New Coat Rack (exercise machine)

I stopped by Cheryl's garage sale Saturday morning since I was already on that end of town and wanted to see her lilacs and potted flowers.

I ended up buying her elliptical machine. I was just playing on it as it sat in her garage but then I thought it might be nice to have at home to help me with my goal of losing weight and getting in shape.

Here, our friend Rick tries it out. He had it up to 16mph for about 3 seconds... then he had to sit down and pant for a couple of minutes. I think I'll take it a bit slower.

Right now it is sitting in our garage. My thought is that when I let Spike outside in the morning I can jump on the machine and work off a few calories while he does his business.


I just need to get a pair of slip on tennis shoes to keep in the garage so I don't try to use the machine in my slippers. I saw a really cute pair of such shoes on a girl who was in line behind me to give blood. I asked her about them and she said they were actually Mary Jane water shoes from LL Bean, but she uses them for every-day.

Getting My Heart Pumping

I joined Curves today with my friend Cheryl. My goal is to lose 20 pounds by July 4.

I pre-paid for the entire year for two reasons:
1) incentive to keep going
2) they waive the $140 sign-up charge if you commit to 12 months

It's not an incredibly hard workout, but it's enough to get me sweating and it gets my heart rate up for a full 30 minutes. That's much more than I've been doing for the past several months.

Biggest Loser Million Pound Match Up Challenge

Bruce and I joined the Biggest Loser Million Pound Match Up Challenge today. Part of the challenge requires blogging weekly about our progress. So, my new blog, specifically to track our journey to health, is at http://zapsharon.spaces.live.com.

Stop by that blog for a visit and cheer us on!

Bob and Tom Didn't Get Hurt in the Accident

• One month membership to gym... $28
• Damaged bumper from driving into cement post in gym parking lot... $800
• Seeing that my vintage Bob & Tom license plate didn't get broken... Priceless

Getting in Shape

I told everyone I saw this past week that I was going to join a health club on Monday. The reason I did this was to help hold me accountable for doing it. So, Monday after work I joined the O'Brien Recreation Center in South Bend. I chose O'Brien because it's on my way home. I figured, if I went home first, before working out, I'd come up with many excuses for not going.

Day one was pretty easy. I signed up, walked a mile on the treadmill and took a self-guided tour of the facility. It would have been nice to have one of the staffers give me an official tour with instructions. Basic things they should share with new members are pretty obvious: How to enter the facility (scan your ID card). Clean the machines after you use them. (I learned this by observing everyone else do it.) How to measure your heart rate, and how to determine a target heart rate.

I signed up for 30 days... let's see how it goes!