The Veal Farm

On March 26 I officially hit 150 miles. I know that because the my treadmill gives me warning to lube the treadmill belt at 150 miles. So lets see…. 5 days a week since December 18, amounts to roughly 75 days…. so I am looking at around 2 miles a day. However, I have to take the holidays, and down time while it was broken in to account, so that would put me at 55 days so it would be around 2.75 miles a day or at 1 mph, a little less than three hours a day on the treadmill, which I would say is very accurate. Some days I did none, or barely one hour and others I walked it out for 5 hours (did I mention talcum power is a good thing to have on hand). I want to see if I can get that average up to 4 hours a day. Two hours in the morning and two hours in the evening. Not as easy as it seems as I can’t take the treadmill with me to meetings…

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Sorry, it has been a while. Unfortunately I am not always the most prompt blogger. However, on top of my procrastination, the treadmill had broken so I had little chance to use it. I wanted to see what the out come was before I blogged on it. My treadmill started making a dinging noise after 15 minutes to an half an hour. The problem only got worse as time went on. After a call to Horizon Fitness customer service I discovered that there is a silver disk that is part of a timing mechanism. Evidently it was warped and hitting something.

So, as I was still under warranty they sent out Larry the repairman. First off it was obvious that Larry did not work in a cube. He was quite thin. In fact he was a runner and a retired airplane mechanic. Are all Horizon Fitness repair people this qualified? He was like the poster boy for treadmill repairmen.

To make a long story short he was very nice, competent and he had it fixed and up and running (no pun intended) in no time. He fixed the disk and evidently the sensor wiring was a bit tight pulling it into the rotating disk, so he adjusted that. I have been on it for a week now without a ding being heard. I am happy. So on with my journey…..

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It has now been over a month and it is time for a progress report.  While I am not tracking my miles. I estimate I am now walking anywhere from 4-5 hours a day (nine hour work day). I started at .7 mph but as of last week I am now going a zippy 1 mph. So you do the distance math. In hind-site the holidays were a good time to start this, not just from a fitness stand point, but I also had short weeks with Xmas day off and New Years Day off as well. That allowed me my legs to get adjusted - when you’re veal, its hard to get your legs moving again on a regular basis. I think the move up to 1 mph has actually made my concentration on my work better.  I don’t know why, it might be if I am walking so slow I have to think about walking. However, I don’t think I could go any faster, at least safely.

Because I moved up to 1 mph I adjusted my keyboard shelf and moved it over the  treadmill console. Another bit of luck, - the shelving unit I bought at Home Depot fits snugly over much of the console so my key board does not move or wiggle at all now.

I also just got my new Mac laptop to replace my dinosaur of a PC desktop machine. Now I can move the laptop back and forth from the treadmill desk to my veal desk when I need a break.

What are the Results

I sleep like a baby. That much is very noticeable. I use to be a late night-er, but I go to bed much earlier. The days I use it I am much less tense and my back has never felt better. With my old monitor, it was sitting up a tad to high and I was getting neck strain over time, but my laptop is set slightly lower and the neck strain has disappeared.

Weight loss results have not been significant at all, I am down to 254 lbs. from 255 lbs. however, I have not adjusted my eating habits as I wanted to see the results from the treadmill alone, and I pretty much ate my body weight in turkey, ham and cookies over the holidays so I find it a miracle that managed to actually lose weight this month.

In the last few years I have always had  a little arthritis in my ankles and while on the treadmill I feel fine, but sometimes I can really feel it when I get home and am stationary for a while. I can not emphasis enough the need to buy good shoes. I am even contemplating switching from my Rockport work shoes to walking shoes.

Work performance 

I think, at least to start with, my work performance slowed as I adjusted to treadmill and I found what I could and could not do walking on it. Talking to people in person was out, unless I could figure out a way to walk backwards so I could talk with them. I also found it difficult to walk when I really needed to focus and trouble shoot on a complex coding problem or sometimes when I needed to be creative. Walking on the treadmill didn’t bother me while I was on the phone, or when I was doing mundane computer tasks that did not need much thought or analyzing.  However, as I get more and more use to the treadmill I am finding I can handle more and more complex tasks. My mouse and keyboard skills were no more difficult than when I was sitting at the desk.

Where to go

As I said, I am going to look into getting some very nerdy but needed walking shoes with good arch support (suggestions?) HR also mentioned that they have an ergonomics professional who regularly comes in to look at people’s workstations and give suggestions on how they can set it up better. They would like the ergonomics professional to look at my setup. I am thinking that ought to be interesting to see what they say. They had reviewed my cube earlier and were very happy with my “standing desk” I wonder what they will say now that it is a walking desk?

Other than that, my goal is to still walk at least 5 hours a day. At some point I want to start lifting light weights (no no, not in my cube) to continue the de-vealifing process.

