Rebecca Volk: A Habit of Biking

For me, being active is all about doing things that fit into the cycle of my day. In other words, being active cannot be yet another thing to add to my daily “to do” list. If it was, it would surely fall off the list. Instead, I have made physical activity something that I have to do in order to get through my day.

So, for the past several years, I have biked to and from work; I am fortunate that I live a bike-able distance from the College. The benefits have been many — I am invigorated and pumped up at the start of each day after an early morning ride in. The cares and stresses of each day peel away as I ride home, allowing me to call upon that reserve of energy to address the demands of evening home life. The money I save in parking fees more than covers the costs of an annual tune-up for my bike, the purchase of biking clothing and paraphernalia, and a new “winter bike” every 3 or 4 years (check out One Less Car on for great second-hand bike deals, www.bikedump.com).

It didn’t take long for biking to become a habit for me. I now use my bike rather than my car to run errands, to go to the library, to go downtown for appointments (again, parking is cheap and readily available) and to go the Gatineau Hills to enjoy the fall colours.

We all know that being well and keeping active can be challenging. I think that the more we make exercise a necessary part of each day, something that we need to do to get through each day, the easier it is to ensure that we do it!




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