SMART New Year’s Resolutions

By Kari Richie, Springmoor Health and Fitness Director

Kari Richie

New Year’s resolutions are a fabulous concept. A New Year gives us the chance to “start over” with a fresh outlook on life. Many people set the goal to be healthy, lose weight or eat better. Those goals come with good intentions, but are rarely accomplished. The problem? Most resolutions involve inspiration but no preparation. No matter how big or small your goal—whether it’s losing five or 50 pounds, walking a mile or running your first marathon—creating change requires planning and S.M.A.RT goal setting.

Follow these guidelines to set a SMART goal for 2015:

Why Springmoor? The Neighborhood Feel

Find yourself walking along the many paths that weave between the tidy homes and beneath the towering evergreens on Springmoor’s 42-acre campus in Northwest Raleigh, North Carolina, and you’d have trouble convincing yourself that you’re at the center of a continuing care retirement community. With friendly neighbors, gorgeous grounds and helpful staff, it’s no wonder Springmoor residents have no trouble calling our inviting community home.

Neighborly Welcoming

Like moving to any new neighborhood, those who move to Springmoor often worry about meeting new people and making new friends, but their fears are immediately quashed when they discover Springmoor’s Southern hospitality. Residents are very welcoming to newcomers, going out of their way to meet their new neighbors and include them in their lives. They enjoy going to dinner regularly with large groups and out to nearby events and their favorite restaurants. Around the holidays, residents come together to help decorate trees and get everyone in the holiday spirit.

December Landscape Department Blog: Holiday Plants

By Thom Morgan, Springmoor landscape manager

Thom Morgan

Are you scratching your head, trying to figure out what gifts to give your friends and family for the holidays? You want to give them something that will brighten their spirits, and that might brighten their home—right? Carefully-selected plants can do wonders for the spirit and the landscape (inside and out). Consider shopping at your local nursery this holiday season. You just might end up walking out with a few festive treasures for yourself.

Before you get started, here’s the rundown on the most popular holiday selections:

Springmoor Resident and Retired Magazine Editor Publishes First Crime Novel

Anyone who thinks life starts to decline once you move into a retirement community has obviously never met Don McKinney, a Springmoor resident who has recently published his first crime novel. His book, “Murder of a Modern Woman,” is a 26-year project that he was able to complete after moving into Springmoor in 2009.

Don McKinney 

McKinney has a background in writing. He worked in magazine editing for 21 years, and was an editor of a men’s magazine before moving on to work for the prestigious McCall’s Magazine for 17 years. He also taught at the University of South Carolina and has written pieces for Reader’s Digest. During the early stages of his career he started work on this novel, but work and life forced it to take a back seat. It was only after he retired and moved to Springmoor that he was able to continue his work on it.

Life is a Marathon

What does it take to be able to run a marathon? Some may think it’s purely a physical feat, but I

learned it is much more than that. On Oct. 19, I ran my first marathon. It took four months of training and after five hours and 35 minutes, I crossed the finish line with tears in my eyes.

Kari Richie

   As I was running and enjoying the scenery of Detroit, Michigan, I had plenty of time to think. Many aspects of the race and training made me think of what we go through in our everyday lives.

    Physical challenge: Running is most definitely a physical challenge of endurance. We must train our body over time and it will improve. We are constantly faced with physical challenges throughout our lives including arthritis, heart disease, diabetes, depression and more. Each day we must face the challenge and choose to “train.” This could involve taking a 15-minute walk, going to physical therapy, taking an exercise class or making social connections each day. This mindset is especially helpful for seniors to embrace; the mantra “age is just a number” is often held by people who challenge themselves to do great things and ignore how many candles adorn their birthday cakes.

Springmoor's Amenities

    When trying to decide on a retirement community, it is important to not only look at the living spaces but the amenities offered. Here at Springmoor, we offer many opportunities for seniors to keep their minds and bodies active. From our new Wellness Center to our library, there is something here for everyone.

     We have many recreation areas and craft rooms for residents to enjoy. An indoor swimming pool, putting green, private chapel, bank branch, hair salon, pharmacy services, library, convenience store, multi-purpose space for entertainment and social events, as well as parlors for relaxation and companionship. Springmoor residents also have golfing privileges at Wildwood Green, which is less than 10 minutes away.

