Shredheads

Shredheads Reviews - Jamie Oliver's Food Revolution

I admit that I'm a huge fan of Jamie Oliver, and was delighted to hear about his new show "Food Revolution," which airs on Friday nights at 8pm EST.

Finally, something worth watching on a Friday night.

I guess that sort of gives away my opinion of the show, but if you're still curious, or you disagree, then read on.

The premise of the show is simple: Jamie is attempting to change the eating habits of a small town in West Virginia (Huntingdon, to be exact), a state that has been under scrutiny for their poor health and obese population.

Jamie goes from attempting to change elementary school lunches, to helping a family of five with a son who at 11 years old is morbidly obese and near a Diabetes 2 diagnosis.

The discoveries he makes are shocking. In fact, I'm pretty sure that the stuff Andrew Zimmern eats on "Bizarre Foods" is healthier and more nutritious.

Even worse are the attitudes of the school officials and lunch ladies (or cooks, as he was corrected), in regards to what they are feeding their children. Chicken nuggets, french fries - chocolate milk that has more sugar than soda.

Basically a complete load of crap.

And really, that's what is on all kid's menus at restaurants, so I suppose I shouldn't be that surprised.

Still. DISGUSTING.

The family actually used a deep fryer for all their food, which Jamie ended up burying in the yard.

The fryer. Not the food.

And I couldn't believe how the 1st grade children, the ones who turned their noses down to Jamie's homemade school lunches (yes, he made them for 450 kids) are the ones who could not identify a tomato.

If you're not familiar with Jamie's style or presentation, which might be seen as over the top but from what I can tell is just his natural gusto and love for food, then it might take a bit of getting used to. But in my personal opinion, he's completely adorable, as is his accent, and as a parent, you can really tell that he wants to make a difference for these kids who are looking at a pretty bleak future.

So make sure to tune in - and please share your thoughts about the show. I'd love to know what you thought.

[I was not paid or asked to write about this show. I did it because I really liked it - what a concept!]

Omron GoSmart Pedometer Review

As you know, I'm a gadget junkie, and if you give me anything that takes a battery I'm pretty happy.  Heh.  So I was pretty excited when Omron sent me a new GOsmart Pedometer (HJ-112) to test.

First Impression
The packaging was attractive, but after trying to open it I have to complain - it comes in one of the plastic shells that is nearly impossible for me to open without cutting either the instructions or myself.  Or both. 

<soapbox>I know lots of companies use it and it displays well, but I'd like to see Omron offer packaging that's easier to get into and recyclable as well.</soapbox>

Anyway, I got it out and installed the battery using the included screwdriver (well, they said it was included and it probably was but I must have lost it, so I used a glasses screwdriver).  The instructions for setting your time, weight, and stride length are easy to follow and after a few seconds I was ready to go.  

Use
My first test was walking around my bedroom, which resulted in zero steps recorded.  Uh oh.  Fortunately, once I got moving around for real, it started registering.  Had I read the directions beforehand, I would have noticed that slow walking may not be recorded.

To perform a real test, I took it to the indoor track to see how well it worked during a run.  I moved it all around my waistband so it was facing forward, backward, and sideways, and since I had nothing more entertaining to do while I was running, I counted my steps for a few laps to check it.

As close as I could tell, my counting and the pedometer were within 1% of each other.  That's pretty darned good, especially considering how forgiving the pedometer is on which direction it's facing.  Of course, conditions at an indoor track are about as "ideal" as you can hope for.

So I also tested it at Disneyworld for a couple of days after the Tiarathon.  I clipped it to my waistband and it worked great the first day, registering about 5.5 miles.  The second day I had worse luck, and it fell out of it's holster twice in about 30 minutes.  I'm not sure if it was the way my shirt was hanging over it or if the desserts included in the Disney Dining Plan had caused my gut to become incompatible with my pedometer (a distinct possibility), but it just wasn't cooperating.  So I shoved it in my pocket and away we went.

It registered about 4.5 miles, and we had indeed spent less time at the park so it seemed reasonable.  I don't know how many of my steps in lines were counted since the directions indicate slow walking isn't registered, but I still feel like it was a fairly good indication of how far I actually went "exercise walking" despite just being in my pocket.

Conclusion
Overall, if you want a pedometer, I can't imagine one being much easier to use.  For everyday activities this pedometer works much better than any other I've owned.  I really like being able to put it in a pocket (or, if I carried one, a purse) and know that it's actually going to count the steps.  The display is easy to read, it automatically zeroes itself every day so you don't have to remember, and manually resetting it is simple but hard to do accidentally.  I also like that you can see both total steps and total AEROBIC steps walked each day.

In addition to more eco-friendly packaging, I'd like to see Omron add a timer (countdown or interval) so you can use it more for exercise rather than daily activity.  It has a clock, but something that beeps at you would be nice.  Also, because the pedometer is so light you may not notice it popping out of the holster until you've already lost it.  It comes with a strap/clip setup in addition to the holster, and that might be a good thing to use as a backup (I didn't have it with me at Disneyworld).

[Thanks to Omron for sponsoring the Shredheads in the 2010 Disney Princess Half Marathon, and for providing pedometers to the Shredheads who participated in the event]

-Bill

For more reviews, check out our Shredhead Reviews section. And purchase an Omrom GOSmart Pedometer at our affiliate, Amazon.com.