How about cutting TV along with the carbs?
 

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How about cutting TV along with the carbs?
The Virginian-Pilot
© April 17, 2004
Last updated: 12:38 AM

Every male I know has jumped on the Atkins Diet. While lots of my girlfriends have tried to go carb-less with their husbands, they are cheating so much with illicit potatoes that it is practically adultery. Atkins is really a Man Thing. Men pride themselves on that gaunt, gray, skin-hanging-from-neck-in-folds Atkins look. Because men can live without carbohydrates. They would prefer to live without carbohydrates. Or vegetables. Our friend Don says that it has been so long since he has eaten a green vegetable that when he is autopsied, they will find the digestive tract of a full-grown male puma.

It’s the sexiest thing Don ever says.

Which got me thinking: If men are so into their health – if they are into eliminating one entire part of the food chain and looking like a pack of full-grown pumas – why don’t they do something that will really help them lose weight? Why don’t they get rid of the TV?

We all know that diet and exercise are the keys to weight loss. No matter how strict your diet, you still have to move the body. “The easiest way to reduce inactivity is to turn off the TV set,” says Dr. William Dietz of the Centers for Disease Control. “Almost anything else uses more energy than watching TV.”

It’s just as drastic as getting rid of carbohydrates. It might be just as effective. It’s even trendy, because Monday marks the first day of TV-Turnoff Week, April 19-25 . Millions of people will turn off their televisions cold-turkey for an entire week and see what happens.

Maybe if they don’t see so many commercials for chips and pizza and beer, they won’t eat so many chips and pizza and beer. Even the carb-free varieties. Maybe if the TV isn’t on, they’ll find that in an erect and upright position, they don’t look so much like those carbohydrates called “couch potatoes.“ Amazing! Shocking! Drastic!

I don’t see it working in the long term. Because no matter how good for them going TV-free might be, guys like TV. It helps them relax. So instead of trying the unrealistic, let’s use the TV thing and the Atkins thing together. Let’s Atkins the televisions. Instead of getting rid of TV completely, maybe guys could be persuaded to cut out a part of it. A big part of it.

Lately I’ve been hearing more and more about families that have canceled their cable. Snip, snip. Just like the Atkins people, they find a way to work it into their conversation, as in, “Oh yes, we’ve been cable-free for three years, and the children all scored 1,800 on their SATs and made the varsity crew team at Yale.”

Those cable-free families make going cable-free sound really hard, like they are much more virtuous than thou. It isn’t nearly as hard as cutting carbs. My husband took us cable-free several years ago. I can’t remember why. Maybe he was mad about the monthly bill, maybe he couldn’t bear my 24/7 viewing of the Lifetime channel. Had you dissected me at the time, you would have found the brain of a full-grown female puma. All growly and slinky and loungy.

Anyway, he promised he would sit and talk with me if I would turn off Valerie Bertinelli. Talk or Valerie? It wasn’t even close. Snip, snip.

We still watch plenty of television on the networks. We’ve got news, not CNN. We’ve got “Law & Order,” not “The Sopranos.” We live cable-free, and our skin does not hang from our necks in folds.

Maybe in your family, Atkins-ing the TV would be cutting down channels to only those that contain sports. Or cutting channels to your two or three favorites so you won’t flip around so much. Maybe it would mean hiding the remote. Getting rid of the TV in the bedroom. Moving the TV to a less prominent location. Declaring certain days TV-free.

It might be worth doing. For the father’s television habits become the children’s television habits. Cut the cable bill. Give your guy the $50 in cash. Who knows? Maybe he’ll use the cash to get himself a copy of “The South Beach Diet.” And a stalk or two of crunchy green asparagus.

Reach Jacey Eckhart at jacey1~earthlink.net

Deleting TV from every day life is an excellent idea. I can get all the news I want right from my computer. Unfortunately, instead of watching TV, I do spend a great deal of time at the computer, which can be just as bad.

B and I have become pretty good at limiting hours we spend at the computer, and we only watch TV when we sit down to watch a movie together (maybe a few times a month) or for ESPN to catch a playoff game or two (I love hockey!).

I wish more parents would do this with their children and increase time spent actually doing things. It's so easy to let movies or TV or video games babysit children, but many parents don't realize what that teaches children or how it can harm their health until it's too late.

:lol:

I suspect if most people turned off the tv for a week, they'd spend even MORE time online... :D I wonder how many more calories pointing and clicking burns as opposed to remote button-pushing?

<shrug> I should limit the tv and the computer for myself and my kids more. I'm finding that instead of emphasizing LESS tv, if I start ADDING more active alternatives, the boy is much more receptive. Tomato, tomahto.. :lol: Evil Mom psychology....

there was a blackout in NYC last year. No TV no Computer... I thought I was gonna go nuts... so what did I do? Talk on the phone lol
Complain about the heat and read books.

All the neighbors got together that night and had a bbq that lasted till 2am and that was kinda nice. Goes to show what can happen if you have no power. Hell, thats when I met half of my neighbors for the first time.

All the kids were playing outside too and that was nice. The heat was the worst part. I cant live without my AC in the summer. I keep a fan running and a window open all through winter. I need the cold.