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Adventures in exercising (while working)

Stephanie's post (below) made me think of the recent research that shows how bad sitting is for our health, even if we do also work out regularly.  Stephanie's comment that exercise, sleep, and healthy eating are not luxuries really struck a chord with me.  And it coincides with what I've been trying to do the last couple of weeks--move while I'm working.

While I'd really love a treadmill desk, I'm not sure where I'd put one, and they're pretty expensive.  So my fabulous husband decided to try out a set of simple elliptical pedals first.  We bought one for less than $100 on amazon.com and so far, it seems to be working well, at least in terms of my writing output and productivity.  I currently have it in front of my kitchen island, and have my laptop on top of my microwave, which allows me to hop on the elliptical and still type on the laptop and read off the screen while I'm moving.  The transition has been surprisingly smooth, once I got used to reading a screen while in motion.


I don't have enough data yet to measure what impact this is having on my body, but I do notice a difference in the way I'm responding to and processing information.  I feel less anxious on the whole, I respond to questions more quickly, and I am definitely sleeping more deeply.  All in all, I'd say it's been a success, even if so far the results haven't
shown up on my scale.

What do you all think?  Do any of you have a treadmill desk?  What do you do to break up your work and/or writing day?

Comments

  1. Unknown10:09 AM

    I bought an Ergotron Sit Stand workstation about a month ago and love it. It gives you the ability to sit or stand while working just by moving the monitor and keyboard up or down. I have also added the same eliptical that you have into the mix but find it difficult obviously to type while on it. Reading is not so bad.
    Would love to have a treadmill under the desk instead - saving my pennies up for that.
    Overall I agree with you - I feel more alert and energetic during the day by standing or moving around for the majority of the day.

    ReplyDelete

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