I Want To Ride My Bicycle. I Want To Ride My Bike.

One step you can take right this minute is to prepare your body physically for retirement. If you already have an exercise habit in place, good for you! Keep it up!

I have had times in my life where I exercised consistently. The last few years has not been one of those times however. I get about 30 minutes of walking in 3 times a week due to my commute downtown, but I hardly feel like this qualifies as exercise (although sometimes my Fitbit disagrees).

Both Jeff and I knew this needed to change. We needed to get in better shape so that we can hit retirement running! Well, maybe not literally running -- neither of us finds running enjoyable at all. Even when I was in shape I did not enjoy running; feels more like torture than anything. And running on a treadmill?! Forget about it!

Now that being said, if you are a runner, please don't take offense that I find running boring. I am sure there are plenty of other things I do in life that you would find boring as well.

Did you know that only one in four people between the ages of 65 and 74 exercises regularly? Many people assume that they are too out of shape to start. Or maybe they feel they are too sick, or too tired, or just too old to exercise.

My parents are avid exercisers; especially my mom. When she was still working she would be on the bike path walking at 5 am before work. After she retired she continued to walk 4 miles a day -- even on the beach in the winter! - and then rode an indoor bike to top it off. It allowed them to remain mobile and do things many of their friends were not able to do. As years went on they were the only ones in their group of friends that could still walk on the beach. They became the friends that drove people to cemeteries. Sadly, their friends would watch from the car as my parents would put flowers on their loved ones graves because they just couldn't do it physically.

They are now in their 80s and still go to the YMCA several times a week to ride bikes. Which type of older person do you want to be? The one who sits in the car or the one who walks on the beach?

Exercise is good for people of any age. It can help make you stronger, prevent bone loss, improve your balance and coordination, keep you flexible, lift your mood, boost your memory, and ease the symptoms of many chronic conditions.  A lot of the symptoms that we think are due to old age are actually symptoms of inactivity. It really can help you maintain your independence and your way of life. If you stay strong and keep moving, you'll be more able to keep doing thing you enjoy and less likely to need help. My parents are perfect examples of this.

Jeff and I have done the gym scene before. We both have busy lives and Jeff works long days so adding in drive time plus workout time just wasn't realistic for us. We had a treadmill in our basement for years collecting dust. We also have a weight bench and other strength training items in the basement which Jeff uses occasionally, but not consistently. I also have a collection of Leslie Sansone walking DVDs as well as the PiYo collection. None of this motivates us.

Last summer for our birthdays we bought outdoor bikes. We really enjoy bike riding but both agreed that we would enjoy it more if we were in better shape. As we looked at exercise options, bike riding was a top contender. And then we saw the Peloton commercial.

Peloton is like having a private indoor cycling studio in your home. It is a indoor bike with a giant screen in the front. They stream live classes every day from their NYC studio. Don't want to take a live class? There are thousands of recorded studio cycling classes available 24-hours a day. It is like being in a group class, but yet private. It is expensive, but no more expensive than a gym membership. Plus they have more than cycling classes available. There is strength training, stretching, yoga, and meditation as well.

This bike has been a life changer for us. I have never been so excited about exercise before! I actually look forward to my workout each day. We did not put the bike in our basement with the other lonely fitness equipment -- we wanted it in our faces and part of our daily life rather than being banned to the dungeon to work out. It sits in our front room surrounded by windows with a view of our garden.

I seriously hate exercise, but I now look forward to getting home and getting a workout in. Jeff gets up earlier in the morning to get his workout in. I have only missed one day in 18 days.

We consider this an investment in our retirement. It is going to put us in a better physical place when that day comes so that we can continue to go out and do the things we enjoy.

I welcome your comments below. What are you doing to keep healthy?

It's Never Too Early to Start

I came home one day recently with several books from the library all related to retirement. It's not unusual for me to come home with a pile of books and stack them on our island. We typically eat our meals at our island but now that it is just the two of us, we only need half of it, so the other half tends to collect things like mail and library books. 

During dinner that night (or maybe a few nights later?), I caught Jeff's gaze as it paused on the books. He looked at me and asked, "Is there something you'd like to tell me?" I wasn't sure what he meant. He asked if I was being let go at work, or perhaps we had won the lottery and I forgot to tell him. I laughed and said, "No, silly, it's just never too early to start planning." His response was, "Evelyn, you are only 53... you know that, right?"

I'm not sure how the retirement bug got in my ear, but there it was. I found myself thinking about what our life would be like and what we would be like as retired people. And then I got the little panic in my belly about how fast the last working years were going to go... in a blink of an eye that time is going to fly by and there we will be with no plan in sight. It reminds me of a time long ago when I was nearing the end of my pregnancy and I suddenly had this frantic urge to get everything in order. Nesting, I believe it is called. 

Don't get me wrong, we have a financial plan in place. We have a financial planner that we meet with yearly to make sure we are on track. Money is not what my panic is about. It is bigger than that. It is about what we want our life to be like when we retire. What do we want to do? Where do we want to be? When do we want to do it? So many questions!

I am a planner. Some might say I am little obsessive about planning. Let's just say there have been a few trips to Walt Disney World with a notebook in place that included a timeline. Yes, maybe that was a little structured and inflexible... and yes, maybe a little obsessive... but who never needed to wait in line more than 20-30 minutes for rides? Hmmmmm? 

My point is that if I take the planning for a trip that seriously, how can I not take planning for Phase 2 of my life just as seriously? I don't want to wake up one day as a retired person finding herself sleeping to noon, spending most of her days in comfy clothes watching countless hours of Netflix. I want to make my retirement years sparkle. I want to launch into retirement with great anticipation and an even greater plan in place. I want to be in charge of my retirement, making it to be just like I imagine (within financial reason, of course). 

I am in the very earliest stages of this process. Toes just in the water a bit. Jeff is on board, but mostly along for the ride at this point. I have opened a few books, done a bit of research of locations, and started a retirement board on Trello (more on that later). Today it dawned on me -- there must be more of people like me out there. People in their 50s (or younger!) who are starting to think about those golden years and how to make sure they are golden. And then this blog was born.

Thanks for visiting my blog and I hope to see you here again soon. I not only welcome comments below, but I encourage them!