Seniors Home Zone
Discover expert support for older adults in South Carolina as they downsize, declutter, and age safely at home. Our trusted Aging in Place Specialist makes late-life transitions easier & more secure, ensuring your loved ones feel comfortable & confident in their surroundings. Let us help you navigate important decisions with compassion & expertise, creating a safe & supportive environment at home!
Seniors Home Zone
The Longevity Blueprint: Living Longer, Living Well
We all want to live longer—but what most of us really want is to live well.
In this episode of Seniors Home Zone, Rebecca Finegan welcomes Dr. Karina Loyo, Ph.D. (Health Promotion & Gerontology), MBA, gerontologist, aging and wellness expert, and author of The Longevity Blueprint for Health, Wealth, and Purpose.
Together, they explore how longevity is more than lifespan—it’s about living those years with energy, strength, and meaning. Dr. Loyo shares how her research and practical framework help people create a life that supports who they are and who they’re becoming.
Listeners will learn:
- What “longevity literacy” really means
- How to align health, mindset, and money for sustainable well-being
- Why purpose and connection matter just as much as nutrition and movement
This is a conversation about thriving in the years ahead—not just surviving them.
If you found this episode helpful, please follow, rate, and share with someone who needs encouragement today.
Connect with Rebecca Finegan at seniorshomezone.com
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#SeniorsHomeZone #AgingInPlace #SeniorCareSupport
Welcome to Seniors Home Zone, where we talk about life's transitions. I'm Rebecca Finnegan, and today we're joined by Dr. Karina Loyal, a gerontologist, author of Longevity Blueprint, and owner of a restaurant. Dr. Loyal, thank you very much for joining me today.
SPEAKER_01:Thank you, Rebecca, for having me. I really appreciate it.
SPEAKER_00:You're welcome. I want you to start by telling us how you fell in love with what you do.
SPEAKER_01:I absolutely love spending time with my grandparents. Most people don't recognize they are the people who are like the living history museums, right? They've been there, they've done that. I don't like to hear it out of a book and have to imagine it when I have somebody who could tell me all about it and what they lived. And so I always had a huge respect for my grandparents. But what got me into the gerontology side of it was when I was a senior in high school, about the last semester or last month into it, my mother got a call from my grandfather and he asked if we could move back to San Marcos, Texas. And my mom said, there is no way, because my dad had a job with the Mexican government working in the milk industry. So we were kind of stuck in Mexico as a family. I was graduating, and so I said, Hey, why don't I go? How hard can it be to help my grandfather with my grandmother who had Alzheimer's? I ended up with my little brother growing up, so I thought it was about the same thing. And in a way, it was. It was just a larger person, but they could do a lot of things independently as long as you directed them. The first few months were really great, got to spend a lot of quality time with them, went to the university at the same time, which was only a few blocks away. And it was all great until my grandfather had a stroke three months later. I found him on the bathroom floor, helped him up from there. And I thought he had just fallen, but it turns out he actually had a stroke. And then after that, he was wheelchair-bound and had a speech impediment. Well, then I had two people I had to take care of, right? And three days after that, I turned 19. So that was how I was thrown into this whole caregiving for older folks. And I just became really passionate about it because the first people that I cared for were so close to me. I loved Mama Hank and Papa Koch. That's what we called them. We had so many great memories, and they had done so many great things. Like they lived in Laos, Vietnam, and Thailand for 12 years helping establish universities. I got to hear all about what it was like there during the war. Living history. And a lot of older folks, we look at them, we see them with walkers and canes, and we never think, I wonder what they did when they were a teenager. I wonder what they lived through. And that always fascinated me. And so spending time with them to me is just a treasure. Nobody can pay me for that much time.
SPEAKER_00:How did you learn to take care of someone with Alzheimer's? Because that's not something you just pick up.
SPEAKER_01:Right, no. And unfortunately, at 18, I was just kind of thrown into it. And so I did a lot of trial by error. My grandmother actually happened to be a very easy person. So I would just tell her what to do, and she would usually do it. Although there was a time when I would be like, okay, grandma, I've got the water running in the tub, it's the right temperature. I've got your clean clothes here ready for you to put away. And, you know, you hear the water running for about 15 minutes, then she'd turn it off, she'd come out, the back of her hair was wet, but she would still smell just like she did before. And it took me about three days to figure out that she wasn't taking a bath. She was just dipping her hands in the water and putting wetting the back of her hair. I mean, how creative is that? And it turns out she didn't want to be cold in the water. So, as we talked a little bit about it, because people think once you have Alzheimer's, you can't talk with people, and that's not true. A lot of them are still very conversant and very capable of doing things, especially in the early parts of it. So we talked about what did she like or not like about the bath, and she didn't like having to get out of the bath because it was so cold. And so at that point in time, we made arrangements for me to be there to receive her with a towel dryer off as soon as possible. We also turned up the temperature so it would be warmer in that room whenever she took a bath. And that really helped.
