Salad At Every Meal, Keep Stacking Shares of Freedom, The Batman Effect | FRLN 120
My younger brother just came down from Washington to visit me in Santa Cruz for 10 days, and it was absolutely epic.
We stacked some incredible memories together. We hiked Shark Fin Cove, Wilder Ranch, and the stunning Point Lobos in Carmel-by-the-Sea. We had deep conversations, shared meals, crushed workouts, swam in the ocean, and competed on the pickleball courts.
On his last night here, a big group of us went to our local kava bar, then ended the trip dancing under the stars for a proper sendoff.
Not to toot my own horn, but I think I gave him a pretty great taste of the Fit Rich Life.
More than anything, the trip reminded me how much I love the simple things: movement, nature, family, friendship, and being fully present.
Now for this week’s tips, tools, and strategies for fitness, money, and life.
FIT — Salad At Every Meal
Partway through my brother's trip, my wife asked him if he eats a salad at every meal.
His reply? "Pretty much."
My brother is super fit. Always has been. Lean and muscular.
And I'm convinced his "salad at every meal" habit is one of the big reasons why.
Watching him in action was a masterclass. He'd pull a giant salad bowl out of the fridge — always prepped, always ready — and just keep rebuilding it all week. Chopping fresh vegetables. Cutting up carrots, cucumbers, and leeks. Rotating through different lettuces. Swapping dressings. When we ran low, he'd just grab another salad box from the grocery store and add it to the bowl.
Always prepped. Always ready. Never skipped.
I've been eating tons of vegetables ever since I started getting super fit at the end of 2013. I've had seasons where I built what I call dragon bowls — family-sized salads stacked with stir-fried veggies, a grain, a protein, and a killer dressing on top. I'd eat the whole thing twice a day for lunch and dinner.
These days, I still eat a lot of salad, but I also have another trick. Pretty much every single day, I'm eating raw zucchini, raw cucumber, raw celery, raw carrots — or some combination of all of them. I usually add salt, pepper, and nutritional yeast to make them even tastier or dip them in hummus, but sometimes I just raw-dog them and eat them plain when I'm feeling lazy.
I'll have them as a snack while I'm prepping lunch or dinner. Or I'll have them with a protein shake when I'm crunched for time.
The takeaway:
If you want to be super fit year-round, make fibrous vegetables a non-negotiable part of every single day. They provide key micronutrients and keep your appetite in check so you don't overconsume calories.
Whether that's a salad at every meal like my brother, or raw veggies throughout the day like me — the daily habit is the magic.
RICH — Keep Stacking Shares Of Freedom
This past week, the stock market hit another all-time high.
And it felt especially meaningful to me because a good friend of mine, who built his wealth through real estate, has been working with me to diversify part of his wealth into the stock market.
He’s also my beta client for my new Wealth Architect Advisory, where I help high-net-worth individuals with a $5M+ net worth think more strategically about building, protecting, and diversifying their wealth while also simultaneously designing a life that gives them the freedom & lifestyle they desire.
Earlier this year, when the market was dropping, he kept asking me the same question:
“Is now really a good time to invest?”
That question makes total sense. When markets are falling, it feels scary to put money in. It feels like maybe you should wait. Maybe things will get worse. Maybe you should hold off until things “feel better.”
But that is exactly when disciplined investors keep buying.
Again and again, I told him the same thing:
This is a great time to invest because stocks are on sale.
When you are in the wealth accumulation phase, your job is not to predict the market.
Your job is to accumulate shares of freedom.
That’s it.
Ignore the short-term price movement.
Keep buying more shares of freedom.
Especially when it feels uncomfortable.
I encouraged him to invest every single week and ideally automate it. Pick a number, whether that’s $1,000 a week or some other amount, and invest it no matter what the market is doing. And when extra cash comes in, buy even more of a low-cost total market index fund ETF like VTI.
That strategy felt scary to him at first because he was new to stock market investing.
But then this past week, the market hit an all-time high again.
And the beautiful part is this:
Because he kept buying during the down periods, he got to benefit when the market recovered.
That is how this works.
No one knows what the market will do this week, this month, or this year.
