Working Out to Eat

This New York Times article about Japanese nerdery is sort of interesting in-and-of-itself, but the description of a Japanese treadmill really got me:

I was on a Japanese treadmill gazing at the usual numbers, speed and calorie count and so on, when I started to get mesmerized by the little images of food and drink on the screen.

At 35 calories, there was a frothy cappuccino, and then at 75 two pieces of tuna sushi, to be followed at 126 by an ice cream cone, at 150 by a beer and at 204 by an elegant glass decanter of sake. The 300-calorie mark ushered in chocolate cake, which segued at 325 to cheesecake. At 450 calories I caught a sweat-drenched glimpse of an egg-topped sandwich suggestive of a Croque Madame. Whatever followed was lost in translation.

I love that so much. I’m one of those people who works out partly so I can eat what I want. I do those types of calculations, spending 30 minutes in the gym so I can eat some pizza without feeling guilty. I just wish my treadmill (or actually stair machine) worked that.

January 4, 2010