Exercise: My Friends' List is Made of Win!
Thanks so much for everyone's encouragement and--even more!--advice about exercising. Btw, I used to avoid the term "exercise," which is what fat people have to do in order to be acceptably not fat, saying "physical activity" instead, but now I'm getting used to the term "exercise."

Besides the sizist associations, I have disliked the idea of doing physical things that are pointless except for being exercise. However, yes it is, and I think I have to accept that. Also, I'm more mellow because when I was out gardening the other day, I noticed that our neighborhood is full of older people walking comfortably, presumably for health--and no dogged young fat people obviously slogging to lose weight--which I think is very cool.

I really like the idea--brought up by machineplay and redbird--that I don't have to do the same amount of time every day, but can have long days & short days. So I don't wimp out too much, I think I'll make the minimum on the treadmill 10 minutes, but try to vary that with longer days. This was consonant with gramina's excellent link and the idea of going up even by single minutes (but I like being able to go "back down" a little.)

Also, aquaeri's point about going a little more slowly is spot-on. You put the two together, and tonight I trod for 17 minutes, just a bit less fast but it made a big difference, and I don't feel obliged to match (or exceed) that next time.

Second big wonderful idea is thinking of the time not in terms of its benefit per se, but in terms of building a habit, as said by gerisullivan, daedala, and esmeraldus_neo. For that reason, I've decided I really need to tread even if I'm gardening. Eventually, if I tread for 50 minutes and want to garden for two to three (my usual), I may not have that much free time some days! However, that is a ways off, so I can deal with it then.

I was inspired by wild_patience, who started off even easier than I am and now bikes all over! On the other hand, I am not inspired to try an elliptical, at least not for a long, long while. Actually, I did a little prayer while treading yesterday, and the response is, "You really should be dancing." Right now I'm not in good enough shape, but yes, I used to often do, to inspiring music, an idiosyncratic blend of yoga, tai chi, acrobatics, and shaking my booty, and it was good for me emotionally and spiritually as well as physically. Maybe again, in the future.

Speaking of music--dreamshark and quility, you don't have to worry about me getting bored. One thing in favor of the treadmill is it's right in front of the TV, now with a VRC and soon to have a DVD player as well. So far I've been treading to Peter Gabriel videos, which I enjoy and find very moving. I'm hoping to talk womzilla into downloading other nice music videos--walking to the Discovery "Boom Da Yadda" commercial, double plus yes! Also, noveldevice, I'm more likely to injure myself on an actual street, since I tend to trip if the surface is uneven. Even surface=I can just pay attention to the TV, not to walking.

Some of you, such as wcg, are intimidatingly in shape. I used to be--a couple-three times in my life, maybe even four or five, a long time ago now. I took extensive training in acrobatics when I was young, and that's been enough to keep me in reasonable shape or at least able to get into reasonable shape relatively easily through my early forties, but one's forties are not one's fifties, and ten years may be the longest I've gone unexercised. OK, a woman in an incredibly sedentary job cannot stay in shape by gardening & sex alone!

Mood: resigned, semi-inspired