Springmoor Celebrates Active Aging Week

Active Aging Week at Springmoor Life Care Retirement Community this week was filled with plenty of activities for residents—from exercise classes, learning opportunities, games and the annual Springmoor Health & Wellness Fair. 

Active Aging Week, which was created by the International Council on Active Aging[PV1] ® (ICAA), is an annual, weeklong health observance every September designed to celebrate people ages 50 and older who are active members of society, as well as to encourage the senior population to focus on wellness.

Springmoor residents embraced Active Aging Week with gusto, as they always do! The community hosted plenty of activities at The Pathways Wellness Center that kept everyone busy and focused on their wellbeing. The Health and Fitness staff hosted several “Brain, Body, Balance” sessions, which were my favorite events of the week because residents had so much fun! Every instructor and every class at Springmoor provides a fun, supportive environment for all fitness levels. 

Resident Profile: C.P. Minnick

Active Lifestyles at Springmoor 

Springmoor strives to provide a community that promotes and encourages healthy lifestyles. From the food we serve in the dining rooms to the brand new wellness center we opened this year, we provide numerous opportunities for our residents to take advantage of. One of these residents is Carlton “C.P.” Minnick who describes living at Springmoor as “like living in a 5-star resort.”

At 87 years old, C.P. has lived here for five years and has seen a great improvement in his overall health since his move. Before coming here, he was pre-diabetic and took numerous medications for his health. Soon after his move-in, he had our wellness center staff do an evaluation of him and they set him up on a program of daily exercise suited just for his needs. This is something he described as “simply unbelievable.” These daily workouts include working on the machines, going for a brisk 2-mile walk, and swimming in our salt-water lap pool.

Springmoor Residents Take On the Ironman Triathlon Challenge

When you hear the word “Ironman,” your mind may pull up an exhausted but excited young man or woman crossing the finish line after spending an entire day participating in an intense triathlon. You probably don’t imagine seniors taking part, but they do!

Does Springmoor Life Care Retirement Community have Ironman Triathlon athletes? Yes! Two of our residents, Mr. Bob McGaffin and Mrs. Harriet Ross, recently finished the Ironman Challenge!

Springmoor Welcomes Stop Hunger Now Back to Campus to Package an Additional 40,000 Meals

Springmoor residents, staff, and Stop Hunger Now
representatives package meals.

Springmoor residents and staff have come together to reach their goal of providing more than 40,000 additional meals to children around the world in under developed counties. Volunteers came out Friday, June 6 to help bag, measure, weigh, and box meals for Stop Hunger Now.  

Stop Hunger Now is an international hunger relief agency that strives to provide meals to children in orphanages, schools, and crisis-burdened areas around the world. Founded in 1998, it has mobilized more than 450,000 volunteers to send more than 145,000,000 meals to 65 countries. Working with these programs helps enhance lives by giving beneficiaries the opportunity to break the cycle of poverty through education, skills, development, and health care while also receiving much needed nutrition. Stop Hunger Now started their meal-packaging events in 2005.

Yoga at Springmoor

By Kari Richie, Springmoor Health and Fitness Director

Kari Richie

Yoga has been part of the Pathways fitness schedule for years. The residents that participate are very faithful because of the benefits they experience. The word “yoga” can be intimidating for new participants because it’s often believed that it’s a religion. The goal of our yoga instructors and the Pathways fitness program is to help people understand that yoga is not a religion, but a practical aid to assist our residents in their wellness journey.

Inheriting Independence: Springmoor Mothers Share Wisdom Behind Their—and Their Mothers’—Choice to Move to the Community

A sense of independence and adaptability: It’s a trait Dora Beal believes she inherited from her mother, and one she believes her daughters have inherited from her. It’s also the trait that led Dora’s mother to decide to move into Springmoor Life Care Retirement Community in the 1980s while she was still active, and what led Dora to move into Springmoor just one year ago.

“The wonderful thing about mother is that she was always adaptable. She saved me a lot of grief and worry, and made the decision herself to move here,” Dora said.