Fit But Not Healthy, Wealthy But Not Rich
It was the fall of 2019 and I was firing on all cylinders. I was the lightest I had ever been in my adult life, my popping veins provided visual reminders of my well earned fitness. I had just broken virtually all of my cycling records that summer and bested my fastest times on every hill that mattered.
The workouts were really hard, but I was loving it.
Then I got my blood results back from my routine annual checkup. Expecting nothing but A pluses across the board, I was surprised and a bit alarmed by some red marks. My overall white blood cell count was low. Not just a bit low, but a significant amount below the normal range.
And of the 5 main kinds of white blood cells that protect us from infection and disease, two of mine – my lymphocytes and my neutrophils – were below normal range.
you want blood you’ll get blood! ….. a glimpse at part of my blood test results 🙂
This of course bothered me. I’m no medical dummy and understand that white blood cells keep me protected from infection and disease, among other things.
But I wasn’t getting sick. Heck, since I lost about 70 pounds from my obese days and got in shape I never even got minor colds anymore. I couldn’t remember the last time I had one.
At first I thought it was probably just a testing anomaly. Then I did what most people do, I asked Dr. Internet.
Dammit Jim I’m A Cyclist Not A Doctor!
It didn’t take a whole ton of sleuthing to start getting to some “aha” results.
Let’s see… I didn’t have a cold or infection, I for sure wasn’t malnourished as my almost $400 a month grocery bill can attest. But intense physical exercise… .. hmmm I thought, define “intense”?
LiveStrong gave an explanation:
While most types of exercise boost your white blood cell count, in some cases, a low white blood cell count in athletes, especially endurance athletes, may occur. This condition is usually a cause for concern, but in an endurance athlete, a depressed immune system may be a side effect of intense and prolonged exercise and not an underlying health condition.
And they linked to a real study that let me dive into the details. Turns out my training routine, which in hindsight probably included too many high-intensity sessions per week for a guy my age, was lowering my white blood cell count. The bad news is:
The study confirms that endurance athletes tend to have lower neutrophil and total white blood cell levels that other athletes. This can pose a health challenge because decreased neutrophil levels can significantly increase your chances of contracting a bacterial infection.
Bold emphasis mine. So in a nutshell I was fit, but not healthy. Intense training was compromising my immune system.
Your Money Life – Fit But Not Healthy
I took my training too far and became super-fit but not healthy. It got me thinking then, can you take the accumulation of money too far and end up in the same situation?
Can you become wealthy but not rich?
Let me give you my definitions of those two words for the purpose of this post. Being wealthy means having tons of money, plain and simple. How about being rich? If someone asks you “Do you lead a rich life?” most folks (I would hope) do not directly equate being rich to a monetary net worth or income level.
A rich life is defined by one’s relationships, happiness, and how much they give back and engage with others in the world.
So can someone be wealthy and not rich? Hell yeah. If one pursues the accumulation of money at the expense of relationships and happiness, then I would argue they are wealthy but not rich.
If you put the relentless quest of something on steroids and go too far, you jeopardize missing the broader goal of where that thing fits into your life. You can easily wind up overshooting it and start doing damage.
That’s where I found myself with my fitness in the fall of 2019. Sure I was fitter than ever – for cycling. But I overshot and had weakened my immune system from the constant stress inflicted on my body.
Likewise if you’re seeking to be wealthy while also having a rich life, you risk the latter in the relentless pursuit of more money. Charles Dickens may have written a famous novella about a character like that.
Back To Good
I dialed back my training as winter 2019 approached and got my blood tested again. Sure enough, all my white blood cell levels went back to normal. The whole thing taught me a lesson – it’s good to pursue excellence, but be careful to not take it too far.
And if you do take it too far, don’t stay in that state of excess too long, because it’s probably not good for you.
Thankfully as the study I linked to above from PubMed stated I don’t seem to have a serious condition. They say:
The lower white cell counts in athletes in aerobic sports probably represent an adaptive response, not underlying pathology.
I’m not a big fan of “underlying pathologies”, so this is good.
Balance
In the end, fitness and health need to be balanced. I’m much more cognizant of that now. If I were a pro cyclist who rides in the Tour De France, I would understand the need to sacrifice my overall health to be super-fit for cycling.
