The truth about my bicycling behavior

I got into an "argument" with someone about "behavior change and weight management." I made a suggestion which was rejected. I won't go into the back and forth, but I said radical change requires transforming your behavior in significant ways. If you just try to tweak what you're doing now, you won't get anywhere--and the regular way of doing things has already been proven to not produce the outcomes you want.

But if you make exercise a part of your regular lifestyle, rather than a special thing that you have to do and be organized for, then you exercise as a matter of course.

Then I had an e-conversation with a colleague across the river and I wrote (slightly edited):

I bike because I am too lazy and poor to join a gym, and not organized enough besides, and I need to exercise--my father died of a heart attack at 54 and his brother (my uncle) died at the same age, likely of a heart attack as well.

PLUS, I like the control over my time, sometimes I get motion sickness on the subway, and for most of the places I go to, it's faster to bike there rather than to take transit (which sadly isn't as reliable as it used to be), when you figure get to station/stop time, wait time, travel time, get out of station time, and get to destination time. I figure at a minimum, biking saves me 30 minutes/day.

And it gives me access to a lot more places more quickly than if I was solely reliant on transit and still didn't want to have a car (not that a car necessarily gives you more access in the city, since you have to be able to park).

So I benefit my health, stay somewhat in shape (I could still lose some weight but I also carry a lot of muscle weight which skews my weight numbers somewhat), I have access to more places than I would otherwise, and I get there faster.

Now I don't necessarily save money with a bike, compared to transit. Bikes cost money to maintain, they break, get wrecked in car accidents, etc.

But the health benefits and the time benefits are quantifiable, and far exceed the costs associated with biking.

If you live in Arlington, you might even be able to get this book for free, from Arlington Transportation Partners. Chris Balish was the keynote speaker at Arlington's Car Free Diet Expo.