The Retirement Success in Maine Podcast Ep 091: Using Functional Fitness to Successfully Age in our Homes

 

 

Transcript:

Ben Smith:

Hello, everyone. Welcome to the Retirement Success in Maine podcast. My name is Ben Smith. Allow me to introduce my two co-hosts, the Tony Horton and Denise Austin to my Richard Simmons, Curtis Worcester, and Austin Minor. How are you guys doing today?

Curtis Worcester:

Good.

Austin Minor:

Good, Ben.

Ben Smith:

Well, thanks for tuning in today, the listeners out there. Austin, I know one thing that we've been talking about, and I think a recent client conversation we had was how am I going to physically age and how am I going to stay in fit as we age? Right? I think with the client we're talking about, we're saying, "Geez, I feel good now, right? I'm in retirement, or I just retired and I feel pretty good, but I'm a little concerned about how I'm going to age and how I can kind of stay physically fit in the future." Right? So that's something where I know that's been a little bit of a concern.

Austin Minor:

Yeah, sure. So yeah, when we sit down with many of our clients, one of their greatest fears in retirement is not being able to stay in their homes for the duration of their retirement. So...

Ben Smith:

That's right.

Austin Minor:

If that's one of the biggest fears, what are we doing about that to ensure we stay in our homes as long as possible? That's a big question we have. Obviously, we can use our money in retirement savings to make our homes more age-friendly, but are we investing in ourselves through diet and fitness to do activities to keep us moving appropriately in our homes? So this is exactly what this show is about, using functional fitness to successfully age in our homes.

Curtis Worcester:

That's exactly right, Austin. And again, while I think the three of us do all right staying active, I don't think any one of us is an expert in the topic. So we wanted to obviously bring in a guest who is. So our next guest is a naturopath and yoga therapist. She has authored multiple book series and has been published in major publications such as Reader's Digest, Shape, Self, Spry, the Chicago Times, Huffington Post, Thrive Global and Red Book, just to name a few. She's also featured as one of the hottest fitness professionals over 50 in Spry Magazine. She has made quest appearances on several CBS and NBC TV shows, cable and podcast formats there. She's been a guest speaker at various conventions in venues including the Deepak Chopra Center and the Motion Picture Wellness Center. She is the creator and producer of Dr. Lynn's Anti-aging Workouts for everybody that has international distribution.

So she has also created and produced Dr. Lynn's Functional Fitness for JLTV TV and her YouTube channel. And I'll say for all our listeners, please visit her products page for her other classes, which include Karma Yoga, Sex Matters, and How to Prosper with a Purpose. And we will link all of those also in our show notes for everyone to be kind of easily accessible for everyone there. Our guest also, this is exciting, is originally from Maine. We love that. She relocated from Los Angeles to Sarasota with her husband Dan, where she teaches her online classes and continues to write. She is also a mother and a grandmother, and she has said that her grandchildren are her greatest joy. So with that, please join me in welcoming Dr. Lynn Anderson to the Retirement Success in Maine Podcast. Dr. Lynn, thank you so much for coming on our show today.

Dr. Lynn Anderson:

Well, thank you so much for inviting me. And I have to say, I'm thrilled to be doing a podcast where you're combining two very important things that have to do with retirement, health and finances. Perfect. We got it.

Ben Smith:

Health and wealth is the theme today. Right?

Dr. Lynn Anderson:

Right. Right.

Ben Smith:

And Dr. Lynn, as you know, we definitely can cover the wealth side, but when it comes to health and people expressing those fears to us about, I know kind of staying in our homes as Austin was alluding to in our introduction, I think is one of the biggest fears we hear about, "Hey, I am scared to go to that next level of retirement community to assisted living, to support a living, to hospice." Right? As soon as I go to the next stage, it means that I'm on that down slope and I don't want to be there. So being in our homes is long as independently as possible is a really big deal. So we're going to get into that a lot today, but we also want to hear a little bit about our guests, get to know you a little bit. So love to hear about your upbringing and how you were led to a career of fitness.

