PUT YOUR MONEY WHERE YOUR MUSTACHE IS!

In December of 2016, the extremely popular FIRE writer, Mr. Money Mustache, published an article entitled, ‘Staying Fit With No Gym in Sight.’ Typical of his bluntly phrased snark, it opens with the following line. ‘If you look around on the streets, you might get the impression that it is really, really difficult to stay in shape beyond the age of 30.’ In the immortal words of Homer Simpson, ‘It’s funny because it’s true.’ Certainly no more so than in Homer’s case.

The general thrust of the article is that fitness ought to be an integrated part of one’s life and one certainly does not need a gym to attain any level of fitness. Quite the opposite actually. Pete then goes on to offer a brief, but solid primer on the general principles of fitness as well as a number of exercise ideas and closes with some suggested reading.

When this article was published I happened to be somewhere slightly shy of the 2-year mark from my planned retirement. While I was already aware of the points that were being made and wasn’t necessarily a stranger to fitness, what struck me most or, rather, piqued my motivating interest was thinking about the possibilities to vastly improve my physical and mental health once I stopped working and forever unshackled myself from my current lifestyle.

As regular readers know, my former life as a Fortune 500 executive had me traveling across the country on a weekly basis with my, predominately sedentary, time squandered in planes, hotels and boardrooms. The intensity of my position and the 60+ hour workweeks had, at this point, reeked an alarming cumulative toll upon my body and mind.

While I managed to walk at least 2 miles each day with about 6 hours of other physical activity on the weekend, my health was still at an all time low. Fortunately, the genetic lottery has always kept me reasonably thin, but at this point my suits were getting tight, my upper body muscles had become ill defined and there was most certainly some flab hideously jiggling about when I vigorously jumped up and down. Sadly, I had allowed the rich food served at business dinners and all that goddamned sitting to get the better of me. Left unchecked, a few more years on this glide path and I would, unquestionably, transform into a pathetic a sack of oatmeal like so many others around me.

As if the physical manifestation of my lifestyle was not enough, I was also experiencing other adverse side effects including severe, stress-induced night terrors. Cruelly, while I remained completely oblivious to these, it was Ms. Fate who suffered the fitful slumber and sleepless nights as I shrieked like some berserk banshee that thrashed and writhed until the early hours near dawn.

Other unsavory indicators presented themselves in the form of my annual blood panels and physical checkups. My lipid panel was still frightful, though had improved markedly since I began taking statin a few years prior. My blood pressure, which had remained low, was subject to massive spikes born by work-related stress, sleeplessness and all that rot.

My lifestyle was, literally, slowly and inexorably killing me.

The commitment I made to myself the day I read the article was that I’d ramp up my exercise as much as I could and change my diet while I was still working to get a bit of a head start. The other commitment was that once I was no longer working, I would embrace the lifestyle that I so very much desired. One characterized by a high level of physical fitness, a consistently sensible diet and high doses of tranquility. And once I stopped working, that was precisely the life I chose and pursued.

I have always agreed with Mr. Money Mustache’s notion of integrating fitness into your daily life. Now that I had the time, it was much easier to achieve. For example, I immediately let my gardener go and did the 2 hours per week of yard work myself. I would walk as much as possible for retail excursions. I did all of the painting, handyman tasks and all our home sale prep myself. It’s always baffled me why anyone who owns a home would ever pay for a gym membership, particularly if you hire out maid or landscaping services. Whatever.

I then began to spend nearly 4 hours per day outdoors engaged in all manner of non-domestic exercise including the daily walk, kayaking, hiking, strength and cardio training, etc. And on it went. Each and every day until the initial year had passed. Obviously, I could optically verify the retreat of the dreaded flab and the returning definition in my muscles. However, I was very interested to see what the annual blood panels and checkup would yield.

Sure enough, and for the first time in my entire life, all of my lipid levels were in the normal range. That was huge for me. Even better – every other of the seemingly zillion health metrics I was tested for showed marked, and in some cases, substantial improvement. It was clear, that there were very positive, very beneficial aspects to my new lifestyle.

By this time, I had started Fates On Fire and thought this would be another one of my experiments like my ‘Total Blackout,’ ‘Big Bookworm,’ or, most recently, ‘Working Muse‘ Projects. That said, one year and, in particular, one test could simply be a fluke. There needed to be more time. So, I figured I’d wait another year and see what occurred.

Like other elements of our life, things really intensified once I moved to the rural hamlet here in Neverwhere, WA. It’s an amazing outdoor paradise where one can conceivably stay active every waking hour throughout the year. The challenge for the outdoors enthusiast is what activity to choose on any given day. On top of that, having a new home and living on 25 acres comes with all manner of physical-based chores.

I am now, generally, out of doors 6 hours per day what with chores, projects around the place and all my outdoor activities. Like I did during the 1^st year of retirement in So. Cal, we continue to cook every meal at home and I have been eating a much more clean and healthy diet than those dark days of endless business dinners. Furthermore, the benefit of the psychological arbitrage I experience in the new environment has provided me with a high degree of mental health, peaceful slumber and an infinite reduction of overall stress.

Earlier this week, I received the results of my annual blood panel and checkup and guess what? Yep, all the metrics are still where they were a year ago and a few improved incrementally. My clothes fit looser, my muscles are visibly defined and, best of all, there is zero flab to jiggle when I jump up and down.

That said, I do not possess a Mustashian-level of hubris that would allow me to be photographed shirtless while I am working out with glistening muscles on full display, nor the temerity to publish such a picture in my article (as was the case in MMM’s post), so you’re just going to have to take my word for it.

All levity aside, I am proud that this quasi ‘Total Fitness Project’ of mine has been a success. The personal challenge is to continue to maintain or, even, improve the results year after year after year. It’s nice to actually be living a lifestyle that is improving the quality and duration of my life rather than one that is quietly killing me each day.

HOW ABOUT YOU?

Have you ever changed your lifestyle to improve your health? Are you working and maintain a healthy lifestyle? How do you make it happen? If not, what are some of your aspirations to perhaps change that? In any event, I’d love to hear from you.