For the past several months, on Tuesday nights, I've been working out for a half hour on the Nu Step recumbent step machine. I started out slow but I'm up to a half hour now on difficulty level 6. I can get my heart rate up around 115. I usually keep the steps per minute to around 200. I'm really working it. My legs and arms are pumping and I am working up a sweat. It's fun and I feel great when it's over. I can breathe deeper and this exercise doesn't aggravate my back like walking does. This machine has digital readouts and I am not familiar with everything. Basically I get on and start working out and the machine turns on and tells me how long I have worked, how many steps I'm stepping per minute. The machine also tells me one of four other things - total steps, total watts or total calories. This last week, it was set on calories. So guess how many calories I burned off during 30 minutes of nu stepping? A lousy 118 calories, that is how many. This can't be accurate. I am so disappointed. I looked up other activities that burn off 118 calories and I found I could burn just as many is 30 minutes of table tennis, or an hour of getting dressed, an hour of ice fishing, or an hour of doodling in the margin!!!! 118 is nothing. I felt like I had burned off at least 300 to 400 calories.
For 118 calories, I can eat 3/4 cup of apple Cinnamon cheerios. I don't like apple Cinnamon cheerios. Other things I can eat for 118 calories? A pork chop (don't eat meat). A glass of Cabernet sauvignon (don't drink). A cup of fruit loops (Ewww). A serving of split pea soup (Ewww). A persimmon (never tried one, the name sounds sour). One medium sweet potato. One cup of orange juice. One half cup chow mein noodles. From now on, if that machine shows calories, I'll ask for someone to show me how to turn it back to total steps or total watts. Watching the calories burn off, one by one, is just too discouraging. After the nu step, I lift weights for another 45 minutes or so. I walk out of that place feeling great - it must be the endorphins brought on by the exercise. On a brighter note, I put 60 miles on the motorcycle today. I rode to work. Then I had a meeting in Anoka followed by a lunch meeting at Applebees and back to work before heading home. When I got to my street, I wasn't ready to be done riding yet. If I didn't have responsibilities like a dog waiting to go to the bathroom, I would have kept on traveling. I'm really enjoying riding. The posture of leaning forward with my weight on the handlebars is really comfortable on my back. When I got home I took the dog out for a walk while I pedaled the non-motorized bicycle. Lately, the bike has been harder and harder to pedal. I thought I was getting weak or sick. I checked the brakes to see if they were gripping the tires - they weren't. I could barely make it up a hill and it wasn't any fun at all. When I got home I checked the air pressure in the tires. The tire says it should be inflated to 40 psi. My gauge says one tire was 12 psi and the other tire was 15 psi. No wonder it was so hard to pedal. I pumped up the tires so we're ready to roll tomorrow.
For 118 calories, I can eat 3/4 cup of apple Cinnamon cheerios. I don't like apple Cinnamon cheerios. Other things I can eat for 118 calories? A pork chop (don't eat meat). A glass of Cabernet sauvignon (don't drink). A cup of fruit loops (Ewww). A serving of split pea soup (Ewww). A persimmon (never tried one, the name sounds sour). One medium sweet potato. One cup of orange juice. One half cup chow mein noodles. From now on, if that machine shows calories, I'll ask for someone to show me how to turn it back to total steps or total watts. Watching the calories burn off, one by one, is just too discouraging. After the nu step, I lift weights for another 45 minutes or so. I walk out of that place feeling great - it must be the endorphins brought on by the exercise. On a brighter note, I put 60 miles on the motorcycle today. I rode to work. Then I had a meeting in Anoka followed by a lunch meeting at Applebees and back to work before heading home. When I got to my street, I wasn't ready to be done riding yet. If I didn't have responsibilities like a dog waiting to go to the bathroom, I would have kept on traveling. I'm really enjoying riding. The posture of leaning forward with my weight on the handlebars is really comfortable on my back. When I got home I took the dog out for a walk while I pedaled the non-motorized bicycle. Lately, the bike has been harder and harder to pedal. I thought I was getting weak or sick. I checked the brakes to see if they were gripping the tires - they weren't. I could barely make it up a hill and it wasn't any fun at all. When I got home I checked the air pressure in the tires. The tire says it should be inflated to 40 psi. My gauge says one tire was 12 psi and the other tire was 15 psi. No wonder it was so hard to pedal. I pumped up the tires so we're ready to roll tomorrow.
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