Seven Days In

Whew! It’s been quite a past few days. I’ve biked or walked everywhere for the past week and I am loving it thus far.

I’m glad I started with this habit to kick this blog off because I’ve felt the benefits since day one. I feel like I have more energy and am more productive at work, especially in the mornings. I wake up on time to leave, a challenge in the past for me, as I would previously roll out of bed, toss on some clothes, and be on my way. I have plenty of time to listen to podcasts, to the point where I may need to take some suggestions or check out a handful on my own. I get a solid hour and a half to two hours of exercise every work day. I am less frustrated as I don’t have to sit in traffic at all, I can actually slip past a lot of it along the side of the road. I save money not having to fill up a tank of gas every week or two, not to mention the other maintenance costs that come with driving a car.

The benefits aren’t only personal too! I am taking a car off the road which helps the environment, at least a little right? It’s one less car other people have to deal with backing up traffic. And I’m in a better mood, in general, making me a more pleasant person to be around.

Now you may be asking, so what’s the catch? As an economics major in college, I always look at the opportunity cost. Time and safety are the two biggest factors in the negative side of things. While the time I spent biking, in my opinion, is used well, as I’d like to get that exercise in regardless, there have definitely been times where biking has been rough early in the morning and after a long day of work. I would still argue that the time spent is worth it though compared to driving, which would take about half the time to commute, I feel significantly better biking.  The other aspect I mentioned was safety, couldn’t think of a better term to define the problem. As a resident of the Dallas, TX area, there are definitely some times when riding in the street there are some cars who decide to cut it pretty close. I, of course, do my best to minimize this element of danger by trying to stay aware of my surroundings and signaling always, even when it seems unnecessary.

I would recommend everyone at least give this a try if you can. The health, financial and external benefits are extraordinary. By making a small change you can create a big impact on your day-to-day life. Now you may be thinking, there’s no way I can do that! Or even I don’t own a bike anymore, I’m not a kid anymore. The latter point is simple, you can get a very inexpensive bike that will get you around where you need to go. When I lived in Dubuque, IA, I bought my bike for $30 and took it in to get it tuned up, as it was in pretty bad shape. Overall, I spent around $125 on a great bike that has worked well for about a year now. I recommend checking out thrift stores or websites like Craigslist, you can get pretty great deals on good bikes from a variety of places. Hell, ask family members that don’t ride much anymore, you might get one for free!

To address the, “But there’s no way I can do that,” claim. You know yourself far better than I do, so you probably have a better gauge of your abilities than I do. BUT! I also think people sell themselves short on a lot of things in life. Maybe you can’t make the 10-mile ride to work every day, but what about once a week? What if you drove halfway to work, parked your car at a park or something, and rode your bike the second half? As you do these small things one day at a time you can build on them and it gets easier. That’s the hard part though, you have to do it

“It gets easier. Every day it gets a little easier. But you got to do it every day. That’s the hard part. But it does get easier.” To quote the running baboon from the Netflix series Bojack Horseman.

Let me know in the comments if you’ve given riding your bike more, with better-defined goals than that of course, or if you’ve decided to try something else out!

Catch you next week.