I had an 8-mile bike trip today that I really enjoyed. It was a slow cruise from my house to Autozone, on my commuter, with a worn-out car battery stuffed in one of my pannier bags. I figured that I’ve taken my car to bring bikes in need of repair to bike shops enough times before — it was high time that I did more of the reverse.

It wasn’t like it was a difficult excursion — but it was something that I normally would have done by car. That’s one more trip by bike, one less by car, and — hopefully — will set a pattern for future similar journeys. The transition away from the vehicle is all about baby steps. Just look at initiatives like the Clif Bar 2-Mile Challenge , the similar One-Mile Solution proposal , and the budding Ten Trip Challenge . Clif Bar encourages frequenting local establishments and walking or biking to get there; One-Mile Solution advocates replacing one car trip per week; and participants in the Ten Trip Challenge try to minimize car journeys to 10 per month. Curious about how practical this would be to do in your neighborhood? Walk Score is a super-cool site that attempts to quantify just how ped-friendly the area around any given address is. My house rates a reasonable 69 out of 100 — but if you included bikeability, I’ve got just about everything close by. Move over a couple of blocks and the score jumps to 90.

When you hear yourself making excuses about it being too cold/wet/hot/whatever to ride, or you don’t know how the heck you’d carry something “so heavy” on your bike, remember that it’s all relative. Need inspiration? Check out Icebike for info on people riding through the winter… in Alaska! And for some cool snippets of people hauling lotsa gear, StreetFilms has several videos of Bike Moves, like this one below, that are pretty impressive.

I own a car which I drive very infrequently. Although I’ve contemplated giving it up and transitioning to a Zipcar car-sharing membership, my bike racing and pet ownership (no un-crated pets allowed with Zipcar) make this a little tough. So, I keep my almost 40mpg crapbox 1990 Civic, throw a Sabertec Blade on the muffler (more on that in a future post), and, along with the rest of my race team , try to downscale by one trip at a time.

Photo via Flickr by owenstache .

As a nation, why are we inclined to buy the cheapest food possible? Why are we so obese? Why do we spend so much money on diets to rid ourselves of our cheap calories? Are these questions one in the same? I’m at the end of my off season and moving into base miles. This brings with it a new set of challenges and goals. But mostly a lot of reflection and an attempt to shed a few pounds in hopes of climbing better next year. I’ve also been trying to buy local, and if not local, organic and responsibly, from farmers markets, and co-ops. This isn’t always easy, and even more importantly, it’s not cheap. And let me say, I’m not rich, and food is by far my biggest expense considering I don’t own a car and I easily eat more than my rent. So why would I choose to increase my food budget 75% – 125% from when I was shopping at regular grocery stores?

I started doing this for all the reasons you would expect: health, trying to do my part for the environment and sometimes because it just plain tastes better. And let me say it worked, I was eating healthier, feeling better, and eating less “empty calories” due to my new found shopping habits. But recently I noticed something else. I used to eat a lot of eggs. Let me say this again, “A lot of eggs.” And why not? 99 cents at Trader Joes for a dozen, I could eat eggs all day long and not go broke. But recently at the farmers market I paid $4 for a dozen eggs. Yes, fresh, vegetable fed, local, FOUR DOLLARS! I almost chocked on my coffee. But I bought them anyway. And I ate them, slowly. It took me over a week. I enjoyed them. I think they tasted better to begin with. But 33 cent eggs taste a lot better than 8.33 cent eggs. Perceived value!

I began to keep track. I’m eating less, and why not, I pay more for my food so it needs to last longer, simple economics. When I’m bored, I often think about eating. Recently, I’ve been reconsidering this idea due to the cost. I will serve myself smaller portions, again, because of the cost. I also enjoy the food more. Meals are no-longer stuffing food down my throat. I sit, I enjoy, I relax, I even chew thoroughly.

So what’s my point? The real reason, the selfish reason, to buy local, organic, expensive food is perceived value. Lets say you are trying to lose weight and just can’t do it. Couldn’t paying twice the amount you normally do be that little bit of extra motivation? Add in the benefits of less preservatives, more nutrients, less of a carbon foot print and you have one of the best diets possible.

Look at the numbers. The egg example is simple and maybe a little too simple so below are some examples of popular foods and their organic alternatives. I’m not advocating you deprive yourself of food you enjoy, so I have included “treats” and snacks. In fact I’m advocating the opposite, that by paying more for healthier versions of foods you already enjoy you will eat better tasting food, be healthier and potentially lose weight. Staying true to the spirit of this article, I am not here to discuss the obvious and not so obvious nutritional and environmental differences between these products. I feel these reasons to buy healthy food have been covered to the point of beating my dead metaphoric horse.

$1.054 per Ounce

$0.398 per Ounce

$2.49 per Pound

$0.88 per Pound

$0.374 per Ounce!!!

$0.644 per Ounce

$0.358 per Ounce

$0.138 per Ounce

If this concept seems absurd to you, what about the estimated $40 billion dollar diet industry? Why pay money for diets when you can pay money for fresh, local food that tastes amazing. As for me, I’m healthy, trimming down, starting to look forward to loading on miles and happy.

Thanks,
Emiliano Jordan