Retirement Media: Active Adult Living – Blog about living in a 55+ community

Children are the reason some people move to a 55+ community!

When you think about it, that is really ironic since children are not allowed to live at a 55+ community.

Let me explain. From living in a Del Webb Community, I observe these are two large groups of people who move to a 55+ community for the same reasons, at least initially.

Group number one and by far the largest group are people who moved to the area to be closer to their grown children and grand kids. Moving closer to your kids is the number one reason people move to a 55+ community outside of their home state. It makes sense. Where else could you move away, many times across the county, and immediately be accepted and make friends easily. A 55+ active adult community is idea for this purpose.

The second much small group includes people who do not have kids or at least do not have a close relationship with their kids. They are free to move where they want to without considering where kids live. Again the 55+ retirement community is ideal for their lifestyle too. You have many friends in the community and a family of people you share a bond with at this wonderful stage of life.

This second group without kids include both married couples such as myself and Mary Ann and plenty of singles without kids.

There are a variety of reasons people move to a 55+ community but it’s kind of interesting that children are such an influence on many decisions.

Of course I have heard of several people who moved to a 55+ community to be closer to their kids and later the kids moved away and the parents stayed in their 55+ community. On the other hand I have heard of the parents moving to a 55+ community in another state, then the grown kids moving down to be closer to the parents. Interesting.

Exercise Workout Routines

I took the above photo of our gym at Village at Deaton Creek at 7AM this morning. 7AM I have found is a great time for me to exercise. It sure is nice to have a gym in our activity center.

7AM is works for me because it is early enough not to be the least crowded.

Exercise Not Talking

AT 7AM, the social takers have not yet arrived. They seem to do more talking than exercising. They gather around the coat rack or the water fountain and if you start a conversation there with them, you are likely to be there at least 20 minutes. That cuts into your exercise time.

Don’t get me wrong, I love to talk with people and several of the social talkers are my good friends. That makes it harder not to talk for a while. Some people have told me they went to exercise but ending up talking and did not get any exercise done!

It is easier to have some small talk when using the exercise machines. But when I am race walking on a treadmill at 5.2 miles per hour, it takes my full focus to maintain my pace. If I talked it could be dangerous as I would probably fall off.

In fact, I try to look straight ahead and not even at one of the 4 TVs in front of me. CNN and Fox News doesn’t seem to go with exercise anyway. If you are going slow enough to watch TV, you are probably going too slow.

Several people do have ear plugs while using their treadmills. Besides TV stations, they do offer radio stations. On my smartphone I used to listen to a great running playlist of music that I really looked forward to. Too bad they don’t let you listen to music in race walking competitions.

Forming an Exercise Habit

The other thing about hitting the gym at 7AM is that you can get your exercise done for the day. Every active adult should have an exercise routine.

The key to developing an exercise routine is making it a habit to go to the gym everyday at the same time. When I wake up at 6AM, I like to drink two glasses of water and have a Cool Mint Cliff Bar with caffeine equal to one cup of coffee. That is enough before I exercise. Then after I exercise and return home, I eat a small breakfast.

It nice to be back in an exercise routine. It makes training some much easier.