Exercising

For a number of years, my exercise consisted of walking around at work, walking my dog, and household chores.  I suppose pushing a knitting machine doesn't count.  I had a treadmill, but needed something with lower impact.  I love to swim, but that's inconvenient and expensive. 

I "read" a great many books, and always have, but for a few years now, I read even more by listening to them on Kindle.  I listen while I commute to work and run errands, and I listen while I knit or put away laundry.  I get ideas from the books, and one idea I got recently was to get a low-impact exercise machine, the Gazelle.  I know they've been sold with infomercials, but I don't watch infomercials and had never heard of it.  This is a fun gadget - I'm finding that I can use it quite a while without getting particularly tired, that I can get my heart rate up into the target range, and that I can do it in the evening after supper (really, the most convenient time for me).  I've been building up and am at a half hour.  The thing is almost silent, so I can listen to my Kindle (and go through more books and get more ideas!  Tonight I was listening to a book about ruthless decluttering.) 

The exercise in the evening is not keeping me awake, but it does perk me up for the rest of the evening so I'm less sluggish.  That is very helpful because I'm a true "morning person" and slow right down at 8 p.m.  So far, I haven't lost any weight with it, because I need to watch what I eat, but I did cut the sugar out of my diet after the holidays.  I was disgusted with all the sweets we'd been knocking down through December. 

The only thing I don't like about it is I can't do it while I knit.  I guess you can't have everything!