Optimize Your Money And Health By Becoming A Robot

Last week I posted about the stellar year my business had in 2020.  This post is about how I became a robot in the same year.

When COVID plowed into our lives and most states instituted some level of stay at home orders last March, I lost the one fitness activity I look forward to the most – my cycling group rides. 

But I sure as hell wasn’t going to stop riding my bike. As the data have clearly shown beyond a shadow of a doubt, keeping a normal, healthy weight and getting plenty of vitamin D are two of the best things you can do to prevent a case of COVID from becoming serious. 

My weight was fine when shutdowns started but it started inching up in April and May.  It fluctuated all year, but I ended the year more or less where I started, at 168 pounds. 

Most importantly I got my miles in, both cycling and running.  And I did that by becoming a robot.

 

Ha Ha Car, You Lose!

Back in 2018 I proudly posted about the first year that I rode more miles on my bike than I drove.  In 2019 it really came down to the wire, but cycling won out again, by only 146 miles.

How about 2020?  Haha, it wasn’t even a competition.  I rode my bikes 5463 miles, and drove my car 1671 miles.  To put it in perspective I cycled a little bit further than the great circle distance from Washington D.C. to Ankara, Turkey.

 

It was a slaughter!!  I traveled under carbon-free human power more than 3 times the distance than I did using a car.

And that makes three years in a row my cycling miles have beaten out my driving miles.  I feel I’m not only doing the best thing for my health and finances, I’m also doing my part to help keep auto pollution down.  Here’s a look at my activity tracker for 2020 

Yes of course COVID was the reason for the super-low driving miles this year, no secret there.  My trips to visit family were sparse, and even though I took a number of road trips for fun they all stayed within a few hour drive. 

Ironically, the number of shopping trips I took on my bike actually went down a little.  I normally get groceries by bike, but with COVID I wanted to have fewer trips to the store.  And that meant getting a crap-ton of food each time, which necessitated the car. 

On one trip to Aldi I spent $245 which was a personal record.  That’s a lot of chow for a single guy. 

 

The Robot Part

How did I become a robot?  I’m normally a person that gravitates towards routines.  I like forming habits, good ones obviously.  In 2020 I put that trait on steroids. 

Starting in March every week pretty much entailed 4 cycling days, 2 run days, and a weight lifting day.  I rarely missed any of them.  I basically programmed them into my mother board and ran the program all year.

My year in running was stellar as well.  I was able to contain my hamstring tendinitis and had my biggest mileage year running since 2015 with 411 miles.  If you’re a serious runner you’re probably laughing at that piddly amount, but I averaged almost 8 miles a week between two runs and I’m happy with that. 

Wanna see how robotic things got?  Here’s a look at my Strava Calendar which has all of my activities.  By mileage:

 

How’s that for consistency?  Yes I slacked off a tad in December, and in January I was ice climbing twice.  Besides those two months I hovered near 500 miles every month. 

I executed those lines of code to perfection.  Robotic.

 

It Matters

What does this have to do with my money?  Lots. 

Overall it was a challenging year, obviously.  The pandemic and lock downs stressed many of us to new levels.  And if you read my blog you know that stress, depression, loneliness, and anxiety all affect how we spend and what we spend on. 

It’s easy and natural to gravitate towards spending in hard times when you feel like things are out of control.  Because buying things makes you feel in control.  And these days with one-click buying you can have anything on your doorstep in two days or less. 

Maintaining good fitness helps prevent that from happening because it keeps your brain in shape.  Your brain is part of your body after all (duh), and let’s be clear – there’s no argument in the scientific or medical community that the more healthy and fit your body is, the more your brain will be.  The evidence is irrefutable.

So in late March when it was clear the virus wasn’t going anywhere and that it would be a tough year, I hunkered down.  I said to myself “…this is it, no excuses. You will stay fit this year because your brain will demand it. Now goooo!” 

And I programmed my robot self to do so.

 

Retail Therapy Go Away

I’ve been known to use retail therapy in the past.  Most of us have I’m sure.

And yes I got down and depressed in 2020 sometimes.  

But when I felt bad I avoided the trap of going online and buying something to make myself feel better (except maybe once…). 

Because hey, I had a ride or run to do that day.  And robots do what they’re programmed to do.