Health

I'm 42 years old as I write this. I feel every creak in my bones these days. When I was eighteen, I never creaked at all! I've seen a lot of good people leave this world, some as young as 10 years old, others 90 going on 25. Some never even had a chance at all.

Death and serious illness or incapacity will snap your head around, and put life in sharp relief for you: all the money in the world cannot substitute for your health, or the health of those you love. I have had some close calls on both counts; some we won, some we lost. I cannot tell you how much it would mean to me for my father to know my daughters, and to enjoy them growing up before our eyes.

Health is the most important of the three pillars. It's like the bottom of Maslow's hierarchy. Without your health, everything else that you do or gain will seem trivial.

Input

Your fitness depends mainly on two things: input and output. Everything you put in your body is a drug. Or more accurately, everything is a chemical. We tend to think of drugs as artificial chemicals and food as healthy plants and animals, but in this age of processing, the difference is not as great as you think. In the end, it's all fuel for your body to consume, one way or the other- directly into your bloodstream, through the skin (like sunlight, which breaks down Vitamin D), or via the digestive tract. Choose wisely what you put into it.

Mary and I saw a Las Vegas comedian once who asked, "If you eat a ton of broccoli, how much will you weigh? Answer: a ton." A vegetarian diet is no promise of healthy living. I've known plenty of overweight and/or malnourished vegetarians. There are many diet and fitness gurus out there, tons of books and Websites, and lots of mystery foods and supplements claiming to offer miraculous benefits. Be suspicious. Do your homework. Find sources you trust, and even check on them. It's pretty easy to stay away from cigarettes, alcohol, and recreational drugs. It's a lot harder to stay away from chocolate (ask me, I know!).

Output

The formula for weight loss is: burn more than you eat. That means exercise, if you've already put on some extra fat. But it does not have to mean a gym, or hours of running. Simple walking will do. In truth, input (diet) is much more vital than output. You can save yourself hours of time at the gym- time you could spend doing other things- if you will just eat sensibly. If you are eating maintenance-level calories (about 1,400 for women and 1,900 for men), then just walking for 15 minutes a day in sunlight can do wonders for you. Add a quick routine of push-ups, squats (no weights), and sit-ups, plus a minute of stretching, and you can tone while you lose weight, limber up, and build strength.

Skeptical? Try it. Those same exercises are what the Marines primarily use to train their recruits. And pro athletes like Herschel Walker never set foot in the weight room after becoming an NFL running back. But he did do 1,000 sit-ups, 3,000 push-ups, 500 squats, and ran 5 miles every day.