Dr. Lynn Anderson:

Well, I was brought up on an island off the coast of Maine. Town of Harpswell has an island called Great Island, and I grew up on Great Island in the fishing village there. Went to school at Brunswick High School, so I'm a University of Maine, my undergraduate. So that was the beginning of my process. When I went back to the University of Maine, I went back as a single mother, and I had two young children and I was broke. I had no money. A young girl with two kids putting myself through college, and I'm kind of a Type A overachiever, so I wanted a 4.0. I have to say I got a 3.8, didn't get the 4.0, but got the kids. Here I am going to school and raising two kids and trying to work part-time. And honestly, at the very end of it, after I graduated, there was a collapse, a burnout.

I had just reached that point where I had just been going, going, going as fast as I could go and everything stopped. And it was at that point that I realized that I really needed to focus on my health. And I kind of flashed back to my upbringing on the island where we didn't have a doctor, and a lot of the things that we did was folk medicine and we ate organic without even knowing we are eating organic. You eat what's there in season because back in my day in Maine, you just didn't get in the car and go to the grocery store. That was what you did once a month. And always being a very active outdoors person. My father was an outdoorsman, so we grew up with that. I came back and I said, "The things that are really important are diet and exercise." Those are the really important things. And that kind of led me down the pathway to health and fitness and also working towards becoming a naturopath.

Ben Smith:

Dr. Lynn. I love that. And also I love that you're from Maine and you have these Maine roots, and I know you still have those roots that call you from time to time, which we're going to talk about. I'd love to hear about your geographic journey going from Maine to Los Angeles to Sarasota.

Dr. Lynn Anderson:

Oh my goodness. I'd never even driven on a freeway before. I mean, I landed with my 16-year-old daughter in Los Angeles. Didn't know anybody, didn't even know how to drive, didn't even know how to get along, and Los Angeles is crazy. People and noise and all of that kind of stuff. But long story short, we made it and I ended up staying there for 30 years. And that's kind of how I put my career together because I finished my education, my PhD and my MD as I was in Los Angeles. And then that began my career of having a private practice there. And then I also was in fitness and health. I taught yoga classes and fitness classes, and I became a Certified Yoga Therapist and produce, that's where all the TV shows and all of that kind of Hollywood stuff comes from.

Ben Smith:

Oh, very nice. So Dr. Lynn, you have books, DVDs, a YouTube channel and work with folks online. Can you tell us a little bit about your practice today?

Dr. Lynn Anderson:

Well, my practice as a naturopath, they're two different things, but they integrate. Yoga therapy and naturopathy work together. But as a naturopath, our philosophy is that you must have perfect balance in the body, the mind and the soul to have perfect health. You can't have perfect balance in the body and then the mind's all screwed up or you don't have connection with your soul. So as a naturopath, we look at let's bring balance to the physical being, let's address the mental and let's address the soulful. And if you bring them all together, you create perfect health.

Curtis Worcester:

I love that. I want to keep going a little bit here, and I have kind of a lighter question I think before we really dive into the topic, but I want to ask it. So I know I read off in the bio that your greatest joy are your grandchildren. Right?

Dr. Lynn Anderson:

Mm-hmm.

Curtis Worcester:

So can you just tell us about them and maybe what sort of fun adventures you guys get into together?

Dr. Lynn Anderson:

Well, I have three grandchildren. I have two grandsons who just graduated from high school this year. One is going off to college and one is going to trade school. And then the third one is my little granddaughter and she graduated from preschool. I had three graduations. But one of the things that I did with my grand boys is whenever we were together, we would have what's called breakfast with grandma. And that meant I would go pick them up and individually or sometimes the two boys together because they were very close. I would take them to breakfast separate from their parents and everybody else, and we could just talk.

And I would say, "We can gossip about the family, we can talk." And so many things would come out with those young boys because they felt they could say things to me that maybe they couldn't say to mom and dad, or I would hear things and I could maybe direct them and they would listen a little more because grandma loves you unconditionally. So it was a really good way for me to communicate. And I will tell you that both of my grandsons at the age they are now, when they see me, when I go up to Maine to see my grandson up there, he puts the time aside. He wants breakfast with grandma even at 18.

