Today is the first day of the rest of my life.

Today is the first day of the rest of my life.
Today I woke up, slathered some lotion on my feet, dug out a pair of socks and laced up my brand new sneakers.

Ryka sneaks - LOVE them. My last pair had hot pink instead of navy and silver. Thought i'd change it up this time.

Today I moved the treadmill and got it set up.
Today I got ON the treadmill and actually used it.

Why today? I'm now accountable to my skinny, neighbor who works out off and on all day (he has one of those pull up racks in his back yard and every time he walks by it, he hops up and does 10 pull ups or dips or whatever). That's not why i'm accountable to him...i'm accountable to him because he helped me get the treadmill out of the truck and into the house - and on his way out the door said "these things are great. If you use them". Really? Oh no he didn't...he was a jerk back in high school and shocker, he's still a jerk...only now he's of minor use to me because he lives next door.

So this morning I rearranged the living room to accommodate this giant piece of equipment. It's uh slightly larger than I remember. At least the platform folds up. I put it in front of the window so I would at least have something to stare at while I figure out just how out of shape I am. More on that later.  

I guess I should also mention that my 20th high school reunion is in November. I may or may not go. I went to one (5 year? 10 year? I don't remember) what I do remember was it being a huge waste of my time and money - so we'll see how I feel about the whole thing down the road...as more details about it come to light.

Now that's not the reason for my decision and action. Nope, it was more due to opportunity at the Paisley Cottage. It's also been something I've been meaning to do for a long time. Not the treadmill specifically, but getting a little more exercise into my life. The treadmill was a gift...one of my co-workers put her mother-in-law in a nursing home and when we were at lunch one day I said something about dying to get a treadmill and she said she has recently gotten rid of hers and then "oh Annabelle has one - i'm sure she's never used it, let me know when you want to come get it" - two weeks later, Mr. Paisley and I drove up to her neck of the woods and loaded it up in the truck. It does indeed appear to be brand new. Hell Annabelle is like 90 and she ordered from an infomercial. I seriously doubt she could even hold the weight of the platform to bring it down from being folded up. There is zero wear on it. No marks on the belt, no scratches, nothing. 

So how'd I do for my first round? It was sad. Very sad. 10 minutes. 10 minutes at 2.3 miles per hour. That got me just under a 1/2 mile according to the control panel. The control panel actually has a pulse monitor thing on it and a chart for age / target rate, etc. 10 min put me at 130 - which is right on the money for a 40 year old. I'm 38, so I guess that's good enough.  I obviously don't get out enough. That said, maybe brand new sneakers might not have been the best plan. I still have my old ones and will go another two 10 minute rounds today before I go to bed. Research shows that three 10 minute bursts are equally, if not more effective than a solid 30 minutes. I'm going to go with that for now. My firs short term goal will be 30 min in the morning before work and another 30 before bed. After that I just might start walking with the lunch crew at work. Of course if it's 98 degrees that ain't gonna happen. Too hot! 

Today i'm satisfied that I did 10 more minutes of actual physical activity that I didn't do yesterday. Or the day before. Or the day before that. So it's a step in the right direction.

I'm thinking about hiding posts from one of my friends on Facebook. She's recently become obsessed with being a fitness model / bikini competitor. She's my age, with a younger husband and two kids. She already looked fabulous, but she needed more fabulousness I guess. 6 or 8 months ago she went hard core and she posts about it constantly. She's currently at the beach on vacation and this was one of her (many) posts before noon today.

"I never understand peoples ideas of cardio... 10 minutes at a slow place does NOTHING. stepping off to turn the TV.. get a drink.. talk on the phone... silly stuff. To me, if you're not gonna do it right-- why waste your time??? MOVE IT PEOPLE!!!!!!!!!"

I beg to differ. 10 minutes at a slow pace does nothing for HER. 10 minutes at a slow pace does a lot more for ME at this stage of the game. Now I have zero interest in being a fitness model / bikini competitor and I'll never be a size 4. I want to be thin-ER, fit-ER than I am today and better yet, who gets to decide what is "right"? If it's not right for her, then she shouldn't do it, but at the same time it may very well be right for someone else. Like me. So since it seems negative to me personally, though I know it isn't directed at me, maybe those 10 min slow pacers that are in her way are the same as me and would take it personally. It's a public gym (or at least not private as in, yours and yours alone) so suck it up and get over the fact that you aren't running the show. If they want to do 10 minutes crawling on the treadmill, so be it.

And on that note, I think I will hide her posts for now and then i'll go change into my old sneakers and see if I can't bust out another 10 minute round.