Easier with a 9 to 5 job than trying to make a go of it in Silicon Valley.
The Captain
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Not half so easy as coming up with excuses
It was my 45th wedding anniversary this past Saturday (spent the weekend in Vail struggling with exercise at nearly 9000āā¦but getting it done anyway). We actually met and started dating in 1975ā¦at the time when dh was still a junior hospital doctor and his work week was about 120 hrs or more. He managed to stay in shape well enough to continue to play rugby in the winter and cricket and tennis in the summerā¦ schedule permitting. Additionally, didnāt eat/drink in such a way that packed on the pounds/predisposed him to metabolic syndrome etc etc. Ditto myselfā¦although demands on my time werenāt quite the same, my work week was a long way from regular 9-5 hrs.
As they say, if someoneās doing it ā¦ itās doable
Easier in Silicon Valley ā¦ the gym is right on your work campus and is free! Also there are 4 different restaurants, each with high quality and healthful selections. Also free, or close to free.
#maybejustoldsiliconvalley
My work campus was a townhouse I rented, no gym. 
The Captain
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Soā¦zero travel time, no colleagues/campus chefs laying on free tasty food, stairs (presumably) a few heavy objects to lift and carry. All the ingredients for an active enough lifestyle without the inconvenience of stepping through the front door. The āwayāā¦just lacking the āwillā
Peter Attia has a concept of The Centenarian Decathlonā¦a revised title from The Centenarian Olympics. Per one of his podcasts, he did the switcheroo because it appeared that too many folk assumedā¦without readingā¦that he meant doing Olympic style running and jumping etc at age 100 and beyond. He does not. Rather he focuses on the activities of daily living that an individual would want to do in their āmarginal decadeāā¦the last 10 years before they die. Maybe those of us with a good few years on Attia might want to be planning for the last 5.
As Wendy mentioned upstream, he advocates this sort of future proofing beginning at least in the 40s-50s but he started his specific cardiovascular disease prevention in his 30s. Recognising a strong family historyā¦his father and uncles all suffered heart attacks at an early age (only his dad survived) ā¦ he pushed for a Coronary Artery Calcium scan. He had a score of 6. On first blush ā¦ at least, for those of us with scores well into triple digitsā¦this doesnāt look too bad. Except this was at age 35 or so and, since calcification is a relatively late stage event in the disease process, it demonstrated an early start on a progressive disease process.
He started an aggressive lipid lowering regimenā¦tweaks to his lifestyle and statinsā¦and a recent CAC scan plus CT angio showed zero progression on that disease. Heās added PCSK9 inhibitors for further LDL-C reduction.
Along with a couple of cardiology related websites, I credit Attiaās podcasts for alerting me to the fact that my āmildly elevatedā LDL-C (120-130 isnāt actually considered mildly elevated any longer) wasnāt the innocuous bystander my primary care physicians over the last 15 years or so suggested, that my high HDL and low triglycerides (both toggled around high 70s/low 80s) donāt have the health halo it was once believed and my longstanding healthy diet and exercise didnāt actually prevent the disease process ā¦ but Iām pretty sure has kept me above ground given the genetic hand Iāve been dealt.
As Attia oftentimes observes WRT the Four Horsemen of preventable, premature death, ASCVD is the most well understood with the knowledge base, diagnostic testing and therapeutic armamentarium to knock that disease right off the podium of the worldās leading killer/cause of morbidity (arguably worse?)