All you have to do is read one of my blog posts and you'll figure out pretty quickly that I am a fitness advocate. I think that the main thing keeping the North American population from curbing the rate of cardiovascular disease and type II diabetes is a little bit of good old fashioned exercise. That's why I am totally appalled that this spring Canadian Tire has chosen to sell an electric bicycle. What's an electric bicycle? Just like a regular bike with one exception, a motor that will do the work of pedaling for you. All you have to do is sit there and feel your ass grow. Now when you take a good old fashioned bike ride with your kids on a balmy summer evening it will feel like you never left the couch at all. Hell why not bring your blackberry or portable DVD player with you? That way you don't even have to miss an episode of your favorite show.
Apparently our society has become so obsessed with convenience and making things easy for ourselves that we've overlooked the fact that our bodies are designed to move and work. One of my university professor's summed it up well when he said we have Pleistocene body in a modern sedentary world. The fact that we keep looking for ways to decrease our mobility makes me sick. If we can't muster the energy to burn 150 calories on a 30 minute leisurely bike ride how on earth are we going to move the human race into the future?
2 comments:
It's so true. I said to my sister the other day that everyone wants to know the secret formula to weight loss. But the truth is, we all already know it: Eat less, move more. If you can balance your bank account, you know how to lose weight. It's hard, I've been struggling with it for years! When I was a kid, I was the chubby one, but if you took my body from then and put me in school now, I wouldn't be chubby in comparison anymore. Society is getting chunkier!
Actually, you might be surprised to know that there's evidence that electric bikes provide a healthier workout than a conventional bicycle. Check out this article for some detail if you are interested in seeing a different point of view.
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