Curtis Worcester:

I love that.

Dr. Lynn Anderson:

So that makes me feel really good.

Curtis Worcester:

I love that.

Ben Smith:

Dr. Lynn, I know we actually had an episode on with a social worker as well and talking about grandparents and grandkids connecting, and I think what you just said is kind of spot on to what he was saying is, "Having a date is kind of getting outside the comfort zone and get outside the electronic universe, and just put things down for a second and just be present to each other and let things kind of spill out. And being open to listening and receiving and let them share," right? And meet them where they are is another big thing. So I commend you on what you just said that that's really fantastic from that angle.

Dr. Lynn Anderson:

Well, it doesn't matter what age you are, everybody likes attention. And when you can kind of feel that you can get out of that and you can be open and that your grandmother's not going to judge you, she's going to love you and she's going to foster things in you, then that gives them a safe base to come to. And I will tell you that I have one grandson that whenever he has any issues, questions about girls or any of that stuff, he calls me.

Ben Smith:

Nice. Yeah, that's so great.

Curtis Worcester:

Well, Dr. Lynn, I know our conversation today we're going to get into is that topic of using functional fitness to successfully age in our homes, but we always want to start with definitions. Right? We always want to start with using the same terms so we know what we're all talking about. Love for you to define exactly what is functional fitness, and what are some examples that we can use to help us stay physically active as we age?

Dr. Lynn Anderson:

Mm-hmm. Well, functional fitness really means quality of life, and quality of life means to be able to do the everyday things you want to do. Playing with the grandchildren, being able to make the bed, getting yourself dressed, climbing the stairs. Newly retired people, what do they want to do? They want to travel. Traveling is important. So functional fitness is really more designed in taking different fitness moves and fitness programs and working it into a functional way. For example, in my functional class, we do aerobic dance. There's a dance that we do, and the dance is really not about a dance. It's about movement to music.

And it's scientifically designed so that the movements are working on balance. They're working on flexibility. We're not just dancing. There's a purpose behind every move. So if you are doing that and improving your balance, then let's say when you go, and I just came back from Europe, and in Europe everything's cobbled stones and steps and wobbly, you have a better sense of balance because people fall. We start to lose our balance at age 30, and it's something we have to continue to work on. So that's kind of what functional fitness is all about, being able to do those everyday things.

Ben Smith:

Nice. That's great. I need some of that dancing. I think we have plenty of cobblestone streets here in Portland, so...

Dr. Lynn Anderson:

Yeah. Yes, you do. Down in the old port.

Ben Smith:

Right. So Dr. Lynn, let's talk about proactive aging. What are some things we can do to proactively keep ourselves healthier as we age?

Dr. Lynn Anderson:

Well, proactive means to pay attention to your diet, and it means to exercise, and it means to do things every day. Simple thing, very simple. I tell my clients, take a walk every day, but make sure you take it in the sunshine, because you're going to get double whammy, you're going to get the exercise of your walk and you're going to get the vitamin D from the sunshine. Two things that we need that are very important as we're aging. It's getting up every day and taking a proactive, a positive look at aging. In this country aging becomes negative, negative, negative. It's not a negative thing. When you retire, you have freedom for the first time in your life. You've got freedom. You can travel, you can sleep in, you can go to the gym every day. So it's getting up and really having that positive feel about yourself that you're really going to live your life to its fullest.

Curtis Worcester:

I love that. And you just teed up my next question perfectly. So I want to talk about that transition here a little bit, right? The transition into retirement from a career. So we see it all the time with our clients in conversation. This can be such a tough time for many people trying to find that renewed purpose. Right? As you said, you have so much free time, what am I going to do? I've worked in the same job for the last 50 years maybe, right? So people, again, looking for that purpose, maybe feeling lost, the feeling of fear and the uneasiness of change can really disrupt us. So I want to ask, how have you helped people kind of during this transition, but maybe in that nutrition and fitness lens?