SPEAKER_00:That's nice. So tell me a little bit more about your grandfather and how you had to help him.
SPEAKER_01:Wow. Okay. So he was six foot five and about 320 pounds when this all thing happened. Oh my god. No, luckily, I know. Luckily, he still had enough energy to help himself get in and out of that wheelchair. Uh, but he just wasn't stable enough to walk. He he'd like to roll himself into the kitchen and make his own food. And so I'd have to be there to, you know, supervise and help and hand him the things that were on the top shelf or get things that were way too low because I didn't want him flopping out of the wheelchair. Uh, he really tried to be as independent as possible, but you know, you have to make sure that they stay safe. Right. So I was there to help with that. And then one of the other things that he absolutely loved was to go on a ride. And this was the probably the most challenging thing because he would convince my grandmother to grab the keys and take them for a ride. Well, you can imagine she's got Alzheimer's, he's in a wheelchair. He would tell her what to do. They'd put the wheelchair in the back of the car and they'd leave. And then we didn't know where they were. We found out he had five sets of car keys. Once we found them all, he was no longer able to do that. But it seemed like those car keys just multiplied. They would be gone for hours. And they just drove around. But driving around when you have Alzheimer's and not really knowing where you're going, even if you're being directed by somebody who knows where they're going, is still kind of a challenge. Eventually, we just made arrangements so that we would go on car rides twice a week, and they really look forward to those. They were fun because I got to talk to them about their past and the different areas in which we would go visit. He liked to go all sorts of places and had stories to tell for every single place we visited.
SPEAKER_00:Oh, those stories are memories. They are. You then went to school to become a gerontologist. And what was your goal for doing that?
SPEAKER_01:Believe it or not, I studied theater arts first because I was extremely shy and I would have never been able to do this conversation before. But it really helped me learn more about public speaking. And then my dad told me I had to learn something useful, so I got the MBA. And then finally I did what I wanted to do, and I got the PhD in health promotion and gerontology because that's where my passion was. Most young people, I didn't exactly know everything that I wanted to do, even though I was swayed to that part of it and always passionate about working with the older folks. I did spend 16 years doing therapeutic massage on older folks and doing some home health care with them as well, in addition to the four and a half years I spend with my grandparents.
SPEAKER_00:Tell me about your book, Longevity Blueprint.
SPEAKER_01:So I read the longevity blueprint because one of the things that I saw over and over again was there would be one medical crisis and it would turn into a financial crisis initially for the couple. And then eventually, as the adult children came into the picture, it would trickle down into financial burden for them with the decisions that they made. And then I just saw that it became this generational financial crisis. And one of the things that I excel at is planning and logistics and being able to look at the whole system of things and how everything impacts everything else. I put all the knowledge that I have into that book to be able to help people understand what that whole trajectory of aging is going to be, what to expect, what they should be doing in order to take advantage of some of the healthier periods in life, how to respond to some of these crises so that they do not become that generational financial crisis. I wrote the book in such a way that I'm having conversations with you as we read the book and go along. I am talking to you about, you know, what your passions are. What are you doing to remain socially engaged? What do you still want to do with the rest of your life? And how do we make sure that you get to the end of your life as healthy as you possibly can? That's what I'm trying to do.
SPEAKER_00:That's great. Well, I'm a senior. What am I going to take away from this book?
SPEAKER_01:I think there's a whole lot of things that you can take away. Hopefully, inspire you to have the best last decades of your life possible to take control and know that it's never too late to change your health because it doesn't matter the choices that you've made before. Certainly it can be a disadvantage depending on what you did, right? If you didn't exercise, if you didn't eat right, no, we can't make you as healthier as possible. Okay. So for seniors, I think there is a whole lot of information in it. For example, how do you have that best last decades possible? How do you improve your quality of life so that you can definitely have the best outcome with your life as possible? Because we all want to remain independent, right? Then there's other things like putting together your healthcare team and your wellness team. They're not the same thing. Healthcare is for when you have a health issue. Wellness is to keep you well and healthy for the rest of your life. Also, an asset protection team, because we want to make sure that your assets are protected and that they last you for the rest of your life. And the documents that need to be in place. Not the documents that you need as you age, but the documents we should all have had put into place when we were 18 and above. So, what do we need to make sure that all that is in place? How do I communicate with my children what it is that I want and what my desires are if something happens to me? So, for example, if I have a stroke like my grandfather did and I can't communicate, now he could talk a little bit and I could understand. Most people couldn't, but do they know whether you like oatmeal or not? And are they gonna think you're rude because you push it away and refuse to eat? Well, if you've never liked it, why would you start liking it now? Or how do you like your coffee? And things like the five-year Medicaid clawback so that you know that you have to plan ahead in order to protect your assets so that you and your spouse are able to keep them and you don't become that financial burden to your family members. And then there's a whole lot of lifestyle strategies so that you can improve your health and really have the best life possible.
