photo credit: mandj98

“For the first time ever, over­weight peo­ple out­num­ber aver­age peo­ple in Amer­ica. Doesn’t that make over­weight the aver­age then? Last month you were fat, now you’re aver­age — hey, let’s get a pizza!” — Jay Leno

Have you ever thought about it? How much it costs to be over­weight, that is.

Accord­ing to this arti­cle on MSN — the cost is $487 bil­lion. See the arti­cle for the specifics on how they came up with this figure.

For here, we’ll just talk about what this means. It means that if you are in good health and not over­weight, you ben­e­fit from lower gas costs in your car, less mate­r­ial used in your clothes, less vis­its to the doc­tor, and increased pro­duc­tiv­ity — to name a few of the ben­e­fits. Quan­ti­fy­ing some of these can be dif­fi­cult, but the end point is that we do save money by being healthy.

On a short term out­look, it could be easy to dis­agree with this. For instance, it’s a lot cheaper to buy a loaf of cheap white bread, some candy, and a jar of Jif peanut but­ter that it would be to buy qual­ity whole wheat bread, nat­ural peanut but­ter, and some fresh broc­coli. Or going to McDon­alds and order­ing a Big Mac and fries is quicker (and some­time cheaper) than prepar­ing a meal at home.

But think about it, over time, these short term choices we make have a large impact on our lives. I went through this a few years ago. I drank reg­u­lar soda every­day, ate at fast food restau­rants regualarly, and didn’t spend the time or money to exer­cise. Slowly I went from being thin and in rea­son­ably good health, to hav­ing very poor health and being bor­der­line obese. Since that low point, I have worked hard to live a healthy lifestyle, includ­ing eat­ing right and exer­cis­ing reg­u­larly. Has it been worth it? Absolutely! It’s one of the best deci­sions I have ever made. It’s not always easy, and some­times I slip up a bit. But in the long haul, I have decided to make exer­cise and nutri­tion impor­tant ele­ments of my life.

So, whether your in great shape, or have some work to do — make a plan, set some goals, and then get out there and make it hap­pen! You’ll improve your life, and in the long term view, save your­self some money. But the money sav­ings are really just a side ben­e­fit, the real deal is you feel­ing great about your­self and improv­ing the qual­ity of your life!

photo credit: ran­dom dude

Think of bicy­cles as ride­able art that can just about save the world. ~ Grant Petersen

Yes­ter­day we cov­ered some of the pos­i­tive affects of bik­ing, con­cen­trat­ing on the eco­nomic por­tion. Today we’ll look at what “stuff” you’ll need to bike to work.

The fol­low­ing list are the items I would con­sider nec­es­sary and essen­tial for bik­ing to work.

• Bike. If you’re going to bike, you’re going to need one. This will likely be your most expen­sive item. There are sev­eral sources for bikes. If you’re new to bik­ing, I would sug­gest a visit to a local bike shop. They’ll be able to help you deter­mine what type of bike will best suit you. And they can help fit your new bike to you. How­ever, there are other sources worth con­sid­er­ing. Check garage sales, your local craigslist , friends, etc. You may find a good used bike through one of these sources, and at a con­sid­er­able dis­count from the bike shop. How­ever, be aware that buy­ing used is at your dis­cre­tion, and you’ll not be get­ting the ser­vice you’d get from a bike shop. The other option is one of the large dis­count stores (Wal Mart, Tar­get, etc). I rec­om­mend not buy­ing a bike at these stores, as they are sell­ing cheap bikes, and not a bike fit­ted for you. Also worth not­ing in the bike thought process, is what kind of bike you want — road bike, moun­tain bike, com­fort bike, or some sort of hybrid. Road bikes tend to be the most expen­sive, but lack com­fort, or the abil­ity to be taken off paved roads. The other bikes are more ver­sa­tile, but will tend to be slower bikes. How­ever, they are much more able to go wher­ever you want them to go.
• Bike hel­met. As a kid, I never wore a hel­met. What was I think­ing? If you’re going to be out bik­ing on roads (and for that mat­ter — bik­ing at all), a hel­met should be con­sid­ered a neces­sity. Your head is impor­tant, pro­tect it! With this, you’ll want to buy new — no telling where a used hel­met has been or how much abuse it has had. The large dis­count stores will have these, and they will work fine. If you want a nicer one, or to see more options, check your local bike store.
• Bike lock. Unless you really work some­place where you can trust every­body (even the peo­ple pass­ing by), I highly rec­om­mend a bike lock. Many dif­fer­ent styles exist, so choose one that you like.
• Stor­age. Some sort of pack you can attach to your bike to hold small items — keys, bike sup­plies, etc. Get this wher­ever you find some­thing that you like.
• Spare tube. Carry a spare tube in case you have a flat. These fold up very small, and will eas­ily fit into your stor­age case.
• Tire levers. Tire levers are used to remove the tire of your bike from the rim. A great assis­tance if you have to replace a tube due to a flat.
• Tire pump. Get a small tire pump that can be mounted on your bike. Now you’re all set if you have a flat and need to air up a tire.
• Mul­ti­tool. Get a small bike mul­ti­tool. Most bike shops will have these. These are great if some­thing comes loose, or for minor repairs.

That’s what I rec­om­mend as your need items for bik­ing. Option­ally, I’d recommend:

• Patch kit. Used for repair­ing a flat tire as an option instead of replac­ing the tube. Note: not rec­om­mended on road bikes due to the high air pres­sure on these tubes. How­ever, on other bikes this should work fine.
• Back­pack. Some­thing to carry any of the items you need for work. Maybe a change of clothes, lunch, etc.
• Mir­ror. If you want a lit­tle assur­ance that you can more eas­ily see what is behind you, a mir­ror is a great addition
• What­ever else you think you might need. Get what works for you.

So there you have it. My list of what you need to start out bik­ing. If some of these things sound daunt­ing, just remem­ber that you are just prepar­ing your­self in the event that you’ll need some of these things (i.e. flat tire). Remem­ber that these things don’t hap­pen very often. I’ve had a flat once in well over one year of bik­ing, and that can be con­tributed to a prob­lem with the wheel. Once I fixed that, I have had no prob­lems at all.

Costs to pur­chase these items can be any­where from a few dol­lars (espe­cially if you already have a bike and hel­met) to sev­eral hun­dred dol­lars (depend­ing upon the type of bike you buy — prices can vary sub­stan­tially). But just think of all the ben­e­fits bik­ing can pro­vide , and you’ll see that it really is worth it!

Have fun out there!