Suggestion 6: Food as Reward, Exercise as Punishment

First, I want to make certain everyone knows I am no nutrition or exercise expert.  There are so many sources out there for proper diet and exercise; information is not what is lacking.  What I want to share are some things we’ve learned in the past three years that we didn’t anticipate.  I’ll start with eating, more specifically, eating out.

It’s a sad truth that I cannot suggest a single restaurant with healthy foods.  The salad bar at Whole Foods may be an exception, but I hardly characterize the place as a restaurant.  Of course, most people I know add so much salad dressing to their salad it becomes a high calorie bomb.  We have made a conscious effort to reduce sugar and salt in our diets, and as a consequence, are much more sensitive to the taste when it is present in large quantities.  That pretty much includes every place we visit.  So, we rarely eat out anymore.  Not only did we not anticipate this, we actively planned eating out more often in retirement.  When we were working, eating out was something we gave ourselves as a reward--- less work, great quantities of good tasting food, and no dishes!  We were certain in retirement we would be able to find the great lunch deals at area restaurants, and we did…for about 6 months.  Slowly, we began to realize we made better food at home.  For less.  And enjoyed it more. 

The point is eating out was something we had enjoyed while working, and we assumed in retirement all the things we enjoyed would be replayed even more frequently.  But we enjoyed it because of the break more than the food.  It is rare now that one of our meals is rushed.  Oh, we still eat too fast---bad habits die slowly---but we have plenty of time to cook, eat, and clean up now.  The enjoyment we used to find in eating out has been replaced by even more fun fixing foods we like and are much more nutritionally sensible.  I look more forward to experimenting with menus than eating most restaurant food.  It would have helped me if I’d known this in advance.  Maybe some of you will learn from our experience and look forward to having the time to prepare foods without resorting to prepackaged, less healthy items.  Think about television commercials on supper entrees; the selling point is not health/taste; it’s how few minutes it takes!  You will have plenty of minutes to fix a better supper!

I know a lot of jobs involve a great deal of sitting, but I never had one.  I never wore a pedometer to measure steps in a day, but there were a bunch!  Retirement requires exercise to replace those steps.  And, you’ve got to be pretty passionate about it.  Our exercise consists of walking, and we chose Murfreesboro in part because of the excellent greenways for walking. 

The point is retirement is the chance to start making your health your focus, instead of working it in when the job allows.  I never knew I could enjoy exercise like I do.  I always saw it simply as a means to an end, a necessary evil.  It was something I did to my body to justify bad calories.  Now, I truly look forward to our morning walks.  As a consequence, we've lost weight and are healthier.

So, just walk if nothing else.  While you’re planning great things for your kitchen, plan also to exercise.  Don’t wait.  Just plan to walk everyday.  If you’re a runner, that’s great.  If you can do weight work, that’s great.  When people ask me what I do now, I tell them I walk for a living.  Basically, it’s the only activity we require of ourselves.  Of course, exercise should be a part of life before retirement, but there are always distractions and busy schedules that can interfere.  My father-in-law is 92 and exercises 45-60 minutes everyday.  It’s no surprise his heart is so strong!

It’s ironic, but I now view exercise as a reward and most restaurant food as punishment!