Believe it or not, I’m still alive!
It’s been a while since I was able to post, and I have no excuse. I’ve been busy, but I knew that going in to the creation of this blog. I don’t know why I thought life would be different. Add to that the rush of tax season (I do the taxes for all my kids, so I do anywhere from 8-10 returns including some of our business returns). And the change to outdoor sports (track exclusively this year) and all the time that requires.
But those are excuses…they’re just facts. And I know the facts, they may change a bit from year to year, but life death…taxes (and new sports seasons) are inevitable. So the key is in how I handle it.
So, I’m back and I’m going to do my best to become a more frequent and regular blogger. I haven’t decided on frequency yet…that may depend on some factors I don’t control and can’t foresee. But for today, I’m going to just forge ahead.
On another front, I’ve really been struggling with my weight and fitness for quite a while now. Several of my kids were home for Spring Break, and they made some offhand comments that really struck close to home. They weren’t being mean, just observing that I was thicker around the middle than I’ve been, and I didn’t look as chipper and good as I have…even as recently as Christmas. When they get up the nerve to actually say something to me…the comments strike home.
So I decided I was going to do something about it. Yes, I’ve been doing some cycling on our stationary bike in preparation for the Bike Across Kansas in June. Some, but not nearly enough. Frankly, cycling is really, really easy for me, so it’s not all that much of a workout. Am I sweating when I’m done, sure…it’s in my nature. Am I tired, a little…but not all that much. Have I done something to workout…yup, but nothing all that impressive and definitely not anything that was impacting my weight. My fitness might be a little bit better, but the scale was reporting no change in body fat percentage, body water percentage, and definitely no drop in weight. Not even a minimal one.
So I added back some walking/plodding/slogging/running on the treadmill. To the tune of 5km per night, four nights a week. That’s over 12 miles, so I figured something might change. The only thing that changed was that the darn treadmill broke down.
You see, we have three treadmills in our possession, two of which have been in constant service for a couple of years. They’re Sole F83 and F85 models, so they were near the top of the line (and expensive) when we got they. These two were warranty replacements for a prior pair, which were purchased replacements for a prior pair. For eight years we’ve had Sole treadmills, but they’ve had one problem after another. Sometimes the problems only stalled one treadmill for a couple days waiting for a part of my internet research skills to find the solution. Sometimes both treadmills were out of commission. Then things got dicey at home.
Well, one treadmill started giving LS (low speed) errors, so my wife switched to the treadmill that I’d been using. Then between the two of us that one started giving LS errors. When you get an LS error, the treadmill stops dead in it’s tracks. If you’re running, that gives you the opportunity to run right into the console. Three nights in a row we each managed at least one direct hit. One night we both did it.
So we talked over our options, and have decided that we would purchase a new NordicTrack 2950 treadmill. We ordered it online on last Sunday night, and it should arrive sometime next week. We’re both pretty excited. It’s going to be nice to get on a piece of equipment and not fear that you’ll hurt yourself because of a sudden breakdown.
In the meantime though, we’ve had to come up with other ways to workout. We do have an elliptical trainer, so we’ve used that some. I’m not a huge fan, but it’s better than nothing. I’ve also stepped up my cycling game. Typically, when I’m on the bike or treadmill I watch something on TV. I’m a fan of The Big Bang Theory, and I watch a lot of Netflix movies. Typically movies that have been out of theaters a couple of years but I never got around to watching. I also watch a lot of documentaries. Especially documentaries about business people (Steve Jobs, Elon Musk, Larry Page & Sergey Brin, Sir Richard Branson, etc.). Honestly, I’m never at a lack for something to watch.
But…I’ve been getting this nagging feeling that I needed to do something more productive when I was on the exercise equipment. I’ve kind of been toying with the idea of a walking desk (sometimes called a treadmill desk) for a while, but never really got into gear to investigate it. With the two (insert curse words here) down for the count I started thinking about what I liked about the treadmill workouts vs. the bike worksouts vs. the elliptical workouts. Then I started to think more and more about actually getting work done while I was getting some workout in.
I like walking on the treadmill because it takes zero brain power. No concentrating on what I’m doing, just walking away. If I’m going really slowly I don’t hold on to the handrails except for somewhere to put my hands, so my hands are essentially free. Then I started to think about the stationary bike workouts and the same general idea popped up. In fact, during my bike workouts I’m sometimes at a loss as to where to put my hands. Remember, we’re talking about a pretty leisurely and pedestrian pace here…I’m not doing interval workouts or running. Just moseying along. But it’s exercise. And at this pace, quantity is a massive improvement. Moseying along for 5-10 miles on the treadmill or 20-40 miles on the bike expends some calories. So I kept investigating. One of my next couple of posts is going to focus on a solution I found for make in my computer usable on the bike and treadmill. It’s called a SurfShelf Treadmill Desk
This blog is proof that I can, since I’ve written the entire thing while on the stationary bike. Well, that’s not entirely true. I started the post on the treadmill. After 30 minutes of trying to figure out how to attache the SurfShelf to the treadmill (more on that in another post), I got it all setup. I got my ice water and towel. I put on my workout clothes. I turned on the treadmill and started walking away at 2.0 miles per hour. I got the computer booted, updates done (it’d been a while and I figured now was as good a time as any), and even started WordPress. I did the WordPress updates and dealt with a couple of SPAM comments on the blog. Then I started the post. Figures, about two sentences in, the treadmill stopped with a low speed error. Since the SurfShelf
So 30 minutes of moving things around and attaching and detaching and reattaching straps and the computer was housed on the stationary bike, and off we went.
About 5 miles into my leisurely blogging ride, the SurfShelf decided it was “surf’s up” and slipped off it’s perch, dumping the computer in my lap. This time I got caught in a storm of expletives, so I had to apologize to Hectic-Mom.
Some re-engineering and the computer is now again housed on the console of the stationary bike. It’s too high, and I have other comments, but I’m about 1,400 words into a blog post that I would have otherwise written while simply sitting on my butt.
So, it just goes to show that a couple of offhand comments, the risk taken by my older twin daughter in telling me she was worried, and my decision to actually do something actually has made a difference. Not a ton of difference, but a difference in my thoughts about the problem as well as my approach to the solution. I’m going to be on the computer. That’s a given. I’m going to be on social media. I’m going to read on my iPad, watch Vine videos, look at Facebook/Twitter/Instagram. It’s just fact. But now I can do that and get a little bit of exercise at the same time.
So how about you, what little change can you make that might shake you out of the rut that you’re stuck in?
