I wouldn't mind a small gym late at night or early morning when it's quiet. Weights aren't that expensive but a decent treadmill will cost you. I like ours but it's not really heavy-duty gym quality, nor is my weight bench, of course. If there was a smaller gym nearby, I would have probably gone that route, maybe keep a cheap weight set in case I couldn't make the gym.

The thing about family history, as in my wife's case, is that back then they didn't have the technology they have today. Who knows how long her father (who died in 1970, my pic above was his last driver's license) would have lived with today's medicine? She's had a heart murmur (as do her siblings) since her late 30's, so she takes everything heart-related extremely seriously. I have my own potential problems to look forward to, we're just trying to be proactive and preventative as possible.

She was also told then that she'd likely need a valve repair, possibly replacement, when she turned 60 (about to turn 50). That has since been rescinded, don't know if modern medicine has changed or if our lifestyle since 2008 has made that big a difference (she was also taken off Lipitor, no longer needed). I'm thinking the later, diet and exercise has made the difference, because some of my problems have also disappeared (macular degeneration). Heck, my eyesight even improves sometimes on my checkups (been in glasses since 2nd grade, wearing contacts in the early 90's lasted only a year)!

About junk food, I can live without it now (and we bought our first house partly because of convenience to fast food alley, listed on our house-shopping checklist as a big plus). But when we do splurge, it's darn good. Sometimes it upsets my stomach, sometimes not, but it always makes me want more and I know I have to wait weeks, if not months until the next splurge (nothing convenient to our house really helps allot). We don't waste a rare splurge on McDonald's or Burger King though, we have our favorite more upscale burger and pizza joints, and we savor every bite.