The Bobcat Strikes! Plus, Atkins Nutritionals
1 August 2005If you're new here, you may want to subscribe to my RSS feed. Thanks for visiting!
The Bobcat strikes! Whew! I just stand back and hold his jacket while he takes opponents apart limb by limb…great stuff
Compare the heart rate monitor with the array of aerobic training devices. Don’t consider the questionable and cutting-edge ones. Just bikes, rowing ergometers, treadmills that input your weight and age, and read out your calories expended, pulse and whatnot. How much metal, electricity and cost? I bought a fancy heart rate monitor for about $150. It’s a great toy and I love to play with it; I find that motivational. A more than good enough one can be had for $80 to $100. What’s simpler? What’s cheaper? What uses less electricity than a treadmill? The monitor lets you see if you’re getting cardio benefit from unexpected activities, such as powerlifting workouts in hot and humid gyms, mowing the lawn with a push mower or helping your formerly little girl move into her first place of her own. (You probably are getting some cardio benefit that way.)
People see the word “primitive” and think Neanderthal or even less evolved. Stop right there: no anthropologist I’ve ever heard of has claimed that Neanderthals used barbells! Barbells aren’t literally primitive. Grocery stores aren’t either. Pithecanthropi did not sell stock and issue bonds to raise money to open grocery stores. (Though the actual practice of mergers and acquisitions does seem a little uncivilized.) What we’re really talking about is elegance–doing and explaining a lot with a little. Strength from a sturdy bar and a bunch of plain iron plates. Nutrition from groceries and a good protein supplement. An indefinitely wide variety of cardiovascular exercises, but all accounted for with one small device. The only problem is “elegant” doesn’t have the same viscerally satisfying bend-the-bar cachet as “primitive.” (I admit to getting a little more stoked about my squats if I can see the bar bending in the rack.) “Elegance” is intellectual. It’s the stuff of physics, mathematics, art, logic and music. Elegance combines power and beauty.
So after exulting in the visceral pleasure of a greater-than-double-bodyweight squat or a walk with a plate in your backpack, think about what you’re doing. You’re doing–or could be doing–a huge variety of things with a small number of devices. And if you keep a record, you might find you can explain a few things that have happened to you quite simply. You may also find that you can predict future progress with reasonable accuracy. No contradiction. Just a need for more clarity.
The Atkins Revolution Fizzles? How do you get $300 million in debt selling books and bar?
Tags:NEW YORK (AP) - Atkins Nutritionals Inc., the company that promoted low-carb eating into a national diet craze, filed for bankruptcy court protection Sunday, a company spokesman said. Atkins has been hurt by waning popularity of its namesake diet, which focuses on eliminating carbohydrates such as bread and pasta as a way to shed weight. The diet quickly became one of the most popular in U.S. history, spawning numerous derivatives and a virtual cottage industry of low-carb regimens - but also drew criticism from many experts for its focus on fatty foods and low fruit and vegetable consumption. A hearing on the prearranged, Chapter 11 filing was scheduled for Monday in U.S. Bankruptcy Court, spokesman Richard Rothstein said. The privately held company, founded in 1989 by Dr. Robert C. Atkins, said it had reached an agreement with the majority of its lenders to give them equity in exchange for lowered debt. Atkins owes $300 million in outstanding principal and interest, Rothstein said. The company said it had received $25 million in financing to operate during the bankruptcy proceedings, which it said would not affect day-to-day operations.
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