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You have arrived at the web home of Noah Brier. This is mostly an archive of over a decade of blogging and other writing. You can read more about me or get in touch. If you want more recent writing of mine, most of that is at my BrXnd marketing x AI newsletter and Why Is This Interesting?, a daily email for the intellectually omnivorous.

January, 2010

Working Out to Eat

A Japanese treadmill that shows food and drink as you burn calories.
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
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Noah Brier | Thanks for reading. | Don't fake the funk on a nasty dunk.