Oh, What a Bargain!

Hubby was out and about a couple days ago and he came home with great news - he had found an elliptical exercise machine at a yard sale - the tag on it said "make offer" but he figured it would still be more than we could afford so he started to walk away when the lady yelled, "How about $5?" So, of course, he returned with a larger vehicle and we brought it home.

The thing weighs - according to the online info he found - 125 pounds. So it was a bit of a struggle getting it in and out of the car, but once we did the little wheels on the front were great! We managed to wrestle the thing to the kitchen.

In the meantime, Hector the cat escaped to the Great Outdoors.

We discovered it an elliptical trainer takes up roughly the same floor footprint as a kitchen island. (I threw in that tidbit just in case you are considering installing one of these in your kitchen)

So Hubby stepped on it and did... 20 seconds! Whew! What a workout! I lasted 10.

By later that afternoon, Hubby had found an online owner's manual to our new Weslo 710 Elliptical Trainer - we now could use the pulse counting feature on this machine... Which really did not do me much good since I apparently couldn't stay ON the machine long enough for the pulse counter to kick in.

So Monday morning, as my coffee was brewing I again stepped on the machine with a goal in mind. 20 seconds... I managed to do 15. But it was long enough to watch my pulse track - I went from 64 resting to 147 to 192.

Okay - I expected this, after all, I have Sick Sinus Syndrome. No, it doesn't mean my nose is stopped up.

The Sino-Atrial node is a bundle of nerves in the middle of your heart - the "coordination center" if you will... Kind of like a 4-way traffic light. It tells each chamber of your heart when to beat to keep things in rhythm. Mine does not work properly - in other words, I have "electrical problems".

I know from several multi-day heart monitors my heart rate frequently runs up into the 190's several times a day without the activity of the shiny new elliptical trainer.
Just think, a lot of people pay money for someone to help them exercise to raise their heart rate. I can do it just sitting and reading.

But I know I still need the physical activity - and this morning? I did a whole minute on the elliptical!

Oh - we turned the machine around where we can now watch the living room TV while exercising.

Maybe having an elliptical in the kitchen will become a style - is there a better way to remind us to watch what we eat?

BTW - the 2 pounds I put back on this week? I'm certain it is newly-gained muscle weight from all the exercise!