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You know, it’s kind of um one of those things that you get certified because you wanna do good and you realize like, wow, that certification was worth it just to help my family.

Caring for aging parents or other loved ones while working, raising Children and trying to live your own life, wondering how to find the time for your personal health and happiness. Well, you’re in the right place. Welcome to the Happy Healthy caregiver podcast to show where real family caregivers share how to be happy and healthy while caring for others. Now, here’s your host, Family Caregiver and certified caregiving consultant, Elizabeth Miller.

Hello, everyone. Thanks for tuning in to the Happy Healthy caregiver podcast, which is part of the whole care network. If this is your first time listening, welcome. This is a show produced biweekly to help family caregivers integrate self care and caregiving into their lives. I am also delighted to share that we are part of the whole care network streaming radio channel.

So download whole care network app for not only the Happy Healthy Caregiver podcast, but a whole, a whole lot of other content as well. Each of our episodes has an accompanying show notes page. So if you’d like more information about the topics, products and resources we speak about, you’ll find the show notes by going on to the website Happy Healthy caregiver. com underneath the podcast menu. Click the image or the episode number for today’s show. The link will also be shown in your whatever podcast platform you are listening to their episodes, description, join, find a happy healthy caregiver email list to stay up to date on all the podcast happenings and whatever else is going on.

Plus a whole lot of content that I curate for you every Tuesday, you’ll get the weekly roundup which includes tips under the pillars of happy healthy and caregiver plus upcoming events, special offers and more. Join the list by going to bit dot lee forward slash hh CE news. I’d like to thank our episode sponsor Mods Ventures. Do you have an innovative idea to improve dementia care? Then consider applying for a grant from mods Ventures. They’re offering up to $50,000 in seed funding to launch solutions in dementia care that can improve the lives of those living with dementia and their caregivers.

Mods ventures welcomes individuals and organizations from both the nonprofit and for profit worlds. This is your opportunity to transform your vision into a reality visit. Mods ventures. org and submit your application by August 5th, 2024. Make a difference in the lives of those affected by dementia and applied today for this episode segment of what I’m reading, I finished reading a book called Wayward by Amelia Hart. This was a book that spotlighted on three Wayward. That was their last name, women in three different time periods. The story alternates care chapters and while the story could be somewhat predictable at times, I needed to know how things were going to get from point A to point C some parts were or could be triggering as there are crimes against women and a few storylines.

What I really liked about this book was that it was just women helping other women over different generations. The audio version was great and I gave it four out of five stars from me on good reads. My, my favorite thing, it’s actually a place and it’s called Costa Rica and it’s where Pura VDA is a state of mind and something that I really could frankly get used to. And, you know, as our kids got into high school. We started to put more focus on traveling and experiences instead of big gifts.

And we also do that for milestone celebrations. And this past May my family, we took an 11 day trip to Costa Rica and we wanted to see the different parts of the country and not have to drive. So we actually booked a tour through a company called Wing Buddy that’s based out of Canada actually. And while I don’t think traveling really is to Costa Rica is as inexpensive as people maybe used to say it was, it’s definitely worth the money. Some of our favorite things that we saw were basically the animals out in the wild.

We saw Sloss crocodiles to cans, monkeys and one of the monkeys that was called the Holler monkey. It really frankly has a roar. Uh It woke us up first morning that we were there in Torta. I really, I was poking at Jason. I honestly, I thought it was a jaguar as they do have jaguars also in Costa Rica. A few of the other places and highlights. We went to Arenal Volcano which we got to relax in the hot springs there, we went and saw the La Fortuna waterfall.

We also did how coffee and chocolate were made and we got to explore the hanging bridges when we went to another town called Man Fair Day. Now the kids that we have are officially offer payroll like I don’t take for granted anymore that the times that the four of us are all together, it’s special and I’m grateful and I just treasure it frankly. If you’d like to be an armchair traveler to our Costa Rica trip, I did make a few short Instagram videos. I will link to the Instagram links for the four different videos and locations that we visited.