Someone would have to pay me for that though, and I’m not cheap.
Being wealthy and being rich in life have to be balanced as well. The myopic and singular pursuit of money can lead to tremendous wealth, but probably not a rich life. Finding the sweet spot is hard, and I’m constantly tuning things myself to keep accumulating wealth while leading the richest life possible.
Your Turn – Have you ever taken the pursuit of a goal too far with negative consequences? Chime in!
Have a friend who’s PSA goes up when he cycles.
Wow, that’s weird. No bueno
I used to have a great little mountain biking group. We’d hit the trails a couple times a week. After the ride we’d have some breakfast (or beers) depending on the day. We got in shape and we became close friends. After some years we decided we needed more challenge so we started taking road trips to some of the mountain bike Meccas, Sedona, Moab. It was awesome, so naturally we took on more challenge. We started doing a local 24 hr race. It wasn’t long before we were training for something called “vision quest”. A brutal 50 mile mountain bike race. Our Saturday social rides became intense half day training sessions. I would spend the rest of the weekend on the couch recovering. That was the beginning of the end. My once fun hobby was ruined by intensity. We didn’t know that our short rides were “enough”. We made that universal human mistake of thinking more is always better.
Oh man, we should go riding! But yes you know very well how something as cool as cycling can become an obsession. And let’s be clear, if you’re going to get obsessed about something it’s much better it be something physical like cycling than say laying on the couch watching netflix. There’s no comparison. But your story is a case of obsession going too far and taking the fun out of it. In my case that really didn’t happen – I was still enjoying my rides and training, I just needed to dial it back a bit. Thanks for the great comment and ride on!
Dave, it’s me, back again. I continue to find your blogs well written, researched and summarizing to a good conclusion.
This one hit me for two reasons. First I started to take up cycling seriously at the age of 65. I have not checked blood results like you have, but subconsciously realized that I need to dial back the intensity at my age. Stretching beforehand is also very important. And realizing that averaging under 10 MPH is not a sin. I am teaching myself to enjoy the outdoors and the beauty of the surroundings can be as beneficial of a result as the exercise itself.
Second, tonight I start the third series of a program helping young men and women (High Schoolers in Richmond VA) about Personal Finance on zoom for an organization that I commit a lot of hours to, Boys to Men Mentoring Network of VA. Your comment about balancing wealth vs richness of life can be a good intro into the ultimate goal of the course. Having a huge nest egg, but not enjoying the journey, is not exciting to me.
Keep up the good work Dave.
John
Age is real so we must constantly balance the desire to “crush it” or do more versus being practical and understanding our limitations. It’s a constant dance. And yes – the ego is EVIL 🙂 There’s no harm in going out for a nice easy ride and going slow. Stop and smell the flowers!
Way cool on the teaching thing, there’s a huge need for that in education. That’s great work you’re doing – thanks for the kudos and keep riding!
I think about the book The Blue Zones, where most of the people living to 100 just simply do a LOT of walking as part of their daily life vs intense exercise. It’s defintely food for thought!
I’m fascinated with those blue zones and have read tons about them. There’s been a few big studies on pro-level cyclists in Europe since the sport goes back over 100 years and they absolutely live way longer than the general public, so I have going for me. But…. the key is to tone it back as we age. I’m at the age now where it would be very rare to be a pro, although there are a few still riding at the top level who are my age. But in general I have to remember to start adjusting my expectations. It’s hard for me since I got such a late start in my athletic life. Thanks for the comment Tonya!
I used to do twenty mile training runs starting at 3AM on workdays. Then I’d go in for a 9 hour workday. Then maybe play tennis after work, and that was in my late 50’s. I was fit but I was exhausted much of the time. In retrospect that was kind of crazy considering I was also running a billion dollar business with hundreds of employees. I had a very rich life during my career and still do now that I am fully retired. Having a lot more money than I need does eliminate financial worries, but it is no source of happiness, just a reducer of one kind of stress.