It may keep going up.
It may drop again.
It may chop sideways for a while.
It does not matter.
If you are in the wealth accumulation phase and you are earning income, your edge is consistency.
Buy when the market is up.
Buy when the market is down.
Buy when the market is flat.
Through dollar-cost averaging, you keep accumulating ownership in great businesses. Over time, that ownership compounds. Eventually, you build a portfolio large enough that work becomes optional because you've accumulated enough shares of freedom.
For most people on the Financial Independence journey, it takes 10 to 15 years. For a few obsessed weirdos like me, it happens much faster.
But the principle is the same:
Keep buying shares of freedom.
Because eventually, the market hits new all-time highs again.
And again.
And again.
LIFE — The Batman Effect
This week, I want to talk about the Batman effect.
It's a mental framework where you literally take on the identity of a powerful hero — Batman, Wolverine, Superman, Thor — someone with the qualities you want to embody in your own life.
It's an alter ego.
Bruce Wayne is Batman. And one of Batman's superpowers is that he never gives up.
There's actual research on this.
Psychologists ran a study with 180 kids — ages 4 and 6 — where they had to do a boring, repetitive task for 10 minutes. Right next to them was an iPad loaded with a fun video game they were allowed to play anytime they wanted a break.
The kids were split into three groups.
One group was told to check in with themselves as they worked ("How am I feeling?").
One group was told to check in using their own name ("How is John feeling?").
The third group was told to do the task as if they were Batman (or another hero like Dora the Explorer).
The Batman kids persevered the longest. By a meaningful margin.
Researchers call this self-distancing — stepping outside yourself and taking an outsider's view on your own situation. Becoming an alter ego is the most powerful version of it.
So the next time you've got a challenging task in front of you — a grueling workout, a big work project, a side hustle you're building, a hard personal project — choose an empowering alter ego.
It gives you the strength to do what needs to be done. And to persevere through it.
Many of you know my nickname is Dragon.
Dragon is one of my alter egos. Because a dragon is an incredibly powerful, mythical, earth-elemental, fiery being.
When people ask me about the nickname, I tell them: it captures my fiery spirit and my magical approach to life.
Because I want to live a life of magic. With a fiery spirit.
So I take on that alter ego pretty much daily. Most of my friends in real life call me Dragon. It's a constant reminder to approach life with:
Magic. Strength. Power. Connection to the earth. A fiery spirit.
Whether you choose a power animal like me — or a superhero like Batman or Wolverine — have an alter ego you can harness when life demands more of you.
Not just for the hard weeks.
For the regular weeks too.
That's the magic.
ACTION — Keep Stacking
Pick one and implement it this week:
FIT — Build your salad system. Get a big bowl. Chop your veggies. Rotate your dressings. Make fibrous vegetables a non-negotiable part of every meal for the next 7 days. Whether it's a full salad or raw zucchini, cucumber, celery, and carrots — the daily reps are what transform your body.
RICH — Automate the purchasing of your freedom. Pick a number you can commit to — $50, $100, $500, $1,000, whatever works — and automate it into a total market fund like VTI. Then ignore the price. You're not timing the market. You're accumulating shares of freedom, week after week, no matter what.
LIFE — Choose your alter ego. Pick a superhero, a power animal, or a figure whose qualities you want to embody — and step into that identity the next time you face a hard workout, a hard conversation, or a hard project. Let them carry you through.
Your body transforms when you feed it real food, every single day.
Your wealth (and freedom) grows when you keep buying shares, no matter what the market is doing.
And your life expands when you step into the identity of who you're becoming.
Over time, those choices compound into something powerful:
A leaner, stronger, more energized body.
A growing portfolio and a clear path to financial independence.
A life led with magic, strength, and a fiery spirit.
That's the foundation of a Fit Rich Life.
To your health, wealth, and happiness,
— Justin David Carl
P.S. If you missed the latest Fit Rich Life Podcast (episode 104, all about my finess strategies), check it out on Spotify, Apple, YouTube, or wherever you enjoy your podcast entertainment. And make sure you're subscribed to the show on your favorite podcast player. A new episode you don't want to miss drops this week.