The Walking Blog Excuse

Posted: March 29, 2014 | Author: | Filed under: Diet- comedy | Tags: , | 2 Comments

 

 

Today Russ came in my office while I was walking at the treadmill desk and asked where the owner’s manual for Katherine was. Katherine is the name Carter has given the car she got for Christmas. “Isn’t it in the car?” I asked. What a dumb question, of course he had already looked there. I stepped off the treadmill and started searching my regular desk. I could not put my hands on it right away and stalled Russ by saying, “I can’t find it and walk at the same time.” He patiently said he would look online for the answer.

 

Walking nine miles a day takes up a lot of time. There are a few things I am good at doing while walking; talking on the phone, writing on my computer and watching TV are the top three. I also can fold laundry, but I need to improve my system of having the laundry basket on a chair to the side of the desk and putting the folded clothes on the desk. A couple of times now I have almost been thrown backwards off the treadmill as I leaned down sideways to get an item from the basket to fold. I am just not coordinated enough to walk a straight constant line and twist and dip at the same time.

 

I got to thinking about all the things that are not getting done around here because I am walking and writing my blog. The mail, something I should be able to do while walking seems to be piling up around the house. Even the mail that is actually on my walking desk is piling up. The clothes I have sorted to be donated are still in a big pile on a chair in my bedroom. Speaking of piles, the 100 white linen napkins from our Christmas party are washed and ready to be ironed – it’s only been three months. I have an engagement present that has not been mailed for a month and a half. These are just the recent things.

 

When we came home from London and Paris I realized that I have not made one scrapbook from any trip for the last seven years at least. I got to thinking that I could do a decade of trips in one book. It would have to be all pictures since I basically don’t remember any details. My vegetable garden plot is unprepared for the off chance that it may get warm enough to plant. I think last year I just threw a few plants in the ground and never pulled one weed and my blog was my only excuse since I was not doing this walking thing then.

 

Things I have gotten done because of this walking desk is that I have not missed a day of blogging in almost two years, as long as you give me credit for the blogs Carter and Russ wrote when I was sick. I also watched all six seasons of Breaking Bad in one month. It was a great way to keep me on the treadmill, but was depressing when I finished it. The same could be said for House of Cards. Binge watching whole shows is great treadmill work, unfortunately it is bad for living a regular life.

 

But then I consider my bigger goal. I am walking to try and get to my goal weight. Last year, before I got the walking desk I was stuck in a rut. I was maintaining my weight, but not easily and still had a significant way to go. Since I got the desk I have lost 24 pounds. The other day someone asked me the total I have lost since I started the blog, I thought about and told them 85, I was wrong, it is 89 pounds. So I am giving myself a break from ironing, or gardening or scrapbook making because I actually am accomplishing what I set out to do. There is no need to think that I can do all things all the time. So if there was something I was supposed to do for you, my excuse is I’m on my treadmill writing my blog and that comes first. I have finally found the secret to losing weight and I am not going to let guilt change my course.

The Walking Desk Report

Posted: January 11, 2014 | Author: | Filed under: Diet- comedy | Tags: | 6 Comments

 

 

Two weeks ago Russ put together my new walking desk.  I have gathered a crazy amount of data based on my fitbit, my walking desk and my scale and I think that the results are worth reporting.  I will start with the bottom line so if you are actually interested you can read on.  In the two weeks since I got the desk I have lost 4.8 pounds.

 

A little more than two pounds a week is a very good rate for me given the following factors:  I am a fifty two year old woman, in the two months before I got my walking desk I had lost ten pounds.  So this 4.8-pound lost was not new weight I was losing, nor just water weight loss that is normal when you just begin reducing.

 

Thanks to my friend Jan who turned me onto my fitbit I had been trying to get 10,000 steps a day since the end of October.  It was hard.  I just met my goal most days by having to run around the house late at night.  I think that the late night push to get to 10,000 steps did not help my sleeping and I don’t think that walking around the dining room table was the best way to keep up my pace.  But I was losing weight at 10,000 steps, which was a big improvement from before the fitbit.

