My healthy lifestyle anchor: a stationary bike!

My bike and my dog Zoe

Programming the bike for my workout

Yes, it's a Schwinn 140

Gratuitous photo of Zoe and Jack begging for treats after my workout

Six days a week I ride my stationary bike, a Schwinn 140. Yesterday, I finally moved up to peddling for an hour. I feel proud of this, because when I began, I think around the end of June, it was a struggle for me to finish 20 minutes. I seriously sounded like an obscene phone call. I was also afraid of breaking into a sweat and getting my heart pounding, because I thought that I might have a heart attack. I've found that hasn't happened.

Here is a little bike background. My husband and I wanted to get a stationary bike that we could both use. He was the driving force behind us choosing one, because he began to change his lifestyle for the healthier months before I did. He did some research and we settled on the Schwinn 140 Upright Exercise Bike   .

It can hold someone 300 lbs, so I felt confident that I wouldn't break it and we read somewhere that it was appropriate for people 5' tall and up and was adjustable. So, we ordered it from Amazon, on sale and with free shipping. Kristian had to put it together, which was not fun, but it was worth it. One important caution however, if you are petite. I'm 5' 2" with very short legs and it was a struggle for me to reach the peddles. This was very frustrating and upsetting for me, but Kristian took it to a machine shop at our church (who knew?) and they bored an extra hole in the pole that raises and lowers the seat, so that my little legs could peddle. :) The other problem that I had at first, and sometimes still, is that the seat hurts my bottom. It is oversized, but it can be pretty uncomfortable. I think I've toughened up, because it's less trouble now. Those things aside, I'm very happy with this bike.

I like that the bike keeps track of calories burned and miles covered. It tells you how fast you are peddling as you ride ( I'm not sure if it's counting revolutions or what, but if my number gets to a certain range when I'm going to it, I'm happy).  Now that I'm working out for an hour, I'm up to 16 ish miles and 450 + calories burned during that time. The bike has different levels; I think that it goes up to 16. I'm now on 10. It also has different pre-programmed courses and circuits, which I rotate through.

The best time for me to workout is right after work before Kristian gets home. Then I can turn up some music and go to town. My dog Jack sometimes thinks that I'm playing with him and tries to grab the pedal as I turn it, but he tires of that pretty quickly. I find I put more effort in if I bike to music early in the evening. If I do it later at night, Kristian and I will watch a DVD together like The Closer: The Complete Second Season,

NCIS Naval Criminal Investigative Service - The Complete Third Season or All Creatures Great & Small - The Complete Series 3 Collection.

I called this an anchor for me because if I'm not losing weight as quickly as I should or I feel like I'm losing motivation or eating more than I should, I do my workout and think that I'm doing what I should. If I do it, I will eventually lose more weight. I want to keep this up and add in some hula hooping, yoga and some weight bearing exercise.