Home Exercise Equipment

A few months after Gavin was born, when I had cruised right on up past my top pregnancy weight, I purchased a Nordic Track elliptical trainer. I used it religiously for a few months, lost some weight, and got bored. Luckily, instead of turning into an expensive piece of sculpture, the poor neglected machine was adopted by Dan. He used it so much that he actually wore it out.

We replaced it with a much more durable LifeFitness elliptical trainer which has seen a great deal of good use. But not from me. In spite of another attempt at regular usage of the machine in January of 2009, I found myself largely sedentary by April. And despite the fact that I have not varied one iota from my precisely measured food plan, I was slowly putting on weight.

Then, in August, I acquired the ultimate piece of home exercise equipment. We named him Brubeck. He’s an 8 ½-pound miniature pinscher who’d been found living stray out in the country and needed a loving home. Knowing nothing about the so-called ‘min-pin’ (and really, knowing nothing about dogs in general) I hopped on line to do some research on the breed.

Wikipedia had this wisdom to offer:

“These little dogs will need lots of exercise per day… [Their] energy level exceeds the traditional concept or idea of the standard toy breed. Daily walks are not sufficient for this breed to wear off their excess energy.”

I scowled heavenward when I read this. Once again, God’s sense of humor had made me the butt of the joke. It wasn’t going to be enough to walk the little guy around the block a couple times a day. He would need to really exercise to burn off his excess energy. And since I’m a stay-at-home mom and his primary care-giver during the day, that meant I would need to really exercise to burn off his excess energy. Hardee-har-har.

I am happy to report that I have exercised more in the past three months than in the previous three years. Grumble though I may, dragging my rear end out of the house for a brisk, 30-minute walk every day has been a true blessing. And, not surprisingly, I'm starting to reverse the weight-gain trend. Dan, too, is enjoying his daily “long walk” with Brubeck after supper. In fact, he finds it so invigorating that it has replaced the elliptical in his exercise routine.

The only question now is: Does anybody want to buy an elliptical trainer?