7 Quick Takes Friday – Treadmill edition

Yes, okay, so everything in my life this week revolves around the treadmill! I can’t help it!

Take, the First
So. Treadmill desk. I believe that as of yesterday I have walked 20 miles this week. It’s going swimmingly (walkingly?). The only thing I find I can’t do very well on the treadmill is anything graphics or design-based. It’s like that part of my brain is needed for walking and can’t be spared to manipulate graphics. Plus, it’s hard to be precise with a mouse when you’re moving. But writing, blogging, tweeting, Facebook, reading other people’s blogs… those can all be done very easily. In fact, if I’m in passive mode–Facebook, for instance–I amp up the speed a little. I haven’t gone more than 2 mph yet (which is pretty slow–if I were on the treadmill without the computer I would typically be walking at 4 mph), but I don’t think I will as long as my laptop is wedged into the keyboard tray.

I know that I for one was very interested in seeing actual data from people who use treadmill desks, so at some point I will gather some together in case anyone is curious.

This post, ironically, I am writing from my desktop. Why, you ask? No good reason. *grumble, grumble* Fine! I’ll go get on the treadmill. *sigh*

Take, the Second
(Yes, I’m on the treadmill now.) I am SO excited, because I am very close to being able to announce the title of Book 2! I just need to register the domain name first, because that’s how life is these days. But any minute now, I’ll be popping out with it.

Take, the Third
How excited am I about Mad Men? VERY! I love that show. It’s like a waterfall of soothing elevator music that just flows over you in a wash of lazy hipness… unlike the other show I love, Big Love, which is starting to feel like a waterfall of crazy lemonade poured on your head while you sleep.

Take, the Fourth
I am working very hard on another Semi-Secret project that I will probably unveil over the weekend. It’s something very exciting that I have been planning for a while, and I hope you will enjoy it as much as I do! So stay tuned for a post about it tomorrow or Sunday.

Take, the Fifth
July is turning out to be a DISMAL reading month. Not because of the books I’m reading, which are not dismal, but because of how few of them there are. I read 13 books in May, and I’ll be lucky to make it to five in July. Yikes. I think it’s because I’m trying to read about six at once. So maybe within the first week of August I will have finished six books.

I just have a really hard time prioritizing, you know? Certain library books can’t be renewed, so those are at the top of the list. And then there’s my philosophy of not reading the same genre/category all in a row, which has kind of gone out the window (I’m thinking of adopting the term “JulYA” so it seems like I planned it). Plus, I have tons of great books on my bookshelves, but I feel guilty reading those if I have library books. But every time I go to the library I get more books.

And don’t even get me started on the audiobook backlog!

Take, the Sixth
Anyone going to the SCBWI-LA conference? I am! I have no idea what to expect. I was just told that it will be fun, and I hate being on Twitter and seeing hashtags for something I’m not attending when it’s a ten minute drive from my house.

If you are going, you are hereby ordered to say hi to me and be my friend, because I will be wandering around like a lost goat in the mountainside.

Take, the Seventh
For years, Winston has been trying to eat dead bees and getting stung in his mouth. This is not just a heartbreaking habit but a costly one. I’ve often wondered what it would take for him to actually LEARN from the experience–”dead bee = pain”–but Winston is not the most intuitive fellow and the lessons have gone unheeded.

Until now… kind of.

The other day, just as he was getting ready to go up the stairs to the street, he picked up a dead bee (which I had ignored, thinking it was a dead beetle) and got stung (a little sting, I think, because the stinger didn’t leave the bee). “Will he ever learn?” I once again wondered. This time, the answer is YES! He learned! He ate a dead bee and got stung and now… he is afraid of the stairs.

Happy Friday!

1 comment July 23rd, 2010

Adventures in Adventure, Episode 1: Treadmill desk

So, okay. Confession time. Since I graduated high school, I have put on a couple of freshman fifteens. (Which is ironic, because as a dirt-poor college freshman, I actually lost weight. Funny how only eating Campbell’s soup and baked potatoes will do that to you. Also probably why my skin was gray.)

Flash forward (mumble mumble) years. I have a treadmill. And I try to use it. Because I need exercise. It’s so weird, because I really enjoy the treadmill when I’m actually on it. Kind of. I crank up some music from my “current project” playlist and do all sorts of focused daydreaming about my characters and story. The biggest problem is forcing myself to actually get ON the treadmill.

One day, as I tweeted whinily about this topic, my friend and “little sister” Debutante, Joelle Anthony, tweeted me back about her treadmill desk. She sent me a link to a blog post about it and I looked in cynical awe at her workstation: a computer mounted above her treadmill. Awe, because who can do such a thing? Cynicism because, well, I can’t.

But lately the idea has been nagging at me. I am really bad about getting all the exercise I need, and really good about getting more than enough calories during the day. I work out on a semi-regular basis and I’m in decent shape. But why not take it further? And why not get out of the chair so my chiropractor can stop giving me those “but you know you totally asked for this” looks?

