Tuesday, September 29, 2009

Awesome new diet plan!

I have recently made a new diet resolution: Beer Does Not Ride In The Car.

Barring truly inclement weather or me already being at the grocery store for the week's shopping, from now on if I want a six pack, it will need to be fetched via bicycle or on foot. I figure that the caloric expenditure of fetching it home should be a third to a half of the calories in the sixer, right there.

(Remember, there are only two surefire diet plans: Take in less calories, or burn more calories.)

20 comments:

B Smith said...

Heh. Welcome to the wonderful world of cycling. Just try not to get too snarky with all the people who, upon seeing you with a six-pack on a bicycle, will immediately give you that sympathetic look and begin to tell you about their DUI, ask you where you got caught, etc., etc...

Anonymous said...

For me, that'd be a hell of a diet plan: a 7-mile trip each way to get beer I won't drink. To get anything drinkable, maybe a 20-mile round trip. That'd take, lemme see....about a week, since the knee don't bend that far anymore.
(Sigh) guess I'll stick with the weight machine. Pity, too, with an 18-speed Kawasaki in the shed that I've never ridden.

Tam said...

Tennessee Budd,

Yeah, there's tradeoffs in various living situations.

I miss being able to shoot in the back yard and watch the sun set over the lake, but I like being able to walk or bicycle to grocery stores, restaurants, and pubs.

New Jovian Thunderbolt said...

No beer in a car?

Tam buys a motorcycle with a 6-case-capacity sidecar in 5... 4... 3... 2......

Peter said...

Good thought, but any benefit is in the execution.

1) Serious Hard-@ss: You buy a six-pack and you put two bottles into your bottle cages and make three round trips. You'll lose enough weight to be legally declared invisible.

2) Much less Serious: You quickly realize that with a set of panniers, you can easily transport a case of IPA...

Joanna said...

It's a money saver, too -- I don't run errands to the store anymore unless I can do it on my bike. The only exceptions come when time is an issue. Really cuts down on my unnecessary expenditures.

Carteach said...

This makes SO much sense.....

Scary.

GrantCunningham said...

I knew that bicycle would be nothing but trouble. It's turning Her Snarkiness into 'Healthy Lifestyle Tam'.

(Why does that sound like the name of a Barbie doll?)

Before anyone can stop the process, she'll go vegan, move to Portland, and take a job with Food Front Co-op. Once that happens, she's lost to us forever.

The only solution, of course, is to outlaw bicycles.

-=[ Grant ]=-

Tam said...

Grant,

Just wait'll I figure out a way to mount an ashtray on the handlebars! :D

Steve said...

Actually, burning more calories works best. Taking in too few calories may cause your body to think you are in starvation mode, and it will hang on to every little bit it can. Better to give it what it wants in food, then take it away afterwards.

Kristophr said...

Do they have Fat Tire Ale availible locally?

Fuzzy Curmudgeon said...

We go to the grocery after we've eaten. It's amazing how much less crap you end up buying on a full stomach.

NotClauswitz said...

It's also a plan that seriously cuts in when the late-nite spontaneous "Whaa.. I finished that already??" happens - and you have to hop on the velocipede and pedal out to harvest more cold, hoppy goodness. Which brings us to: what way-cool monster Surefire own-the-night light clips to the tacticalbars? :-)

Anonymous said...

"Do they have Fat Tire Ale availible locally?"

Yes, finally. *grumble, grumble*

Shootin' Buddy

Anonymous said...

Um...they do make trailers for bicycles...attach to the rear axle...can haul a whole lot of Gnaw Bone...

Cap'n Chumbucket

Kristophr said...

Serves you right for not living in the PNW.

Now ... it we can only convert the Cal'tards into biodiesel ...

deadcenter said...

I tend to simplify it, "if you burn more calories than you take in, you lose weight".

savage24 said...

I get more looks from drivers when I'm towing the BOB trailer with a 30-can pack of Busch beer than any other time!

Anonymous said...

Yeah, it is nice being able to shoot in the back yard...or the front yard...or the side yard...
On the other hand, I have to dispose of the 'possums I shoot when they come after the cat food. Left hand, cane: right hand, shovel. Awkward.

Bruce B. said...

How far is the round trip to the store? I'll throw in my two cents and say that you're overly optimistic that a trip to the store will burn anywhere near a third of the cals in a six-pack. When I used to race I estimated that I would burn only about 850 calories riding a 40 km time trial in an hour. For my (then) 6'2" 210 lb frame at an average speed of 25 mph that worked out to about 34 calories/mile (most of the energy expenditure at that speed to overcome aero drag). I'd say you need to do an out and back of the full Monon trail for every beer if you want to cancel out the calories :-)
Keep up the riding. Regular exercise elevates your resting metabolic rate so that you burn more calories even when at rest.