As a kid I used to ride my bike up and down the street or at the park. Then when I was about 11, I had an accident when my chain slipped off while going down a hill. It spooked me and I never rode a bike again.

In my mid to late twenties, I started going to the local gym and discovered that I really liked the stationary recumbent bikes. I’m super short and the regular stationary bikes don’t adjust low enough for me to pedal comfortably. I found that I got a good workout without a ton of impact on my joints.

Eventually, I purchased my own stationary recumbent bike so I could work out at home. Because you all know I avoid going out in public if I don’t have to and the gym got to be way too people-y for me. Unfortunately I had to sell my bike and the rest of my exercise equipment (including my weight bench and P90X) a few years ago right before I became homeless. Since then my only real workouts have been walking or the few workout DVDs I kept.

Recently my friend/coworker found a couple sets of under desk pedals that you can pedal while working. They were super cheap at a thrift store so she bought them both and gave one to me. I’ve recently started pedaling  a bit here and there throughout the day in addition to my hourly laps around the office.

I have discovered though, that my desk chair tends to squeak pretty loudly when I’m pedaling, so I have to close my office door not to disturb the rest of the office. I may change up my office set up a bit and use one of my visitor chairs to pedal since they don’t move and shouldn’t squeak.

It’s not a perfect set up, but it’s working for me so far. Whatever helps me make progress to get my health back makes me happy, so my staff is just going to have to get used to their boss doing weird things like pedaling under her desk and pacing her office (and running up and down the stairs every hour or so).