SPEAKER_00:Those are just some of the things that you'll learn. Oh, that's a lot of information. When you're 18, people usually don't think of a wheel until they're older. Why 18?
SPEAKER_01:Well, at the age of 18, your doctors will no longer talk to anybody else because you're an adult. So if you have a child going off to college and they're 18, do you really want to have your hands tied if they're in a car wreck, for example? Not that I'm wishing that on anybody, but things happen. And if we're not able to help because we don't have a medical power of attorney or we don't have a dual durable power of attorney, then it really does tie our hands. And the other thing people don't usually include, which they need to, is a hip authorization form, which is the one that allows the doctors to be able to show you all the medical records in order for you to execute your decisions as a medical power of attorney. So all of these are really important things. And that key date is your 18th birthday. These are not things that you have to wait until you're 65 plus. These are things that we should have been having all along, and then we should have been updating them. But the reality is that less than 50% of all people in the United States have these documents in place. And most people think that, oh, I don't have very much, I don't own very much, it's all gonna be okay. If you don't make some of these choices, when it comes to wills and trust, Medicaid could take a whole lot out of your retirement and not have any funds left over for your surviving spouse. And that's just terrible because they were beside you their whole life, making sure that you were well taken care of. Don't you want to make sure they're well taken care of? Absolutely.
SPEAKER_00:Yes. Yeah. As a caregiver, tell me how this book will help me.
SPEAKER_01:As a caregiver, it'll help you personally as you prepare to age, but to be able to support your aging loved one and have the conversations that need to be had and understand the different stages that happen in aging, and then how quickly that medical crisis can throw them from being completely independent to needing to be completely dependent on someone, and then maybe bouncing back to semi-independence or ending up in an end-of-life type of situation. So there are a couple of chapters that will teach you all about what to expect as people age. And then there's a chapter all about communicating with your loved one. You can read that with the framework of what I'm suggesting they put into place and how they should talk to you, and then you will be more open and receptive to them when that conversation happens. There's also some chapters on aging in place and what that aging in place means. Being able to know is my mom or dad safe in the home they're in, or do I need to help them look for someplace else to live, or encourage them to think about, you know, their safety and their lifestyle in the current home and how that may be different, then I think that's really, you know, some important things that you will learn from that.
SPEAKER_00:And I know you're a certified aging and play specialist as well as I am. So that allows us to go into a home to make suggestions for remodeling. Correct. Okay.
SPEAKER_01:Yes, and it also helps us be able to identify a new home that you may be thinking about moving into and being able to assess it to make sure that it is something that's going to be able to grow with your aging needs. And I think that's really important because we have this idea that we're always going to be as healthy as we are today. People have slips and falls. One in four adults over the age of 65 will have a slip and fall. Of those, a third of them will need to be seek some kind of medical attention. And a third of the ones that end up with needs for medical attention will end up in a hospital, and a third of those will die within 30 days. So there's a lot of things that come into place when thinking about is my home safe enough for me now? And will it provide for me in the next two to three decades if that's what I'm looking at?
SPEAKER_00:As far as aging in place, we want to look at safety. What things do you recommend that we do to keep our seniors safe?
SPEAKER_01:The biggest thing is the fall prevention because it can be prevented. And it's all about learning some new habits. And I say habits because, for example, one of the things that happens as we get older is we tend to sit longer. And the longer we sit, the more the blood pools in our legs. So then when we go to stand up, some people will get that dizzy feeling. And it can happen in your 40s and 50s. So it's not something that's about the magic age of 65 and above, right? And so what I tell people is if you sit for a long time, you want to move your legs up and down before you get up. Or the other thing you can do is you can stand up, sit down, stand up, sit down, stand up, sit down. I call those micro exercises. And so with the sitting and standing, the great part about that is if you get into the habit of sitting back down three times every time that you get up, you're gonna do two things. The first thing is you're gonna be in a very safe place should you feel that blackout dizzy feeling. So you're not gonna fall and you're just gonna end up back in that chair because you just sat down back in it. So that's the first thing that's really good. And then the second part about it that I think is even more amazing is this whole concept of micro exercise. And micro exercise means integrating additional strength training exercises into everyday life. Think about how many times do you stand up in a day? If I tell you, Rebecca, I would like for you to do 50 squats today, you're gonna look at me and say, you're insane. But if I tell you, I want you to do three squats onto your chair, because that's essentially what you're doing, up and down, three times every time you stand up. If you stand up 20 times, which is a small amount, you're gonna do 60 of them. And most people are gonna get up more than 20 times. And so if you do it every time, you're gonna get a lot of exercise. And one of the things that people don't realize is that there's a whole body of literature about the strength of your legs being a predictor of your longevity and your health span. And health span is what we want. We don't want to live a long life stuck in bed or in a wheelchair. We want to live a long life where we can run circles around everybody else and still be able to squat down and hug our grandchild, right? So these are the things that help us do that is these micro exercises. And so I challenge everybody to do that because the other thing is, like I said, it's gonna stop you from falling because you got dizzy. Because one of the things about that stand-up dizziness fall is that most people will stand up and they won't fall right away. It's like three to five steps away. And at that point in time, you're not next to anything that you can hold on to and it comes on really suddenly. So by moving your legs up and down or doing those squats, you're going to prevent that from happening. And that will help you avoid so many falls. That is great advice.
