Four months after giving birth to my beautiful daughter I received for Christmas the one thing that all new mothers want - I received a treadmill of my very own.
It’s easy to poke fun at treadmills since they are the classic piece of exercise equipment that people bring home when they’re “serious” about losing weight. Like me, I’m sure a lot of folks purchase in-home exercise equipment because they total up the hours in the day and realize that they will use it early in the morning or late at night. Sure, gyms are open at those times but they generally don’t offer child care for babies in the middle of the night.
And to be clear, I asked for the treadmill and was tickled pink to get it setup and ready to go.
For the first few months that I had the treadmill I made good use of it a few times a week. As predicted, I enjoyed using it and felt great, and my pants got a little looser around the middle. But life, as it does sometimes, got the best of me and my extra room with the treadmill became cluttered with the boxes leftover from our last move, items from an older relative’s estate and a stack of potential yard sale items that I’ll probably end up dropping off at Goodwill. The treadmill is in the corner and I spent the rest of last year clearing my way to it once a week or so, sometimes less.
Last year came and went and I still wore the same size jeans, and my treadmill looked nearly new.
Not far into 2009 I decided to walk in the Monument Avenue 10k and told my mother that she was walking, too. We both needed some motivation and the annual walker-friendly race seemed like a good reason to make using my treadmill and cleaning out my spare bedroom priorities.
In addition to the 10k I signed up for the weight loss challenge so I’ve had a couple of reasons to get moving on my treadmill.
It has proven essential to my home workouts. Sometimes I jog, other times I walk real fast, but regardless I always get my heart rate up and my body warm for strength training, which is something that I started doing as part of the weight loss challenge.
I have purchased a couple of other pieces of exercise equipment in the last month that combined with the treadmill give me variety and a good workout. Most importantly, they’re easier to hide in the closet when I am done.
Not that I have the spare bedroom cleared out and functioning as the guest quarters/home office/home gym that it needs to be (small condo = identity crisis), but like embracing a healthy lifestyle it’s a work in progress. I’ll keep working on the room and making more time for the treadmill, and hopefully when I get around to spring cleaning sometime early this summer I’ll add clothes that no longer fit to the yard sale/Goodwill pile.
What I’m using:
• Treadmill: I tested treadmills in the store and the one that I decided on felt sturdy, unlike the other smaller versions. It’s big and clunky but I don’t feel like it’s going to break under my feet if I start jogging and increase the impact. I think it folds up and can be more compact, but I haven’t tried out that feature. And as a bonus there’s a dock for my iPod and decent built-in speakers.
• Hand weights: I’m using 5-pound hand weights for strength training exercises, but I should upgrade to 8-pound weights for more impact. I also have 1.5-pound hand weights with handles that I use when I’m on the treadmill. They get my heart rate up faster and add a punch when I’m in a hurry.
• Stability ball: I finally purchased a stability ball after thinking for years that they’re kind of silly. I admit that they do work and, when used correctly, can engage core muscles on most any other targeted exercise.