A good friend of mine from high school and I work at the same software company in a suburb of Minneapolis. Since I got him the (desk) job about two years ago, he's managed to go from just a tall stocky guy to having a spare tire that he complains about all the time. I've been trying to get him to come riding with me, but he has a million and one excuses. For starters, he lives in what he considers to be a rough neighborhood that's a whopping 8 miles from the office as measured along very reasonable mostly back roads and residential streets. His claim is that the neighborhood is too dangerous to be biking through (BS in my opinion), the streets are too dangerous (it's possible to pick good routes, and there are also plenty of off-street paved bike trails on the main county roads), and he would have to get up so early. The next time he starts whining about his gut, I'll have to get leaning on him again or just tell him to save it for someone that's not already trying to help him.