Mini stair stepper

Holy humidity! I was so excited about the nice, fall-like days we had here, but I guess I jumped the gun in thinking about fall. The past few days have been in the high-80's and SO HUMID.

When the men from Lowe's delivered our washing machine yesterday, of course there was a ton of dust underneath the old one. But, among the dust bunnies was this one lonesome sock...

Our washer was in that same spot ever since we moved in 12 years ago, so the sock must have been Noah's or Eli's and it got lost underneath. It was so cute to find that! I miss their chubby little baby hands and feet. At first, I tossed the sock in the trash, but then I couldn't help but pull it back out. It made me feel so nostalgic!

I don't have much to write about today, but I wanted to share a new find. My physical therapist told me I should do the stair stepper for cardio, like I mentioned last week, and the only stair stepper I had access to was at the rec center. I enjoy going to the rec center, but it's not very convenient, which makes it less likely that I'll go regularly. So, when I saw this little portable stair stepper at Wal-Mart for $50, I figured it was worth a shot.

Gold's Gym Mini Stepper (Amazon affiliate link). It's $38.50 on Amazon, plus $11.50 shipping:

I brought it home, and there was pretty much zero set-up involved. You don't have to make adjustments, or anything like that, so it's really very basic and simple. I did my first workout on it today, and I was very impressed with what a good workout I got!

I've been wanting to read more and watch less TV, so I decided to try reading a book on my iPad while stepping, and it worked out really well.

I stepped for 30 minutes, and I was pouring sweat when I was done. My average heart rate was 149 (80% of my maximum), which is great for cardio. I could really feel the burn in my thighs, so I know I was using some muscles I'm not used to using. There is a little timer/step counter on the front:

Yes, that would be sweat that dripped on it, haha

I think the step counter was off, because it only counted the steps where I did a full range of motion; and my physical therapist told me to try not to make the step hit the top or bottom while stepping, so I did slightly less than a full range of motion. According to my Fitbit, I'd done about double what was shown (so maybe it just counts one step for right and left leg? I'll have to pay more attention to it next time).

I was surprised how fast the time passed while I read my book, and before I knew it, I'd burned nearly 300 calories (296, to be exact). The heart rate and calorie burn is roughly the same as what it would be for an easy three mile run.

I wasn't wearing the Garmin foot pod to calculate distance (actually, I don't even know if it would work for a stair stepper or stepping in place... I've never tried that). I have no idea how accurate the distance is that's shown on the Garmin, but it seems right, based on the pace.

The only downside I could see to the stepper is that if you have trouble keeping balance, you would probably need a chair or something next to you to hold on to. Once I got a good rhythm going, I didn't have any problems; but I think having something to hold on to would be helpful.

So anyway, I just wanted to share this little find for anyone who may not have room or money for a treadmill. It's nice because it's small enough to tuck under the bed or into a corner, and I think it's totally worth $50. The weight capacity on it is 250 pounds, which I felt is worth mentioning. I'll update as I see how it holds up!