The most valuable investment of all?
We tend to focus on money. Work harder, work more, earn more, save more, invest more.
All well and good, but if you’re not careful you could end up financially independent in the hospital or the ground (and no longer financially independent if you’re in the hospital for too long).
The best insurance policy may well be a healthy lifestyle, but it’s easier said than done. Unfortunately while I find saving and investing fairly easy, I struggle to exercise and eat well.
I have to say I hesitated to write this post. Not only am I not an expert, I have pretty much failed to follow the advice I set out here. I guess there is a chance going over it will help me do better in the future. Hopefully we’ll also get some good advice in the comments.
Eating
Eating is the foundation. `You can’t outrun a bad diet’, they say. And when you realize that you would have to run ten miles just to burn off a tasty Sasebo Burger with fries and a soda, you can see how true that is.
Fortunately for most of us, we live in Japan, where relatively healthy food is easy and cheap to find, where portion sizes are reasonable, and where most people around you are relatively slim and healthy.
Very different to the UK and the US.
The other good thing is that a healthy diet can be cheaper than an unhealthy one, helping us get ever closer to our financial goals.
In no particular order, here are some things you can do to make your diet healthier:
- Don’t eat until you are full. The ‘hara hachi bu’ (80% full) rule will result in better health by reducing overeating.
- Chew more. This makes it easier to digest and makes you take longer to finish your food, giving your brain a chance to realise you are full.
- Eat less meat. Meat is great, but for health, cost, and environmental reasons we might be better off eating it a few times a week rather than with every meal.
- Eat fermented things. Natto, kimchee, yoghurt are good for your gut bacteria.
- Drink a lot of water. No calories, keeps you hydrated, reduces hunger, free. What’s not to like? If like me you don’t like tap water, get one of these. I actually like the water it makes better than bottled water.
- Eat more protein and fat (focus on healthy fats like olive oil, nuts, etc.). They make you feel more full (satiated) which helps you eat fewer calories overall.
- Reduce the amount of sugar and simple carbohydrates (like white bread) you eat. Simple carbs basically get turned into sugar in your stomach.
- Try intermittent fasting: the basic idea is that you skip one meal (normally either breakfast or dinner) in order to ‘fast’ a bit every day. You try to do all your eating in a single eight-hour (or six-hour) period each day.
- Cook more at home. Food in restaurants contains more salt, fat, and sugar in order to make it more tasty. Food from convenience stores contains all sorts of stuff to keep it looking fresh. You can avoid both of these and save money by making food from fresh ingredients at home.
- Use smaller plates. You can trick yourself into eating smaller portions.
How about you? Anything to add to this list of food/eating tips? I’ll be doing exercise in a future post, so please keep your exercise tips until then 🙂
Great advice, pretty much perfect, but is there anyone else actually doing this? If anyone wants any feedback on how this works in reality, I’m happy to help.
I’m vegan, 67, never get sick, and I finish dinner at 6:00pm and don’t eat again until noon. I also fast on Sunday, and only have a smoothie for dinner. Extra Hint: a TRX Suspension Trainer is the perfect exercise complement to the diet.
Happy Trails,
Steve
You are way more disciplined than I am!
How long have you been vegan? And how did you manage it in Japan? Seems like you’d basically have to only ever eat food you make yourself.
Howdy…I’ve been a vegetarian since 1969 and a vegan for the last 17 years. Yep, hard to eat out, I bake my own bread, use Tengu and iHerb to order stuff online, and do my own cooking. Easy, though…
Cut out carbonated drinks totally as they basically just poison. I don’t think they even hydrate you effectively. Cut the sugar from your tea/coffee and drink water every day. I recommend the filters too. I use one and I have a few water bottles that I take with me when I go places. Saves money, better for the environment and less temptation to buy soda.
Great point. I’ll still have a coke with a burger or pizza once in a blue moon, but otherwise just drink water or black coffee 🙂
Very true. Sitting at home tweaking target retirement incomes is all a bit moot if you end up with a preventable debilitating illness or early death. Might as well have just splurged it all on more immediate pleasures in that case.
I’m not sure I agree on your focus on eating. Eating and exercise are probably equally important. As a species we evolved to move. I’m doing much better with the exercise than the eating, myself.
I think we have a problem in the west (and even in Japan but not to the same extent) that exercise is something that should be done at some point, rather than a normal everyday thing. We should have a more holistic approach to exercise. Rather than “Having to go to the gym”, and thus never going, build exercise into the daily routine so it’s something that just happens and requires no discipline. Cycling to work is something that just gets done. “Going for a run” gets put off forever.
With an office job I’m finding this pretty tough although I use muscle power for the commute unless it’s raining in the morning. For me that’s a 1 hour walk / 30 min run (home, no showers at work) / 20 min cycle twice a day.
I don’t have a car, but if you do you can avoid a slippery slope by having rules of thumb like no car for distances of less than 5k. For longer journeys without much luggage, don’t go all the way – leave time to walk/cycle the last few kilometres.
I’m still trying to work out how to apply this to food. Ideally I want making and eating healthy food to just be a part of my lifestyle, but at the moment the time required, lack of experience cooking in general and no idea of what to buy/make means I’m eating way too much takeaway and conbini food and probably paying for it with my health in the long term (confirmed by higher than ideal cholesterol readings). Hmm golden week lifestyle improvement plan maybe?
Well, that takes care of next week’s blog post then 😉
I think the key with the food thing is what Alan Carr wrote about in his Easyway book to quit smoking. When people quit smoking they shouldn’t try to cut down or feel that they are going without, they shouldn’t rely on willpower as that fails. They need to make the mind switch where they just don’t want to smoke, it’s disgusting, you don’t need it. I have to try and remind myself all the time, but basically I do enjoy eating healthy food more than I enjoy eating rubbish. I still have a big problem with over eating, especially bread etc.. and of going off the rails, but what I’m aiming to do is to convince myself that I really only want to eat healthy food.
That is a really good point. That is actually how I gave up smoking 13 years ago… I just decided one day that I wasn’t going to smoke any more.
Have to see if it works with overeating 🙂
One thing that might be worth a special mention is alcohol.
Japan has a pretty big drinking culture, and the bars, restaurants, and night life are pretty great too. Add to that the fact that many expats come here alone and need opportunities to bond with new colleagues or develop a new social circle…
It depends on your own situation and predilection of course, but I personally found my alcohol consumption rose dramatically after I moved to Japan. That’s something that can be detrimental to your health and your wallet at the same time!
Absolutely! I’m lucky in that I’m an antisocial social drinker… only have alcohol a few times a year 🙂
+1 on the increase of alcohol consumption once in Japan. I experienced it, and also experienced a dramatic cut in it as soon as our family moved to the US. Then again, my social interactions dropped proportionally, and this impacted my happiness negatively in the US.
I’ll have to be moderate once back in Japan, but will not give up entirely on alcohol-based social interactions just to save a few bucks and a few years of life, it’s all about doing it moderately.
^^^ Agreed–moderation is the key. I think if you drink alcohol moderately then it will not even cost you a few years of your life. (According to some sources it may even prolong it!)
Have a good (and moderate!) Golden Week everyone!
Track what you eat, perhaps using an app (such as MyFitnessPal). For me, this is far more important than whichever diet I want to pursue.
I was in a hotel last night with a tabehoudai dinner and then a tabehoudai breakfast this morning. I really shouldn’t go to these places as I have no willpower when it’s all-inclusive!
Ah, those breakfasts 🙂
Did they have onsen eggs? That’s my benchmark for a good breakfast in Japan: onsen eggs, rice, and decent miso soup.
No onsen eggs, sadly.