Calorie Burn: treadmill walking & leg extensions (plus an epiphany!)

Living in Southwestern Ontario between 3 great lakes has brought a lot of windy, snow and generally messy winter conditions. After a long day at work, whether I was tired out from a busy day, or tired out from lack of being busy, going out into the winter weather was enough to make me want to get home as soon as possible for a hot chocolate and my Hello Kitty pj pants.

This afternoon at work, I looked out our windows to watch the driving snow and the university students forging ahead from building to building. Again I visualized how nice a hot chocolate and my comfy pj pants would feel once I got home. As usual, since I've been paying for a gym membership every month and not going, I briefly considered whether I should go to the gym or not.

Since last summer, I noticed my knees feeling less stable, or weak even when climbing up onto a curb or getting up out of a chair, or my car. My doctor told me that it was likely just that I needed to strengthen the ligaments which hold the Patella (knee cap) in its place (sitting in grooves which it slides along). She recommended leg extensions.

As someone who has been learning to dance for the last 3 years with a promising future of enjoying it immensely, my knee strength is important to me. It's also important to me that I don't groan when I get up out of a chair or climb up a curb. I should be bounding up and down stairs, not leaning on the handrails for support.

I also mentioned in my last post that I've been considering running. I certainly can't run if my knees are going to be at risk, so I have new reasons to be considering the gym and what I can do there to improve my life by facilitating the physical ability to continue exploring these new activities.

While I was visualizing stepping out into the cold, wintery late afternoon, I fast-forwarded to the summer and visualized myself heading out into the warm sunny weather when it would be much easier to get to the gym.

That's when my thoughts shifted.

What's worse: going to the gym even though it's cold and windy out and I just want to go home and be warm and cozy, or heading out to enjoy a hot summer day feeling overweight and not being able to wear the things I want to wear like my favorite leopard print maxi dress, or all the other flattering dresses I've collected over years of thrift-store shopping?


I went to the gym tonight.

As soon as I climbed up on that treadmill, I felt successful and proud that I was able to push myself and overcome thoughts of immediate gratification. I had a vigorous 25 minute walk on the treadmill at a 1% incline listening to awesome tunes and then did 3 sets of 10 leg extensions using very low weight just so that I could work on my knees and not worry about trying to build muscle.

I enjoyed 7.5 minutes on the Hydromassage bed and then headed home where I had a healthy dinner and good conversation with my best friend while it was baking in the oven.

Calories burned in my 45 minutes of walking and leg extensions at the gym: 230

 I'm not really sure what that V shape portion of the graph is all about, there was no sudden decline in activity, I'm wondering if it was just an anomaly or something. I will pay closer attention to the clock when I go to do leg extensions so I can easily pick them out in the graph.