Dr. Lynn Anderson:

Well, one of the big things that is important to all of us for our mental health and our physical health is socialization. We are social creatures. And so when you leave the workplace, you leave your friends, you leave that social network. So I encourage people to go and get involved in a fitness program where they can come together and be social with other people, because once you connect to make that social connection, and of course if they make it with the teacher and the teacher's a good teacher, she'll pull people in and get them connected, they're going to show up, they're going to keep coming back because they're going to want that socialization almost more than the fitness, but they get the fitness as well.

And I will tell you that once I get my network, my group, I know when they don't show up, I will tell them, "Hey, I haven't seen you in a couple of weeks." And I send them an email. And they're like, "Oh, Dr. Lynn, I've been busy. I've been doing this, but I'm coming back." And they come back.

Curtis Worcester:

That's great.

Dr. Lynn Anderson:

So it's really, you have the time now, so get out. And most people, if you walk into a fitness class, I would say that really good teachers are out there. They will welcome you and bring you in, because it's hard to walk through the door to an already established class.

But that's one of the best things you can do to get yourself back out there and socialize and meet people.

Ben Smith:

Dr. Lynn, I think that's really great. We've had a personal trainer on too, and that's what they say is that there's this intimidation, right, to step in and everyone's going to be friends and everyone's going to know each other for years, and I'm going to be the outcast of the group, and they're going to know all of the moves, and I'm not going to know any of them. And there's this, I don't want to be embarrassed. I don't want to be intimidated. I don't want to get into a relationship with a trainer or a coach here that makes me feel worse about myself. I want to feel better. Right?

I don't want to feel worse. So I think that's a really big deal about having a welcoming attitude and also being a coach and you're kind of rooting for them more than they'd maybe they're rooting for themselves at that point too. Right?

So I want to ask a question because I attended a conference and I saw Deepak Chopra in person. So he was a keynote speaker. And what was really fascinating is he's kind of talking about our bodies, and again, he's kind of has some really, I think really intense and deep thinking around our bodies and how they work. And he was making the point about almost our bodies being routine three D printers is that look, our heart, obviously we shed cells all the time, so our bodies have to regenerate cells and that a lot of our organs, including heart and liver and lungs, right, they're continually being regenerated over time almost that there's enough cells that are being created of those organs that we almost recreate them seven or eight times in our lifetimes, which is fascinating to think about.

We almost have a version one of yourself and a version two and version three, and you keep kind of going. And he was even saying that we don't really have a lot of knowledge about our bodies because there's 600 trillion cells in our bodies, which is more than all the stars in the Milky Way galaxy.

So I guess my larger point here is obviously our bodies are continuing to change and adapt as we age. Right? They continue just to learn and think and adapt with us. So again, my larger question here is how do we adapt ourselves so we can take care of ourselves kind of through those decades? Right? Because our bodies are changing, but maybe our minds are not kind of adapting with us. So how do we keep those two things in sync? And as you said about also the spiritualism as well is important, but how do we keep those things in sync where maybe our bodies are maybe leading the way here a bit?

Dr. Lynn Anderson:

Yeah, well, we change, they say about every 10 to 12 years, actually your whole body changes because your cells are breaking down and they're changing. And of course it's what you do. I tell my clients, it's what you do in that decade that determines where you're going in the next decade. So if in that decade you're focused on taking care of your health with good nutrition and exercise and sleep, which are the three pillars of health, then you're going to transition into that next phase a much healthier person. Now you will age, because I hate to say this to you, but aging happens. It happens the moment you're born and it doesn't stop until you die.

I mean, it's the process of life. So as we're going through each decade, I remind my clients and my students that each decade requires modifications and adjustments. That's life. From all the way through life you're always going to have to adjust mental things, physical things. We adjust our finances, we adjust our home, we adjust. We're always adjusting and moving. So it's getting in touch with what's going on with your body and learning how to pace yourself at different ages. To address it, most people as they're going into their 40s and 50s, they still want to run like they're 30 years old and it catches up with you. And it's hard to say, "Well, gee, I can't do what I did when I was 30." But that's okay. You're not 30. You can do different things. And what happens is you're a little wiser and you've got more up here. Right?

