The third of July marks a special day for two very dear friends of mine planning to tie the knot in 2009, and TIME magazine’s latest article on [young?] Women’s Health couldn’t have come at a better time for my dessert-loving cohorts. Rochman, Bonnie. “First Comes Love, Then Comes Obesity?: A new study links domestic bliss to serious weight gain“. TIME 06 July 2009: Page 54
“New research shows that within a few short years of getting hitched, married individuals are twice as likely to become obese as are people who are merely dating.”
The article furthers its humor angle by including a picture of an “average” male holding hands with a continually expanding female. In the end, you have your run of the mill guy and an overweight, or obese, gal. Which is funny for a lot of reasons, but mostly because this isn’t what you’d expect. I expect the male to grow and grow and grow, and the female to stay the same. (And this probably says more about me than it does about married people in general, but it’s my blog, so it should always be saying something about me.) And if you were to ask my friends entering wedlock, they’d tell you the same. Dude aspires to become a fat bastard, and she doesn’t.
So, why then does this study claim women will end up the heavier of the two in a couple, and how does it work in a lesbian marriage? Rochman doesn’t ponder the same-sex issue, but she does provide some theories (not her own) for the former:
- meal time may become more important
- gym memberships may not get the same workouts
- after months of wedding prep, it’s okay to give up or “let go”
These are all very exciting and seem to maybe miss the point entirely. Sure, eating becomes more important, but isn’t this happy couple eating together? Are they not consuming the same amount of calories at meal time? And sure, gym memberships are no longer being used, but isn’t the honeymoon period of rapturous love-making compensating for all those lost gym hours? Walks in the park, Sunday bike rides through the village, and even more happily-married sexing? There has to be some hint of burning calories to offset the increased importance of mealtime. Right? Anyhow, the third point I’ll concede because I have no idea what the pressure’s like to “squeeze into crinolined and cummerbunded finery.” I usually just get whatever fits and I wear that.
Granted, not every couple is going to gain weight, and not all people are getting married for the wrong reasons. But having said that, I want to make two more points, and you can do with them what you will.
1) The article makes no mention of the fact that childbearing often comes shortly after marriage, like say in the first few years. Now whether you’re having children or not, I would argue that a woman’s mind set switches gears at some point into, what we’ll call, nesting mode, which is the period just before popping out a little life form. There must be some physical change that goes along with that, say, gaining weight, to prepare for the life that will soon be growing inside of her, if it isn’t already. After the bearing is the rearing — the baby hatches, and said couple burns many calories actively taking a role in parenting and chasing the rug-rat(s) for the following 18 years. Obviously if you remove this element from the life-path equation, someone could have some extra pounds to carry around.
2) I maintain that a couple who eats together, sleeps together. But if meal time is happening alone and more frequently for one than the other, it’s reasonable to assume, as we’re so often told, that she might be using food to drown her sorrows. Many of us have also been told, or even seen, that marriage and children neither mend nor save a broken, dysfunctional relationship. (After getting hitched, eating did become more important, but for the wrong reason.) Film at 11.
At the end of the honeymoon, if your spouse is slowly gaining weight, you either have a problem or you don’t. In any event, the fact that TIME magazine shared such an article about keeping your new wife skinny makes me wonder why I read the publication at all. Then I remember it’s because they offered me 80 issues for $20. Well heck, why not?
And…we wish you the best happily ever after you could hope for!
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We don’t need to spend a lot of time on this, but I wanted to bring it to your attention that a new, potentially super-cool, satellite was successfully launched (probably into space?) July 1st from the Guiana Space Center. The fact that it took off at all is interesting, but not the reason we’re gathering here today. No. The interesting thing is what this new satellite could mean for mobile broadband. Terre Star is proposing an integrated satellite/terrestrial system with an IP infrastructure with a focus on smaller devices (smart phones) and Internet access for rural areas that have no real Internet broadband option. (TerreStar-1 claims it will support speeds around 600 kbs, equivalent to what many DSL users experience.)
We’re talking about a new breed of mobile handheld options. As if to imply you didn’t already have too many options. Well, it’s not the handheld itself that really matters, it’s that there’s another infrastructure coming along that can prove competitive to our existing carriers like big V and ATT. (No one really likes either of these groups, mainly because they knowingly cripple our hardware to suit their wants, but also because we don’t really have any other choice.)
I guess the part that really excites me, is we’re getting ready for some new technology. Something we can hold in our hands and use for downloading crap we don’t need. But at the very least, folks in desolate parts of North America will no longer be excluded from our status updates. You dig what I’m sayin’?
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It’s true, another frozen yogurt shop exists in the western world. But this one isn’t totally brand-spankin’ new as it just recently celebrated its first year birthday and, to follow it up, they’ve decided to share this coupon with all of us for the month of July. (I’m only assuming its meant for everyone. I got my copy in an email, which means I probably added an email address to some list when I was poking about inside some evening. ) So, if you’re in the area, please stop in and give this little place a try. On the corner of 19th and L, it’s perfectly located for a pre-night snack on a hot summer night and ,best of all, the fresh fruit is perfectly chilled.