SPEAKER_00:Thank you very much for that.
SPEAKER_01:Yeah, well, you know, after I had a friend who is a uh title officer have a fall after standing up from her dining room table and felt that blackout, and she ended up breaking her ankle and ended up with a black eye and a scraped arm. I'm like, I'm on a mission now to make sure everybody over the age of 40 thinks about moving before moving when they get up out of chair if they've been sitting more than 20 minutes.
SPEAKER_00:Because that is to someone who gets older that's gonna do that. That's pretty much for everyone.
SPEAKER_01:It is. It's something for everybody, yes. Caregivers too.
unknown:Yeah.
SPEAKER_01:And then one more thing on the caregivers is no matter what, you want to consider your spine. So if somebody falls that you're caregiving, you don't want to try to catch them with a way that's gonna compromise your lower back because you don't want to get injured. And you don't want to pick them up in a way that's going to potentially injure yourself. You need to learn appropriate lifting techniques, and it's okay to call 911 and have the fire department come help you pick up your loved one because they're heavier, or if you want to protect your back, or there's also devices that you can have in your home that can help you get people up easier. But if they're falling more than once a month, we really need to consider what is the root cause of that? Is it clutter? Is it lighting? Is it the rugs? Is it a cord? What is it? And any aging in place specialist will be able to assess that, as will physical therapists and occupational therapists for you. So reach out to your health care and wellness team so that they can help you stay healthier longer.
SPEAKER_00:You talked about making sure you have a book so people know how you like your coffee, how you like your cereal. Tell me why that's important.
SPEAKER_01:It's important for many reasons. One of the biggest problems that we have as we age is being unable to communicate what we desire. If you get to a point where it's hard for you to swallow, people are gonna start giving you things like applesauce and oatmeal. What if you never liked apples or you never liked oatmeal? And this is what they feed you, that's gonna make you absolutely miserable. Maybe you love yogurt, and maybe you like blueberries, and there's all sorts of things that they can do with the things that you like. They can only know what you like if you tell them. Well, how are you gonna tell them if you can't speak? The best way to tell them is to be able to have something written that says, give me this, don't give me that. It's daunting to sit down and actually write this all at once. So what I tell people to do instead is pick a month, maybe November because it's around Thanksgiving, maybe February because it's around love. It doesn't matter. Just pick a month and all during that month, carry around a little notepad or carry around your cell phone and use the note app and say, I like this, I don't like that. Anytime it pops into your head that month, you're just gonna focus on the question. What do I like? What don't I like to eat? How do I want to get taken care of? What, you know, do I like a hot bath? Do I like a warm bath? Am I more on the cooler side? How often do I wash my hair? You know, do I like lotion? Do I like makeup? What is it that is important to you? So whatever's important to you, that's what you need to include in this, these notes, this book. And you can even do it on note cards and just keep a, you know, do it and don't do it pile. If you want to make it nice and neat and put it into like a workbook, or if you did it in cards, just have a stack of cards. I like this, I don't like that. If you are consistent every time you think about it, write something down. Because the reality is you can't sit there and think about everything in your life. I can't. I don't expect anybody else to. But as I live life, it is easy for me to say, oh, I just they just serve salmon and uh-uh, I don't do any fish. So I can write that down. Or I love watermelon because we just had it and I'll remember and I'll write that down. And so that's the best way to do it is to write it as you live life, because all plans and blueprints are living, breathing documents. And so you have to add to them, you have to change your mind. And if you have favorite recipes, go ahead and put them in there. Whatever it is that you want, this is all about you so people can know about you and your desires and your wishes when you can't speak to them. For some people, it may be actually a very fun thing to go back and read when you're no longer here, like, oh, grandma didn't like apples. I wonder why she didn't like apples. And you actually wrote a story about that. And they'll be like, oh, that is too funny of a story. I would have never known that had grandma not written it down. So you can even, you know, have things like that. Like, for example, one day I choked on a hot dog. I don't like hot dogs. I used to like hot dogs, but I don't like them anymore because they almost took my life. Speaking about caregivers, and even you too, one of the things that's as important is to tell and know the stories. So if you do you or your loved one does end up in a assisted living or a nursing facility or a rehab facility. When that happens, if you're able to tell the story about grandma doesn't like apples because XYZ happens, or she won't eat any hot dogs because she choked on it, that makes your loved one more human. And the more stories you tell the people who work there, the better they're going to take care of your loved one. Because now they've they're a human with a past and a history and a passion for life.
SPEAKER_00:Especially if they're in memory care, they're not gonna remember what they like or dislike.