So it doesn't mean that you can't do everything, that you can't go out there and do the things that you enjoy doing. It's just we have to adjust a little, maybe the knee's a little stiff, so we're going to adjust to a different kind of class or do a different kind of exercise. So it's being able to let go of that control that we all want, and the fact that none of us want change, but it is the only absolute in life, so you might as well accept it. Life is constantly changing and it's learning to flow with the change. And I think that's probably the one thing in health and fitness that really hinders people the most is when they hold back and they're just resistant to the change in life.

Ben Smith:

Dr. Lynn, I feel like you're picking on me here a bit. I am in my early 40s and try to do things that are in my 30s, so I feel like you're picking on me a bit, but I'll let it slide.

Dr. Lynn Anderson:

But it's important to be able to each decade focus on where do you want to be in the next decade. When I was in my 50s, I knew where I wanted to be in my 60s, and so I worked towards that. I am very fit for my age. And in my 50s I was teaching three to four cycle classes a week, five to six yoga classes. I had my practice, all of that going, but I also began to experience changes in my body. And I knew as I got into my 60s, if I kept pushing myself the way I did in my 50s, I was going to injure myself and then I'm going backwards. So that's the whole key. You don't want to go backward.

Austin Minor:

Yeah, I know that's always a goal for me. And I'm in my mid-30s and just certain things with working out, I have to be a little more careful, but it's well worth not trying to push myself so hard, because I have been set back a couple of times and I know how much that is. It's mentally frustrating too. But I know the topic today is successfully aging in our homes, which infers that many of us might struggle with aging in our homes. Why is that? And what are the common challenges you are seeing of today's retirees which might force them to leave their home if they don't take care of themselves?

Dr. Lynn Anderson:

I have an elderly father who's up in Maine, and that's why I do travel to Maine every eight to 12 weeks to help my dad out. And my dad is still right now living in his home at the age of 89. He's still driving too. And I can say this because I'm a Mainer, he's a stubborn Mainer. We are stubborn, independent people, and we have to be because we deal with a climate that makes us strong and independent. And most people really want to stay in their home. And studies have shown over and over again that people are healthier and happier the longer they can stay in their home.

But the challenge becomes keeping up the house. The challenge comes in when, for example, with my father, when my mother passed away, all of a sudden he's alone. That changes the dynamics of what's going on in your home. So then you have challenges like stairs, you have challenges like bathrooms, and those are the things that it's really important to kind of take some of your money and invest it at that time. For example, with my father, we took the downstairs bathroom and we made it a complete walk-in shower for him, that's a safety thing.

He can stay in the home because of that. He doesn't have to go upstairs. So we adjust things that way, make a ramp if they need that in order for a walker. So there are a lot of little things you can do. And by the way, I'll just throw this out there, and I'm sure it's true of other towns, but the town of Harpswell, for example, gets grants from the government, which they will go in and they will help people with minor repairs and they help people to stay in their homes. So I would encourage anyone to tap into what's going on in their town because the money's there and take advantage of it.

Curtis Worcester:

I love that, and that's a really good suggestion. I'm glad you brought that up. I want to rotate a touch here and talk about something that we've had previous episodes around as well, but I definitely want to get your point of view here, Dr. Lynn. So I want to talk about ageism. Okay? So we can only imagine, I think specifically in your industry, right, you have trainers, health instructors, fitness. I think so much of that might be centered around being body beautiful and young. Do you think that your health expertise, by yours specifically, or your peers, that worldview and your expertise gets discounted by others maybe from an ageist point of view?