Now that we’ve finished with that part, let me add that I’m not a huge fan of the dessert. Which isn’t to imply that I don’t enjoy it when I do indulge, just that it isn’t my favorite concept. Still, having said that, Yogurtagogo is a decent place to grab a chilled treat when topping off an evening out with, well…whomever, really.
I do have to admit that its proximity to one of my favorite eateries does play a key role in my frequenting such an establishment.
Just take the coupon and enjoy, maybe we’ll see you there. Cheers!
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This is the semi-nostalgic tale of what came to pass that fate-filled afternoon where I found myself parting ways from my trusted and beloved Hampton Cruiser (pictured there <—) and coming to terms with newly-acquainting myself to a freshly pressed basket-less Electra. Before we get too far into the melodrama, let me clear the air and admit that the Midtown Drinking Machine is still securely tethered to a tree in my yard. BUT it has a non-functioning system, most crucial to its ability to role me through the mean streets of midtown. Not to mention many other, what lay-folks would call horrific, brief yet momentous all original rage induced fits of stupendous, umm…occasions? So you can imagine. No, seriously, please do imagine. I’m a fan.
It all started one Saturday when that guy JoshGZ called to tell me he and his financier (I mean fiancée ) were on their way to gather their bicycles from my yard and I should thus ready myself for a trip we’ll call a pedal <insert noun here> crawl. blah blah blah, I get to gearing up my bike which I’ve neglected most of the winter months and realize it needs a new tube on the rear wheel. A bit of grease on the hands, a few dead bugs living in the tire, and several minutes later, I’m ready to inflate the new tube. No problem. Except, in my haste, I failed to realize I’ve used a substandard piece which, when inflated to pressures acceptable to the old tube, cause the new tube to explode. Literally, explode. It was loud and exciting enough for both my neighbors to the east and to the west to peak over the fence and assess my well-being (they’re what average people would call "responsible" adults). Needless to say, I was in a hurry and now further aggravated with my lack of preparedness for said impending adventure.
Enter brain’s idea to walk the two and a half blocks to the bike shop and buy whichever single-speed cruiser is least expensive (and I don’t know what it is about the folks pedaling the flat streets of Sacramento that makes them believe they require more than one gear to get around, but please all be to WTF that we can’t carry more than one single-speed cruiser that isn’t meant for the non-junk having female rider.) My brain isn’t always at its best, but it was the best idea I had at the time. As if to imply it was too much work to purchase the correct tube and spend another few minutes switching it out. Uhh…yeah, that makes a whole lot of sense.
Enough rambling, and long story short. I’d been dreaming up excuses to buy an Electra since the summer of 2007, and here we are on the cusp of summer 2009, so it was inevitable. I made an impulse decision to make an impulse purchase and settle for a shiny new plain bicycle (pictured below) for which I overpaid. So it goes.
Don’t get me wrong, these Electra bicycles are of higher quality than my Hampton Cruiser, but they lack character. It’s backwards. You can’t buy character, it’s created. Electra, outside of their basic models, panders to an imaginless audience (wait, I mean an audience that lacks imagination), incapable of creating interesting behaviour.
Don’t be boring. Express yourself. Say "goodybye". Say "hello". And throw something.
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It’s true, I can’t handle folks who speak from a seated position when presenting to an audience from what should be an authoritative stance. If you have the stage, then you should control the stage and all the space that goes along with it. I suppose this is a problem more for panel presentations where there are a few, um…experts, sharing the spotlight. But if it’s not the Q&A portion of the show, whoever is speaking should stand up and shout to the back of the room, even if there are only seven people in the audience.
When it’s my turn, I’ll ask (for the sake of being polite) the moderator if it’s okay for me to stand because "I have a proclivity for exaggerated gesticulation when I present that is greatly hindered from a seated position." In which case everyone is confused and the moderator replies, "yes, that would be fine." (Well, many people are confused most of the time by nature, which has little to do with my presence or line of questioning.) So I take the floor, the mic, the remote (PowerPoint), and whatever else I need so as to ensure everyone is not only watching, but also listening, because I’m the expert and you all better be paying attention.
Let’s get serious here for a minute, this is an issue of confidence, not to be confused with arrogance, that by standing to demand attention tells the audience you’re worthy of their time and attention. (Or at least you believe yourself worthy, and most likely rightfully so.) The truth being that everyone knows something other people don’t. And if someone has invited you to present your knowledge and experience, then that person values your time and attention. So don’t cower to the crowd and hide in the shadows.
The same can be said for the audience. Please get off your ass and stand up to ask your question so that the entire room can hear what you’re saying. (We have two hundred people in the room tonight, can you please repeat the question.) There’s a pretty good chance that your concern is shared by others, and if it’s not, then you should be pelted with rotten tomatoes. But don’t take it personally. Learn.
And I could go off on another tangent (but I realize I’m already rambling on) about how people are too…well, let’s just leave it at that.
Your knowledge is valuable — stand up and share it! Kick your chair, too, if you’re really feeling the power of controlling center stage. Oh yeah
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