CPA Gone Mad Issue 5: January 2, 2017
Happy New Year!
As I mentioned last week, we’ll get back to finance and investing next week. I don’t like to pay attention to the markets and news during the holidays. It’s all too frustrating and negative. The holidays are about being happy and joyful.
That being said, I couldn’t stay completely away. If you don’t want to listen to me talk about maintaining a healthy lifestyle, here are some articles for you to read.
Last week I posted an article on LinkedIn about all the coverage I’ve been seeing about the Dow getting close to 20,000. And how it’s nonsense.
Yesterday I read an article about how President-elect Trump is anything but an outsider and is exactly what the elites wanted. I agree with this and it’s one of the reasons I don’t believe the incoming President can prevent a financial crisis in the near future.
Finally, before getting into today’s main topic, this morning there was an article on the WSJ.com about setting and keeping your personal finance resolutions. This article touches on some key points that I think are important and in line with my discussion today. Don’t focus on the end goal, focus on the reasons behind why you want to achieve the goal and the process of getting there.
Don’t make a New Year’s resolution to work out and eat healthy. Make a commitment to changing your mentality toward living a healthy life.
Tomorrow everyone is back to work. I’m hoping you all had a great holiday and happy New Year. If you’re like me, you ate some good food. You might have even drank a little too much. This is the day many people begin setting New Year’s resolutions about working out, eating healthy, or just dieting.
Stop doing this.
You’re setting yourself up for failure. I’ve heard in the past that by mid-February, gym memberships are going to waste. I don’t know if that’s true, but from personal experience, I know gyms are packed in January. And by March there’s a lot less people.
Focus on changing your mentality and lifestyle. Don’t set a New Year’s resolution where you stick to some strict workout regimen or dieting program. Don’t set some lofty weight loss goal to achieve by some unrealistic time frame. Doing these things just puts you in a cycle of ups and downs. And leaves you each New Year’s Day wanting and needing to set a New Year’s resolution for working out and dieting again.
If New Year’s resolutions for working out and dieting worked, why would you need to set one every year? Living a healthy lifestyle is about maintaining. Not maintaining some strict workout regimen or diet. But maintaining a lifestyle that’s 80% be healthy, 20% enjoy your life.
I know this from personal experience. Right now, I’m 5’11” about 170 pounds. I have a bit of a gut but am in decent shape and happy with where I’m at. I’ve touched 240-250 pounds on two separate occasions. I’ve been down to 156 pounds at the lowest I can remember. And I’ve gone between 180 and 200 more times than I can count.
This wasn’t healthy. I used to drink a lot, which led to eating bad foods. And hangovers would lead to not working out. I’d find myself getting larger and larger and was disgusted with myself.
I’d then go on a strict diet and work out nonstop for 90 days. I’d lose a ton of weight and feel great about myself. But then I’d get burnt out. Slowly stop working out and creeping back to bad foods because the strictness of my diet and workouts wore me out.
Next thing you know, the 20-30 pounds I lost in 90 days was back on. Repeat the cycle.
I didn’t do this around New Year’s resolutions specifically, but it’s the same concept. Get fat and then set a goal to reduce weight and work out. Do it for a period of time and then relapse.
Finally, I got tired of this. I realized there had to be a better way to sustain this healthy lifestyle. That’s when it hit me. I was not living a healthy lifestyle. I was living a never-ending cycle of terrible lifestyle and dieting lifestyle. Neither of which is truly healthy.
The strict diet and workout regimens are not sustainable. And by being so strict on myself, I caused myself more stress, which is very unhealthy.
That’s when I remembered the Pareto principle, otherwise known as the 80/20 rule: 80% of the effects come from 20% of the causes. In business this is interpreted to mean that you get 80% of your results from only 20% of your top priorities, so focus on those 20%. Well, I applied a little unconventional twist on this to my healthy lifestyle.
I would be strict about working out and eating very healthy 80% of the time; 20% of the time I wouldn’t. The 80% of the time I was strict would be enough to continue to maintain and keep me healthy. The 20% of the time I’d waver would be enough to keep me feeling joy and happiness with what I was doing, since the 20% really felt like I was living this way 80% of the time.
Let me use an example and see if this is something you can maintain. First with food.
Most people eat three meals a day, or 21 meals a week. That’s 17 healthy meals and four eat-whatever-you-want meals. Choose whatever four meals you want. For me, those are Friday dinner, Saturday dinner, Sunday breakfast, and Sunday lunch.
Monday through Friday, I’m in a routine of going to work, so it’s easy to stick to healthy eating for me. But by Friday night, I want to eat whatever I want. Saturday morning I like to work out, so eating healthy Saturday for breakfast and then lunch is easy for me too.
But then Saturday night, I like to go out for dinner. And Sunday morning, I like a nice big breakfast. And if I’m watching football on Sundays, I may want something a little off the healthy wagon. Come Sunday night, I’m switching back into my work routine, so it’s easy for me to eat healthy.
This works for me. You need to figure out what works for you. By sticking to eating healthy 80% of the time, I’m staying healthy overall. By not worrying about it 20% of the time, it makes me feel like I’m not being strict or dieting at all.
And here’s the secret. When you eat healthy 80% of the time, the other 20% of your meals end up not being as bad. Yes, I eat whatever I want, but I tend to want fish instead of steak. A delicious sandwich with grilled meat and vegetables over a fast-food hamburger. Or a large vegetable omelet with avocado over a pancakes and bacon.
By not dieting and rather changing your mentality, you can have long-lasting, healthy eating habits.
Now for exercise. Using the 80/20 rule, the week is divided into about 5.5 workout days and 1.5 non-workout days. I round down: Five workout days and two non-workout days. And for the five workout days, I break it into three higher-level workouts and two light cardio workouts.
As I mentioned above, I like to work out on Saturday. I don’t like to work out on Sunday or on Monday morning. So I created my schedule around that. I do solid workouts on Tuesday, Thursday, and Saturday, and on Wednesday and Friday I do light cardio.
I don’t do some crazy, hour-long, hard-core workout either. I do 30 minutes of nonstop, full-body exercises. There are many great programs out there to help with this. Turbulence Training if you’re a beginner. T25 or P90X3 if you’re an expert. Don’t think you need to do these every day either. Three days a week is fine.
Then on Wednesday and Friday, I walk for 30 minutes. Or do the elliptical or bike in the gym. I can always find this 30 minutes. And if I do skip a day, it’s the light cardio day. I don’t skip the harder workout. I never feel guilty about skipping the light cardio workout either. I think of it as optional. But by doing the three other workouts consistently, I’m motivated to want to do the cardio workouts.
By changing your mentality and not following some strict exercise routine, you can have long-lasting, enjoyable exercise routines.
This is what I did. Now I enjoy working out. I enjoy eating healthy. Because I don’t really feel like I’m doing anything special. Since 20% of the time I don’t worry about what I’m doing, it makes it feel like 80% of my life is very enjoyable.
Then vacations and holidays. Live a little. Don’t worry about your food or your exercise. But I bet if you began doing this and sustaining it for a while, you won’t be as bad on vacation as you were in the past.
So don’t set a New Year’s resolution to diet or work out that you fail to meet in two months. Change your mentality and lifestyle so you can be healthy consistently while still enjoying your life.
Here’s to an amazing 2017!
To your health, wealth, and personal freedom,
Chad A. Walker, CPA, MBA