First try on the treadmill!

Well, the conversion from office to gym is just about complete.  The treadmill is in and reassembled.  The tv is all wired and hooked up.  The rest of the furniture is moved out or around and we are ready to go.

The treadmill was the biggest part of the conversion.  It was by far the most difficult.  We had to bring it up from the basement to the second floor.  It turns out those things are heavy, or at least heavier than I thought it would be!  It is a fairly nice one with motorized incline, so there are a couple of electric motors and they are heavy!  My father helped me bring it all the way upstairs.  We thought it would be harder to get it out of the basement than to bring it up to the spare bedroom, but we managed to get it to the ground floor without a problem.  After that it got interesting!  We took it up the stairs to the second floor one step at a time.  Each time we would rest the treadmill before going to the next step.  Each time we rested it, the treadmill gouged the step it was sitting on.  Once I get it shape I need to fix the stairs!  Actually, all they need is a little sanding and re-staining and they will be good as new.

After all of that I didn’t want to skip using it, I would feel bad after all of the work it took to get the treadmill up and installed in the room.  I managed to use one of the personal training programs, so I ended up doing a mile and a half in thirty minutes.  Not bad for the first day!

New Plans

One of the reasons I started this blog was to document my progress and share my struggles trying to lose weight and get healthy.   Once Brennen was born I realized that I needed to change my life so I would be around for him through High School and College.  I am not saying that I wouldn’t make it living the way I have been, but the odds aren’t good. 

I need to change a lot of things about the way I am living before I would ever say that I am acting healthy, and I might never get there.  I think everything is relative.  If I cut 500 calories out and start doing 25 sit ups a day, it has to be better than not doing those things.  I have managed to quit smoking, and that will probably be an ongoing topic for another day.  I am about eight months into cigarette free life, and that is seven months and twenty nine days more than I ever thought I would be.   

So, here’s the thing.  They do not call me Big Joe in some ironic calling the huge guy “Tiny” kind of way.  I am tall and fat.  I find that it helps to be blunt about things.  Any time you are well over 300 pounds you can call yourself fat.  I have started to do some crunches and stretches most mornings, but that really is just helping my back.  My stomach isn’t really shrinking at a good rate, or really at all.  I think it is time to kick things up a notch. 

I am starting to convert my office into a gym.  At least a gym-esque room.  I am going to take all of the bookcases out and move the desk over to one side.  I am going to put a treadmill and some soft floor in to be able to walk all winter and still have a place to do some crunches.  I will post some pictures once I finish of before and after so we can see how it came out!  Wish me luck!

I am also going to keep track of my progress on the blog.  My goal is to run/finish without dying the 2011 Manchester Road Race in Manchester, Connecticut.  I am going to start using some programs on my iPhone to train and I will talk about them on the blog as well. 

Wish me luck and I will keep you informed!