Get Fit Slowly

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I’m a big fan of my local paper: The Statesman Journal of Salem, OR. It’s a top notch publication with really in-depth news stories, a great layout, and hardly any typos…ever. They never rerun the same news story in different sections of the paper and they never forget to tell us when Slayer is coming to Salem. I’d be lost without the Statesman.

All joking aside, I really only keep the paper around for two reasons. First, I love to find the typographical errors that regularly occur. I have no journalistic experience (obviously) and no formal writing training, and I’m sure I have typos in my writing–but I’m not a professional writer. It’s gotten to the point where my wife has learned that when I laugh while reading the paper, inevitably it is about some sort of mistake I found and not due to a funny story.

The second reason I keep the paper around is actually a good thing. It does a great job of letting me know what’s going on in my community. I would struggle finding things to do with my kids during the week if the paper didn’t give me options. It lets me know about things going on at the parks and museums, as well as providing the farmer’s market schedules. It truly does help me plan my week.

Occasionally, however, I do find a story in The Statesman Journal that I like, or at least find interesting. On Sunday, they printed an article called, “A Growing Idea: All You Can Eat.” It describes a new phenomenon in the American sporting world: All-You-Can-Eat Seating. The article really opened my eyes to just how prevalent food is in American society and what a draw cheap food can be for the average guy and his family. In a nutshell, the article described that “instead of paying for a ticket and multiple trips to the concession stand, the ticket includes everything and costs about fifty percent more. Alcohol and desserts are sold separately.”

Fifty percent more for a couple of hot dogs and a coke? It didn’t seem worth it to me at first. But remembering that hot dogs cost five bucks and cokes cost the same, it doesn’t take long to spend fifty percent of your ticket price at the concession stands.

Fiscally, the all-you-can-eat seats are probably worth it, but can the American public really afford it? I know I would struggle to make good food choices at a ballgame where food doesn’t cost anything and it seems that others do too. It’s not uncommon for hot dog eating contests to break out in the sections of the stadium where these seats are located. I don’t think that most people are disciplined enough to balance the cost benefits of the tickets with the health detriments.

But the tickets do sell. Every major sporting league in the US, except for the NFL (the No Fun League) has at least one team that offers “Binge Seating.” Even Nascar does it and you can bring your own food to most of the Nascar events. Here are some of the stats given by the article:

• Half of MLB teams, 9 NHL teams and 6 NBA teams offer all-you-can-eat seating
• The L.A. Dodgers averaged 2,200 fans per game in the all-you-can-eat section last season in a section that was typically closed unless the left-field bleachers were sold out.
• The Kansas City Royals are adding 500 all-you-can-eat seats this season for every game instead of the select few games from the previous season.

Obviously, the tickets sell, and the teams profit. But they come with more than a price tag. To paraphrase a recent commercial I saw on TV where a man is ordering food at a drive-thru: “Ummm…Can I have a spare tire with a side of thunder thighs please.”

Note: I’ve decided to ditch the Wednesday Weekly Weigh-Ins for now. I’ll keep updating the sidebar with my progress and I’m sure I’ll write about it often. But I don’t want to be forced into writing the same thing every Wednesday. BTW, I weighed 200 pounds this morning and was 27% BF.