Would I recommend it? Again, talk to your doctor AND your HR department. While I am loving it, I however, I do not think it is for everyone, it is a slow process and it takes months to get use to if you are not in shape. While walking on a slow moving treadmill takes no great skill, if you have balance or health issues I would not recommend it.

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Wow, after the holidays and the food I am very happy to get back to my desk/treadmill. How weird is that? I’m sure some of you are thinking “get your ass outdoors” but truth be told, I really don’t like the cold and winter activities don’t do much for me.

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A very nice American Public Media episode of Future Tense talking about treadmills at the job. The radio show includes an interview of Thomas Niccum, another Minnesota blogging about his treadmill at his work office.Fighting fat by walking while workingListen in RealAudio

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So it has been few days now, still liking it. In fact I have to say it was physically more difficult making the transition from sitting to standing than was the transition from standing to treadmill.My top speed thus far: .7 MPH - speed the Mayo recommends, and I understand why now. The default start speed was .5 MPH for my machine and I tried to go that speed but found it was just to slow. I keep walking into my keyboard support shelf. .7 is a more natural speed. I do not really have to think at all about walking, it becomes very natural.

I did some adjusting to the shelf unit supporting my keyboard and mouse. The extra shelf did stabilize my keyboard. I also raised the shelf supporting my keyboard so my arms bend at right angles at the elbow. Previously my shelf was to low and I had bend my wrists to type, which hurt after awhile. I also found I nice padded wrist support unit for my keyboard and mouse. It looks early 90s hand made computer retro but it works great.

Since my Treadmill is up against the wall it is very difficult to turn off the power when I leave. I had crawl under the shelf and feel around for the power switch. I have since moved the treadmill plug-in to a power cord that I can switch on and off with ease.

I am usually on 1-2 hours then off for an hour or two then on again. Usually stop altogether by 3:30pm or 4:00pm as by then I am tired. I expect that to change as I get more use to it.

What is somewhat surprising is when I just stood at my desk, I would have more discomfort than walking. Moving around appears to help. While sitting in a chair has some obvious comforts the long term problems I experienced (not including weight gain) are now gone.

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Today I started on the treadmill workstation. Some of my observations:

• I am grateful for a cube with 10′ high walls. If I had standard cubicle walls my head would be popping over the top like a jack-in-the-box.
• While the treadmill is very quiet (surprisingly so), my shoes are not. In preparation I got Rockport shoes, basically nice comfortable (thus not stylish) office shoes that will stand up to the treadmill. However, I failed to realize that in the quiet space of the office my footsteps sound more like clapping two coconuts together. I wonder if Rockport makes slippers?
• My shelving unit that I used to hold up my keyboard sucks. It is waaaay to unstable. However, I think I can rig it to be more stable by adding a lower shelf.
• Everybody was very curious on how “far” I went. Ironically it was the last thing on my mind. Considering I was stopping and starting my treadmill all day as I had to go to meetings or do other tasks I was not able to keep a good record.
• While it was not even close to exhausting, I would not recommend wearing a cardigan sweater while walking on it. What was I thinking?!
• Walking was remarkably easy. Was tired at the end of the day but I expect to get more use to it as time goes on.
• I need way more water.
• I needn’t worry about co-workers asking for rides.

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On a quiet Sunday night I carted in the treadmill and set it up.

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So now that I have decided to add a treadmill to my cubicle I needed figure out some of the basics, like which treadmill to buy just how to rig this up to work as a functioning workstation. I have seen several ingenious designs and even one sexy commercial one by Steelcase that runs over $6,500. Perfect for the exec who has everything but remember, I work for a non-profit, and while they are willing to let me set up a treadmill workstation, it is a different matter to buy one for me. So this is going to be on my dime (for now) and I need to keep costs low. I have looked online and at reviews on places like Treadmill Doctor but have been disappointed. Many of the products reviewed are no longer carried in stock or when I went to real world showrooms to test the top rated products myself I was disappointed.

I pretty much had to go on three things in order of importance:

1. Price - Again, I can’t bring up enough times that I work for a non-profit organization.
2. New not used. If I was doing a home office walkstation that might be different but I don’t want to risk a lemon, while being the guinea pig for this at work.
3. My gut feelings testing them out on the show room floors.
   My Criteria:
   1. Quiet - I have co-workers to think of.
   2. Smoothness - Many of the models treads were jerky, my impression is that would drive me crazy over time and the last thing I want to think about is walking while I am working.
   3. Solidness - I don’t want this thing to bounce as I walk on it. It has to handle my weight.
   4. Structure - Is the display board small and compact or does it look like something from a Star Trek set? Can I put my monitor and key board over it?

