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Many other ways to keep fit

Re: Happy and healthy on my bike (Letters, July 17).

Editor, The News:

Tracey Eide, you may have been biking all of two years to lose weight and get fit, but my family has been biking in this community since 1979.

I have two avid mountain bikers in the family, and grandkids who keep fit by playing soccer, dancing, doing gymnastics and swimming.

My husband cycles regularly in the community and comments on the lack of cyclists on Abernethy Way.

Weeds, though, are plentiful.

We are spending a lot of money on a biking network for a limited number of people, mostly because jobs and family requirements restrict the time parents have available to them.

Not everyone has the ability, nor the interest in riding a bike for shopping or leisure. There are many other ways of keeping fit.

Of course, I am not on Abernethy Way 24/7. I am too busy volunteering in my community with a wonderful group of seniors.

I am too busy working out at the gym with another wonderful group of seniors, all in their 60s, 70s and 80s, doing yoga, Pilates, aerobics and Zumba.

I am too busy hiking the local mountain trails, walking the dikes and, yes, my little cycling trips, too.

It is not seniors whose butts were glued to the Lazyboy. Most were too busy working and paying taxes.

Seniors spend countless hours volunteering in their communities and if they have medical needs, it’s not because they were lazy, or obese or drug addicted, like some of our young people today.

Two wars and many deprivations contributed to health problems many seniors face and we cannot alter that fact.

Enjoy your biking, but don’t presume to judge others by your own past bad habits. We all have to make our own way in this world and that includes deciding how we keep fit.

I will continue with all of my many activities, even my little bit of riding.

Joan Carr

Maple Ridge