like riding a bicycle-- or a see-saw

Yesterday I got out on the bike (aka Jolene) for the first time in ages. I learned two valuable lessons in that outing:

• Riding a bike (at least the way I ride a bike) requires more exertion more quickly than walking. I really didn't realize this before, and 2 blocks into the short ride to my massage appointment, I could feel my heart beating. It takes a whole lot longer to get to the point of feeling my heart beat whilst walking, and I can truck on foot. Maybe it has something to do with holding the body upright and balancing on a bike. I mean, walking requires balance, but cycling must require more (even if it feels as natural as walking to me).

• Riding a bike utilizes different muscles (or different portions of the muscles) than walking. The good news: my lungs and heart are up to the challenge. It was, however, odd to feel all these muscles saying "what in the hell are we doing?", but that's what happens when they've had, oh, FOUR months off from a very specific activity. They'll get used to it, I'm sure.

Sometimes I think I'm a little old to be having these revelations, but then again, life's all about learning. Perhaps I'd gotten a bit delusional about how much activity my body requires to maintain a healthy weight. It requires a lot, and it's been that way for a long time, and I can remember going to see my doctor back in Berkeley for a check-up and having this conversation about how, for many of us, once you hit 30, you have to up the exercise significantly to maintain your weight. Add to that wanting to shave off a few pounds, and you're looking at even more exercise.

The alternative? Don't eat. But my body won't be fooled (or perhaps it will) by the Don't Eat approach. My body slips into the classic scarcity model pretty quickly, and just slows my (already slow) metabolism even further. And did I mention the bit where I like to eat. I do. I love to eat, I love food, I love to cook. Right now I can hear Freddie Mercury singing "I Want It All," and you know what? There's nothing wrong there. So long as the activity matches.

I am notoriously tight with money-- and thanks to that (when-will-my-name-be-cleared-of-my-medical-tragedy) Bankruptcy, I don't live beyond my means. I wish to apply this thrift and balance to my caloric transactions. I mean, it's about spending and earning, and depending on how you spin those concepts, it might teach me a thing or two about not being so tight.

Shall spending be caloric intake, or exercise? Shall earning be exercise or intake? Is the glass half full, or half empty? Either way, it's not like I can stockpile too much of anything and be truly, healthfully, successful. It's balance in the most primary sense, two feet on either side of the see-saw, and the further I go in one direction, it will require a move in an equal, yet opposite direction.