I still get the speech, even though I bike to work - it is mostly downhill, and I ride the bus home.

Agreed - I don't get that speech either.

wirehead I am planning to bike to work, that's 12 km roughly return-trip. Will that make me fit? If I do nothing else and eat the same as always.

5 times a week

shrugs. Biking is going to likely be good for you, but there's always a bigger question about what you think "fit" means and how you are eating.

I eat oatmeal and chia porridge and about 2-3 rolls with eggs or meat slices in them plus some nuts and cherry tomatoes

and cod (fish) and steamed veggies

that's it

well, FWIW, I had a summer where I had a ~12k round-trip bike commute, and I was thinner and more fit after that summer than maybe any other time in my life.

granted, I was doing hard manual labor work during the days, too, but that had been true other summers, too, without the same degree of difference.

so, wirehead... In a few weeks (after I have a few paychecks accumulated), might you be willing to help me select a bike?

helping other people spend money. It's like shopping therapy without the downside of more stuff!

things that 12km is probably going to make you fitter and happier and healthier. It's just that it won't give you a sixpack or whatnot.

that's what the other rides are for.

and cool, well, I'd love your help. Current bike fund balance: $53.19... not really enough, I'm guessing. But hopefully it'll grow rapidly; I think a bicycle is high on my priority list.

I don't need a six-pack, just want to be trim so I can wear my swimsuit and not feel bad about it Right now all my weight is around my belly, whereas you can count my ribs.

notes that you are halfway there to a commuter were you to be living in the Netherlands, but only one tenth of the way there in the US.

that I'd be 100% there if I was willing to pick up a stolen bike from the Flohmarkt in Berlin.

wirehead do you mean we have smaller distances here, yeah that's true...12 km feels like a lot to me but I guess that's nothing in the US where everything is in driving-distance not biking walking distance

most of the fun parts of the US are mostly built around biking distance, although it doesn't always seem like it

just done a comparison of some bay area distances versus Berlin distances... yeah, Berlin is a little bigger than SF proper, but when you start getting down into the rest of the area... Berlin is tiny.