Dr. Lynn Anderson:

Well, I'll answer that first by telling you that I come from Hollywood, body beautiful in Los Angeles. And yes, at the time I was in Los Angeles, and it still is in a lot of those areas that when you walk into the gym environment or fitness environment, it's all about are you young and beautiful and fit? And one of the problems that they have in fitness is that they don't always have instructors who can instruct to a particular age group, i.e. the older group. And so you'll get a young instructor in there and she's leaping all over the place and they can't keep up and they can't relate. So when you come in as an older instructor such as myself, and you've got an older group of people, they know that you know what's going on with their bodies because you are there. And that's what's really, really important.

Fortunately for me right now here in Sarasota, I teach at Sarasota Memorial Hospital. I do lectures there and I also teach fitness classes there. And Sarasota Memorial Hospital, they have a gym, it's called Health Fit, and it's really for physical therapy and stuff like that, but it's also a gym. And most of the people during the daytime that go there are older people. And it's a wonderful environment for them to go in and they can do chair yoga or they can do standing up yoga, they can do work in the pool. So there's a lot of programs out there if we dig a little deeper. We don't need to just go to the body, beautiful gyms. But to answer the second part of your question, yes, ageism is a problem when we think in terms of physicality. But I will tell you, I do a lot of lecturing and I do a lot of podcasts and things, and I'm always amazed at if someone younger is interviewing me, how they're really interested in what I have to say and not discounting it because it's coming from years of experience.

Curtis Worcester:

Yeah, that's a good point.

Dr. Lynn Anderson:

And so if you're open to that, for example, Karma Yoga teaches us that one of the things that gets in our way in life is blocking knowledge. That means I know it all. I'm there. And if you keep yourself open to constantly learning and constantly growing, it does keep you youthful and it's important to be open. So that's the real key to it all.

Ben Smith:

Dr. Lynn, I like that a lot because again, even in our industry as well, where again, you're trying to counsel people in our finances, and many of us do it yourselfers our whole lives, just I'm sure like fitness. It's like, "Yeah, I can go for a run and I can go do these things," but then when it comes to adaptive things or there's more complex situations that I'm not used to, do it yourself can be a little bit more dangerous and maybe not the best way to the ghost seeking out advice is. So we get that from our end too, is hearing people, "No, I've done this my whole life. I know exactly what I'm doing."

Okay, and that's fine. But there are times in situations where I think it makes a little bit more sense to seek help, right, and to get people to kind of give another view. I want to go back to one point you did make about looking for grants around aging in our homes. One thing we have had on our show a couple of times is local area agencies on aging. Right? And in the State of Maine, there's a really fantastic network of those agencies. And again, they're government funded and they're really great advocates for all of us in our communities and aging in our homes. So whether it be Meals on Wheels, but also from Medicare counseling to things like that. So I just want to kind of expand on that point to what you said. They would be a really great entry point to find those grants about modernizing our homes or insulating them for the winter to keep the heat costs down, things like that.

Really great resource. So I just wanted to make that point as well. Next is I want to ask about your dad in Harpswell, right? And obviously as you said, you come out to Maine every eight to 12 weeks to help out, check in on him, make sure he's set up, and you and I shared a little of our stories back and forth previously. My grandfather at I think it was 94 or so, had a limb over his car, decided to get up on his own. He was living independently, so got up on the ladder, stretched to get the limb because it was going to scratch his car and he started to cut it. And we all know what happens next if we fall and we break a hip and there goes independent living, right, because we try to do too much. So that was a lesson of course I saw personally within our family. I would love to ask about the lessons you have received by observing your dad's aging that you are now applying to yourself.

Dr. Lynn Anderson:

Well, again, my dad, he's a big outdoorsman, and so he's one of the chopping wood and outside. That's my dad. Nothing's going to stop my dad. You need anything dad takes care of it. And it's been very hard on him as he's going on in years to not be able to do those things. He has, it's called Parkinsonism's, which is a Parkinson's type disease that he has. So he falls a lot. And actually this last week he did take a very bad fall and he is actually in rehab right now, and we're in the process of perhaps maybe having to make that transition. To answer your question, it's because he didn't want to listen when it was time to listen to, "Dad, you can't do that stuff." He wanted to just push it through, that independent, ornery part of him just wanted to push it through.