Things I do not give a rats ass about:

1. cup holders
2. ipod plugins
3. Cooling Fans
4. Speeds above 1.5 MPH
5. Incline
6. Workout programs
7. I probably don’t care about the emergency stop but who knows for now…

I wound up purchasing a Horizon Fitness LS60T Treadmill at Sportsmart for $499. I looked at other stores and Treadmills but either they offered only high end multi featured treadmills with gizmos and gadgets I would never need or I was confused by just what they were trying to sell me. I also purchased a one year extended coverage service plan for $79.99 and a mat ($22.49) to protect the carpeting at work I doubt I will work up a sweat but who knows the machine could spew out….

I figure if I can get two years out of it with my service plan I will be happy. If anyone have has other suggestions for treadmills feel free to leave a comment.

And now shelving…

More troublesome than the treadmill is the apparatus I have to build to hold my laptop/keyboard/monitor. I have little interest in building anything so I want to make it as simple as possible, it also as to look somewhat decent as it is in an office environment. A bachelor cube does not cut it. So a trip to Home Depot is in order to come up with the least troublesome, low cost, yet sexy solution which presented itself in the form of a 4 Shelf Chrome Storage Unit for $49. This will take some jerry-rigging, considering my treadmill selection did include a treadmill with a Star Trek size control panel, I will have to work around it.

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My reason for this site in the first place is to blog on my attempts to create a treadmill workstation in my cubical at work. I have read blogs about treadmill desks in home offices which I have found quite helpful and inspiring, most notably Jay Buster’s blog Treadmill Desk, however I have not found any blog on an individuals attempt to create a treadmill workstation at their place of employment amongst coworkers. Probably for the obvious reasons, first, the humiliation of being in the spotlight and looking like quite the fool while using it and really the fool if it does not work out (whispers from coworkers - “another one of those diet trends…”). So far my coworkers have been supportive on the idea of it, especially the ones that are turning to veal like me. Second, there is also the apprehension from the workplace administration of legal issues. What if you fall off or have a heart attack? These questions where asked by my boss. I reminded her that walking on a treadmill at .5 miles per hour is less dangerous than walking up and down the stairs instead of using the elevator, which is an activity encouraged by the nonprofit organization I work at.

So exactly what is a “treadmill workstation”?

Just what it sounds like, it is a treadmill that has been retrofitted to a desk. Instead of sitting 8 hours a day at your work desk you walk now continuously while you work, usually .5 to 1 MPH for 2 hour stints. Many home office treadmillers

Little numbers can add up to big results

I was inspired over a year ago by articles I was reading about by Dr. James Levine, an endocrinologist and nutritionist at the Mayo Clinic, who came up with the idea of a treadmill desk that would allow people who spend the majority of their waking hours working at computers to take advantage of Non-exercise activity thermogenesis (NEAT). NEAT is the energy expended for everything we do that is not sleeping, eating or sports-like exercise. In office work terms his includes trivial physical activities like walking to meetings, going to the coffee station (two, three, four times, etc…) to get coffee and walking to the bathroom to get rid of the coffee later in the day. Sadly, for many that is really the extent of office physical activity.

However, as the report points out:

even trivial physical activities increase metabolic rate substantially and it is the cumulative impact of a multitude of exothermic actions that culminate in an individuals daily NEAT.

Long Tail Exercising

In geek speak: This is similar to the long tail concept used by Google and other web businesses, going after the millions of small companies and individuals tradition business models considered too small to be worth pursuing, cumulatively were market worth potentially billions dollars.

A treadmill workstation is sort of the long tail of exercise of workouts. It isn’t about working intensely for 20, 30, or 40 minutes per day or several times a week (although those can have their cardiovascular benefits as well) it is about the impact of low-intensity but lengthy physical activity over the course of the day and then the compounded effects of that dayly activity over the year.

Long tail exercising goes is more than just a treadmill at the workplace, but the treadmill makes great sense since it is the most compatible with working at a desk and requires little thought to interact with or operate like say a recumbent bike or a stair climber does

So does it work?

Well, I am about to find out. Results in a lab are one thing, real world office veal farms are another.

About two months ago I gave up my chair, with great results. I was having minor back problems and since giving up my chair and raising my desk and standing at it my back has felt great. I still sit from time to time, especially when I am very tired, not feeling well, or at the end of the day (standing is nice but after several hours it is nice to sit for a while and vary my posture). I also felt more energy leaving at the end of the day. Reports from home office treadmill users talk about feeling more energy using a treadmill all day and I do not doubt this.

While the benefits from NEAT appear to be great it is not a panacea for health. For example, while there may be some muscle toning benefits provided to the legs by walking, it does almost nothing for upper body muscles and bone structure. Those concerned with osteoporosis should still be considering light weights or some type of upper body exercise.

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