 

Enter the walking desk.  I started doing all my computer work and walk at the same time.  Some things started happening; the bills were paid ahead of time, e-mails were responded too in a timelier manner, I wrote my blog earlier in the day, I was reaching my 10,000 goal by two in the afternoon.

 

I upped my goal to 12,500 but my daily average was more like 15,000-17,000 steps a day.  I was sleeping better because I was not exercising after 7:00 at night.  I was doing other exercises to stretch out my legs and get some arm workouts in.  My little used office has never been so organized and the laundry even gets folded more quickly because I do it while walking at my desk.

 

I do write my blog while walking and you regular readers will have to weigh in if the quality has gone way down.  I try and proof read things while sitting at my regular desk just to make sure I am making as much sense as I regularly do and you all get what you pay for.  I can’t hand write letters while walking unless I want to appear that I have aged about forty years.  I can talk on the phone while walking and so far no one has noticed any background noise.   I just don’t seem to notice that I am walking while I am working.

 

I have been asked by a few people to post a video of what it looks like so I am doing that here. Dana’s Walking Desk on You tube.  I try and not use this blog to promote products and I get no money from so if you want to know what kind it is, send me a message and I will let you know.

 

I have been eating the same way so I think that I can say the desk is the only difference.  It’s a significant enough improvement to warrant this report.  I am not going to do a controlled study and not use it for two weeks to see what happens.  We all know I am no scientist.

The Best Suggestion I Got This Year

Posted: December 28, 2013 | Author: | Filed under: Diet- comedy | Tags: | 4 Comments

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Not all my blog readers know me or know that sometimes I write things in jest.  I often get some helpful suggestions to rhetorical questions.  I am never put off by these kind responses to my writing, but I do wonder when I write about some insane idea that is clearly a joke to me if my serious readers think I am just a fool.

I put this blog in the Diet Comedy Blog Category, a group which is very small since most information about dieting is way too serious/boring/or dry.  No professionals in the weight loss world are actually allowed to be funny because no one wants to be laughed at about being fat.  Luckily I am neither a professional nor employed in the weight loss world.  Now, I have known a few funny trainers in my day and they are the ones who have figured out that if you can keep a client’s mind off the torture you are inflicting on them by keeping them laughing you will have clients who will keep coming back to work out.

Sometime this summer I wrote a blog about wanting to be able to walk around and needlepoint at the same time.  A college friend, Christy, who is a professional trainer with a good sense of humor, suggested I get a walking desk and sent me a link to the website.

I studied the videos, read the testimonials, searched out reviews then told Russ it was what I wanted for Christmas.  Russ is a well trained husband and not only does he actually get me what I ask for, but if it is an appliance he gets me something else that is more personal and fun.  I won’t go into those great gifts, but Russ could give husband gift giving lessons for money.

Anyway…three days before Christmas a tractor trailer pulls up to the house and puts a pallet with two giant boxes in the garage.  Last night at 8:30 I convinced Russ that we needed to disassemble my whole office and install my new walking desk since we needed the garage for a party today.   It was a big job because I had to take apart my sitting desk and move two thirds of it to other places.

Russ is good at reading instructions written by people who don’t talk to humans and was able to put the whole new walking desk together with just some lifting help from me.  By 11:00 PM I was walking and working on my computer at the same time.  My office is a big mess and I am not going to be able to reorganize it while walking on the treadmill, but I certainly think that I won’t have trouble getting in my steps everyday now.  I read the mail and paid some bills and got 1,500 steps just for that busy work.  When I checked my fitbit last night I had gotten 14,159 steps yesterday.  Next thing I need to help keeping me moving is a flat screen for over the fireplace in my office.  I can’t wait until Valentines Day.