Yikes – 20 milers before work!! Screw that.. haha. That’s hardcore, I’m willing to bet you had low white blood cells then. It’s all about balance 🙂
i remember i only trained truly hard for one fall, running about 70 miles a week. they were hard miles for me when some days were easy for the rest of the guys. i ended up slightly anemic having lost some blood somewhere. i can see the parallels.
i’m going to start using a new metric called “invested money utilized” for all the serial accumulators out there. hell, it was hard enough for me to remove 5k from investments to buy a mattress and some floor tiles to improve our lives. i hope folks don’t forget why they invested in the first place.
What an awesome concept – “invested money utilized”. When I really need something like say a mattress I don’t tend to have an issue just forking it out. But I do delay things a bit and I definitely over-analyze big purchases as far as product reviews etc. Great point, there’s no use saving just to watch it sit there in perpetuity
This is one of my favorites. You bring up a great point that emphasizes that old saying: “Too much of anything is bad for you.” Including working out and wealth accumulation. At some point a compromise has to be made. We aren’t machines after all.
Wait, too much pizza is bad for you? Crap!!
Yes, I guess that’s one of the ultimate points. And sometimes even too much cycling might be bad. Or too much at too high of an intensity.
Everything in moderation as it’s said. Very interesting about these physical intensity lowering white blood cell count. Not going to lie, I go to a little nervous at the beginning there and glad you’re okay and back to normal. As for me, I overdid it with my work-focused lifestyle for longer than I perhaps should have. Anyway, it’s all a good balance nowadays. I’ve not hear of the Blue Zones before these comments, but will check the books(s) Out. Thanks Dave!
Haha, thanks for caring! I’m willing to bet too much of a stressful work situation would probably lead to a compromised immune system too.
I’m a volunteer campground host near Moab these days (thank you FI), and I was discussing the concept of “rich” with a full time RV couple who were staying at my campground. They pointed at their truck and trailer and said, “We have been doing this for five years and this is all we have” Note: It was a nice rig they obviously were not hurting, but it was not extravagant either. I asked them where they were going next and they said anywhere they wanted. We concluded that they were much more wealthy than someone making six figures who still had to work in a cubicle every day.
I’d say that couple is super-rich, and probably leading a super rich life. Good for them. When you can answer “anywhere we want” to the question of where are you going, life HAS to be great!
This was a very timely post for me to read today. I’ve been retired for 7 months and for some reason applied on a job. I have the offer waiting for me to sign, but I’m hesitating. I love being fully retired, but the thought of increasing my savings cushion was inticing me to give this up. Time is much more important to me right now. I’ve dropped 40 lbs since retiring as well. I do feel very healthy and rich.
Wow, 40lbs, AMAZING Michelle! Way to go!! That’s something to be proud of and it will pay dividends for you in so many ways, including brain health. Whether you take the new job or not your weight loss has already set you up for a bright future. Good luck!
**Applause***
As usual, you are spot on. Life is all about finding the right balance. I’d say happiness is more important than any monetary wealth. Certainly it helps, but only incrementally. Happiness is the ultimate goal.
Yep, spot on!
I have definitely took it way too far in the pursuit of excellence before. In college, I worked 2 jobs / 2 majors / 3 minors / and extra curricular activities. As a result, I had no realization that my health was declining every day. My neck pain was getting worse and worse. Eight years later, I finally figured out my neck pain is because of my mattress.
Because I was too focused on bettering my future life, I neglected my health and now, I believe my neck pain is permanent, ha. Life moves on though!
That sucks David, best wishes that it goes away. I also worked two jobs in college but did not have 2 majors, ouch. Thanks for the comment!
I had the exact same blood work results and was alarmed at first. I did the same research as you and believe I found those same quotes, I was relieved but low WBC is an indicator of other stuff and I didn’t want that kind of stress again. Being extremely fit and active I was reassured I was healthy (my EKG also made it look bad due to my low resting HR due to fitness) thus I have carried on and mindfully ensure I try to get some rest days in there.
I haven’t messed around with a whoop at all but do watch my HR carefully and use the intensity tracker on Strava now to see how my weeks are trending.
As for going to far or hard with FIRE, this is why I am shifting to simplicity and more on spending less rather than saving more or making more. I’ve got ERE back from the library once again and have been reading the forums as well as Jacob’s podcast appearances recently. My thought is this will find that healthy way forward for me.
