How do I stop my desk job from destroying my health?
May 17, 2013 10:26 AM Subscribe
In February, I got a full time job after six months of freelancing, and seven years of grad school before that. I like the stability, but I think I underestimated how profoundly a 9-hour desk job was going to affect my activity levels. I'm a little alarmed at how quickly I've fallen out of shape, and I'm looking for some suggestions as to how to go back to being a reasonably healthy person while still having this job.
Before I started working full-time, I wasn't in awesome shape, but I was in ok shape. I tried to go to the gym three times a week, and while I didn't always succeed, I did manage to make it there twice a week at least. I didn't pay a ton of attention to what I was eating, but I tried to make reasonable choices. Since I started working here , I've been to the gym maybe four times. I'm gaining weight at a pretty steady clip, and I'd like to reverse that process. Possibly relevant details:
Before I started working full-time, I wasn't in awesome shape, but I was in ok shape. I tried to go to the gym three times a week, and while I didn't always succeed, I did manage to make it there twice a week at least. I didn't pay a ton of attention to what I was eating, but I tried to make reasonable choices. Since I started working here , I've been to the gym maybe four times. I'm gaining weight at a pretty steady clip, and I'd like to reverse that process. Possibly relevant details:
- Exercise has always been something that I loathed, and just did because I knew I had to.
- I wake up in the morning between 7 and 7:30, which continues to be a struggle for me.
- At the end of the workday, I'm often pretty tired, or someone wants to do something fun, which is hard to turn down for something I dislike.
- I live in Brooklyn and work in Manhattan. My commute is 45-minutes, and my gym is a 20-minute bus ride from my apartment. I work 9-6.
- I don't have the kind of control over my office furniture that would be necessary to get something like a standing desk.
All you need to have a standing desk is a milkcrate to put your monitor on and another, slightly smaller box of some sort to put your keyboard and mouse on. Then you stand up. You don't need anything fancy and you can change back and forth at will. Is that still not an option? Because that will make a huge difference.
posted by brainmouse at 10:29 AM on May 17, 2013 [2 favorites]
posted by brainmouse at 10:29 AM on May 17, 2013 [2 favorites]
Also -- find a gym near your work (or take up running), and go during lunch. Bring a healthy lunch and eat it at your desk while working before or after lunchtime.
posted by brainmouse at 10:30 AM on May 17, 2013 [4 favorites]
posted by brainmouse at 10:30 AM on May 17, 2013 [4 favorites]
Food intake is going to be a lot more key to maintaining your weight than going to the gym 3 times a week. The first thing I would do is make it a priority to bring your lunch with you to work, rather than getting takeout. Restaurant food is almost always insanely caloriffic compared to what you would make for yourself. Also, keep healthy snacks in your office for late afternoon hungries.
Secondly, make it easier for yourself to move around. That could mean getting off the subway or bus a few stops away and walking the rest of the way, going for walks over your lunch break, or joining a gym much closer to home - just start doing something different, starting with small changes if that's more comfortable for you.
posted by something something at 10:30 AM on May 17, 2013 [7 favorites]
Secondly, make it easier for yourself to move around. That could mean getting off the subway or bus a few stops away and walking the rest of the way, going for walks over your lunch break, or joining a gym much closer to home - just start doing something different, starting with small changes if that's more comfortable for you.
posted by something something at 10:30 AM on May 17, 2013 [7 favorites]
I'd second taking the long way home, either getting off the train a stop or two early or late and walking home.
posted by advicepig at 10:32 AM on May 17, 2013 [2 favorites]
posted by advicepig at 10:32 AM on May 17, 2013 [2 favorites]
1. Walks on Lunch and/or Walk part of the way home
2. Push ups in the office every hour (10-20) in the stairwell or other semi-private area if it'd be weird to do it in your cube.
posted by Debaser626 at 10:32 AM on May 17, 2013 [1 favorite]
2. Push ups in the office every hour (10-20) in the stairwell or other semi-private area if it'd be weird to do it in your cube.
posted by Debaser626 at 10:32 AM on May 17, 2013 [1 favorite]
At the end of the workday, I'm often pretty tired, or someone wants to do something fun, which is hard to turn down for something I dislike.
