My New Treadmill Desk

A couple of years ago, I sent one of our Gelf writers to check in on a new fitness "trend" I had heard about: walking while working. Dr. James Levine, a researcher at the Mayo Clinic, had found that thin people generally expend more energy in the trivial everyday things than fat people (think fidgeting and wandering). He came up with a way to harness and apply that finding by creating the world's first treadmill desk, which was, basically, a slab of wood balanced over the arms of a slow-moving treadmill. By walking incredibly slowly while going about their jobs (around .7 mph), folks could expend up to 800 extra calories per day and thus theoretically lose up to a pound a week.

Since Sarah Arnquist's Gelf article came out (accompanied by Eric Lister's awesome drawing above), the practice hasn't changed much. There are a few more practitioners out there, but it's mainly confined to people who work from home or have lots of leeway at their jobs. Like the Segway, its silly appearance seems to have stifled its appeal.

But I work from home, and can try out silly-looking things whenever I damn well please. So behold (below) my first treadmill desk. I've used it for three whole days now, so I'm in no real position to describe its health benefits. But it was easy and cheap to build--I basically used this tutorial--and I can pretty much do everything work-wise that I was doing before. (Like write silly blog posts when should be editing.)