Let’s meet today’s caregiver in the spotlight. Vinny Venugopal cared for his father and is a certified aging and place specialist with a passion for entrepreneurship and building solutions. In this episode of the Happy Healthy Caregiver podcast, Vinny shares how a two week vacation to India with his parents turned into an eight week caregiving nightmare. Then when his family was able to return home to the us, more attention was needed for his dad to age in place effectively. We also talk about the small changes online and brick and mortar businesses and home builders could be doing to serve the growing older adult community and their caregivers. And we learn about a curated website and a newsletter Vinny created to highlight news and popular articles related to the baby boomer generation.

Hi, Vinnie. Welcome to the Happy Healthy Caregiver podcast. Thank you, Elizabeth. Thank you for having me and thank you to all the listeners and viewers. Yeah, I’m excited for people to kind of get to know Vinnie and get to know your story and what you’re all about. So I appreciate you spending the time with me here today. We always start the show though with a little bit of words of informa words of inspiration, um motivation, just things that have spoken to me as a caregiver that I want to pass on to other family caregivers because maybe it will touch them in some way.

So let’s get your thoughts on something from the happy healthy caregiver jar today. So, oh, I like this one. It says I like all of them obviously about them. But I always say that your life is made of two dates and a dash. Make the most of the dash. Have you ever heard the dash poem? I love that. Oh, no, I have not heard of it, but that’s, that’s excellent. The first time I heard it, it was at a funeral. Um You know, because that’s what people put right on your, on your gravestones.

They put the birth and the death, but it’s really your life is the dash and there’s a whole that I’ll, I’ll actually link in the show notes. But um are you living your dash? I am living my, I am 100% living my, I think the dash started off small but thickened up as the years went on. So I am absolutely living my dash. Thank you for asking. Do you think that Caregiving made that thicken up? Oh, I think Caregiving did a huge thickening process uh in that dash.

Um 100%. Uh you grow, you grow up real quick. Uh You know, you might think you’re grown up. But uh there’s, there’s nothing like caring for a loved one, a parent, a different generation, um even different cultured. Uh you know, the way we’ve all grown up, you know, every culture generation is different and changes. So, um yeah, yeah, that, that dash is, is definitely probably one of the most happiest uh processes and growth that I’ve experienced. So, thank you. Well, let’s dive into that a little bit, little bit about your caregiving story with us, Vinnie for folks who are listening so that they can, you know, we, we believe or I believe that family caregivers are the experts in family caregiving.

So I want to shine a spotlight on that part of your story. So who did you care for? What was that part of your life like for you? So it was that I, so it was a family here and um it all happened in every worst case scenario that I could possibly think of. We’re in a third world country. Um Granted we had some connections with, you know, what we could have with a billion people in South India um in Trivandrum, India. So we, we went there, my, my father, I should start with was diagnosed with cancer, throat, throat cancer prior to us leaving.

So this was one of those special trips we didn’t want to share the information or news with anyone. We just wanted him to have the best time ever. Um, and that was our goal, you know, just go out there. We don’t know what’s going to happen. Let’s just, what’s your wish? He’s like, I want to go to India. I want to check out, um, my family, I want to see people. I want to see things. Ok, let’s go. So we end up going to India and unfortunately, prior to getting to India, we think he already caught a UT I which obviously, you know, got itself to AAA degree that we didn’t know how to handle anymore.

Um And it happened on the day we were supposed to leave India. So the caregiving really started on just the voyage to India making sure that he was ok watching him, you know, go from this fun loving spirited funny guy. Um, and then slowly decreasing in that manner and I didn’t know if it was just, you know, we’re, we’re back in his hometown, um, if the travel itself got to him because he was tired. Um, so we really couldn’t put anything to it. But then as we were in India, you know, this progression of always needing help, um, having issues walking, not being able to speak properly, um, getting very upset, but, but with the smallest things, um becoming, you know, and, uh, you know, unfortunately, you know, my mom dealt with most of this but, you know, the, the process of going to the restroom at night.