Turn down some of the fun things to go to the gym after work (or work out at home, or whatever). I think of it as making plans with the gym. If you made plans with a friend, you wouldn't cancel if you were feeling tired or something would you? Unless you were getting sick or facing a super critical deadline or something. Think of the gym the same way, don't break plans with the gym.
posted by sweetkid at 10:34 AM on May 17, 2013 [2 favorites]
Turn down some of the fun things to go to the gym after work (or work out at home, or whatever). I think of it as making plans with the gym. If you made plans with a friend, you wouldn't cancel if you were feeling tired or something would you? Unless you were getting sick or facing a super critical deadline or something. Think of the gym the same way, don't break plans with the gym.
posted by sweetkid at 10:34 AM on May 17, 2013 [2 favorites]
Bike to work. Yeah, it might take longer, but you'll destroy any unhealthy weight gain pretty quick. My current car commute would be about 15-20 minutes in traffic, but by bike it's about 30-40 minutes. The first couple weeks are always terrible, but then it's fantastic.
Building 'working out' into your daily routine like this makes it easier to schedule really. You might even save enough to skip out on the gym altogether (except for the winter perhaps).
posted by furnace.heart at 10:36 AM on May 17, 2013 [2 favorites]
Building 'working out' into your daily routine like this makes it easier to schedule really. You might even save enough to skip out on the gym altogether (except for the winter perhaps).
posted by furnace.heart at 10:36 AM on May 17, 2013 [2 favorites]
Food intake is going to be a lot more key to maintaining your weight than going to the gym 3 times a week.
Yep. This is consistently what my health care professionals tell me and it's consistent with my own experience. I'm using myfitnesspal.com for this.
My nurses/docs want me to exercise 5 days a week for other reasons (mental benefits, heart health, blood sugar control), but they want me to control my weight by eating less.
posted by Jahaza at 10:38 AM on May 17, 2013 [2 favorites]
Yep. This is consistently what my health care professionals tell me and it's consistent with my own experience. I'm using myfitnesspal.com for this.
My nurses/docs want me to exercise 5 days a week for other reasons (mental benefits, heart health, blood sugar control), but they want me to control my weight by eating less.
posted by Jahaza at 10:38 AM on May 17, 2013 [2 favorites]
Get an app for your phone that reminds you to get up and walk around, like StandApp (iOS). Or just set a timer.
Do try to wear comfortable clothes and shoes. I am amazed at how much more active I am in tiny ways throughout the day when I wear shoes with a rubber sole as opposed to a hard sole, for example. Just dumb stuff like going down to the kitchen for ice water in comfortable shoes, whereas I'll settle for the nearby drinking fountain water if I'm wearing less comfortable shoes.
posted by payoto at 10:40 AM on May 17, 2013
Do try to wear comfortable clothes and shoes. I am amazed at how much more active I am in tiny ways throughout the day when I wear shoes with a rubber sole as opposed to a hard sole, for example. Just dumb stuff like going down to the kitchen for ice water in comfortable shoes, whereas I'll settle for the nearby drinking fountain water if I'm wearing less comfortable shoes.
posted by payoto at 10:40 AM on May 17, 2013
The blog Zen Habits has a couple of nice posts on how to wake up earlier (Post one) (Post two).
posted by Jahaza at 10:40 AM on May 17, 2013
posted by Jahaza at 10:40 AM on May 17, 2013
If you can get something like a graze box there, that might help with better snacking. It has helped me! If I have a little handy box of nuts and dried fruit that I haven't tried before, it wins every time over a tedious chocolate bar.
posted by greenish at 10:41 AM on May 17, 2013 [2 favorites]
posted by greenish at 10:41 AM on May 17, 2013 [2 favorites]
Food intake is going to be the key here. If you can't or don't want to bring food to work, there are many healthy options for lunch in Manhattan. If you mention the general area where your office is, I can give specific takeout recommendations. Activity will help too, and I agree with all the suggestions to just walk more - if you hate the gym, you will always find an excuse not to go. When your friend contacts you to do something fun after work, do it, but walk there. Skip the elevator at work and take the stairs instead. Go for a walk at lunch or after work.
posted by bedhead at 10:53 AM on May 17, 2013
posted by bedhead at 10:53 AM on May 17, 2013
If you are tired in the evening are you really going to get all the way home, then go back out again? Hell no. You cannot change the laws of physics:
You can trick your "bah, I'm a 6pm zombie i just wanna go home" momentum into making a few stops along the way home. Plus it frees up your weekends to actually do things you like, instead of preparing for another week of work.
