Elliptical machines allow the user to run in place, building cardio and muscle fitness without the bone-jarring impact normally associated with running. “Riding” an elliptical also sidesteps a number of other hazards common to outdoor running in urban areas—things like hundred-degree heat, rain/sleet/hail/snow, wayward automobiles, muggers, sociopathic canines and (in southern California, at least) choking smog.

Parking the machine at home saves time and the need to exercise (not to mention shower) in the company of a hundred sweaty strangers. And it’s hard to make excuses when the machine is 20 feet away.

Or when, say, you’re blogging your progress for all the world to read.

I am not a fitness guru with a godlike body, dispensing advice from Mount Olympus. I have no desire to run a hundred marathons a year, and less still to look like Arnold Schwarzenegger circa 1975. I just want to be fit, trim, healthy and happy, with maybe half the energy of a Tony Robbins.

I couldn’t find a blog that told me how to do that with an elliptical machine. What I found instead were a whole bunch of blogs trying to sell me elliptical machines, and not much else.

So here I am, knowing little about fitness and less about food—but determined to learn as I go, dropping the flab and gaining the fab. This blog is a chronicle of my journey—and, perhaps, a time-saving guide on your own journey.

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JRM