SPEAKER_01:Right. And the truth of the matter is how many of us go and see our parents or our grandparents, and we're like, oh, we gotta go see them again. It's important to see them. And I love spending time with them, but they have nothing to talk about. Okay, they have nothing to talk about because they don't do anything like new and exciting now, but ask them about their past. Ask them about a time in history, like, where were you when 9-11 happened? Or where were you in 1950, or what was the best vacation you ever took? Now you gave them something to talk about that's fun and exciting. So if you're bored when you go visit your grandparents or your parents, that's on you. There are so many exciting questions and family stories that you could discover. You could even video them or could write them down. There's a lot of things that you can do.
SPEAKER_00:Video is really good because you have their voice. Something else I thought about when you were talking about writing things down is what about your pets?
SPEAKER_01:How many of us write long, lengthy instructions on how to take care of our pets? Everything from where to exercise them, where they like to eat, where they like to sleep, every single little detail. So why wouldn't you do that for yourself? You can take care of yourself now. But what happens if you have that stroke or if you have that fall and you can't communicate, then who's gonna know? How are they supposed to take care of you? Everybody thinks it's not gonna happen to me or I'm I'm still young. Okay, let's talk about that. I was married to somebody who was younger than I was, and at 22 years old, they discovered that he had a blood clotting disorder. And the next six years, he progressively got worse. At one point in time, because of the medication he was taking, he got up out of bed, took two steps, went down on all fours, and it turns out that he broke two vertebrae in the act of getting up out of bed. Now he was wheelchair bound, and I had to do everything for him. He was 25 years old. 25. So, you know, these medical crises, they do not discriminate based on age. If you ever wonder, oh, I'm too young, no, look around you, look at the obituaries. There's people that are 40 years old that are dying. You know, there are so many things that we think, oh, we're gonna be fine forever. No, unfortunately, things happen. And if we prepare for them, everybody's gonna be better off. You're gonna be taken care of better, and your loved ones are gonna be better prepared for some of the decisions that may or may not need to be made.
unknown:Right.
SPEAKER_01:For example, having a DNR or do not resuscitate order, it's a very personal thing, and a lot of people don't want to think about that. But but let's think about it from this other point of view. I'm your child, you didn't have a DNR, and now I have to decide what to do. And that decision is something that's gonna haunt me for the rest of my life. I thought you took care of me. Didn't you love me as my as your child? And didn't you do everything to protect me? Then why aren't you protecting me with this last act of love and make your own decision when something happens? What do you want to have done? Don't put it on your children. Right? You have to love them. It's an it's to me, it's the greatest act of love to have a DNR order.
SPEAKER_00:Yes, because if I had to make that decision, it was my mom or my dad, I would save them. I would want to bring them back. Yeah, Rebecca, and and I've been there.
SPEAKER_01:My father had a stroke on Easter Sunday. They rushed him to the ER. He arrived DOA with a respiratory arrest. They resuscitated him. He lived for five days. Now, in between those five days, we had to make decisions. Now, it happened to be in Mexico, so we're acting as if we were here in the U.S. and we can make decisions about well, if he's brain dead, well, if he's gonna be vegetative, if, if, if. And then we go to have a conversation with the medical staff once we find out that he is brain dead, and they say, oh, we don't do DNRs according to the Mexican Constitution. We're in violation if we don't resuscitate him. Luckily, he had a natural death within five days of the stroke. But it still was a horrible anxiety to make the decisions, to have the conversations. And what a relief it would have been if he had made that decision for himself before. Now, we couldn't make the decision because it was just the law, but here in the US, we can make that decision. So please make that decision for you and your family members so that they don't have to decide for you and carry that burden for the rest of their lives.
SPEAKER_00:Right. And on the other note, you own a house, you're going to pass it down to your children. If there's nothing in place, you go through probate. So your children. Don't have the money to do anything with your home, and it's sitting there for 12, 18 months. There's no quick fix to that.
SPEAKER_01:Right. Yes. That's so important to have the documents in place. Probate can take 20% of your assets. So a lot of people think about it's going to cost me$5,000,$10,000 to go talk to this attorney and get all these documents in place. The reality is most people have more than that in equity, right? In their homes and in different accounts and in their vehicles and all their possessions. And so taking$5,000 to$10,000 and putting the right documents in place, maybe even being able to bypass probate completely is huge. So as an example, if you have a payable on death deed or transfer on death deed for your house and payable on death for your accounts or a designated survivor for your insurance policies, those all bypass probate. But there's other ways to be able to do that as well. And an attorney can help you with that much better than I can.
SPEAKER_00:Right. It's what you do. Once you turn 18, is even if you don't own anything. I want to change the subject a little bit because you do everything and you have a restaurant. Tell me where that is and how you got started.