Also, welcome to the metabolism slowdown that is your late 20s/early 30s!
posted by fontophilic at 10:54 AM on May 17, 2013 [2 favorites]
An object at rest stays at rest and an object in motion stays in motion with the same speed and in the same direction unless acted upon by an unbalanced force.I found that one major adaptation to office jobs is to build as many things into your commute as possible. That means finding a grocery store, post office, dry cleaners, gym, etc that are as close to your route as possible.
You can trick your "bah, I'm a 6pm zombie i just wanna go home" momentum into making a few stops along the way home. Plus it frees up your weekends to actually do things you like, instead of preparing for another week of work.
Also, welcome to the metabolism slowdown that is your late 20s/early 30s!
posted by fontophilic at 10:54 AM on May 17, 2013 [2 favorites]
Response by poster: Great answers so far - thanks (I can't believe I didn't think of getting off the subway a few stops early). Just a quick clarification re: food vs. exercise - let's assume that I see staying active and eating healthy as both worthy goals in and of themselves, and I'd welcome any advice about either one.
Bedhead, I'm in Midtown on 7th ave in the 50s.
posted by Ragged Richard at 10:54 AM on May 17, 2013
Bedhead, I'm in Midtown on 7th ave in the 50s.
posted by Ragged Richard at 10:54 AM on May 17, 2013
Yeah, you can make a standing desk setup on top of your existing desk with off-the-rack stuff from The Container Store; my setup uses a shoe rack for a monitor stand, two shorter rubberized cabinet shelves for my keyboard and mouse (with a piece of cardboard under the mousepad; you could make it more elegant than that), and two bamboo kitchen shelves that serve as little raised "sideboards" on either side for reading material, writing, eating, and work. Not counting shoes (you'll want a few pairs of cushy/supportive yet still nice-looking shoes to rotate, just like a nurse would), you can get the whole setup put together for a little over $100. (And I would actually recommend against buying a cushy floor mat, as it can roll your ankles and cause more problems than it solves.)
That said, a standing desk isn't a miracle cure for office-induced weight gain, and it can give you stuff like plantar fasciitis if you stand for too much of the day. In moderation, standing at your desk is something you could include as part of your approach to maintaining or losing weight. The other parts: carefully controlling what you eat at work, walking or climbing the stairs when possible, getting out of the office to walk around a bit at lunchtime, spending time you might otherwise spend at home staring at a computer screen staring at your phone on the treadmill at the gym instead...stuff like that.
posted by limeonaire at 10:55 AM on May 17, 2013 [1 favorite]
That said, a standing desk isn't a miracle cure for office-induced weight gain, and it can give you stuff like plantar fasciitis if you stand for too much of the day. In moderation, standing at your desk is something you could include as part of your approach to maintaining or losing weight. The other parts: carefully controlling what you eat at work, walking or climbing the stairs when possible, getting out of the office to walk around a bit at lunchtime, spending time you might otherwise spend at home staring at a computer screen staring at your phone on the treadmill at the gym instead...stuff like that.
posted by limeonaire at 10:55 AM on May 17, 2013 [1 favorite]
To build on sweetkids suggestion of not ditching plans with the gym: see if you can make plans to to go to the gym with an actual friend.
If there is a gym really close to your office where you can keep all your gear, then you can go there on your lunch break or right after work, and then shower and change back into your regular outfit and off you go, all energized for the afternoon/evening.
posted by jacalata at 11:18 AM on May 17, 2013
If there is a gym really close to your office where you can keep all your gear, then you can go there on your lunch break or right after work, and then shower and change back into your regular outfit and off you go, all energized for the afternoon/evening.
posted by jacalata at 11:18 AM on May 17, 2013
For reminding myself to take micro-breaks (for my eyes) and walk around (for everything else) occasionally, I find the program WorkRave to be helpful on the Windows side of things.
If you're getting poor/inadequate sleep, you're sabotaging your health and fitness. Make that a priority.
With your remaining time, you should make it count. Do the most effective exercise in terms of time, so you can have some time for other things. This is generally either lifting heavy (e.g. Starting Strength, 5/3/1), doing barbell/conditioning complex (e.g. Fitocracy's 1% challenge) , or doing intervals.
posted by Earl the Polliwog at 11:24 AM on May 17, 2013 [1 favorite]
If you're getting poor/inadequate sleep, you're sabotaging your health and fitness. Make that a priority.
