Health & Vanity

[So I realize this reads more like a report, but...well, I don't know what I'm really trying to accomplish.  I am not used to writing about non-fiction items in a blog, but hopefully I will find a more interesting way to relate it.]

So the other day a co-worker of mine comments that it looks like I have been working out.

A few things...

I have been working out.
I work out regularly.
I ride a bike to get anywhere, and for fun on top of that.
I eat healthy portions and, in general, only for what I need.

Now, I'm not perfect, but a majority of the time these things are true.  To explain all these things, I will begin with why I started in these habits in the first place.

Working out.  To me, as a guy, and really just as a human being, working out is exercise.  In my personal opinion, belief really, the human body was not made to sit behind a desk and I fear the day I get a degree and end up in such a place.  To me, exercise is not something I list as a hobby or interest.  It's just something a person should be expected to do.  I still list biking as a hobby and interest.   And I do not find working out to be something I dread or do not want to do.  It can be hard to schedule at some points in my life, but I look forward to it very much when it again becomes part of routine.

I bought a rode bike nearly a year ago.  Before this, I rode a mountain bike too short for me.  I will not mention the name of the bike or anything else as I won't even pretend to be that particularly interested in that aspect of biking.  However, it is very nice and to this day I have not tired of biking around to get around, no matter how "inconvenient."  I am astonished the distances some people find "tiring" to travel to when they own a vehicle, and the all out refusal for some people to walk to almost anywhere.  To me, a mile does not constitute the use of a vehicle, but I am getting ahead of myself.  I do not care about the environment, but I suppose it is an added plus.  I do, however, love my heart and partially bike for this purpose.  Really, I find it endlessly fun.

I had bad eating habits.  I was exposed to healthy alternatives early on.  The kinds of friends I developed ate much differently from my family.  My mother cooks excellent Mexican cuisine, but she is horrible about providing snacks and other such things.  I avoid coke and snack usually on salty stuff to wash down with a beer.  I avoid eating very late at night, mostly for my sleeping habits, and I had to deal with curbing my hunger when I knew I really was eating enough but my body was used to more snacking often.  I did this for my health, to avoid obesity (which I was never really close to), and to improve muscle development and sleeping habits.  I now work in a health/natural/organics food store.

Still, in the end, when someone comments on how good I've been looking, it fucks up all the nobility and I end up feeling better than a whole lot of people.  This is a difficult thing to do in a city like Houston.  Heck, even in the States this is difficult.  But I do it.

Up until some jerk compliments me.