My big investment for my home office this year was this FitDesk. Why? I’ll tell you…

We authors live very unhealthy lives because we sit for far more hours a day than recommended by health professionals. After seeing four fellow authors of varying ages (some my own age) have devastating health events over the past 6 months or so (strokes, heart attacks, etc) I got concerned enough I finally took action.

I know myself and I’m not going to the gym. Most days I don’t even put on pants. I’m not going out  for a walk. I live in the North East where winter hit us long and hard and though I have 5 acres, I’m located on a very busy county route and I’m not going for a walk in traffic.  I finally settled on and bought the FitDesk stationary bike/computer desk in January, mainly because I knew I’d fly off the treadmill desks I’d seen online and thought I’d be safer sitting down, and also because it was on sale at the time for just over $200 when treadmill desks were more like $1000 and far too large for the space I had.

Do I use it? Yes. Daily for one hour.

Did I start out using it? No. In the beginning it hurt my butt, and I couldn’t concentrate on writing and pedal at the same time. But I finally forced myself into a routine. Before bed each night I put my laptop and my wrist braces on the FitDesk. First thing each morning, I put my cup of coffee next to me, climb onto the FitDesk, open the laptop and start pedaling. I probably started this routine in April, I’d guess, and I’ve kept it up since, not missing a day except when I was out of state for a convention.

Is it helping? Who knows? I at least know I’ve gotten my blood moving for an hour a day. And I can feel that I’m building muscles in my thighs that, if they weren’t still hidden under my layer of winter fat, would probably be pretty impressive.

Was it worth it? For me, I’d say yes. I pull it out of the corner for the time I’m on it. Then slide it back out of the way for the rest of the day while I’m not. It has a built-in timer that stops counting the time that I stop pedaling and starts again when I start pedaling, so I know I’ve pedaled for 60 minutes a day even if I take breaks. Embarrassingly, I find I still stop pedaling sometimes when I’m thinking really, really hard. Walk and chew gum much? LOL

The bike even folds up pretty easily, much like an ironing board action, so if you had to store it in a closet, you could.

Find the FitDesk on AMAZON

Though I can’t speak to the quality or the workout they provide, there are other options for those who don’t have the space or don’t want to make the investment in the FitDesk. There are bike pedal mechanisms that slide beneath a desk so you sit in your normal desk chair (which would be much more comfortable on the tushy, I’m sure) and pedal. They seem to range from under $30 to over $160. I don’t actually work at a desk, but for those of you who do, you might want to check them out.

You can find the one pictured at left at Amazon.

So that’s today’s choice for my favorite new tool of my trade. I know Tina Folsom has a standing desk, and that’s an option too. I’ve begun hooking my PC with Photoshop on it to my TV and I stand in front of it while I’m working on that rather than sit, but I still like that I’m getting some sort of exercise on the bike every day. Not exactly a ‘work out’ but certainly better than nothing, and I have to think, every little bit helps.

Questions? Comments? Feel free to fire away.

Cat