Although it is painful, you sometimes force yourself to look back at the kind of life that you were leading just three years ago. At that time, you considered being able to keep your balance while you stepped into your underwear and pants one leg at a time a core workout. You considered a healthy diet a day when you went without eating fast food.

Needless to say, those days were not your best. You weighed too much. You slept too much. You lived the definition of an unhealthy lifestyle. The evening when you were finally able to pry your wedding ring off your finger for the first time in six months, you vowed to make a change. On that evening, you gave yourself one more chance. If you could get the ring off your finger you would not have to admit to your husband that you needed to go to the emergency room to have it cut off. For the previous three days your ring finger and your pinky finger had been going numb and you knew that you had to do something. Fortunately, you were able to get the ring off that night, but the pain that it caused and the indentation that was left on your finger were a reminder that you needed to make a change.

Initially, the change was you started walking just 20 minutes a day. Your husband had lost a good deal of weight by getting up and speed walking as much four or five miles a morning. His fitness watch helped him monitor the number of calories he was burning in a day. When he walked with you, however, the pace was initially so slow his watch indicated no real calorie burning activity. You had the indentation on your ring finger, however, to remind you that even slow progress was progress.

Walking and Biking Are Both Calorie Burning Activities

After two months of walking on a regular basis, you decided you had to find a way to cover more ground. The loops around the park in your backyard were beautiful, but they were monotonous. Your youngest daughter did a lot of running, but you knew that was not an option for you. Instead, you decided to dust off the leather bike seat on an old bike that you had in the garage. This way you could make a loop around the lake and see some different scenery while you continued the short walks as well. You found if you walked a park loop or two after the bike ride you felt more invigorated for the rest of the day.

It may not have seemed like much of an exercise plan to anyone else, but at the end of six months you were again able to slip your wedding ring on and off your finger whenever you wanted. Your husband finally convinced you to invest in a more comfortable leather bike seat and you eventually found yourself taking longer bike rides and enjoying the challenge of lifting off the leather bike seat and peddling up small hills. During one really active month, you even signed up for a very low key community bike ride where you soon realized that were various styles of leather bicycle saddles that could make long distance rides even more comfortable.
Neither in your walking or your riding were you ever interested in speed, but you found that the longer you were able to stay active the better you were feeling. Alternating between bike riding and walking, you were able to not only get the exercise that you needed, but you were also less likely to crave fast food between regular meals. Your body seemed to enjoy this new attention to better eating and exercising.

With a closet full of clothes that you were now able to wear, you gave yourself permission to invest in better walking shoes and a better bike. You soon realized that a better leather bike seat was just the beginning of accessories that you could find to make your riding more enjoyable. In fact, your husband encouraged you to be a part of the consumers who participate in outdoor activities spend over $10 billion annually on bicycling gear, accessories, and new bikes.