The Hollando Diet

A while back Holland requested photographs of the exercise-and-entertainment-center-in-a-closet. Not an intrinsically difficult thing to do, but never underestimate the power of laziness. Which, come to think of it, is a bit odd, since the whole point of the the exercise was to give laziness a nice kick in the pants.

The assemblage consists of three parts. The first is an elliptical trainer from Vision Fitness, purchased at GymSource in Cambridge. I like these machines because they’re relatively kind to my knees and burn a lot of energy in a reasonable amount of time. The particular model I chose also folds up partially (as shown), although it’s not enough to actually allow me to close the closet.

Part two is an old television set, purchased about twelve years ago, that had spent the previous three years sitting in the garage. I added the cheapest DVD player available at BestBuy.

Part three is a subscription to NetFlix, which, while not part of most normal exercise regimens, is nonetheless the most important bit. And no trying to catch up on Serious Film. The average hour-long drama has between 45 and 48 minutes of actual content, which is about perfect. Since I started doing this I’ve seen the entire run of Alias, and without having to feel guilty about how everyone on the show is in better shape than I am. After all, I’m working on the problem.

While the few months I spent traveling put a break on things, since late November I’ve gotten back to a routine of about five days a week, alternating 48 minute sessions with 24 minute sessions (at a higher setting). Originally I would set the machine to a particular setting for the whole time, but I’ve switched to doing interval training, which breaks the workout into sixteen sections at different intensity levels.

And the best part? I weighed the same two days after Christmas as I did two days before.

Close Up (with entertainment center):

Folded: