Latest / The Checkpoint Podcast: Questions / Episode 18 | Will You Be Healthy Enough to Enjoy Retirement?
Transcript
- The DECAF Network: Hey, it's Dex, creator of Reboot Player One and host at the Checkpoint. ⁓ I hope you had a good weekend. Anyway, I had learnt a new word during the weekend, and I would like to have a quick discussion about it now. It's not a word that I'd heard before, and when I did, it actually it actually got me thinking. It got me thinking basically through the entire weekend and even today. And I've spoken to everybody about it. And some knew about it, some didn't. It's new to me. ⁓ and from what I could from what I could see, it's it's new-ish. I don't think it's a word that's been around for decades and decades. I think it's pretty new because the articles around it seem to be quite fresh. Anyway, that word is called health span. Now, most of us should know what a lifespan is. Basically, it's the number of years that a person is expected to live. It's not really applied to to a single person as such. It's, you know, usually to a group of people based on ⁓ a particular period in time. So, you know, people in the 1990s, in the 2000s, in the 2010s, and all of that sort of stuff. Even, you know, centuries as well. And ⁓ as the years go on and as, you know, as we know more about our bodies, as medicine improves, as just knowledge in general improves, then we see our Lifespans getting longer and longer. And I think now I don't know what it is exactly. Let me just have a quick look. So 2026 lifespan. We are seeing that ⁓ global life expectancy in 2026 averages approximately seventy-three point eight years. Jeez, that's a lot lower than what I thought. ⁓ with regional figures showing Monaco leading the world at eighty-six point five. Australia reaching eighty four point one and the United States standing at seventy nine point five. Obviously, ⁓ with the region and all that sort of stuff, that that basically affects it. So seventy-three point eight, I guess, is ⁓ a a a decent number based off the average of the world. ⁓ okay. So Australia, this at least this point is eighty four point one. So that is the lifespan average. I'm assuming they're combining the genders there. So what is health span? So health health span is the number of years a person lives in good health, free from chronic disease, and major physical or mental disability. Health span is the number of years a person lives in good health, free from chronic disease, and major physical or mental disability. That was pretty much the gist of it ⁓ when I heard about the word. It was actually on a on a television show. And I think she was using roughly the same numbers. So she was saying that the life expectancy is around ⁓ early to mid eighties and that the health span is around sixty three, which I thought was really low. And it actually got me thinking, you know, retirement age is around, at least in Australia, it could be sixty five, it could be even more now. And so that's the time of your life when you're meant to relax. You meant to kick back. You're meant to ⁓ reap in all reap? Yes, meant to reap all of the rewards that you'd sowed throughout your your entire career. And you're just meant to enjoy that and relax and do whatever it is that you want to do. And now health span gets in the way. And that really got me thinking. You know, we are always talking about ⁓ what to do in retirement, how good it will be, what Will it look like we're talking about journeying off into the sunset and you know, chilling out on the beach, and then all of a sudden something happens, you know, pull a muscle, bones are a bit more brittle, there's some spot there that you didn't notice before, there's some other things that are happening. And that to me is quite concerning. And it's something that I think should actually be made more made more well known. You know, we We work so much to make as much money as we can because things are so damn expensive. ⁓ or we want to give it to children, we want to donate it, we want to do something. or if if you are in a you know, not in an ideal situation, you're basically just having to work to survive. And so the thought of trying to include our health in that becomes difficult. You know, I know a lot of people that are working multiple jobs just to make ends meet. And I'm not just talking about ⁓ physical health here, I'm talking about mental health. And they're both connected. ⁓ I would say that mental health is more important than physical health, but you know, at the same time, if you're deficient in either, it's going to affect the other. If you're not good mentally, ⁓ then your physical health will deteriorate because it might you might not be in the the right state of mind to to work on your physical health. And if your physical health is is isn't great, ⁓ then your mental health will decline. So they are literally brother and sister. ⁓ but you need to obviously be working on both. So the whole idea of health span has me totally it's basically changed my mind