Um, you know, the process of just getting angry and, you know, in the middle of the night, which again, we had no idea what this was about this experience. Just, um, it, it took me by storm because I would have never expected my father of all people to behave and act in this manner. Um, but it was just something that, that we saw. Well, you know, I’ll get to the fun stuff. We, as we were leaving, how long were you there? By the way, I was supposed to be there for 103, 3 weeks.

I ended up being there for 7.5, 8 weeks. Ok. So we ended up going into, uh, my dad had an attack kind of at the hospital. I’m sorry, at the airport while we were leaving. Um, and then, well, he didn’t have an attack. I’m sorry, our flight was delayed. So they had to put us in a hotel overnight. Well, at the hotel overnight, um, you know, he just started panicking, he got really scared. Um, he wasn’t sure what was going on. He was acting very strange. He wasn’t eating at all and, you know, we knew that was because of the cancer, it hurt and he wanted, and we just wanted to get him home because he started treatment that week.

That was our goal of getting home. We needed to get him home. To start treatment. Um, very sticky window. Apparently that we had, which, which we did not know either. Um, we end up going to a hospital. Well, now we’re at this hospital and when you start thinking about, you know, again, this is on the caregiving side, you start thinking of so much. It’s one thing watching my father, but it’s also another thing watching the institutions and how they actually manage the care for or in India where I, you know, I’m not the best at speaking my native tongue.

I can get away with a lot. But, um, you know, really all the medical terms. Right. Right. And then, yeah, and then, you know, the accent that goes along with it. So that was probably my biggest struggle, the medical terms I had just because of a previous life of it, health care. But, you know, understanding each other on the, on the accent, you know, how they say things. Right. Um Good, good point there. That was difficult enough. Um, but watching the, the situation with my dad going through all this, you know, he went through five different departments and all of those was, you know, he was getting progressively more confused and worse.

He was starting to go through sundowning, which I never experienced in my life. And I don’t wish that, um, anyone, um, it was the hardest thing to understand, to see, um, you know, and know when things change. Um, uh, you know, and, and we stayed with him. My mom and I were at the, the hospital for three full weeks because they did find that due to that ut I, he had a blood um, infection which was causing a lot of issues. Um, did they call it sepsis or?

That’s exactly what it was. Yes, thank you. Yes. So he did catch sepsis and he was there, you know, it was a 14 day, I believe here in the US. When you do it, it’s like 5 to 7 days of um uh uh of, of going through the process and the treatment. But there they wanted 14. Well, again, again, the politics et cetera. Hey, we have a foreign family here that has the means to, you know, get a hotel down the street as well as stay here. Let’s try and keep them here longer. Right.

There’s always that fear of, of that. Are you getting taken advantage of 100%? 100%? You felt it. And you saw the care too. They moved my father down to, um, to, to check um, down an otoscope to look down his throat. But when they brought him down there, I went down with and um, they left him in a room with 0003 coughing folks in different age groups and he’s in a bed laying there looking up, right. Um It got to the point where I, you know, I physically moved him back into the room.

Uh and they didn’t like that. Um There’s a, there’s a lot of that respect culture portion of it as well where there’s, you get more things, right? Like people around them or I don’t want them to not take care of him anymore. And that’s the fear and there because insurance is something that we didn’t have out there. So we have to pay every three days or else they kick you out of that hospital, right? So you kind of go through, uh, and again, you know, we’re getting to the caregiving because I, I felt like I just dove right into it, you know, whatever he needed, we were there for him.

Um, we got him back home. Um I, you know, I’d hate to say that we got him back home because they probably wanted me out of there more than they wanted him out of there because you’re the, the advocate that’s like, yeah, looking at him and showing in the mirror and be like, hey, this is what good looks like that. Yeah. And, and just kind of making sure that they explain things correctly and getting my own family members that are physicians from here on the phone with us, you know, around the times of the physicians and really kind of pushing a, a medical reason to keep him in here any longer.

