Around 275 days ago, I made the biggest life changing decision ever. Sell my car and buy a bicycle. Why? To lose weight, make a huge change in my life and have an exciting story to tell.

What a ride it’s been so far. I wish that I could tell you exactly how many miles I’ve ridden. You would think someone like me who loves quantification would do that, but I don’t have a computer for my bike yet. I would say that I average about 6 miles per day, six days a week.

It also happens to be National Bike Month. I’m celebrating with 30 days of biking and a slew of other people on Facebook. If you’ve thought about going by bike, this handy interactive chart will show you how much you can save by doing so: Go by bike challenge.

1 mile of riding equals 15 cents saved in gas. It also results in burning 47 calories.

Why is riding a bike so important?

For me, it’s about health and longevity. Living a hard life now so that I can live a longer life in the future.

Did you know that South Carolina, specifically the 29203 zip code has the highest concentration of diabetes in the United States?

For overweight people, the cost of health care is rising. It affects everyone that we know.

As an overweight person, cycling was the easiest, low impact sport, besides swimming that I could do. I’ve also started walking five miles every day, but even that is still a killer on my knees.

I’m not saying that you should do like me and give up your car for good, but maybe you’ll choose a different mode of transportation once a week?