A great gift of health
“I love that I am exercising as soon as I step out of the door, I can use biking as a means to do other things – buy groceries, go to local shops and places, commute to work. Other forms of exercise are harder to work into my daily life.”
—Vishakha Parvate, Product Owner – Edge
GlobalEnglish, Brisbane, CA
Vishakha knew she should be exercising to maintain her good health, and over the years she tried many different types of exercise. But she could never stick with it, and never attained her goal of exercising at least 3 hours a week.
Then, in the summer of 2011, her husband brought home a bike. And she discovered that she really enjoyed biking–so much that she found interesting ways to work it into her schedule. “We did an 8-month initiative where we bought groceries without using the car. We either walked or biked to the grocery store.”
After learning to ride a bike when she was a child, Vishakha had ridden some during graduate school. But starting with her husband’s gift in 2011, biking has become a big part of her life.
She even took part in a supported bike ride between Seattle, Washington, and Portland, Oregon.
“This was a 204-mile ride with 10,000 riders. Before this, the longest I’d ever ridden was 21 miles. I like to say that this was a ridiculous undertaking–but it was the only way to do the impossible. It was the hardest thing I’ve ever done physically, so it felt great when I finished, standing up and smiling!”
The rest of the family likes biking, too. Her husband has been biking the 5 miles from home to work for the past 8 years, and their son bikes to his high school and to his after-school activities. They both joined Vishakha on the ride from Seattle to Portland. Family togetherness has never been so much fun—or so healthy!