And it's very important, I think that you listen and take in and pay attention because as I always said to my dad, "You don't want to take that big fall, you take that big fall, that's it. There's nothing I can do. I can't help you once you've taken that big old tumble." It's called pride, and you kind of have to let that go a little bit, and you have to allow others to help you and come to that place in your life. And what I always say to my dad is, "Well, dad, you took care of me. Now it's my turn." I told him this the other day, I said, "When you are born, you're given this little diploma and it says, once your dad and mom get old, you have to take care of them." They get to take care of you, then you have to take care of them.

Curtis Worcester:

I like that. I like that.

Dr. Lynn Anderson:

And he kind of laughed. He goes, "All right, all right."

Ben Smith:

Dr. Lynn, just kind of observing this as we do over the years too, and kind of seeing this again with our family and our friends and also the population, the listeners here today is this, I wish that people would just kind of understand that point of it feels like we each want to have 100% independence. Right? We want to have 100% independence and then go 100% dependence. And I don't want to tip over. I just want to stay and I will do everything myself.

And it feels like there's a more natural glide path here of, what if I called up my daughter and said, "Hey, Dr. Lynn, I have a branch over my car. I'm a little nervous about getting on that ladder. Do you think you could arrange for somebody to take care of that for me so that I don't fall and then I don't go to rehab and maybe that forces me out of my home at 89."Right? If I let go of some things that may allow me to have the majority of my independence for longer. Maybe it's just a Maine thing, but it feels like from that stubbornness, and I'm going to just do it all myself, I'm not going to burden anybody.

Man, that just happens. This attitude happens a lot. I feel like.

Dr. Lynn Anderson:

Right. The word that you just used, and I've heard that from my dad, "Oh, I didn't want to burden you." Dad, it's not a burden. It's more of a burden for me to go pick you up in a heap somewhere with a broken hip or whatever, bash your head open. That's more of a problem for me than you calling me. My dad had a problem with his car and he couldn't deal with it. And so I got the car and took it to the dealer and got it fixed and got it home, and it made it so much easier on him, but he had to let go of that responsibility and let me do it. And it's very hard, I think, because one of the real things is, and I know because being a mother and I have adult children and my children sometimes to tell me what to do, and I'm like, "No, I'm your mother, you don't tell me what to do."

So those conversations have to be very careful, because you can't come in and start treating your elderly parent like they're a child because they're not. They're not a child, and they're going through all of this stuff they're going through in their life and they're processing all this stuff. You have to really meet them where they are and then reach out and help them, but never try to discount them and make them out to be a child because that's when they get angry, and when they get angry, they won't pick up the phone and call you. So it's important to respect them, respect their feelings, and what's going on with them.

Ben Smith:

100% agree.

Austin Minor:

Dr. Lynn, I'd like to talk to you about diet. So like Ben was discussing earlier, and you've covered our body's change as we age, but especially around our tastes and what tastes good to us. What should we know about diet and our bodies that we can apply over time?

Dr. Lynn Anderson:

Well, the most important thing is to, of course, eat a healthy diet throughout your whole life. And a healthy diet really means eating as close to nature as you can. It's not about taking supplements or any of that kind of stuff, but it's eating really non-processed, food and making sure that you get all the right vitamins and nutrients in there. Now, as we age, sometimes that's a little harder. Sometimes people have digestive issues, so kidney problems come in or heart problems.

As we're aging, the body is changing. So I always say that it's really important to reach out and if you can find someone, a good doctor, who will really kind of guide you through how to have a really decent diet and a good diet for your age, then that's important, because we do have to shift those things around. Maybe for example, someone is pre-diabetic and they've been enjoying ice cream and cookies their whole life, and all of a sudden you've got to eat a bowl of fruit, right, and that's got to be your sweet. Well, it's making that adjustment and understanding how to make that adjustment, and sometimes it requires working with someone to kind of guide you a little bit.

