If you’ve seen the film The Wolf of Wall Street, you’ll have vivid recollections of Leonardo DiCaprio’s character; Jordan Belfort, rising up as an uber-successful stock-broker before spiraling into criminal behavior, alleged corruption, and ultimately being held accountable for his deeds by the federal government.
Martin Scorsese does a wonderful job of directing the story, detailing Belfort’s obsessive desire to work hard and play even harder. Unfortunately, as he ascended to financial power, Belfort’s head was turned by dark forces and he soon found himself relying on drug-fuelled binges in order to stay one step ahead of the stock market. Now 61 years old and with a new book, “The Wolf of Investing: My Playbook for Making a Fortune on Wall Street,” Belfort opened up to M&F about those surreal, heady days that threatened to take him from this mortal coil. Thankfully, he says, he now prioritizes health in order to maximize his wealth.
As a teenager, Belfort explains that he was a “workout maniac.” However the muscular physique that he had earned in his youth would later lull him into a false sense of security.
“When I got to Wall Street and started taking a lot of drugs, I had this amazing muscle memory, so I was able to maintain a decent physique on the outside, but on the inside I was rotting away,” he shares. Belfort continued to work out in his home gyms, but neglecting his personal health was beginning to take its toll.
“I was eating crap, and sugar all the time, and doing stuff that now at my age, frankly, I would kill myself if I did it,” he reflects. “But making money was the center piece of my life.” As a longtime sufferer of insomnia, Belfort manages his calories by eating late at night, but foregoing a meal until around 3 p.m. the following day. It’s not for everyone, but he says that it works for him. Once an avid tennis player, the Wall Street guru says that “skeletal, muscular bulsh*t” has plagued him his whole life, leading to multiple shoulder and knee surgeries. As a result, Belfort has now hung up the racket for good but still loves to work out. And, thanks to a strict daily routine, this money man is looking shredded and in great health.
Jordan Belfort’s Daily Wolf Of Wall Street Workout Routine
Morning:
- Awake by 7 a.m.
- Ice Bath for 5 to 10 Minutes 1°C (33.8 Fahrenheit)
- Belfort then has a cup of coffee and slowly warms up while catching up on his email
- 200 x Setups
- 200 x Leg Raises
“I’ve never done something that has been so beneficial to my life as ice baths,” says Belfort who feels that they help him in a variety of ways; from gaining mental clarity to dropping fat. The famous financier lives in Miami, so he waits until about 10am before taking a cold plunge. This way, he can warm up in the sun while keeping up with his work.
Afternoon Gym Workout:
- 30 Minutes Elliptical
- Light Weightlifting Session
“I’m very much into fitness, and longevity,” says the real-life Wolf of Wall Street. “I have three different longevity doctors and I’ve been through masses of genetic testing.” Belfort takes supplements including resveratrol which is through to reduce cholesterol and blood clotting and in contrast to his wilder days of debauchery, he is now committed to staying fit and toned.
If you have come to love Belfort’s outspokenness as relates to the financial industries, you needn’t worry that taking care of his wellbeing has softened his approach to business. “Wall Street’s pretty much full of s**t,” he says. “They serve an important purpose in an economy but unfortunately, at the same time, they have all this other stuff that they do which causes you to lose money or not have the return that (you) should be getting, so the idea was to pull back the curtain on how Wall Street came to be the way it is.”
Belfort’s latest book: The Wolf of Investing: My Playbook for Making a Fortune on Wall Street is out now. “It took me 18 months,” he says of the writing process, which is by the far the longest amount of time that he has spent working on a book. “The topic is kinda like a dry and boring topic, and the whole point was that I tried to figure out a way to make it more exciting and a page-turner story.”
The book acts as a guide for mastering the stock market and advises on the principles to consider as relates to buying, selling, holding, or completely cashing out. “The idea was to take the really proven ways of investing, that are inarguably correct, but have them actually (described) in a way that will make people laugh out loud, and turn the pages, and learn these stories, and that’s what took so long.” Still energized by his work as an author, entrepreneur, and public speaker, Belfort has no plans to retire from the work that he enjoys so much, but he does now think that the old, macho culture of working ourselves into an early grave is passe. “Healthy body, healthy life, healthy finances,” is what he believes to be the key to all of our successes.