All the best Dave ~ Cheers
That’s crazy but not too surprising since you and I share so much in common. I’ve also faced the low resting HR thing before too. I told a doctor friend that my resting HR was about 43 and he said “that’s too low!”. Ugh.. but I get it, they’re used to seeing very unhealthy people who don’t exercise.
As for the whoop, I haven’t gotten any bio-measuring devices yet, but I know a lot about them a from all the podcasts and experts I listen to. From my estimation they still have to make progress getting more accurate. I don’t want to shell out that kind of money for something that’s in the 70 – 80% accuracy range which is the best many of these devices can seem to get. I am excited about the future of this and I think it’ll help us all tremendously, but they’ve got to get the techology down first for me to bite.
Whew, I agree, but it’s also such a struggle sometimes. Probably like many pursuing FIRE, I often equate any level of moderation with mediocrity. I give myself slippery-slope arguments like, “If you shorten this run by a mile, next time you’ll shorten it by 2, and then 3…” or “If you ease up on the spending constraints you’ll end up out of control in no time.” It’s not true though. Like you said, you’re still out there cycling and getting far more exercise than probably 95% of Americans and probably still pushing yourself hard. Just not to the point of sacrificing your health. A great reminder.
Oh man… I feel so SEEN!! We are the same this way. I just literally got back from a ride, I wanted to do 25 miles but only did – get this – 23.4! I just wasn’t feeling that great and it was super windy out. And it’s friggin nagging me a bit. It’s lunacy.
I use the slippery slope argument all the time as well. To be fair to myself I have a history of sliding down slippery slopes with bad habits, but those were all in my 20’s when I had WAY less discipline and hadn’t the experience to fully realize the consequences. I doubt it would happen now, but that doesn’t stop me from thinking it could.
In a way these crazy overwrought thoughts are a part of what keep us disciplined. But I have to recognize when I’m being to hard or too silly with myself and call it for what it is. Thanks for the awesome comment and it’s great to know I’m not alone in my madness!
Nice job dialing it in. I used to be too focus on the financial side of things, but I’m trying to loosen up now. We’re better with spending money these days and don’t worry too much about little things. We already have good habits so we’re still doing well. Fitness on the other hand…
Thanks Joe! As far as your fitness journey, I KNOW you can do it, you obviously have tons of discipline. Keep at it and I know you’ll get where you want to be.
Love this Dave. As you said, it’s all about finding the right balance. Now what works for you may not work for me. That’s what makes life so interesting right?
Everyone gets their own favorite flavor… mine actually changes based on the day.
Hi Dave, thanks for the perspective.
It’s good to be reminded every once in a while that pacing yourself and being realistic with your goals is important. I think there is a fine line between being ambitious enough and overexerting yourself. It’s also important to be prepared.
On the subject of cycling, I have an anecdote to share as well. Some years back, I participated in an 80km bike race in a hot and humid climate. I only took one bottle of water because I did not want to carry too much weight and anticipated that water would be available at the check-points. Well… It wasn’t. And I sure suffered for half of the race! Since then, I gladly carry the extra weight to make sure that the journey will be more healthy and enjoyable throughout. It’s not just about the destination, the journey is important too!
Wow, a race that doesn’t even have water – in a hot/humid area? Ridiculous… If you’re paying money that’s the minimum you should get. I’ve done tons of races both running and cycling and have never had that happen. I imagine that experience was challenging to say the least. But you’re tougher for it 🙂 Thanks for the great comment!
Yea it was a little ridiculous. I guess they ran out before I got there 😀 I’ve been to a bunch before and since and never had this issue, but I’m always prepared now!
Great post Dave! This reminds me of the concept of having “enough”. At some point the pursuit of even more wealth will only improve your life just a fraction.
Having good friends, family, and good social interactions is probably more important to leading a fulfilling life than a extra couple of million dollars. Especially these days, with limited social interaction due to the pandemic.
But society puts so much focus on the accumulation of wealth these days, it frequently forgets about all the other ways to lead a “rich” life.
Keep all things in moderation I guess!
It’s not just the accumulation of wealth, society also puts emphasis on the accumulation of stuff. All of it destined for a landfill. Thanks Tako!