Good dad + bicycle + cute girls = motivation to get healthy

Sun February 24 2008
Posted Feb 24, 2008
5,798

OPINION I'm 43 years old and am as fit as I'll ever be. I don't have a six-pack (unless you count the occasional Miller Lite in my fridge), but I'm healthy. I'm into running now but was raised on bicycling. You might say I was raised out of obesity. As far as weight gain goes, I am no different from most. During the holidays each year, my pants get tighter around the waist, reminding me of my childhood, which was rife with fat jokes from my mid-elementary days until my weight loss began during the summer of 1979. By then, I weighed 195 pounds, a burden my 5-foot-5-inch body could scarcely manage. At that young age, I weighed more than I do today. It was the summer after my ninth-grade year that my dad, who had been a life-long smoker - and overweight, too - decided to quit smoking and took up cycling. I was 15 years old and facing a transition myself, moving further into adolescence with a growing interest in girls, sports and impending college life. I was an obese kid about to enter high school with a poor self-image. My dad introduced me to the 10-speed bicycle. We started off with short bike rides that eventually built up to regular 10-mile rides and, in very little time, we were riding Tuesday and Thursday evenings with a local bike club. We parted from our heavy steel bikes to lighter, foreign-made, Chromoly-frame bicycles. Our confidence in our cycling skills grew. One day, my dad picked up a flyer at a local bike shop touting a weekend ride along the Mississippi River Valley. The challenge appealed to us greatly and we made a goal of riding this organized ride. The next year we set and accomplished the objective of completing RAGBRAI. We live in an age where there is a "campaign" for everything, including childhood obesity. There is an athletic-shoe company that markets its "Run for Good" campaign; one can purchase a set of red shoelaces and 100 percent of the purchase price goes to selected nonprofit programs that combat childhood obesity. Another is the "Exercise is Medicine" initiative founded by doctors who seek to raise public awareness for a physically active lifestyle. These goals are honorable. All the same, these organized campaigns seem a bit complicated to me. It wasn't a specially-funded program that resulted in my weight loss, a healthy adult lifestyle and positive self-image. Rather, it was my father being involved in my life and encouraging me to challenge myself, set a goal, work toward that goal and exceed the goal if possible. His involvement in my life influenced me to become physically and mentally healthier. Most importantly, his involvement influenced the way I father. Perhaps following my example, my 11-year-old son ran his first organized run last November. If he remembers the challenge, the goal setting and the accomplishment beyond his first-place finish, there is no telling what skills and habits he may take to his adult life. It wasn't a cause or a movement that made the change in my life - even though I could have been the poster child for the fight against childhood obesity. It was my dad and a simple request to go on a bike ride. - Doug Clough, Ida Grove.