Save the planet, shrink your tush

The Mankato Area Bike and Walk Advocates couldn't have asked for a more perfect week for Bike and Walk to Work week. Can you believe this weather? I'm in heaven. If it never got colder than this and never rained again, I would be so frickin' blissful that I'd be giving random hugs to strangers and, you know what? I would like to buy the world a Coke!

I've been walking to work this week, and aside from weather issues, I can't imagine why I never did so before. I live really close. Just, maybe, 12-15 blocks away. Takes just 15 minutes.

It made me think of the article we ran on the Health & Fitness page on Monday about the Bike and Walk advocates. There was a quote about how people are creatures of habit, and because many of us habitually drive everywhere, it's difficult to change the behavior. I'm definitely a habitual driver. I drive everywhere. One day I caught myself driving to the gas station for a fountain pop (I love fountain pop). The gas station is three blocks away.

So, I think I'm going to try to make that change. Whenever it's not pouring or freezing, I'm walkin' to work. (I'd bike, too, but I haven't owned one since I was 16. I was out riding it when one of my high school classmates pulled up beside me at a stop sign in his sporty ride, pointed at me and laughed to his buddy. I've had a negative connotation to bikes ever since.) ...That was a strange aside.

Anyway, walking to work will provide an extra 180-calorie deficit to my day. Join me! Save the planet, shrink your tush.