I haven’t gotten a cold in almost three years. This is not bragging. I’m not the healthiest person in the world. It’s just fact. Every year of my life from the age of one until three years ago I’d get a cold 2-4 times a year. It was horrible. My nose would run, my throat would get so sore I couldn’t eat. I’d be coughing all the time. I’d wipe my snot on every surface available to me: hands, clothes, coat, the ground, the wall, other people. I’d get headaches, and it would last 3-5 days. Since early 2009 I haven’t gotten it once. I got a cold in May, 2009 and I got a cold in December, 2008 and those are my last two.

The photo below was my “recovery medicines”. I was taking a bunch of photos to document all the fun I was having with my kids that weekend and this was the final photo. My recovery. Then my last cold was shortly after I met Claudia. Maybe this article will jinx it and I will get a cold tomorrow. We’ll see. I hope not. I’m really grateful I haven’t had a cold in almost three years.

But I like to think about what works in my life and what doesn’t. So I take a look at pre-2009 and post-2009 and think of the biggest things that might’ve been factors in me getting a cold.

Pre-May 2009.

1. I didn’t sleep for more than 2 to 3 hours at a stretch. Then I’d wake up anxious about one thing or other. Check the markets, check email, google stuff, read news, even watch a TV show. Then try to go back to sleep and usually fail. I was a daytrader for many years and that didn’t help matters since markets were always open somewhere in the world.

2. I never exercised. For awhile in 2003 I exercised during my peak period of daytrading but only very little (from 5-6 in the morning until the cafes with donuts would open up).

3. I ate three big meals a day. Often steak or pasta at dinner. With a nice dessert. And 2-3 croissants for breakfast. In early 2009 I was definitely gaining weight. And then I would eat junk food in between.

4. I drank alcohol. I have more stories about drinking alcohol and maybe I will put them here. Suffice to say the more I drank, the more colds I would get.

5. Stress. Not only I was stressed with my own life but everyone else’s as well. Always worried not only about what people thought of me but worried about the news. Would so and so bomb the other so-and-so? Would Intel have bad earnings? Would my trades work? Would my businesses? Would XYZ invest in my fund? Would the IRS take my settlement? Would my book sell. Worry, worry, worry.

I don’t think I did this in the right order. I think 1, 4, 3, 2, 5 is the right order of importance. So now I compare with Post-May, 2009 to see what’s different.