OK, I give up

I've given up on the treadmill desk, at least for now. One big reason is that I'm not working from home as much. When I'm at home I just have the single 17" laptop screen, whereas at work I have two 19" monitors. Also, the setup of my treadmill desk puts my 17" screen a little further away than my monitors are at work. I find myself frequently leaning forward, squinting or zooming in. The other thing that has been driving me crazy is the keyboard stand I built isn't 100% stable. If I lean on it, it can collapse on one side. As I'm typing this, I realize that problem could be easily fixed, and maybe I will. My plan was to create a stand I could mount my monitors on, and take the whole setup into the office. A big reason that hasn't happened is that I'm currently looking for a new job. I don't want to go through all the trouble of moving the treadmill (something that is never easy), and getting everything just perfect only to find out that I'm leaving and need to move my treadmill out of that office and back to my basement. Lastly, I started to notice that I could really walk while I was figuring out new things. If I was doing things I knew how to do, I could walk without a problem, but if I got stuck and had to research/google something, I would end up stopped. Part of that is the monitor situation, but I do think part of it is just a fact of the "walking and chewing gum" effect. I find the same thing when listening to music. It's fine while I'm putting out simple or moderately complex code, but not when I really need to concentrate. When I do find a new job, I'm probably not going to declare treadmill desk from day 1. Those first few weeks when everyone is trying to figure each other out can be uncomfortable enough without them wondering if I'm crazy for having a treadmill desk. So, there it is, my goal to blog until I stop using a walking desk is somewhat complete. I'll probably still walk for a portion of the days I do work from home. I have found that I do like the stand up desk, and will try to get a "sit-to-stand" desk and at the very least a standing desk. Then at some point I may stick a treadmill under that desk and try walking again. If I do, I'll revive this blog. I still think you should try it.

Treadmill Desk - Day 19 - 233lbs

A quick word about chafe.  If you're walking on your treadmill and feel a little chafe, stop right then.  Change your clothes, sit down, stand the rest of the day or quit for the day all together.  Do not keep walking and think "Oh, it's not so bad."

I had a nice long walk last Tuesday with some building chafe.  I didn't follow the advice above, and ended up waddling around the rest of the evening.  I was fine the next day, but it sucked that night.

I walked a little on Thursday, and almost not at all on Friday.  I just stood at my desk the whole day.  I'm not sure if it was the fear of chafe, the hard swim workout Thursday morning (doesn't explain Friday anyway), or the fact that my son has not been sleeping well the past week.  Whatever it was, I didn't feel like walking.

Today I walked for 3 hours to kick off the day.  Now I'm off to my son's 1st annual checkup, then I'm going to sit in the office the rest of the day.  So, the walking isn't over, I just had a few stationary days, which I'm fine with.  It's not the individual days that matter, it's going to be the accumulation of years of days that makes the difference in the long run.

Treadmill desk - Day 14 - 232.4lbs

My last two days walking have been 7.5 and 8 mile days.  Today I walked for a total of 5 hours and 8 miles.  Did I really just stand for 3 hours?  Am I being abducted by aliens?

There is definitely a limit to how far I can walk, and it seems to be around 8 miles.  I had covered 6 miles in a little more than 3 hours walking (4 hours real time) before lunch.  After lunch I walked for 2 hours, only covering 2 miles.  Maybe my endurance will build up as time goes on.

The standing hasn't really bothered me at all, which has surprised me some.  I usually get achy standing around at the mall, or a boat show or wherever I'm expected to stand for extended periods.  Maybe something about the desk makes my posture a little better.

I think I'm ready to take my desk to work.  Maybe this weekend.  Once there I think I'll try to walk 4 days a week, the 5th day I'll most likely be working from home.  The first hurdle will be getting the treadmill out of the basement.

Treadmill Desk - Day 8 - 236lbs

Where does the time go?


I work 8 hours a day. I'm either walking or standing the whole time.  It seems like I'm walking a lot more than I am standing still.  I usually walk 90 minutes, stand 30.  At the end of the day I walk less and stand more and there are other times of the day when I stop the treadmill.  I've also been stopping for phone calls.   I find walking even .5mph difficult while on the phone, and I also worry about the noise.

All in all, I should be walking just shy of 6 hours a day.  So, why is it that I only walked 4:45 on Tuesday, and after 6 hours of work today I only walked 4 hours?  Where is that other hour going?  Am I just forgetting to log some time, or am I just forgetting to carry the 1?

Treadmill Desk - Day 6

I'm not sure how to number the days.  Days spent on the treadmill?  Days since I started with it?  I've decided to go with days since I started.

So, I felt fine the morning after my first day, and even enjoyed a little walk-n-blog before work.  Then I say at my desk for a few hours and when I stood up, I could hardly move.    It was how I expected to feel when I woke up, and it was a nice surprise when I didn't feel that sore.  So, when the soreness did set in, I was really only surprised with the timing.

I didn't walk all weekend, even though I had plans to.  I just couldn't get the motivation to go into the basement and get setup.  As Walker Desk Ranger said location matters.  If my treadmill had been in the living room where my wife was watching TV, I probably would have walked.  It's a short term problem, I would like have acclimated to walking all day, and move my treadmill to the office within a month.

Speed
It's amazing how quickly you get used to the walking, and how comfortable you become upping the speed. I spent most of my walk-n-blog at 1.5mph on Friday, and today that feels a little slow.  As I said Friday, I don't have any real desire to walk much faster, but I do want it to be as comfortable as possible, and if that means walking faster...