With your remaining time, you should make it count. Do the most effective exercise in terms of time, so you can have some time for other things. This is generally either lifting heavy (e.g. Starting Strength, 5/3/1), doing barbell/conditioning complex (e.g. Fitocracy's 1% challenge) , or doing intervals.
posted by Earl the Polliwog at 11:24 AM on May 17, 2013 [1 favorite]
First of all, see if there's a gym in your building. There may be!
Scan the classes at your gym and make it a point to be in that class once a week.
Do your weight lifting, etc on the weekends.
I loathe exercising too. The only thing that's worked for me is having a treadmill in my basement. I get up early and walk on it, because there's no way I'd do it after work.
posted by Ruthless Bunny at 11:29 AM on May 17, 2013
Scan the classes at your gym and make it a point to be in that class once a week.
Do your weight lifting, etc on the weekends.
I loathe exercising too. The only thing that's worked for me is having a treadmill in my basement. I get up early and walk on it, because there's no way I'd do it after work.
posted by Ruthless Bunny at 11:29 AM on May 17, 2013
Oh! Yes, weekends. It can be tough to get to the gym, work out, come home, cook, and have that digested by the time I need to be in bed. So, I do a version of 5/3/1 (one of the more time-flexible programs) on a 3-day-a-week schedule, and usually make two of those days the weekend. So, I'm only obligated to do the whole post-work gym once, and I have a bit of flexibility which day I'm going to do it on so I can always pick a day where I'm not tired.
posted by Earl the Polliwog at 11:34 AM on May 17, 2013
posted by Earl the Polliwog at 11:34 AM on May 17, 2013
Pretty much the only way I get exercise into my day (I'm also at a desk full-time) is to use my lunch break for exercise, and then to actually eat my lunch at my desk while I work.
Also, finding exercise that you LIKE is key. I forced myself to go to spin classes for a while before I discovered that it's way much more fun to swim, so now I do that, and I actually look forward to it every day. Plus, I feel so much more energized in the afternoon (which used to be when I crashed and burned).
posted by rabbitrabbit at 11:37 AM on May 17, 2013
Also, finding exercise that you LIKE is key. I forced myself to go to spin classes for a while before I discovered that it's way much more fun to swim, so now I do that, and I actually look forward to it every day. Plus, I feel so much more energized in the afternoon (which used to be when I crashed and burned).
posted by rabbitrabbit at 11:37 AM on May 17, 2013
Best answer: If you have an iPad, you could download the "You are Your Own Gym" app and do a 30-ish minute set of bodyweight exercises each night at home, with virtually no equipment. It was a MeFi recommendation to a question I asked, and I'm very happy with the convenience and results. Means you don't have to drag yourself out to the actual gym after arriving home, and you can even do it while watching TV.
posted by Pomo at 11:42 AM on May 17, 2013 [2 favorites]
posted by Pomo at 11:42 AM on May 17, 2013 [2 favorites]
All you need to have a standing desk is a milkcrate to put your monitor on and another, slightly smaller box of some sort to put your keyboard and mouse on. Then you stand up. You don't need anything fancy and you can change back and forth at will. Is that still not an option? Because that will make a huge difference.
I have a standing desk, and now prefer to stand when working.
However, standing is still a sedentary activity and is bad your your circulation.
posted by KokuRyu at 11:50 AM on May 17, 2013
I have a standing desk, and now prefer to stand when working.
However, standing is still a sedentary activity and is bad your your circulation.
posted by KokuRyu at 11:50 AM on May 17, 2013
I keep trail mix and granola bars in my desk, along with the occasional pack of pretzel thins-- having those cuts down on my trips to the campus center's gourmet potato chip selection. I also keep sea salt/hot sauce/soy sauce/olive oil in tiny bottles around, so that I can gussy up some basic frozen vegetables or avocado on toast if I order in too often. It's much less of a mental block to dress stuff here than it is for me to pack it all to work and pack it all back, so I end up actually using it more often.
Otherwise, I go for walks. Either just around the floor, up and down a couple of flights of steps, or if it's really nice, around our (small) campus. Just take a ten minute chunk of time. Sometimes I'll run little errands to the drugstore if there's anything I need that isn't heavy so that it feels like more of a "real" trip.
posted by jetlagaddict at 11:55 AM on May 17, 2013
Otherwise, I go for walks. Either just around the floor, up and down a couple of flights of steps, or if it's really nice, around our (small) campus. Just take a ten minute chunk of time. Sometimes I'll run little errands to the drugstore if there's anything I need that isn't heavy so that it feels like more of a "real" trip.
posted by jetlagaddict at 11:55 AM on May 17, 2013
However, standing is still a sedentary activity
This is the opposite of true
and is bad your your circulation.
