Today was a special day on the old Brando calendar.

Is it my birthday? Not quite.

Did I finally have sex with Will Smith? Nope (that’s tomorrow.)

Did I get a date? Ha! Let’s not even go there…

So why was today special? Today was the day that the snow on the streets had finally melted just enough for me to ride Pierre (my bike) to and from work. Oh how I’ve missed him, and it showed. I didn’t miss any of the road bumps today. By the time I got home we were both a little exhausted.

Ok, I’m going to stop. The bike/sex metaphors are a little creepy and, you know, I actually have a point I’m getting to. Rare, yes…

The initial decision to buy Pierre was one that was borne entirely out of financial logic. I live too far from Center City to walk every day, yet I spend almost 5 dollars a day on public transportation. If we throw in the occasional drunken cab ride (maybe more than occasional), that’s an awful lot of money. Any bike I bought would pay for itself in a month’s time. Was the brightest idea I’d had in ages.

What I hadn’t counted on was the feeling I’d experience after my first few times riding Pierre, and again riding him today after our little break. The breathless, exhausted-but-refreshed feeling that you get after a work-out. I walked into work today sweaty, yes, and a little sore, but feeling more rejuvenated than I have in a while (kinda like after good sex…god I said I’d stop!), and I realized that saving me money on travel was just part of what made my beloved Pierre so great.

You see — I’m poor (surprise). And as much as I’d like to get one of those New Year’s Resolution gym memberships, I don’t have 400 to 600 bucks a year lying around to afford it. And with the kind of diet I prefer (basically, take anything healthy and fry it, then garnish it with cheddar and you have my breakfast), I’m basically a nutritionist’s nightmare. So in order to maintain some sense of healthy living, I developed a full-proof way of maintaining some exercise in my daily routine.

Just don’t stop moving.

Sounds weird, but it’s that simple.

If I find myself at home with nothing to do, I take at least 15 minutes, several times within the day, to put on my iPod and jump around my bedroom like the crazy shadow people dancing to U2 in those old ipod commercials (because only crazy shadow people dance to U2).

And it creeps my roommates the fuck out.

And if I need something from the local store, I get up and walk there. No hesitation. If I need something from my room, jump up and take the stairs two at a time. Heck, I take any sort of daily task, and apply more physical assertion than I normally have to (shoveling snow was especially good for this). It may seem a little mundane, but it gets my body moving; I’m breathing, I’m sweating and I’m staving off that dreaded muscle atrophy that comes from sitting in the same place for too long.

Start My Day An Hour Earlier

In essence, giving myself more time in a day to fit in all those activities that keep me healthy but, under most circumstances, I wouldn’t have time for. Daily/weekly jogs for instance. I don’t have the time and/or patience to jog in a circle. But, if I leave my house an hour early at least once a week, I can easily squeeze in a walk to work. Adding a necessary destination gives the walk a sense of purpose, which then makes it easier to do. Plus, and now we’ve come full circle, now that I have Pierre, I can actually bike to work, every day.

If you’re like me, you can’t afford a gym membership. Heck, if you’re like me, you can’t be arsed to do anything that resembles traditional exercise. And maybe my methods won’t get me the 6-pack abs and first-yet-pert JLo booty of my dreams, but it keeps my blood circulating, my muscles working, and my mind rejuvenated. And isn’t that the point more so than fitting some cliché idea of what good health and fitness practices are?

Tagged as: Philosophy, Pierre