Monday morning quarterbacking…….

….so what pissed me off most about last night’s Superbowl? Was is the obvious absence of any New York-based team? No. That bothered me but it doesn’t take top honors. Was it the fact that the Indy offensive line held so tough that the New Orleans defense was unable to crush the Other Manning? Sure, I screamed a few times at the TV, but that wasn’t it either. The game, I thought, was exceptionally good entertainment and very well played by both teams.

No, the part that pissed me off most was a TV commercial for Sketcher’s Shape-Ups. In case you missed the commercial, or the onslaught of various articles and TV news segments regarding this “miracle”, the Shape-Up is a shoe that is designed to “promote weight loss, tone muscles, improve posture and relieve stress on the knees and ankles.” It has a special curved sole and special insoles that make it feel like your walking in sand……yadda yadda yadda….I am so oblivious to these ads at this point that it was merely a distant hum, when a good friend turned to me and said “what do you think of those?”

What do I think? The fact that anyone would ask me what I thought suggests to me that there are people taking it seriously, something I completely have not anticipated (though, I am sure people are also stocking up on the Shake Weight). What do I think? Joe Montana suggests that they are wonderful shoes that do great things to develop my core. Why would Joe say that if it wasn’t true? Denise Austen has never found an athletic shoe that helps tone the muscles like the Shape Up in her 25 years of health and fitness. Again, what would motivate her to say that if it wasn’t true?

Let’s assume that it is all true. Let’s assume that the researchers who are finding that the more developed the sports shoe, the more likely there is to be injury associated with activity. That’s right— even Nike is starting to go back to basics because of the increase in knee and hip injury associated with over-developed running shoes. But Shape Ups are not a running show; they are over developed walking shoes. So let’s say they do help tone muscles and promote weight loss (what does that mean– promote weight loss? Clever, right? Not “leads to weight loss” but rather “suggests the possibility that weight loss could eventually happen”)– so people see the ad and think, “Wow! I can buy the shoes and that will get me out of exercise! I will simply be exercising when I walk around!”

BUT YOU ARE EXERCISING WHEN YOU WALK AROUND ANYWAY! The problem with our culture is that we simply DON’T walk around anymore.

Before you buy the shoes, buy yourself a pedometer. It doesn’t have to be expensive, it simply has to be able to keep track of the number of steps you take throughout the day. It takes 12,000 steps daily to maintain one’s weight. I guarantee that, if you are considering buying the Shape-Ups, you are not walking anywhere near 12,000 steps a day. Why? Because if you are that active, you are not attracted to a shoe that is going to help you do what you already do for yourself. And if you are not that active, you would simply like the Silver Bullet that will make all the work as easy as sliding on a pair of shoes.

It reminds me of my diabetic friend who would simply inject himself with more insulin when he wanted to have a piece of chocolate cake or a drink. Suddenly, you have the tools that would seem to allow you to avoid the problem with which you are faced.

You want to “promote weight loss”? Get up out of the chair. Stop watching the commercials and get moving. Don’t go to the gym, walk around the block a couple of times. I remember my dad losing about 40 pounds in his 40’s simply by going for a long walk after work. He wasn’t wearing Shape Ups, but he was losing weight, feeling better and stronger, and I think it firmed his thighs, calves and buns. Oh, and his core.

At a time when most people are watching their purse strings very intently, it strikes me as odd that folks would spend money on something like this. But, then, stranger things have happened.

Nice win, Saints! Congrats, New Orleans! You deserve it!