It is much better for your circulation than sitting [cite: National Institutes of Health study]
posted by clockzero at 12:08 PM on May 17, 2013 [2 favorites]
This is the opposite of true
and is bad your your circulation.
It is much better for your circulation than sitting [cite: National Institutes of Health study]
posted by clockzero at 12:08 PM on May 17, 2013 [2 favorites]
Even if you belong to a gym, there is no reason you couldn't do the 7 Minute Workout at home either before or after work every day.
posted by deliciae at 12:09 PM on May 17, 2013 [1 favorite]
posted by deliciae at 12:09 PM on May 17, 2013 [1 favorite]
Couch to 5K and 100 Pushups (and its allied sites for situps and dips and squats and pullups, most of which you can do without a gym).
I am exactly like you. I hate exercise, but I have to do it because I'm in the Reserves. This is the best possible time to start a C25K type program or get Zombies Run for your smartphone or something like it, because you'll be able to run in the nearest park or around your block or whatever and get through the whole ramp-up program before the August heat makes it even harder to get motivated.
posted by Etrigan at 12:15 PM on May 17, 2013 [1 favorite]
I am exactly like you. I hate exercise, but I have to do it because I'm in the Reserves. This is the best possible time to start a C25K type program or get Zombies Run for your smartphone or something like it, because you'll be able to run in the nearest park or around your block or whatever and get through the whole ramp-up program before the August heat makes it even harder to get motivated.
posted by Etrigan at 12:15 PM on May 17, 2013 [1 favorite]
You don't have to exercise every day. Getting in the gym once a week is way better than never. Try for once a week for now, and consider anything else bonus.
Also, I used to loather the gym, before I understood how to use it. Now that I have gone a few years, I am very comfortable there. I know what clothes I'm going to wear, when I walk in I know how I'm going to spend the next 45 minutes, I know what I'm going to drink after, etc. It's 45 minutes of time just for me to think about nothing, or listen to music, or a podcast.
posted by jander03 at 12:34 PM on May 17, 2013
Also, I used to loather the gym, before I understood how to use it. Now that I have gone a few years, I am very comfortable there. I know what clothes I'm going to wear, when I walk in I know how I'm going to spend the next 45 minutes, I know what I'm going to drink after, etc. It's 45 minutes of time just for me to think about nothing, or listen to music, or a podcast.
posted by jander03 at 12:34 PM on May 17, 2013
Change your journeys so that by alighting later they include a 15 minute brisk walk. Eat less.
posted by BenPens at 12:37 PM on May 17, 2013
posted by BenPens at 12:37 PM on May 17, 2013
In addition to the adding walking to the commute, you could try adding a few floors to stairs if you take the elevator. If you work on 14 and can get out on 10 and climb up to 14, that would be a great way to fit in some extra exercise.
posted by advicepig at 12:48 PM on May 17, 2013 [1 favorite]
posted by advicepig at 12:48 PM on May 17, 2013 [1 favorite]
You can't outrun a bad diet, as they say. Count calories for a week or two and then compare to one of the TDEE calculators linked here and see how badly you're going awry and at what meals. I'm happy for you that you caught yourself after three months, several years of being sedentary at work and play took a lot more effort for me, no matter how much walking instead of taking the subway I did.
As for the gym, if you don't want to go at 6:30 or after work, can you join a gym near your office and go at lunch? Go at 9pm when the "I'm getting sleepy I think I'll pass out on the couch with a book/the TV" kicks in? Taking stairs and walking city blocks are great but for there's really no better office-life destressor than getting really sweaty for me, despite how much I hate it sometimes. What do you do when you go to the gym? Turning up and messing around randomly on whatever pieces of equipment are available is boring, hard work because you're planning your workout as you work out, and feels like it's going nowhere. Getting over fuckarounditis and on a progressive plan - Couch to 5K, Starting Strength, New Rules of Lifting for Women, whatever - and becoming happy and nerdy about how I'm improving was the best solution to that, for me.
