What Does Your Physical Retirement Plan Look Like?
Will you be healthy enough to retire?
I just finished reading through a book written by a former client of mine Lynette Ritchie, titled: Idled Too Long: A Re-Engaging Health and RVing Adventure while simultaneously listening to the audiobook Outlive by Peter Attia (I know it’s a skill to do both ;)
One tells the story of how Lynette and her husband Tim transform their body and mind to such a state that puts them in a much healthier position, but more importantly, allows them to live their retired life on their terms. The other discusses how modern medical practice looks to treat the condition, whereas a more progressive practice focuses on preventing the condition entirely by changing the way we approach our lifestyle much earlier in life to ultimately live longer, but more importantly, live longer in better health and capacity.
Over the past 10 years I have heard the word retirement more than I ever did in years prior. Probably because I am getting closer to 50 and my wife keeps reminding me about it lol, but whenever the word “retirement” comes up in discussions with friends and family, it is always centered around financial positions (how much money do we need for retirement) or discussions about what people are planning to do when they retire (where to live or travel when they retire). However, no one ever discusses HOW they want to live “physically” when they retire.
“I want to retire at age 55 and travel the world”!
What do you want it to be like at 55 when you travel the world? Do you want to carry 10–20lbs more weight than you’d like (or more) riding around European cities on a sight-seeing bus rather than feeling spritely and powering around those same cities with strength, endurance and enthusiasm, absorbing every ounce of what’s to offer?
Whether you travel on the bus or walk the streets of Europe, wouldn’t it be better to have options because you planned a physical retirement?
One thing I love so much about the story that Lynette told about her and her husband Tim’s journey was that it had very little to do with the weight loss change alone (and don’t get me wrong, that in and of itself was truly amazing) but it had so much more to do with HOW they wanted to live the remainder of their lives. By working on their body, they learned what needed to change (and stay changed) to create an everlasting health-span and lifespan. It was also about overcoming mental resistance, especially at the start, and being able to shed the years of self-doubt, self-sabotage, and less than desirable practices to truly understand what is needed to create and sustain change — but more specifically, they significantly decreased any limitations and exponentially increased their opportunities (insert mind blown emoji!).
In Outlive, one of the major components discussed was how long many of our major health problems take before becoming problematic. Heart Disease, Cancer, Diabetes and so on are not health conditions that JUST HAPPEN. They evolve over many years and for the most part are due to our contributing lifestyle behaviors. They are primarily caused by things we can control — our food, our activity and exercise, our environment, and our stressors. Areas in our lives we can make daily changes to that potentially mitigate the risk of any of these things ever happening.
But knowing that these conditions take years to develop into dangerous levels, doesn’t that give you insight into what could happen as we think about retirement age? Whether you are 25, 35, 45, 55 or older, knowing that there are things you have been doing or will continue to do that could wreak havoc on you 20–30 years from now should be pretty compelling, as well as knowing that by making changes today will also have a ripple effect on your health but in a positive manner, should also be as compelling. The decision then becomes, what do you want that future point in time to look like?
For me, I am always conscious of this, not only for the future health implications of my lifestyle behaviors, but more to do with HOW I want to live. I am not as concerned with when I want to retire as much as I am about wanting to retire strong and agile, capable of moving in ways without limitations. I want the ability to explore the streets of Europe, travel across the US, or play with my grandkids without feeling that I need a week to recover, or having to say “I can’t, I am too old” — which really means “I can’t, I have put my health in such a way over the years that I can’t handle what I wish I could do.”
What does your physical retirement plan look like?
Do you want to only have enough money to survive 5 years of retirement or 30+ years? The same goes for your health and fitness. Do you want retire and know you only have 5 years at most to live the best years of your life before you can’t keep up or would you prefer to say that you are healthy enough to last 30+ years AND do all the things physically you’d like? Again, whether you do or do not, I know I’d rather have the option.
A quick fix mentality surrounds us and as someone who has been in the fitness field for over 25 years, I can attest that there is NOT ONE quick fix method that has worked. Even today, we are surrounded by diets, workouts and pharmaceutical approaches that claim to be a quick fix — have we not learned our lesson on this? I could argue the same thing about get rich quick schemes and again, how many of those work…zero!
If I were to ask you whether you’d like to lose 20lbs in the next year but gain it all back and spend the rest of your life battling this same issue time and time again OR whether you’d like to lose 20lbs over the next 5 years but keep it off for the rest of your life AND be stronger, leaner, better endurance and lower health risks, what would you choose?
Would 5 years of your life now be worth 30 years of exponential opportunities when you have all the time in the world?
Dr. Dan Dodd is an Exercise Science professional and Coach for BSL Nutrition. Dan is an avid writer on nutrition, exercise, metabolism and body composition. If you’d like to receive more stories, subscribe to get these stories and more.