about everything to to what I eat, to the amount that I exercise, and and just to make sure that as I start this next stage of life that I'm as best prepared as I can be mentally and physically. And thankfully I'm I'm doing a pretty good job with both. Sure, it can always be better. But I know a lot of people out there that aren't. I know a lot of people that aren't exercising. ⁓ they're not eating right. They they're ignoring a lot of ⁓ warning signs. Like I'm I'm guilty of doing certain things as well and and ignoring stuff that I really should be ⁓ paying attention to. And so I just want to bring be bring a bit more awareness to health span and to how you know ⁓ the the end of a very, very big part of your life, i.e. your career, your job, whatever it is that you've been doing for the past, you know. sixty years, a big part of that is going to go. And the replacement for that could be having to look after some part of your health. And that's not a nice place to be, especially at that age. Especially knowing that look, even, you know, as I as I close into my fifties, I know that certain things that were working for me in my thirties and forties just don't work as well as they do now. If at all. You know, ⁓ a low carb diet was brilliant for me when I was in my thirties. In my forties, it's okay, but it's not as effective. I'm not as strong. ⁓ I don't recover as well. ⁓ there there are aches and pains that weren't there when I'm younger. ⁓ look, they're not debilitating, but I I just know that they're there. And so basically just that word itself, the word and the d definition has basically changed the way that I think about a lot of things. You know, I don't want this second stage of life to be filled with pain and stress and anger and frustration. and I have seen that happen with a lot of people. I have seen people go through the same kind of turmoil much earlier on in in life, and they've gone through that. And that's that's really good. Would they have the same capacity to do that same fight in their 60s? I don't know. And I've seen it time and time again. I've seen people in a lot of pain. And sometimes when you see them, you you kind of wonder wonder to see what their quality of life is like. You know, beyond 65, if they're having to deal with something, constant pain, taking drugs to to to mask the pain, and then just, you know. Permanently walking around with something that is stress inducing. It hurts. Or, you know, you're just waking up day to day and and not really waking up and looking forward of getting out of bed and doing something fun. I didn't know if I wanted to live like that. And so it's it's triggered me to make sure that I am living a healthy life, ⁓ a life with exercise. Good diet. And admittedly, it's it's still a struggle, right? Like it the the word itself has allowed me to pause a couple of times before eating pieces of chocolate or cake. It doesn't work every time, but it's it works enough for me to at least stop most of the cravings. And it's just going to be something that I need to work on. So if if you are out there thinking that the next stage of your life, i.e. you're fifty, maybe a bit older, maybe a bit younger. ⁓ but if you're thinking that the next stage of your life is going to be, ooh, I only have to work for a little bit of this and then you know what? After that it's smooth sailing. You might want to think again. You know, it's ⁓ it's a it's a bit of a daunting thing for me. The whole retirement thing isn't I think I've re I've said that in another recording. I d I don't mind working 'til I die. Because I enjoy what I'm doing. I think it's fun. I love helping people and it's cool. But I don't know if I could do that with the same amount of enthusiasm and ⁓ and excitement and energy if I was having to look after, you know, physical pain, mental mental anguish or anything like that. So from this point forth, I'm going to try and be the best person I can be in terms of diet and exercise. ⁓ and looking after me again, mentally, because I I don't know what's gonna happen tomorrow. You know, it could happen tomorrow, ⁓ it could happen in 20 20 years' time, 30 years' time. Look, it might not happen at all. But I know if I don't do anything about it, things will creep in, the body is gonna start to to age and might not bounce back as quickly as it used to. So that's it for me, at least for today. ⁓ If you want to do a bit more reading, just Google Health Span. There's a lot of stuff around it and it ⁓ it basically has taken my idea of what my second stage would look like in terms of it being kind of you know, smooth sailing in a way, and being like, Okay, well now instead of having to maybe look after yourself financially, you should really put a bit more emphasis on the physical and the mental health. Okay, that's it for me. I am Dex, and we talk about questions like this, or things like this, not so much questions, ⁓ every Wednesday. ⁓ you can find out more by visiting tc.rebootplayer1.com, and I will see you in the next video. Bye.