SPEAKER_01:The restaurant is called Salerno Cusina Italiana, and it is located in Cedar Park, Texas. The way that it happened is because I'm passionate about working with seniors and ensuring that they're safe, I became a real estate agent to help them be able to find the right age and place home and to be able to make that transition from their big home to something that's going to help them transition as they age. A lot of seniors have inherited commercial properties from their family members who invested in real estate after their experiences with the Great Depression. In order to better be able to counsel them, I learned a lot about commercial real estate. My brother introduced me to somebody who wanted to have a restaurant here, and we became partners and we purchased this restaurant. And I have been running it since about the day after Mother's Day. And now we're doing some fun things like Salerno Seniors. This is where I'm encouraging seniors to come in and be a part of our community-based restaurant by doing No Senior Eats Alone on Tuesdays. And then on Thursdays, I'm encouraging them to come in and learn and lunch with us. So we're doing like a longevity lunch, we're learning about uh different topics. Usually the seminars on Thursdays are limited to 15, maximum 20 minutes, so that we can have more conversations about it because it's about adding to the community and being a part of it. And so that's one of the reasons why I'm really excited to have uh the restaurant. How is the participation in those events? So we're starting. Okay, and uh we've had a small group come to the No Senior to Load today at 11:45 will be one of our sessions. And then the Thursdays are gonna be beginning uh next week. Okay, so they're on the baby stage still. They're in the baby stage, but it's growing, like it's grown from a couple of people to four to six people to a few more than that. So we're getting the word out. Yeah, it's gonna be word of mouth, right? Yes, it it is. It's one of those things that needs to get out to the community.
SPEAKER_00:That's exciting. So you're reaching seniors from many different angles.
SPEAKER_01:Yes.
SPEAKER_00:That's great.
SPEAKER_01:I'm really looking forward to the Thursday seminars because we're doing something different each week. So the first Thursday of the month, we're gonna do first things first because it's the beginning of the month. So we'll focus that conversation on things like what are the first things you need to do to get your documents in place? Another one will focus on what are the first things about health, or the first things about increasing your social support circle. Because we know loneliness is the biggest epidemic, and we can fix that by having a large social support circle. The second Thursday of the month, we're going to have a lunch with a local author, and they'll talk about what drove them to write the book and why their story and your story is important. Because as we've been talking about it, Rebecca, today, is that we need to write our stories and hand them down as a legacy to our family members. The third one will be Ask a Health Professional. We'll have all sorts of different health professionals come join us and talk about what they do and how they serve seniors, everything from home health to hospice, physical therapy, a physician, and so on. And then the last one will be the longevity lunch, where we will focus on the key things that help you have a healthier, longer life. We're very excited about how that's gonna shape up. That is exciting. During the longevity lunch, we will talk about all sorts of different topics that enhance our life. So, for example, one of the biggest things that enhances our longevity and has actually been shown to be even the highest predictor of our health outcome is our social support network. So if we have a strong social support network, we're more likely to live longer. You've always heard the old adage about birds of a feather flock together. And that is so important because if you surround yourself with people who are healthy, who are physically active, who are mentally engaged, who have great conversations and challenge each other to be the healthiest possible, then you're more likely to have a longer health span. But if you are around people who tend to self-isolate and you don't communicate very much, or don't have a very large group that supports you, then you're more likely to feel lonely and get depressed as you get older. And it is such an easy thing to do. Rebecca, one of the things that makes it a challenge about the whole aging-in-place concept is that I know that 97% of people want to age in the home they're in right now. Because it's the home where their kids were brought up, uh, the grandkids came to visit, and there's so many memories in this home. It's these memories and this idea of, well, this is where I did life, and this is represents my independence. And to a certain extent, there's a bit of a fear of the unknown. If what if I move somewhere else? What if I downsize? How will it be different? Will I lose all these memories? I want to tell people those memories are in your mind, they're in your heart. You will have those forever. You will take them with you wherever it is that you go. What I'm concerned about with people who are really stuck on aging in their home is that many times those homes are just not conducive to supporting them as they age. A lot of people end up within the four walls of their home and they stop driving because all of a sudden they're a little bit more concerned, or the traffic has become heavier, and they're concerned about their driving, or uh they can't see as well, and then they may or may not want to go out as many times, or they can't hear as well. So then they're isolating themselves more and more. As we start to withdraw out of our social groups, which unfortunately happens the older we get, then that less engagement we have with other people. So if we move to a community, or whether it's a 55-plus apartment complex or a mixed apartment complex, or move in with family, or find one of these independent living communities, one of the benefits of those is being able to walk out of the door and there's somebody there to talk with, to have great moments with, whether it's playing a game or exercising together or finding out about the latest family stories. But these types of things help keep our minds sharp. We really need to consider whether our environment is supporting our healthy aging or it's not. Many times this idea of staying in the family home, it's a great fantasy. The reality of it isn't all it's cut out to be. I want people to really question whether that's what they want to do. One of my favorite uh ideas was instead of even living in a community, I know of people who will go on cruises for a whole year. Now, how amazing is that? Do you get to live in a different city, go explore the world, meet new people every single day? I think it's phenomenal to be able to do something like that. Now, that may be out of most people's comfort zone, but definitely expanding the possibilities and the vision for your future by being okay with letting go of the environment that you have created for yourself to shed some of the weight of your stuff, to free your time up from having to clean and declutter, to being able to go out and live life, being able to be free to go out and see your friends, or, you know, meet somebody for lunch or go for a walk or a run if you're still running. I don't think I've ever ran, but you know, whatever it is that you do that brings you joy, spend more time doing that thing that brings you joy. Because those are the things that feed the soul and really make for a longer, happier, and healthier life.