Weight
One of my stated goals of the walking desk is to lose some of the weight I've put on in the past couple years.  The Mayo clinic study used an estimate of 100 Calories per hour for all it's participants who were walking at .7mph.  I'm using a formula I found somewhere on the web that works out to be .6*miles*weigh in pounds.  At my current weight that works out to be ~140 Calories/mile.  So, if I walk 6 miles a day, that's  840 Calories.  There are 3500 Calories in a pound of fat, so I should be able to lose .2 pounds per day walking on the treadmill.

Not that I expect to actually lose that weight everyday.  I try to weigh myself every morning after I pee and before I eat (I've forgotten for days now), my weight can fluctuate up or down 3-4 lbs per day, depending on what I eat and how hydrated I am.  So, I'm going to be looking for an overall trend of losing about 1 pound per week.  After I'm weighing myself regularly I'll start tracking my weight in a 7 day moving average, and track weight loss in a 14 day average to smooth out those bumps.

Of course that requires that I don't eat extra just because of all of the exercise I'm doing...

Treadmill Desk Day 2 - 234.4 lbs

A quick recap of my thoughts from Day 1

I started the day hardly able to walk at .7mph.  I found the walking distracting.  While I was writing yesterday's blog post I was able to setting in comfortably at .7mph.  Before lunch I was up to .8-1.2mph and hardly noticing the walking.  I found that walking slower was more distracting than faster, but didn't want to push it too much.  Also right now my laptop is on the treadmills book holder, and it jiggles a little at higher speeds.  I'm going to look into shelf system that's not connected to the treadmill for a laptop/monitor stand.

My normal day was of course spent sitting all day, so this was a big shift, and by afternoon my legs felt noticeably tired.  I found my self walking for a minute then stepping on the rails of the treadmill to stand for a minute.  Walking was much more distracting while I was tired, but I was able to get some good work done with this alternating between standing and walking.  While I found I could think well while walking, I found it harder to concentrate on typing.

The most surprising thing was that I found that I was subconsciously switching from walking to standing on the rails.  I start walking, thinking and coding, and after a few minutes I'd look down and find that I was standing on the rails.

My hip flexors were sore last night, but I didn't have any noticeable soreness this morning.  I had originally planned to go to the office this morning and work from my desk, but we had a snow storm yesterday, so I'm waiting for a reasonable hour to run the snow blower, take a shower then head in.  Until then I'll be working from the treadmill.

This morning I am having no problems blogging at 1.5mph, and found my initial .7mph quite distracting.  I'm really trying not to obsess about speed.  I know at some point I'll hopefully be putting in 40 hours a week, and at 1.5mph that's 60 miles.  No small bit of walking there.

Treadmill Desk Day 1 - 236lbs

I started 2 things today.  I started working on a treadmill desk, and I started my first blog.

Why Blog?
First I'll tell you why I created this blog.  About a month ago I saw another  article about how sitting for long periods of the day both make you fat and result in a shorter lifespan.  Like most people I'm not real keen on either of those.  This particular article mentioned standing desks and also mentioned treadmill desks.  I ended up doing a little bit of research on them and found some pretty interesting blogs about them.

Each of those blogs started of a lot like this one will.  It talked about how they got the idea, how they built their treadmill desk because they couldn't see laying out the thousands of dollars it would take to buy a pre-made desk.  Then it would go on to talk about the benefits they received from the treadmill desk. How they felt it improved their concentration, their energy throughout the day and after.  How they lost weight, ate better and slept better.  How their farts smelled like flowers and it solved world hunger.

This would go on for a month's worth of posts, and then they would stop posting.  Each time I wondered what happened.  Did they get tired of the treadmill desk and go back to sitting?  Did they still walk every day, but just didn't blog about it anymore?  Did they trip and suffer debilitating treadmill burn and vow never to be in the same room with one again?

I tried to search for people who started with treadmill desks and stopped.  I only found 2.  One was a blog, and he had a skiing accident and shattered his lower leg.  The other was a guy I found on a tech forum I frequently visit when I asked if anyone had given up on a treadmill desk.  He still used his occasionally, but found he had difficulty concentrating while treading.

In review, I found dozens of blogs and forum posts from people who loved their treadmill desks.  Dozens of blogs from people who loved it, but who were later abducted by aliens and two people who didn't like it.  My goal with this blog will be to continue to update it is clear that I will always work from a treadmill, or until I quit for any reason.  Full disclosure I will not update if I stop do to my own death, or if I am abducted by aliens unless they allow me access to the internet.

Why Treadmill Desk?
As I said before there have been a number of studies recently that found that sitting for extended periods each day increase weight gain and shorten lifespan.  It even shortens your lifespan if you keep your weight in check and work out regularly.  Longer lifespan definitely plays a role.

The simplest solution would be to get up from my desk and walk for 10 minutes every hour.  I wasn't doing a good job with that even after I installed an application to remind me to take breaks.  Next up would be a standing desk, but I generally end up aching if I stand for any extended period of time.  Others reported that walking was actually easier on the body than standing because our bodies are designed for walking.  Plus you burn more calories while walking (even slowly) than standing.  I put on about 10 pounds before my wife got pregnant, another 15 while she was pregnant, and about 5 since my son was born a year ago.  If you're 30 pounds over your ideal weight you are considered obese, and I wasn't at my ideal weight when I started so...

So here I am 6 feet, 236lbs.  I swim an hour plus 3 times a week, but with a 1 year old, that's about as much working out as I can fit into my schedule.  Walking 7 hours a day at 2 mph would burn over 1400 calories a day.  There's about 3500 calories in a pound of fat, so that means if I didn't change anything else in my life I lose about 2 pounds a week.  If I don't add calories I would be almost 100 pounds a year later.

If I experience any other benefits other have reported such as improved concentration, improved creativity, improved energy during and after work, or better sleep, those are all just bonuses.

This blog was written at .7mph.  The first half hour on the treadmill (surfing the net) I really noticed it, but it hasn't interfered with writing this blog at all.