Biking Again

I biked to work yesterday, for the first time this season. That means I can pretty much declare victory. I’ve made it through the winter. (Though I fear I’m jinxing myself…)

Somewhere around 30, my metabolism slowed down, I started eating out more, and I stopped cycling. I put on about 10 pounds right away, and ratcheted up another 10 or so over the course of my thirties. I don’t weigh myself regularly, so that’s a bit of a guess, but I went from a 32-inch waist to 35 or 36. Not exactly “Biggest Loser” material, but it nudged me over some psychological boundary. It was the difference between being basically in shape (with maybe a little flab) and being frumpy. I adjusted, resigned myself to it, figuring, “Well, this is what middle age is like.” And you know, to some extent, that’s a good thing. Your body is going to age, and there’s no point freaking out about it; or worse, pretending it isn’t happening.

Then a couple years back, I took a job up in Bethesda. I metroed for the first few months, and when the weather got warm, I started biking. Arlington to Bethesda sounds worse than it is. I’m on either quiet back streets or off-road trails for almost the whole way. My route is nearly a straight line, about 12 miles. Takes me just under an hour. It’s fairly gentle grades the whole way - about 7 miles of it is the Capitol Crescent trail, which runs along the old railroad line. (For comparison, my driving route to work is about 20 miles, and takes 35-40 minutes; Metro is 1:05 to 1:15, roughly. Both of these can take an extra half-hour if anything goes wrong.)

The first summer, I rode from the beginning of July through early October, averaging four days a week. Next summer, I started earlier - mid-April, I think - but I wimped out by the end of August. It seems that after about four months, I just get tired of it. I only averaged three days a week, but that’s still plenty.

The first summer, I lost most of that extra thirty-something weight. But then I stopped exercising, and put half of it back on over the winter. I still had bad eating habits, and biking had actually gotten me used to eating more. Last summer, I ditched all that weight and then some. I got back down to where I was in my twenties, and had to go buy a bunch of new clothes. Stumbled upon a stack of my old jeans that I’d given up on ever fitting into again. They fit me just as they had back in the day.

(As an aside, they’ve started “vanity-sizing” men’s clothes now, too. My old jeans were all 32” waists. The new jeans claim to be 31” or even 30”, but you hold them up side by side and they’re the same.)

To avoid gaining all the weight back this time around, I started to change my eating habits. I’ve been trying for a more French or Mediterranean approach - modest amounts of really rich food. Like, a typical lazy meal is just bread with some combination of cheese, tuna (in oil - so much tastier), olives, nuts, tomatoes, that sorta thing. Not too much - altogether, maybe a fist-sized pile of food - but it goes straight to your bloodstream, and your body knows you’ve eaten something. Started baking bread last fall (surprisingly easy and awesomely tasty) which makes that even better, and gave us some extra motivation to cook for real. Trying to get more vegetables in my diet, too. Learned that just about anything is good tossed with salt and olive oil and baked: Any kind of squash, any kind of root vegetable, asparagus, and even Brussels sprouts. Ran across all sorts of ideas for winter vegetable soups when we were over in England for Christmas.

So that’s all worked out well. I’m eating tastier food, and didn’t put on any real weight through a shamefully sedentary winter. (Again, I don’t weigh myself, but all of last summer’s clothes still fit.) Now that it’s warming up and I’ve started biking again, I’m not in serious weight-gain peril until next fall. I should still get in some strength training, but I’ll settle for being weedy. It’s not that I’ve suddenly turned into some sort of super chef/athlete. I’m just a lot more comfortable in my own skin. Go me!