SPEAKER_00:Downsizing and just staying in the home is not recommended. And the other thing is multi-generational living. That's starting to happen. So you have families together.
unknown:Yeah.
SPEAKER_01:Yes. And depending on the culture, some are going to be more prone to accepting that multi-generational living. And in case in cases like the Hispanics, that's expected. Families are very close-knit and they support and care for each other. And yes, it's not always easy to have multiple generations living in a home, but through communication and adjusting expectations and protecting some boundaries, you can have an amazing time with multiple generations living in the same home. I I know in the US it's a little bit harder because it seems like families have spread out to different states. So it is a little bit of a challenge because you have to have that balance between the older adult that has created life for themselves in the community in which they happen to be in and all of their social support circle that is there, and then thinking about moving to that multi-generational home, maybe in a different state, and what that would look like. I think ultimately the biggest thing that you need to do is be open to considering that the environment where you may be isn't supporting your healthy aging, and it may be detrimental to your health, and it may not support you as you get older. For example, my mom lived with me in a multi-generational home for several years. But when it came down to her needing a walker, the downstairs bedroom and bathroom were not very accessible because she could not get her 18.5 inch walker through the 18-inch doorway.
SPEAKER_00:Yeah.
SPEAKER_01:So that's a problem, right? And had she needed a wheelchair, it wouldn't have worked at all. So you really have to evaluate things critically at some point in time and say, well, I can take some furniture and some mementos with me to my new place that will help it still feel like a home. But I can shed a lot of the stuff that has already served me so well and be able to free myself up to have an amazing few years or decades.
SPEAKER_00:Right. And even if you don't have children, if the multi-generational living can work with caregivers, anyone who's going to take care of you, you have separate quarters. So you still have your independence. As a caregiver, I did that with my mom. Moved into a duplex. She had her own space. We had a hallway in between. So I could cook dinners, I could make sure she was okay. So there's a lot of options, and it doesn't have to be a child.
SPEAKER_01:Right. And the truth is about 30% of our older adults are solo agers. And the concept of the golden girls is actually a really cool idea because you can get a larger home and each one have your bedrooms and then you have your shared space where you have a built-in community and socialization. If you work it right, if you have the open communication and some boundaries and rules around things, so that you can increase the compatibility of that group, then you can actually have a really amazing time for a long time, for a decade or more. And it'd be conducive to increasing the quality of your life.
SPEAKER_00:Yeah, because you have someone that can cook, someone that can drive, you have a mixture of everything to take care of each other.
SPEAKER_01:Absolutely. These are non-traditional things that sometimes you just gotta try it and see if it works. In our case, it was more circumstantial. We were helping them through a situation in their life, but it became one of the times in which I have the fondest memories, and she's like a sister to me now.
SPEAKER_00:I wanted to talk about reinventing yourself because people retire, they don't know what to do. I actually reinvented myself at age 64, and I absolutely love what I do. What's your thoughts on that?
SPEAKER_01:Who said that at 65, you have to hang it up and retire? Maybe, maybe when it was decided that that seemed to be a reasonable age, well, life expectancy was not 75 or 90. We worked at jobs that were more industrial and more taxing on our bodies. But now we're in a more intellectually driven society where we aren't working the minds and we're not all of us working in construction and doing things that really tax our bodies. There is no reason, in my mind, to retire at 65. I define retirement as that point in your life in which you are financially secure for the rest of your life, and then you can choose to work, or you can choose what to do with your time. I do see many older adults choosing to be engaged in their community, maybe local politics or volunteering at their schools. And there are so many things that people over the age of 65 could be doing. And oh my gosh, the knowledge that they have, the life that they have lived gives them so many different perspectives that they come up with some genius ideas. Why would you want these people with all this knowledge and capacity to just suddenly stop? Is just wildly beyond me. I want people to go out and do something that they're passionate about. You know, maybe they worked at a certain job for a while because that's how they made their living, but now they have passion about what it is that they want to do for the rest of their life. You can write books, you can teach classes, you can do just about anything that you want to do.
SPEAKER_00:Yeah, it's about retiring from the job you don't like or you've done forever to doing something you truly love, whether it's volunteering or working and still making money. It's it doesn't matter. You just need to enjoy what you're doing, right?
SPEAKER_01:Absolutely. And you know, one of the other things that some of our seniors are doing, because now they have all this time on their hands because they've retired, is they start exercising and they start to become athletes in their 60s and 70s.
