That One Question
11/1/10 17:31![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
darkemeraldsI figure one or two people who've been reading about my adventures in Riding Clyde might have asked themselves That One Question by now, to wit: "Has she lost any weight yet?"
It's a legitimate question, all things considered (all things being our weight-obsessed culture, my own lifelong obsession with my own personal weight, and the fact that I'm consistently burning a chunk more calories than I used to be).
The short answer is "No."
For once in my life, the question of weight and the loss thereof wasn't part of my decision to take up a new activity.
(Hell, even Project Empty had a weight loss component in my mind, so it was revolutionary that I began an actual exercise-thing without part of the calculus being And Maybe I'll Get Thinner.)
But I still know the calculus: one pound of fat is 3500 calories. (Some numbers just get imprinted. I can't help it.) It takes me about seven round-trip commutes to burn that many calories. I've bike-commuted about 49 times so far. I don't think I've changed my eating very much--in any case, I feel as if I'm eating enough but not too much, and the kinds of things I eat are about the same--so I should have lost 7 pounds by now.
I don't think I have, but that's not the point. The point is that for bike-commuting alone to "make me thinner," it will have to go on steadily for two years--and ever after, which I'm planning on. The point is that I don't care.
The point is that riding Clyde every day--because I love doing it--has given me the power to turn to the browbeater in my head and say, "Screw you, buddy. I'm finally doing your magic exercise and I'm still the same big gal I was before, so bite me."
There's considerable freedom in that point.
It's a legitimate question, all things considered (all things being our weight-obsessed culture, my own lifelong obsession with my own personal weight, and the fact that I'm consistently burning a chunk more calories than I used to be).
The short answer is "No."
For once in my life, the question of weight and the loss thereof wasn't part of my decision to take up a new activity.
(Hell, even Project Empty had a weight loss component in my mind, so it was revolutionary that I began an actual exercise-thing without part of the calculus being And Maybe I'll Get Thinner.)
But I still know the calculus: one pound of fat is 3500 calories. (Some numbers just get imprinted. I can't help it.) It takes me about seven round-trip commutes to burn that many calories. I've bike-commuted about 49 times so far. I don't think I've changed my eating very much--in any case, I feel as if I'm eating enough but not too much, and the kinds of things I eat are about the same--so I should have lost 7 pounds by now.
I don't think I have, but that's not the point. The point is that for bike-commuting alone to "make me thinner," it will have to go on steadily for two years--and ever after, which I'm planning on. The point is that I don't care.
The point is that riding Clyde every day--because I love doing it--has given me the power to turn to the browbeater in my head and say, "Screw you, buddy. I'm finally doing your magic exercise and I'm still the same big gal I was before, so bite me."
There's considerable freedom in that point.
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(no subject)
12/1/10 19:50 (UTC)The beauty of the bike thing is that it allows me to say back to that critic in my mind, "Yeah, but I'm on a bike and you, my lazy friend, are in a car." Then I stick my mental tongue out at their mental sneer, and am mentally healthier all day long.
(no subject)
12/1/10 19:54 (UTC)Must show you these (top picture). Mr Kis got me them to conquer my terror of ice. Well, they arrived today and guess what? They work. I'm amazed. And delighted.
(no subject)
12/1/10 19:59 (UTC)I'm considering studded bike tires--or I was, but it's 46 degrees and drippy out--it always does this January and makes a person think that spring is practically here, and the special winter gear just isn't worth it. Then it'll get icy for a couple of days. (Then I stay home.)
I would imagine that in your climate, studded shoes AND bike tires would be well worth the money and trouble, and those are, in addition, not bad looking. Very nice.