As I had mentioned yesterday, I am doing this 'daily workout' routine...thing. We bought an elliptical machine last year for my wife and since she has been pregnant the past 6 months her exercise routine is far from active. Now we are going to have a kid literally any day now and her comfort level is far from 'good'. I figure for me to feel what she feels I would have to go play paintball for a day then eat 4 helpings of a Thanksgiving dinner and then just as I'm about to go to fall asleep have somebody poke me in my ribs with a broom handle.
The Plan
So now that I'm actively eating LESS food and cutting out soda and sugary snacks. I work out for 30 minutes a day now on the elliptical machine and this will increase day by day as I get my ass back in shape. My initial observation is very positive though, I remember when we first got the elliptical machine I did workout for a whole week (maybe) and a 20 minute workout made me light headed, I had burning lungs, and I felt like I was going to die.
What's changed? I have a hyper-active doberman puppy called Haela that I've been taking to the dog park on hour long walks for the past year. She's not a puppy anymore but still has the energy levels that require trips to the "D.P" (saying the word 'Dog Park' in her general vicinity sends her into a frenzy of "oh boy! oh boy! dog park! whoo hoo! oh boy!" and she runs between the back door where her leash is hanging and the front door where we leave for the garage.)
Why I've Failed in the Past
I hate boring exercise . I have even tried motivational music, watching TV on DVD and movies while being on the elliptical machine. The problem with all of these is that music can keep the beat going but I have nothing to occupy my brain... I can only focus on the fact that I'm sweating profusely and I hate exercise. With TV on DVD there are disk changes, slow points in the plot, lulls in the action and story lines or characters that just do not interest me... which leads again to realizing that I am sweating profusely and that I hate exercise.
Xboxercise (tm), Enter Stage Right
As you know from a previous post I now have an Xbox 360 with the really sweet wireless game controllers. I have several first-person shooter games in which I'm too busy being shot at by aliens to realize how much I hate exercise (although I can't help but still notice the sweat). I have the Xbox hooked up to the Internet and I am able to play in games against other people throughout the world. My current poison is Gears of War (an amazing award winning game -- review to come later). As I am running on the elliptical machine there are nifty handle bars in a fixed position (not the swooshy side bars that you can pump with your arms) that I choose to rest my hands. There is even a nice shelf in which you can use to rest a book while you read and run. This is perfect for resting the wireless controller and our roommate has a glorious 52'inch High-Definition LCD TV placed in front of the elliptical machine.
So as I (in the virtual world) run from cover to cover dodging enemy "gun fire" I have been finding myself picking up the pace in my workout. As my 'virtual self' starts to run, so do I! I figure that when I play these games my heart rate increases anyways, now I'm giving my muscles a workout at the same time!
Now I get to combine one of my new favorite distractions with one of my least favorite to create this sorta of super-hybrid activity that doesn't suck.
