Cycling Tips & Stories

From the Coalition for a Healthy and Active America

The holiday season is a time to celebrate with family and friends. For many of us, those celebrations revolve around large spreads of food and smorgasbords of holiday treats.

But as we gather with our friends and loved ones and sit down to enjoy our favorite foods, it is important to remember that holiday eating habits should be balanced with physical activity – like biking – in order to maintain a healthy and balanced lifestyle.

The Missouri chapter of the Coalition for a Healthy and Active America (CHAA) -- a national grassroots coalition bringing together parents, schools, and community leaders to find reasonable and responsible solutions to the challenge of childhood obesity – encourages all Missourians to practice a balanced approach to eating and physical activity this holiday season.

CHAA also encourages parents to use this holiday season to promote healthy habits to their children, because healthy habits begin at an early age, and as parents we can have a profound impact on what our children see as smart lifestyle choices.

For this holiday season, CHAA suggests these tips to maintain a healthy lifestyle without passing up your favorite holiday treats:

• Exercise. Because extra caloric intake is practically inevitable during the holiday season, continuing with your regular exercise regimen will help keep you from gaining extra weight. Going for a bike ride, taking walks, shoveling snow, or even playing football during halftime of the big game are all examples of simple activities parents and kids can enjoy together.
  
  
• Eat small meals before the big celebration. Before attending a holiday celebration, eat a small meal that doesn’t quite fill you up. This way you won’t be overly hungry at the party, and will still have room to enjoy a few of your favorite treats. If second helpings are your weakness, make your first helping smaller.
  
  
• Don’t deny yourself favorite treats. Avoiding your favorite treats often makes you just want them more. So instead of denying yourself a holiday delicacy, indulge yourself with a smaller portion of the snack or balance it out with increased physical activity.
  
  
• Take time to mingle. Keep your mind off of the smorgasbord by socializing first. By placing the primary focus on celebrating with your friends and family, you give yourself a chance to think about how hungry you truly are.

Whether you are watching your weight or watching the buffet, these tips are great ways to help anyone battle the dreaded holiday bulge. So keep riding, and enjoy a happy AND healthy holiday season!

The Coalition for a Healthy and Active America (CHAA) is a national grassroots organization which brings together parents, communities, and schools to craft responsible and balanced solutions to the problem of childhood obesity. At CHAA, we believe the most crucial step in fighting childhood obesity is a rededication to physical fitness and nutrition education. CHAA coalitions have already formed in more than a dozen states across the country, including Missouri. For more information on how you can get involved, please visit www.chaausa.org or e-mail missouri@chaausa.org.
permanent link to article: "Tips for a Happy AND Healthy Holiday Season"
posted by Brent Hugh at 11/29/2004 07:00:00 PM |comment on this article

A study undertaken of several re-configured roads in Portland, Oregon, demonstrates that re-configuring roads, in the manner of a "road diet" [PDF], to add bicycle lanes calms traffic.

This is important not only to bicyclists and pedestrians, who are more comfortable when motorist speed is lower, but also for adjoining property owners, because lower travel speeds on roads raise property values for nearby properties.
permanent link to article: "Study: Adding bicycle lanes calms traffic"
posted by Brent Hugh at 11/17/2004 06:05:00 PM |comment on this article

In June 2003, Darwin Hindman, mayor of Columbia, MO, gave a U.S. Senate Environment and Public Works Staff Briefing on the value of Transportation Enhancements grants to local communities:

Too many, probably most, streets and roads have been designed only to move auto traffic without considering the barriers that they created for bicyclists and pedestrians and neighborhood activities and shops. These barriers include fast traffic; no bike lanes; few, if any, cross walks; cut off neighborhoods; lack of sidewalks; no off road bike paths; badly designed intersections, etc.

