Why do I cycle so much?
Why do I cycle? And quite a lot at that.
Well, at least because exercise prevents depression and keeps the fat away.
You see, studies show that obesity and loneliness form a mutually reinforcing vicious circle. And loneliness, that is, loneliness not of your own choosing, is depressing.
Studies show that exercise is at least as good a cure for mild depression as SSRIs.
And exercise also makes life easier, and is also likely to postpone the onset of heart disease, diabetes and cancer until later in life.
And after all, cycling is just a damn nice thing to do anyway.
Well, today is a rest day, so I'm not cycling. It's not every day that you need to cycle when you can walk for an hour and a half.
About Health
When I was a young man back in the 1980s, I read quite a lot about heart disease because my father had his first cardiac arrest at 47 years of age in 1977. I understood, that in order not to follow my father's footsteps health-wise, I needed to watch my weight and also eat healthily (not much-saturated fats, salt, meat, I even became vegetarian in 1989) and exercise regularly. And take statins every evening once they became available in the late 1990s. And so I have done, quite diligently.
I have always thought that preventing health problems is much easier than treating them. That's why I try my best to follow the current medical advice (as in Kai's screenshot above) and continue to exercise - and so far I have not had any health problems by the age of 56 years. I am pleased about my decisions back in the 1980s.
My ankles are bad, so I cannot run. I do not like water, so I do not swim. That is why cycling is my way of exercising (and travelling and commuting).
But it is true that if one gets deeply depressed or very obese, then it is very hard to become healthy again. Or if one gets addicted to alcohol or some tax-free drugs. Even in those cases, exercise will certainly not make the situation worse. And it helps in preventing obesity and depression, at least science says so.
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