The 50 Mile Mark

Today I hit the 50 mile mark, in about a month and a half using the treadmill desk. I'm so happy that I did this!

One Month

I've had my treadmill desk for a month now and walked about 40 miles. I've probably lost about 5 pounds, which is great. Hopefully as my body gets used to walking I will be able to walk more each day. For some silly reason I thought I would be able to walk most of the workday but my body doesn't really like that idea. I currently average about 2 hours of walking per day, depending on my work schedule. I put on a pedometer just to see what the number of steps look like. I have yet to hit 10,000 steps, even walking 2 miles a day at the treadmill! As a person trained in public health I have to say that the oft cited goal of Americans walking 10,000 steps a day is probably a bit out of reach for most people.

Component One: The height adjustable desk

The desk I used for my set up is the now-discontinued IKEA Jerker Desk shown here:



I found it on none other than Craiglist. It has a cult following by those who love to hack things as shown here at IKEA Hacker

I chose to have a freestanding desk rather than one integrated into the treadmill to provide for more stability and better ergonomics. With this desk I was able to get the desk to a height that allowed my arms to remain at a neutral 90 degrees while typing.

In order to utilize this desk I had to remove the arms and console of the treadmill. The arms were unnecessary since I'll be walking at no more than 2 miles an hour. The console for operating the machine is mounted to the side for ease of use. Then I regrounded the console to a metal part on my desk.