posted by jamesonandwater at 12:56 PM on May 17, 2013
As for the gym, if you don't want to go at 6:30 or after work, can you join a gym near your office and go at lunch? Go at 9pm when the "I'm getting sleepy I think I'll pass out on the couch with a book/the TV" kicks in? Taking stairs and walking city blocks are great but for there's really no better office-life destressor than getting really sweaty for me, despite how much I hate it sometimes. What do you do when you go to the gym? Turning up and messing around randomly on whatever pieces of equipment are available is boring, hard work because you're planning your workout as you work out, and feels like it's going nowhere. Getting over fuckarounditis and on a progressive plan - Couch to 5K, Starting Strength, New Rules of Lifting for Women, whatever - and becoming happy and nerdy about how I'm improving was the best solution to that, for me.
posted by jamesonandwater at 12:56 PM on May 17, 2013
Keep in mind that the food you eat needs to do two things: provide nutrients to keep everything running correctly, and to appropriately fuel up your body for the workload you expect until the next meal.
One of the things that constantly plagues a lot of people is that we often confuse tired for hungry. "Wow, what a long and tiring day, I clearly need to eat more breakfast to stay on top of things." When the truth is that your tiredness is NOT because you had too little food, but because office work is much less physically demanding than it feels. It's even worse for people who are on their feet all day, but not actually moving around all that much. Everything aches after a nursing shift or a day of teaching, and it feels like you must have burned thousands of calories, but in reality, not so much.
So step one is to vary your diet so that you have enough fuel, but not too much. Then you exercise not to maintain weight, but to increase strength and stamina. It feels awful to work your ass off in the gym just to maintain. But if you maintain through food moderation, your work in the gym will instead be all improvement and positive. You won't hate it so much if it isn't a do-this-or-buy-new-pants necessity, but a life and fitness improving adventure.
(Also, just a quick glance at the TDEE calculator linked above, it is vastly over estimating the calorie requirements. For me anyway. A person's basal metabolic rate depends a LOT on muscle mass, and varies a lot more than they imply. So take those calculators with a grain of salt. Better to experiment and document for your own self. A lot of the other stuff on there sounds fishy too.)
posted by gjc at 2:28 PM on May 17, 2013
One of the things that constantly plagues a lot of people is that we often confuse tired for hungry. "Wow, what a long and tiring day, I clearly need to eat more breakfast to stay on top of things." When the truth is that your tiredness is NOT because you had too little food, but because office work is much less physically demanding than it feels. It's even worse for people who are on their feet all day, but not actually moving around all that much. Everything aches after a nursing shift or a day of teaching, and it feels like you must have burned thousands of calories, but in reality, not so much.
So step one is to vary your diet so that you have enough fuel, but not too much. Then you exercise not to maintain weight, but to increase strength and stamina. It feels awful to work your ass off in the gym just to maintain. But if you maintain through food moderation, your work in the gym will instead be all improvement and positive. You won't hate it so much if it isn't a do-this-or-buy-new-pants necessity, but a life and fitness improving adventure.
(Also, just a quick glance at the TDEE calculator linked above, it is vastly over estimating the calorie requirements. For me anyway. A person's basal metabolic rate depends a LOT on muscle mass, and varies a lot more than they imply. So take those calculators with a grain of salt. Better to experiment and document for your own self. A lot of the other stuff on there sounds fishy too.)
posted by gjc at 2:28 PM on May 17, 2013
I sometimes sit on a yoga ball while at my home desk. It doesn't make sitting at your desk an amazing workout, but at least you're expending a little energy as your shift around. The only downsides are that it requires decent balance, can be a bit noisy, and might look a little goofy.
posted by Green Winnebago at 3:18 PM on May 17, 2013
posted by Green Winnebago at 3:18 PM on May 17, 2013
If you don't want to commit to buying a bike, NYC is starting a bikeshare program:
http://citibikenyc.com/
and you don't have to start by riding the whole way either, which can be difficult if you're out of shape. You could just ride home from work and take your time, or you could start by riding to a train/bus station with its own bikeshare rack that's 1-2 miles closer to work than the one you normally get on. As long as there's a station around you don't have to worry about locking up either.
posted by Ndwright at 8:34 AM on May 18, 2013
http://citibikenyc.com/
and you don't have to start by riding the whole way either, which can be difficult if you're out of shape. You could just ride home from work and take your time, or you could start by riding to a train/bus station with its own bikeshare rack that's 1-2 miles closer to work than the one you normally get on. As long as there's a station around you don't have to worry about locking up either.
posted by Ndwright at 8:34 AM on May 18, 2013
This thread is closed to new comments.
posted by polkadot at 10:28 AM on May 17, 2013 [1 favorite]