As you may know, we have been following Barbara Mock’s retirement. This is our one-year anniversary. Barbara went from pre-retirement in other words, the preannouncement to the day of the announcement and now we are following her post-retirement

What is Barbara up to?

She spent the first week of July getting ready to help with Vacation Bible School which was very rewarding. There were 438 kids in all.

There were about 120 volunteers, and about 90 of them were high school and junior high students.

Barbara got in a tug of war and was in some of the games. Needless to say, it was very exhausting for her!

There were about 120 volunteers, and about 90 of them were high school and junior high students.

Barbara got in a tug of war and was in some of the games. Needless to say, it was very exhausting for her!

“The little kids just give you hope for the future. They were just amazing.”

She also just finished up Nana Camp with her 3 grandchildren and it was everything Barbara had hoped for. The precious time with her grandkids was amazing. They just left a few days ago and she is still recovering with the laundry, the house, and just her energy levels, but super rewarding.

No Schedule and Uncomfortable

So now Barbara is in a new month, and everything is blank. There is nothing on her calendar. She literally went from going 100 miles an hour to just stopping. Life is just unstructured with no schedule, and that's an uncomfortable place for Barbara to be.

Barbara is a planner and with nothing in her schedule right now I asked her how she is managing.

“I’m driving my husband crazy. I keep putting out possibilities for things they can do. And while they're not big decisions, as a retiree, you want to make good decisions, you want to use your time wisely. You want to use your money wisely. you today to look ahead, figure out what you want to do, where you want to go, and how you're going to get there and how you're going to pay for it.”

Focusing and Meditation

I asked Barbara if she has ever thought about mediation. And like many of us, she struggles to just sit quietly with ourselves and not have our minds wander. I use an app called brain.fm to help me meditate. I feel like giving your brain a rest, even for a few minutes a day is good for your brain and it is a good way to help prevent getting dementia

Club Med

I talked about a recent vacation Les and I took to ClubMed in Florida. This is an all-inclusive resort so the food, drinks and many activities are included. The food is absolutely amazing, some of the best I've ever had. There were some pros and cons to our trip and we did end up leaving two days early, but overall we had a really nice time.

What Next?

Barbara enjoys connecting with people, so she plans on cultivating some new friendships and gathering with current friends.

There is also a bit of uneasiness for Barbara on what's next for the fall and winter. Predictions show a very wet fall and winter where Barbara lives and she doesn't want to be there the whole time. So she is feeling a bit anxious that she hasn't filled that space with anything yet. We talked about the idea of putting ideas of places to go during the winter months as sort of a retirement idea jar

She is planning on slowing down just a bit since things have been so busy for her. So, her focus right now will be relaxing, reading, walking/hiking, getting exercise, and of course her ladies golf two days a week.

Barbara is hoping that she can keep a good balance. She feels like she needs things to stimulate her intellectually and emotionally.

"I think our brains are better when we're interacting with other people or other cultures or going to different places. I think for seniors anyway, it's good to not just sit at home and watch TV, it's good to get out. And even if it's in your neighborhood, experience other places, and other things so that you can actually have a memory triggered, so that you can use your brain that way."

Health Segment

For our health segment, we have Jon Pearlman, co-founder of Mission Lean the leading fitness app for anti-aging. Today John and I talked about stretching.

It is important, for older adults, especially sticking to a consistent flexibility routine is a must. A lot of injuries that an older person might suffer from having to do with a lack of flexibility and a lack of range of motion. This can be avoided if somebody just commits to a consistent routine of flexibility and stretches.

John recommends 3-5 times a week of 10 minutes a day stretching

Also, your stretching routine should be done after your workout when your body is warm, and all the muscles are warm.

Can you stretch when your muscles are cold?

According to John, the answer is yes. It's not ideal because when you're warmed up, not only are your muscles activated and warm and ready to absorb those stretches to the fullest.

Don’t forget to download the mission lean app to get more fitness routines and tips. To learn more, download the Mission Lean app on your cell phone or you can visit https://missionlean.com

Do you have any questions? You can email your questions to Podcast@RockYourRetirement.com and we will try to answer them on the show.

To get a copy of The Baby Boomer’s 30-Day Journal go to: www.RockYourRetirement.com/Journal