I have a rocky relationship with my treadmill.  In August of 2011, in one of my moments of lucidity, I thought the best way to kick start my road to weight revolution was to own my very own treadmill.  I’ve only been the member of a gym once in my life – while I was studying for the bar exam in Hawaii – I needed to take my aggression and frustration over preparation for that horrendous and mammoth of a test.  But other than that I’ve never used a gym, mostly because, as we’ve established before, I’m really good at being a lazy person.  So my thinking back in August 2011 was, well, there is no excuse now.  I have an exercise machine in my home. All I have to do is roll out of bed and start on the treadmill.  It made sense to me.

After it was purchased and put together, I used it immediately.  It has a fancy iPod dock with on board speakers, a little fan, and programmed routes… it is very fancy. On the second day I thought, “Well, I exercised yesterday… I’m probably good for today.”  And that mantra became a continuing one as days turned into weeks, and weeks turned into months.  By November, I started using it to hang out my clothes.  I unplugged it. And it simply sat there, collecting dust.  Despite being in my room, where I had to walk by it every day when I woke up and when I went to bed, I completely ignored it.  Maybe if I didn’t acknowledge its existence then I wouldn’t feel guilty for not using it?  Even now, as I type this, I’m shaking my head.

Declaring war on the weight meant that I had to stop acting like a child and start using that infernal machine.  Dieting alone wouldn’t be enough, I needed to exercise to have the best chance at losing the excess weight.  So the first day, I plugged it in.  Hey, progress is progress, right?  The next day I stepped on it and walked at a decent pace for 30 minutes without stopping.  I did that for a few days straight.  The next week I made the incline of the treadmill a little steeper and walked a little bit faster.  The next week I walked for 45 minutes instead of only 30.  Every week I try to make a small but noticeable change in my routine to increase its intensity.  I’m not quite up to jogging yet, but I am fast walking at a reasonable incline.  I did three miles this morning – and man am I already feeling it.

It took me almost a year of indifference and ignorance to realize that my treadmill is an ally in my war on weight. And while I might curse at it, flip it the bird and give it evil looks (things I have done in the past five weeks to an inanimate object…), the treadmill will help me reach my health and wellness goals.

So here’s to you, treadmill…you piece of shi…