So this morning I rigged something up for myself. It’s really hideous and hilariously treacherous looking. I’m sure my laptop is screaming silently.

But it kind of works! As of now, I’ve walked 54 minutes and burned 150 calories. Aside from some technical issues (getting the keyboard up high enough for comfort, getting the monitor close enough to see, wondering if I will have to invest in a new “work” wardrobe of very lightweight walking clothes, accidentally turning the speed up to five that one time), it’s going very well indeed.

I do have some questions. Such as, when am I going to shower? Do I get to wear workout clothes all day? How bad am I going to smell when the UPS man comes?

Overall, though, pretty cool. I know my speed (around 1.5 mph, sometimes a little faster) isn’t going to win me any awards, but it’s definitely better than slumping in my desk chair all day. And it gives me a place to wear my Reebok Easytones, so hopefully I can use them up and replace them with the much smaller and more fashionable ones I found about four seconds after I’d ordered the Large White Whale versions.

Typing doesn’t seem to be a problem. And the weird thing is, I took a break for lunch and thought, “Well, gee, I don’t want to eat too much, since I have to get back on the treadmill.” And then I thought, “I probably shouldn’t drink a Diet Coke now, since I have to get back on the treadmill.” So I’m drinking (gasp!) water!

The cons include the fact that the whole time I’m on the treadmill, I have this vague urge to go do something else (i.e., go slump in my desk chair and surf Facebook). Also, the setup is currently pretty giant and ugly and precludes more intense use of the treadmill.

But the pros… they could be very pro indeed! I am looking forward to finding out.

Just for fun, here is my temporary setup. This is a small wooden bar with a footstool on top of it, with a photo storage box on top of that, with a board on it, balanced on the top of the treadmill, with my laptop sitting on the board. The keyboard and mouse are on a metal shelf (actually a very good fit) that is zip-tied to the treadmill. Then there is a memory foam pillow with a bolt of flannel on it supporting the keyboard and another photo storage box under the wireless mouse.

Add it all up and you get what we call “pure class”!

Cheers!

13 comments July 18th, 2010

Perpetuating a vicious (exer)cycle

The Daily Plah: Day 3
Currently reading: Wicked Lovely by Melissa Marr (I should note that I read in fits and starts throughout the day, so it is through no fault or deficiency on a book’s part if it takes me 3-4 days to get through it)
Book 2 progress: I am restructuring the top of the book, so alas, I am not yet past page 34 *mopes*
Other notable facts: I cooked last night! I am a terrible cook, so this is a real triumph. I don’t know if there’s a name for what I made. It’s basically a stack of things: eggplant, roma tomatoes, ricotta cheese, chicken, mozzarella cheese, and chopped mushrooms. It was very delicious. For Little Sis, I made a veggie version: eggplant, roma tomatoes, ricotta cheese, big mushroom slices, sliced artichoke, and mozzarella cheese. Most of the cooking I do attempt ends up being Italian. I am not comfortable pan-frying, so everything is baked.
Contest winner: The winner of the purple veggie bag is CHLOE! Congrats to Chloe. Stay tuned for more contests, coming soon!

For the past few days, my stomach has been sort of jumpy, so I haven’t made myself exercise. But today I think that excuse is tired. So I’m sitting here at the computer in my workout clothes, waiting for a sufficient post-breakfast interval to pass so I can hop onto the machines. I’ve created a little circuit for myself, since I am easily bored. Recumbent bike, trampoline, treadmill, trampoline, recumbent bike. Equal time on each. I’ve been aiming for ten minutes, but today I might do eight.

Exercise is like writing–I dread it, I whine about it, I do everything I can to avoid it–I even get all suited up for it and then find something else to do. But once I start doing it, I’m happy. I even enjoy myself. And when I can get into a schedule, it’s even easier.

I remember back in my teens and early twenties, if I wanted to lose ten pounds, I’d exercise for a month and then stop, at which point I would lose weight. It doesn’t quite work that way once you hit your mid-twenties. You exercise for a month and stop, and you gain five pounds because your body started demanding more food to compensate for the calories you burned. By the time you stop exercising, you’re in the habit of eating more, so you can’t stop.

When it comes to eating, I’m like a goldfish: I’ll eat until I pop. I read an article yesterday saying that kids are up to three snacks a day (plus meals), which is basically a constant stream of food. I think what happens is we adopt these habits (like snacking) when we’re determined to be healthier–so we snack on almonds, or an apple… and gradually that morphs to string cheese and two slices of ham, or a bowl of cereal. And the idea of not eating between meals feels like the greatest deprivation.

How much easier it would be to break out of these patterns if we’d never started them to begin with!

But, as I try to remind myself on at least a daily basis, there are people in the world with REAL problems, so there’s no use letting any of it get to you.

Happy Wednesday! Can you believe I made it three whole days? The quest for 31 continues!

Thanks for dropping by!

4 comments March 3rd, 2010