Is My Bike An Enabler?

Something I have noticed when looking through my past blog posts, perusing the numerous beer reviews, burger reviews and photos of things I have sampled from the Great L.A. Food Truck Boom, including a dangerously authentic Philly Cheesesteak from "The South Philly Experience" last week, is that if my doctor ever saw my blog, he would sit me down and give me a stern lecture.

I am no spring chicken as they say (does anybody really say that?), and should be diligently watching things such as blood sugar, blood pressure and numerous other things that have the word "blood" in front of them.

The reason that I was thinking of this is because I have a follow-up appointment in a couple days to revisit some of these issues.

And I know, based on past experience, that if not for the bike, eating and drinking these things as I have been would earn me a spot on a Richard Simmons special. If I noticed my weight nearing the four-digit mark, that would serve as notice that I better revise my diet somewhat.

But since I have been cycling, particularly since they revoked my Thursday day off and expanded my work week to five days, I can get away with some bad eating habits and not have to worry too much. Of course, just because it doesn't have a major impact on my weight doesn't mean it doesn't affect other things.

I am sure my sodium intake is much higher than my doctor would prefer. Deers that frequent salt licks probably have a much lower sodium intake than I do.

As for the beer, well the less said about that the better.

Not that I can eat anything I want, but I can "cheat" a lot before I notice a significant difference.

Am I canceling the benefits of exercise because of my habits? Probably a little, but based on my health before I started biking every day, the cycling is still winning out over my overindulgent tendencies. My heart rate is much lower than when I had a sedentary lifestyle. According to the doc, things like circulation and lung capacity are excellent. And I am working on eating healthier, but the fact that it doesn't immediately show kind of makes me put it on the back burner for the time being.

In fact, I have gained a couple pounds lately just because I did some bike maintenance. For a few weeks, I noticed my bike getting more difficult to pedal, and as a result of the extra effort I had to put in I also noticed that I had dropped a few pounds. Now that I have the new wheels mounted and did some cleaning and lubricating of the drive train, the pedaling is a lot easier but some of the pounds have come back to visit. I have contemplated putting the old wheels back on just to get the weight back down.

But rather than arriving home exhausted from the difficulty pedaling, I could always change my diet a bit, but sometimes enablers make it a little too easy to do otherwise.

But I am starting to exhibit more self control. I did, after all, take a pass on the South's Signature Sandwich.