I Do It Now For Then

Most people exercise for now. They want to lose weight now. Fit into the jeans now. Look better in pictures now. Or survive swimsuit season.

Which swimsuit season? It’s July. In Australia it’s December. Somewhere, it’s always swimsuit season. That’s marketing, not reality.

There’s nothing wrong with those goals. They’re just micro to me.

I do it now for then. I’m 62.

I still lift heavy. I still teach cycling. I still chase goals that some people think belong to younger women. I’m not trying to prove I haven’t gotten older. I definitely have.

The point is, I’m investing in the years I haven’t lived yet. I’m not trying to outrun aging. I’m preparing for it.

I strength train now because I want to carry my own groceries when I’m 80.

I ride my bike now because I want my heart to keep showing up for me decades from now.

I eat protein now because muscle is my retirement plan.

I prioritize sleep because I want my brain to work just as well in twenty years as it does today.

I move my body because I plan to keep participating in my life.

Every workout is a deposit. Every balanced meal is a deposit. Same with every walk. Same with every good night of sleep. Same with every time I keep showing up instead of throwing in the towel.

They are all deposits into the life I’m building.

We spend decades planning for retirement. We save money. We invest. We think about where we will live. But how many people spend the same amount of time investing in the body they will actually live in?

Your body is your retirement account. You can’t withdraw strength you never invested. One day you will wake up with whatever you have built.

Strength or fragility. Confidence or hesitation. Energy or exhaustion. Freedom or dependence. It’s not something to take lightly. The choices you make today don’t disappear tomorrow.

The things we do, do things to us. Today’s habits and behaviors become tomorrow’s life.

That’s why I don’t think about workouts as something to check off a list. I think about them as votes. Votes for the person I want to be in ten, twenty or thirty years.

What kind of 80 year old am I building?

That’s the question that matters.

It’s not what the scale says today or whether my abs are visible. It’s not whether I skipped dessert.

It’s what kind of life am I making possible? Healthy aging is not luck. It’s built years before you need it.

I get asked about why I still lift. Why I still ride and why I still pay attention to what I eat. Not only is my health and my future important to me, but so is my history.

My dad was gone at 60.

I don’t know what tomorrow holds for me. None of us do.

But I do know I want to stack the deck in my favor.

I want options. I want to travel if I decide to travel. I want to hike if I decide to hike. I want to be able to get down on the floor and then get back up without having to think about it. I want to keep learning new things. I want to keep saying yes to adventures. I want to keep living independently for as long as I possibly can. I don’t want longevity without capability. I want both.

I’m not doing this because I’m afraid of getting older. I’m doing it because I plan on getting older. And I want those years to be full of life. Not just years that are added to my life, but life that is added to my years.

So no, I don’t do it for now. I do it now for then.

Future me is counting on the choices I make today.

Tomorrow’s life is built by today’s deposits. Today’s habits become tomorrow’s life.

Today, I get another chance to make one.