Curtis Worcester:

Yeah, I totally agree with that, and I'm glad you added that piece at the end because it's kind of our conversation earlier about everyone's so DIY, I think naturally so to recognize when it's time to pull in some help and some experts to really make the change, I think that's very important. Dr. Lynn, I'll start by thanking you again for your time today. I do have one final question for you, and it's really focused on you here. So obviously the name of our show is Retirement Success in Maine. I know you're not in Maine right now, but maybe you will be soon or whatever. So I want to ask you, how are you going to find your personal retirement success?

Dr. Lynn Anderson:

Well, my husband owned a business and he sold his business. And of course, the two of us have been really good with our money and investing our money in different places. So we have it invested in different places, and that's what we'll live off. We don't have a pension. We have that money invested. We also don't have any bills. We own our home, we own our cars. I mean, that's really important. I think more important than money in the bank is to have yourself debt free because you have a lot more options when you're debt free. And so for the financial end of it, we've set ourselves up so there's no debt and there's enough money coming in comfortably to cover everything and to do some of the things that we like to do, travel and things like that. Those things are important. You can't just live your life stashing all your money away and not enjoy it.

Curtis Worcester:

That's right.

Dr. Lynn Anderson:

It's there to enjoy, but you also have to be very careful because hopefully everyone will live a long life. And we know that when we get towards the end of life, sometimes you have to go to long-term care.

You need the money for that, that's not paid for with insurance. And that's also very Maine. It's very Maine to not have death, right?

Curtis Worcester:

No, it is.

Dr. Lynn Anderson:

It's very Maine. I mean, my mother raised me. I remember she had a credit card and she said, "All right, you can charge something, but you have to pay it the next month. And if you can pay cash for everything." And I still pay cash for stuff. But that's what's really, I think, important and where we are at in terms of our financial.

Ben Smith:

Yeah, Dr. Lynn, I'll add to it too because there's an attitude, especially when you go to you, "the county." When you go to especially Northern Maine, Aroostook County, and we still have the lobstermen, you have the potato farmers, they come to the metro area, whether it be Bangor or Augusta, Portland, and they just drop $60,000 on a truck and just here's the cash and just boom, there you go. So yeah, there's this little, "Hey, I like the independence of it. I like the cash of it. I can just kind of do what I want."

And having that financial independence and financial freedom is a really important thing to achieve, because I think then you're living a more stress-free life. So if you're doing that financially as you're suggesting, but also from the lessons that you taught us here today, if we're taking care of ourselves, then we can enjoy that money too, right, as long as we possibly can, and we can have the maximum enjoyment of our life by being healthier, being kind of more active in our livelihoods, so that hopefully when we get to 90, that we're able to continue to do all things that we want to do and still enjoy it and enjoy our families as well.

So thank you so much for coming on our show today. It was really a treat. Such a pleasure. We'd love to maybe check in with you again here too, because I think there's a lot more we could cover, but thank you for coming on our show.

Dr. Lynn Anderson:

Well, thank you guys. It's been my pleasure. Thank you so much.

Ben Smith:

Take care. So Dr. Lynn, Episode 91, again, kind of exploring that theme, right? That functional fitness, aging in our homes, how to stay independent as long, because I know obviously from the three of us and our work and especially our team at Guidance Point Advisors, just that's a constant fear that kind of comes up, right, is that people want to stay independent in their living situation as long as possible. And again, I think there's a Mainer theme that happens there about not asking for help, and I can just do it all myself. And I think that's something we're just getting some advice from outside. We thought this was a good episode to do that with. So I thought Dr. Lynn Anderson did fantastic today and even better that she had connections to Maine and a true kind of from Maine herself and her dad's a Mainer. It's pretty cool from that end.

Of course, as always, we'll have links to Dr. Lynn's website, her YouTube channel, things along that. So all those resources will be on our blog page. So to find that, you can go to blog.Guidancepointllc.com/91 for 91, and you can see all that transcript, video, all that will be there. Thank you for tuning in today. Thank you for 91 episodes of tuning in as well. It's a privilege and an honor for the three of us to do this with you. If you like to reach out, love to hear from you, just comments, questions, suggestions. Love to hear that too. But we will catch you next time.