Now I know what you’re thinking, not another “get healthy”- new-year’s-resolution-bandwagon post! But in actuality, my husband has been working out for the past 4 years and slowly lost his weight the “right” way (eating less, eating healthier and exercising, SHOCK! I know) and doesn’t believe in “resolutions”. And I’ve been trying to get healthy, get in shape since we moved. I had a few babies not to mention a very sedentary job and now have to prove to myself that I actually do weigh what I wrote on my driver’s license! We brought home our e-Glide a month ago so I guess my resolution started the first of December. Here’s the story:
About 5 months ago, my husband “broke” our old elliptical. Not on purpose, he just wore the thing out. We’ve had it for about 6 years and it was WELL used. The rubber on the footpads was totally shredded and somehow the thing got stuck on the highest tension setting. Now this is great if you want a workout that kills your lower body (pretend to drag your legs through tar) but it was a serious turnoff for me who already is a lazy workout…er. (I don’t think that’s even a word).
At our local gym I like using the treadmill mostly because when I walk I can read. I would cheat and do a full 60 minutes when you’re only supposed to do 30 minutes at a time but no one was really in there waiting in line anyway. I could go about 3.8 – 4.0 at a decent fast walking pace and get through about 5-6 chapters of a book comfortably. I wasn’t really thinking about losing a ton of weight, I just wanted some exercise and time to myself.
So when we finally started talking about replacing the “broken” elliptical, in my own selfishness, I was pretty adamant that I wanted a treadmill. Mostly since I knew I would use it. But on the flip side, I knew my husband wouldn’t. So we still wouldn’t win. I needed to have a good conversation with myself about my own health. After my last baby, I did drop down to pre-baby weight, but I could stand to lose about 20-30 more pounds if I wanted to get back to a “healthy” high school weight. And although walking on a treadmill was fine (any form of exercise is good) what would be better is a serious sweat at a little faster pace. So I caved and we started looking at ellipticals.
Now we don’t have a TON of space in our house, so I can’t have a gigantic piece of metal taking up the place, so a stable machine with an average footprint was a must; second, it had to be super smooth. I think alot of problems with people working out at home is they have TERRIBLE fitness equipment. I’m not saying you need to spend thousands of dollars on gym quality equipment, just don’t go to a boxmart store and try to get one of those off the shelves, BOO. In my opinion, your equipment needs to fit you, if it’s not comfortable, don’t buy it. No amount of motivation will make you use it if it doesn’t feel right.
After trying out a bunch of styles of ellipticals, we finally agreed on the Spirit Fitness e-Glide. Our version is the XG-200 e-Glide, it was in the middle for price and much cheaper than the treadmill that I wanted. Right off the bat you can see that it’s wheel is a “fly-wheel” that you would see on a spinning bike and yes, you can fly on this thing. Right away I’m going from my average walking 3.8 to a 4.8-5.5 glide speed which seems effortless. The electronics on it are very simple, no dancing lights or default hill settings, which is fine with me. I wanted a machine that tells me time, speed and distance. That’s it.
For safety it has a brake system so you don’t go TOO fast. There is also a locking wheel system so that they elliptical doesn’t move and little babies fingers don’t get pinched. (A nice feature for us since it was something our old one didn’t have) You do have to keep the bars on the bottom clean, any amount of dirt or grit will make it squeak. We have separate “workout” shoes for this reason alone and I try to wipe it down just like I would if it was at a regular gym.
Some of the downsides, I had to give up my “reading” which turned out to be a blessing in disguise. The display doesn’t have a lip so you can’t place a magazine or book on it. Then again if you are working out it would be hard to read anyway since it has a pretty high bounce step when you are moving. I’ve now turned to my ipod and a list of fast pace music tracks. It makes the time fly and I can tell I’m working out faster with a higher heart rate since I’m trying to keep up with the beat.
Also we need to move it to a room where the carpet doesn’t have such a high pile. The footfeet sink into the carpet and it wobbles a little bit if you are going to fast. Hardwood would be great but I’m not tearing out the floors anytime soon!
So hopefully in 6 months I can give you an update on how well it’s holding up as well as reaching my own weight loss goal! Cheers to 2011!