimmicks. Today it was the 6 Seconds Abs. It helps you do crunches by sitting down. I tried to apply it to conventional knowledge of abs building. Normally, you do crunches by lying down and if not done properly it can hurt you back (but its the best ab exercise for those with weak lower back). The abs get their definition when you lift and hold them in, defying gravity. This move isolates the abs muscles and let them do all the work.
So can you really do this sitting down? The ad looks convincing enough. But I don’t believe you can get results just by trying this thing out for a week. Although I agree that it may can get you better quality crunches than the lying down crunches. Ohh and guess what? They didn’t tell you you had to do an exercise regime 30 mins a day and go on a 1200 calories diet to get that fab abs in a week on TV. They only mentioned slightly about the diet and emphasized that its possible to get fab abs in 7 days. Mehhh.
Either way, if I really wanted this thing, I would try it out at the shop first before buying it. See if it really works the abs. From what I see its the arms and shoulders doing the work. But who knows? Looks can be deceiving. But at least this thing is better than the old Ab Shaper thing. Now that was a gimmick. Basically its a contraption that presses your abs. Not only is it clumsily pressing your abs, your abs are not doing anything! It even had a locally made ad. I hope they don’t seriously think people are going to fall for that did they? Luckily we don’t see them anymore. Thank God.
I found a few more of these stuff on the market. But there are things that work. The Ab King Pro for one. My next door aunt has this. Its good for people who want to shape their abs in general, regardless of their fitness level. It has a back support for you who have back problems. But you need to make sure that you are not lifting yourself up with your arms instead of your abs. I’ve tried it and I found myself relying too much on the handle. But I wasn’t very keen on it then. Although its good if you are really determined to shape your abs. Its a little pricey (as all things you see on TV, obviously) but its worth it. So not all things on TV are gimmicks. Just have to choose wisely. But one thing though. If I really want these things, I’d check out the experts opinion. Denise Austin obviously doesn’t use one of these machines (not that I know of) and she’s still fit. But if the product preaches the same thing as what an expert say, stash it.
TV shopping commercials are fun to watch. A lot of the stuff on sale these days mostly had to do with weight loss. With so many competitions, gimmicks have almost no spot in the market therefore stuff on sale just gets better and better since the manufacturers want to separate their products from gimmicks. And also, people these days are more knowledgable. You can expect them to be smarter than the average Joe. Average Joes are even getting above-average.
Haa~ I planned to go to the gym today eventhough today is my resignated rest day. But since I can’t go on Tuesday, I had to go today. But after my poor performace yesterday, I decided to give my legs a rest. I realized I need to treat my feet better if I’m going to run more seriously. Oh pain.
I wanna buy a treadmill. I just read this article about choosing to buy your treadmill. Reccomends that you try it out at the store first. ie. Run on it for 20 minutes if you have to.
I think I’ll go make some tea, or something. Since I’m not going to the gym, might as well go fill up with water. Ta’ra!
