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Wednesday, August 15, 2012

Do you have a bicycle?

My doctor had been busting my chops for years about everything about my lifestyle that sucked. My cholesterol was too high. I weighed too much. I had been smoking for over 30 years and that had to stop. My blood pressure was kinda scary. In general, my health was a fucking train wreck. I would be pestered about this, gently, for years.

However, the news that I might (and probably did) have cancer brought my general health into sharper focus and with renewed intensity. All of a sudden, my doctor was all over my case about those health issues and would not be deterred. She was dead serious and unrelenting. I soon realized that the only way I was gonna shut her up would be to go along with it.  One by one, my vices, the determents to my health, would have to be abandoned. Some things could be dealt with medicinally. Other things, like smoking would take commitment to changing habits and discipline in attaining it. My doctor felt that an exercise regimen would be a sensible approach to things like blood pressure and weight and recommended I walk 45 minutes a day. This was easy and enjoyable enough, but I began to develop ankle problems. I reported this.

Do you have a bicycle?

Yeah.

The bike had been sitting in the garage collecting dust for 10 years.  It was a heavy, slow, ugly, piece of shit mountain bike but it was a bike and could be ridden.

Ride your bike instead.

So I went home, dug out the bike, aired-up the tires, dusted off the frame, oiled the chain, threw a leg over it ....

and rode.