As a result, in Columbia and in most cities, people, because of such barriers, often can not get around their neighborhoods, get to work, go to the store or school, or even to parks without getting into a car. This removes opportunities for an active life and creates more congestion. Very importantly, it removes choice for many people. I believe and a growing number of my constituents tell me that they want the choice to bicycle or walk. That choice requires that they feel safe and comfortable doing so.

permanent link to article: "Darwin Hindman on why federal Transportation Enhancements funds are important"
posted by Brent Hugh at 11/17/2004 05:56:00 PM |comment on this article

A KCStar article talks about the experiences of Lee's Summit brothers Chris and Josh Paxton:

Both men have endured numerous surgeries related to dialysis, transplant preparations and the actual transplants. That is to say nothing of their deteriorating eyesight and hearing.

Neither man has let his medical condition stand in the way of life.

Both recently returned from the 2004 U.S. Transplant Games at the University of Minnesota in the Minneapolis area. Chris won silver medals in basketball, the 4x100-meter relay, 20-kilometer cycling and 1-kilometer time trial. Josh won silver medals in the 800-meter run, 1,500-meter race walk and the 4x100-meter relay.

Chris so far has been in one World Transplant Games, and four national competitions. Josh has competed in two national competitions.

permanent link to article: "Lee's Summit brother participate in Transplant Games"
posted by Brent Hugh at 11/10/2004 10:04:00 AM |comment on this article

According to a Kansas City Star story, KCMO police officers now have two new bicycles to use:

The North Patrol Division of the Kansas City Police Department recently received a much-needed gift from the communities they serve — two new bicycles for the bike patrol officers. . . .

Maj. John Armilio started the bike patrol this summer, but the two officers assigned full-time to ride the streets of neighborhoods such as Crestview and Ravenwood were using 10-year-old bikes. Now they have the latest equipment and the older bikes are being put out to pasture.

“The bike patrol was going to be a pilot program to see the effectiveness of it and I was impressed by what they could do, Armilio said.

permanent link to article: "Kansas City bicycle police receive donation"
posted by Brent Hugh at 11/10/2004 09:49:00 AM |comment on this article

Needing another reason to get off the couch and out on your bike?

From Science Blog:

A new study gives people in their 50s and 60s another reason to get off the couch and be physically active -- especially if they have conditions or habits that endanger their hearts, like diabetes, high blood pressure or smoking. The study, based on data from 9,611 older adults, shows that those who were regularly active in their 50s and early 60s were about 35 percent less likely to die in the next eight years than those who were sedentary. For those who had a high heart risk because of several underlying conditions, the reduction was 45 percent.

permanent link to article: "Surprise! Exercise increases length of life"
posted by Brent Hugh at 11/10/2004 07:33:00 AM |comment on this article

Advantages of bicycle commuting--from Grist magazine.

[thanks to Bob F. for the tip . . . ] permanent link to article: "Bicycle commuting cartoon"
posted by Brent Hugh at 11/09/2004 06:35:00 PM |comment on this article

I tried an earlier version of USAPhotomaps that didn't work well on my system. But the latest version works like a charm and is amazingly useful for locating or drawing bicycle routes, both on and off-road.

It could also be very useful for bicycle and pedestrian planning.

From the USAPhotomaps web site:

USAPhotoMaps downloads aerial photo and topo map data from Microsoft's free TerraServer Web site, saves it on your hard drive, and creates seamless maps from it. You can:

# Scroll and zoom
# See the latitude/longitude
# Add waypoints, routes, and text
# Jump to any waypoint or latitude/longitude in the U.S.A.
# Transfer waypoints, tracks, and routes to and from most GPS receivers
# See your GPS location
# And much more.

Just for example, using the software I was able to draw the outline of a route I commonly ride around my neighborhood and instantly find out how long the route is. It is easy to print the map with the route overlaid.

You can use the software for free, although there is a screen that pops up when the program ends requesting a donation (though this is rather simple and unobtrusive, in comparison to other similar "nag screens", which can be VERY annoying).

[via the mid-america-mtb email list] permanent link to article: "Useful map/aerial photo software"
posted by Brent Hugh at 11/03/2004 01:32:00 AM |comment on this article