SPEAKER_00:I love that.
SPEAKER_01:And now you're seeing people who are breaking records in their 90s on things like swimming and running and biking and even triathlons. We just had a woman, I can't remember her name, who completed a uh Iron Man, I believe at the age of 90. Oh my goodness. That's that's yeah, and she Yeah, she didn't start seriously working out until she turned 65 and retired. And there's a gentleman, I was talking to a group uh a couple of weeks ago, and they were telling me about a man who specializes in training elite athletes, but not just any elite athletes. These are all people over the age of 65 who suddenly discovered that they love to do some form of exercise, and they've become elite athletes.
SPEAKER_00:You can do anything you set your mind to. Absolutely you can. You just have to have that plan and decide, okay, it's time and what you want to do. A friend of mine told me her mom's 106. Yeah. So you're gonna retire at 65, live to 106, and have nothing to do in between? Exactly. Yeah.
SPEAKER_01:Exactly. Well, why? Why are we doing this? And you know, when you think about what happens in the business side of it, where it's like, okay, here's this person who's worked 20 to 30 years in this business. They turned 65, so now they retire, and all that corporate knowledge just walks out the door. We need to be thinking about a transition plan for our retirees so that we can keep them engaged. So once they hit 65, we drop them down to what I call the 3010. So that would be 30 hours a week for 10 months. And their goal during those 30 hours is to be mentors to the newer generations, to put together the training workshops so that people are able to get all of the knowledge that is going to be gone once this person really truly leaves the company. So, this is the three years of apprenticeship where they go 10 months, 30 hours a week, then they go nine months, 20 hours a week, and then they stay on uh 10 hours for nine months so that they can be more of the think tank on how do we move processes and procedures forwards within this organization. And I think if companies did something like that, they would end up getting such a wealth of information and such a new enriched direction from these older adults who still have so much more to give. And, you know, we still see doctors who are working in their 70s and even all the way to the 80s.
SPEAKER_00:Yes, because they have the knowledge and they have the experience. I was an executive assistant for over 40 years. And I was missing it. And now I volunteer to help people with organizing and spreadsheets because I enjoy it. And you've got to keep that going because you've done it so long. Why just throw it away and do absolutely nothing with it?
SPEAKER_01:Exactly. And you can take that knowledge that you have and put together best practices and teach them to that next generation. You can volunteer at your high schools to mentor some of these students. They're a bunch of students who have nowhere to go after school, who really could use some mentoring and some guidance and some skills that will benefit them from the rest of their lives. The AmeriCorps has a senior core. So if you're looking for volunteer opportunities, that may be a really good one. The Small Business Association has a society core of retired executives. So if you have knowledge, Rebecca, like you do, you may volunteer to help set up somebody's books or help them get organized in their office. And those are really critical things that can make or break a small business. I think whatever it is that you're passionate about, you can go out there and do it. The only person stopping you is you. You're in the way of you living your best life. At the end of the day, that's the biggest trick is get out of your own way and just go do it. I highly recommend that you not put any barriers in front of yourself. Pick a goal and then just go for it. My dad used to say, you should always shoot for the moon. And the reason he would say you should shoot for the moon, because if you make it halfway there, you've already accomplished more than anybody else around you when it comes to that goal. And then he would tell me, and remember, you're not in a competition with the world, you're only in a competition with yourself to make yourself the best self that you can be. I love that.
SPEAKER_00:Yeah, that's great. Encouragement. Yes, exactly. Dr. Loyo, do you have any words of encouragement or final words for our audience?
SPEAKER_01:Absolutely. Retirement is the best time of your life. You can make it anything that you want it to be. You can have every experience that you've ever dreamt of having. You just need to make a plan and set yourself up for being able to have that amazing experience. You want to take advantage of your independent years to do that. And while you do that and have all the fun that you possibly can, be sure to read the longevity blueprint and create a blueprint for yourself. How do we take care of you should anything happen? Make sure that your assets are protected so they will last you a lifetime. So one medical crisis does not become a generational financial crisis. Make all those difficult decisions for you so that your family doesn't have to make those decisions. Go out and live your best life because you are the only one that can be the most amazing you that you are.
SPEAKER_00:Thank you very much. I appreciate you joining me today and for all your words of wisdom and your heart for doing what you do.
SPEAKER_01:Thank you, Rebecca. It has been wonderful talking to you today. And I am so glad that you reinvented yourself at 64 because you are going to be a living, breathing inspiration for the group of people that is listening and that is starting to think about retirement and thinking it's all over. It is not. It is just beginning. You have the reins and the ability to take it anywhere you want it to go. I can't wait to see how successful you are in the next decade because I know you're going to be doing this for at least that long, if not longer. Absolutely.
SPEAKER_00:And thank you for that. I want to thank my listeners for joining Seniors Home Zone, where we talk about life's transitions. Until the next time, take care of yourself and your home.