Tuesday, July 08, 2008

Treadmill Blues

I'm continuing to work on getting my cholesterol numbers down. One of the major ways I'm doing this is through a machine I have in my home. It's called a treadmill and it allows one to walk, but you basically stay in the same spot. It's like running in place, only walking. The doc said I needed to work my heart out more, to walk faster, to walk up hills, so on most days, I have the treadmill set at a not-inconsiderable incline. I try to get at least 40 minutes in every couple days.

One nice feature of the treadmill I have is that there's a small fan you can turn on which will cool your face a tad. It helps if I drink a decent amount of water while riding. I hear that makes you sweat a bit less. The first 20 minutes of my workout tend to be more difficult than the latter 20. I sweat quite profusely during the first half, so much so that I have to keep a shirt or towel or cat nearby to wipe it off. For some reason, during the second half, I produce much less sweat. It's as if my body is saying, "That's all I got for ya. You're on your own now".

I pretty much have to watch TV while working out. Otherwise, it would be quite boring. Because of the noise from the treadmill, I inevitably need to watch something in which I don't need to hear every word coming from the screen. Game shows are good for this, music videos, Countdown with Keith Olbermann.



(One interesting note: I've not watched Countdown in more than a week and have found I've been less stressed. Wonder if there's a connection...)

I've got one more month to go before I get my blood drawn again. On some days, I'm still probably ingesting more saturated fat than I should, but I did quite good yesterday and plan to do the same today.

3 comments:

Rocketstar said...

Good luck, keep it up.

Anonymous said...

Eating at home more might help as well...you can keep better track of your diet that way...you'll have a better grasp of what exactly is going into your food. When you eat out, you have no clue how your food is being prepared (such as, if it's being cooked in fatty oils).

Thomas said...

Rocket, thanks for the encouragement.

Sil, that is a very good idea and one I'm trying to live by. If I plan to go out to eat, I go to the restaurants' website to get a good idea of what kind of saturated fats are contained in their foods. At Wendy's, I like to get the plain baked potato (no toppings whatsoever). That thing is almost too healthy.