A half hour of rowing last night while watching "Justified." I just started on the third season and I'm binge-watching the hell out of that series. Almost makes Amazon Prime worth it by itsself. Maybe by the time I'm through with "Justified," Netflix will have something worth watching. :-} If I listen to music when exercising, I'm more likely to use Pandora rather than Amazon Prime Music. They have a million songs. The trick is to find the ones worth playing... Prime Music does have a playlist, "You Might Have Missed...", 1 hr 35 min, 25 songs curated by Amazon's music experts, regularly updated.
I've decided to splurge and get
a folding exercise bike with a tablet holder, twenty bucks more than the folding bike I had originally decided on. The tablet makes exercise go down easier. I'd rather get one with a built-in tablet holder rather than try to jury-rig something. It also has a built-in hand pulse LCD monitor which is probably inaccurate, but I suppose it's better than nothing. I will probably spring for a Polar heart monitor eventually. The fun part will be wrestling it up the stairs (shipping weight is 50 pounds).
Body fat this morning: 28.8 (dehydrated). I seem to have crossed the 30 percent line between fat and less fat. Got about six solid hours of sleep with dreams, another hour on drowse listening to podcasts. Great sleeping weather - it was 77 in the bedroom this morning, which is the lowest it's been in a while. Low humidity now, but I had to empty the large dehumidifier which rarely fills until it turns itself off. Looks like we're in for a week of bearable weather.
I'm encouraged by what the Harvard Medical special report, "Better Balance," has to say about the benefits of the Stick-e Beamfit Balance and Exercise Beam - given that it's one of the more expensive additions to my home gym. According to the Beam's developer, it forces you to focus on the exercise. The Beam is in Arizona and arrives tomorrow. No wonder Amazon isn't making any money. It's a multi-use tool that can be used with lots of exercises such as Pilates and Yoga. I like that it's small and can be easily stashed anywhere, given the limited amount of room I have.
I made some progress towards decluttering, which I like to think is a part of getting healthier. I'm still putting stuff on Freecycle but haven't had any nibbles lately. It may take more time. I don't know how long posts stay up there. If worse comes to worst, my junk is going in the alley. There are free-lance trucks that come through and pick stuff up.
I decided to cut back on playing "The Simpsons' Tapped Out" to 15 minutes a day. It had turned into a big time suck, at least an hour a day, and lot of the game mechanics were repetitive. I was into it for six months, but the thrill is gone. That means more time for decluttering and exercise.
Woot promises a one-day response, but it took them several days to get back to me on the missing DVD from my Lifeline TNT fitness cable shipment. On the plus side, they gave me a full refund. Let's hear it for Woot. I was hoping they would send a replacement DVD, but I can't complain. I got a set of Lifeline cables for free, and the DVD is available on Amazon for $7 separately. I still may get a book, possibly by the same author who has books on strength training for over 50 and stretching for over 50. I'm glad I did get the DVDs with the ThunderBell system because they're a lot less generic than resistance bands.
I've been wearing shorts mostly this summer. Tried on my size 34 jeans and they're at the same point the size 36 jeans arrived at a while back: they're falling off my waist without a belt. Either the exercise or the weight loss is taking its toll. Buying new clothes is a first world problem, but it looks like I'm going to have to spring for size 33 or 32 jeans this fall. I've been wearing 36 or 34-inch pants for ten years or so. I will probably drop to 32 at the rate I'm going, and 33 only comes in 30-inch length, which is longish for me, whereas the 32 comes in a 29 length. I may be freaking deconditioned, but I'm losing weight!