Budgeting Your Time (and Energy) for the Holidays

By Nicole Jovel, guest blogger

“My head could just buzz with all the things I’d like to do for my family,” said Ann Burnside Love as she thought about the upcoming holiday season. But Ann, founder and chair of Love & Company and resident of a suburban Maryland retirement community, has a plan. “Holidays require lead time and pacing,” she said. Her plan is to think ahead, review her calendar, and pencil in down time to counterbalance the hustle and bustle of the season. “I occasionally have ‘crash days’ where I don’t get dressed, catch up on the newspaper and listen to music all day. I might read a book with my feet up and order in the wonderful food they have on hand in my community so I don’t have to go anywhere,” Ann said.

Strength Training for Seniors – A Little Dab Goes a Long Way Toward Wellness

By Leslee Jaquette, guest blogger

In the “old days” women were cautioned not to work out with weights for fear they would look muscle-bound like Charlie Atlas. Men, on the other hand, might forego weight training because they didn’t want to get “too big” and their clothes might not fit.

These days those sorts of rationalizations simply fly in the face of research. For one thing, most women can’t get muscle bound due to the effects of estrogen. But more importantly, if we don’t work our muscles most of us will lose 20 to 40 percent of our muscle tissue as we age. With it go balance and the ability to easily conduct everyday tasks. Not working our bodies also spells an increase of risk for osteoporosis as well as obesity and diabetes.

Moving in Your 70s Doesn’t Have to Be Scary

By Sarah Koons, guest blogger

Moving is intimidating! There’s so much to do — arrangements to make, what to give to children or others, things to pack — and that’s all just to get stuff out the door. When you add arthritis, aging knees, and muscles that just can’t lift as much as they used to, it’s easy to see how putting off moving quickly becomes the simpler option. However, moving in your 70s doesn’t have to be scary, difficult or inconvenient. Thanks to proactive retirement communities and specialized moving companies with compassionate services, moving has never been easier for seniors.

Most of us have been there before: you start the daunting task of packing when suddenly four hours have passed and all you have to show for it is a renewed realization that going through a lifetime of possessions is an enormous job. Fortunately, there are professionals who have made it their career to assist with situations exactly like this. Beth Wenhart from Carolina Relocation and Transition Specialists is one such person. Ms. Wenhart said, “We understand that this is an overwhelming and emotional process. Having an experienced professional to walk through the process with you makes it much less overwhelming.”

Once everything is packed up and ready to go, there is also the physical move that needs to take place. Businesses like Carolina Relocation and Transition Specialists offer turn-key services that make the process painless. Those services include planning what can fit in your new space, helping clients decide what to take with them (plus taking care of the things left behind), packing, moving, unpacking and settling into your new home.

Ms. Wenhart recalls moving a client from her home of 40 years soon after her husband passed away. “They had traveled extensively together and collected many beautiful things in their travels. These ‘beautiful things’ all reminded her of happy times and how much she missed her husband. She was afraid that this relocation was going to force her to give up most of those things. By working with her to learn the items that were the most important to her, and with careful layout of her new space, we were able to incorporate many of her treasures into her new home,” said Ms. Wenhart. “The day before the move she was in tears about leaving her home, but when she walked into her newly set up apartment the next afternoon she gasped and said, ‘Oh, it is so beautiful. It looks like home.'”

While moving can be an intimidating task, it’s encouraging to remember where you are going. Senior communities like Springmoor Life Care Retirement Community boast many exciting amenities and modernizations that can make life more comfortable. Leah Holdren, marketing coordinator at Springmoor, reassures seniors considering moving that there are many advantages in moving to a new home. “You can pick the paint you want for your new apartment and make it look like home. We know it’s stressful, but we work with moving companies and can tell you what will fit and what won’t,” said Ms. Holdren. At Springmoor, they have a hair salon, physical therapy center, movie theater, salt water pool and more for residents to look forward to when they arrive.

While at first thought moving may be upsetting, relocating in your 70s can be delightful! To make the easiest transition, make sure not to wait until the last minute. “Come to us while you are still able, so you can enjoy all that a retirement community has to offer,” recommends Ms. Holdren. Ms. Wenhart agreed by saying, “Don’t allow your apprehension about this type of move to prevent you from going forward. Postponing the relocation until you are a little older tends to make it more difficult.” 

Besides, this could be the opportunity you’ve been looking for to finally have a movie theater in your own backyard … and have someone else do the cooking!

Mythbusting: “CCRCs are filled with old people who are sick and dying.”

This is our final post covering Age Wave’s Five Myths & Realities of Continuing Care Retirement Communities (CCRCs). This myth is a bit more somber than some of the others, but it is equally important to talk about. The myth is “CCRCs are filled with old people who are sick and dying.”

The simple answer is that there is no simple answer. There are people of every health stage in any community, whether it is a neighborhood, a town, a CCRC, a city, or a state. However, when you live in a senior living or continuing care retirement community, there are opportunities and options for people who need more care, whether on a short-term or a long-term basis. Many communities offer assisted living services and higher levels of care, including skilled nursing services and memory care. Many residents, however, live in the “independent living” areas of the community, and are still extremely active like me.

A Quick Temperature Check for Seniors

By: Ann Burnside Love

In the natural climate wherever we’ve lived much of our lives, most of us have developed opinions on which temperatures are comfortable, which are tolerable and what’s miserable. We’re also aware of how these varying climates affect our health and lifestyle. Some of us, me included, have become extra-sensitive to temperature extremes, and therefore try to avoid them.

Many retirees are aware of the benefits of a residential living community — where you no longer have to shovel snow, clean snow off your car, drive through ice and storms to the doctors’ offices, grocery stores or on shopping errands.

Myth-Busting: “It would be easy to get any care I might need at home.”

Have you ever seriously considered that you may need long-term care? Most likely not. Most of us like to think that we will age well, our health will never fade (just as our energy hasn’t), and even if we do fall ill, it will be for a short period of time. This is the basis for this week’s myth-busting: “It would be easy to get any care I might need at home.”  It’s the fourth myth we’ll examine from AgeWave’s Five Myths and Realities of Continuing Care Retirement Communities. (To view our previous myth-busting blogs, click here, here, and here.)

Declaring your Independence! Is your move also liberating your children?

By: Ann Burnside Love

Before I moved to my independent living retirement community, I admit I was bugging my children for information or assistance undoubtedly more than I realized. They have always been good-natured about this, but their demanding professional and family schedules didn’t really have room for things I impulsively just picked up the phone and asked about. (Especially irksome to them when I didn’t remember I’d already asked………….) Anything sound familiar yet?