So long story short, we ended up getting him on the plane, which was another, you know, for caregivers that travel, um, with their loved ones that process alone going international is not the easiest process. Um, the time it takes to get a wheelchair, um, the waiting if you have to catch a connecting flight. Um, you know, we had to, we were with Qatar Airways and we had to catch a connecting flight. Well, there’s no rush, you know, to get my dad and my mom together and that, you know, at one point my mom was walking when my dad was in a wheelchair.

Um, so seeing that’s even more heartbreaking, right? Because now you’re talking about it’s just not one person when you’re caregiving, it’s, it’s really both of them. Um, and your stress is already elevated, traveling just kind of takes, takes something out of you anyway. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Patience, you know. Um, you know, my wife tells me you’re the most patient person I’ve ever met. Um, you know, and I, and I say, and I say, yeah, sometimes, you know, I guess it depends. Um, but, but in general when it comes to things like that, you know, what, what do you do?

Um, you know, time is, is the only factor in, in any of this and we just had to get back to America. So there was a goal at hand and I think on the care of a giving side was, um, I just created little goals every day. Um, you know, things to make sure you know, I know he’s going to go through this at 1 a.m. today. Let’s figure out how I can, you know, help him and help me like the sundowning and stuff. You were. Yeah, I knew, I knew at 130 he was gonna want to get up and say get me out of here like it was just this nonstop thing for, you know, two weeks.

Um and then he just wanted to go to the restroom and come back, but he wouldn’t go to the restroom. He would just want to go in there, come back, he just wanted to move. Um, so I turned on some music for him, you know, I turned on some Indian music for him, you know, some of the songs that he liked, I found it on youtube, plugged it in and then he just sat there and it was great. Um, just kind of watching him listening to the music and kind of singing along and there were times he wanted to get up and do stuff and I said, you know what, at the end of the day, he’s not sleeping at all.

He doesn’t really sleep during the day. He’s not sleeping at night, obviously. Um I was like, I just have to get used to staying up with them and then trying to catch a break in between. So that was, uh, that was an interesting, do you have kids, Vinnie? I don’t, I don’t like having on on demand. Uh infant care almost is like that. Like you have no idea like how long are they going to sleep? When are they going to get up? Like it’s um, but good for you for, for trying, you know, a lot of caregiving I think is about trial and error and trying things like, you know, ok, there’s a pattern here, this is gonna happen.

Let me find the thing that I think might calm him and then the, the music and it’s, it’s smart because I think sometimes it’s just like we just keep sometimes beating our head against the wall and it’s a lot of it is, is trial and error. Did he continue that behavior when he got home or did that once the UT I cleared up and did things, we got him home. Um We got him home when we got off of the airplane and then the next day he went right or the ne not the next day, the day, right after that, he went right and did for treatment for throat cancer for his chemo y for his chemo and radiation, right?

He did chemo, chemo was once a week, radiation was every day for 28 days. So as soon as we got back, um towards the mid end of November, he started his treatments um and then he was done by December 31st. So he’s gone through all this. Yeah. Happy New Year. So he, he went through all that. Um, and, and I’ll, I’ll tell you, you know, watching him and it’s weird seeing your father go from, you know, this fun goofy guy all of a sudden to like a, a completely 180 different person.

Um, and then making it out of it and, you know, he’s, he’s walking slower, he’s got his, you know, walker with him, um, as of right now, as of right now. Yeah. Good. Is he in remission or? It seems like it, they have, they’re doing another pet scan in, um, I think in a couple of weeks, um, I think around July end of July they’re doing another pet scan just to check on. Good. We’ll send up on that. And how has it been for you, like juggling your home and your family and your job?

Of course too? Like, what, what kind of impact did that have on everything? I, I’m, I’m fortunate that I have such a wonderful companion. So my wife is amazing. Right. So, you know, my hardest thing was being away from her for that long and then not knowing where I’m going to see her and then making sure she’s not alone. So that was probably the, the most stress I really endured was kind of knowing like, all right, is she gonna be ok. Um Does she have to travel?

What are we gonna do with the dog? Uh, you know, things like that, you know, just adding more stress to her but, you know, she found her way to Ohio. Um, you know, she found a way when, when I left for India, you know, we went to Ohio and that’s where her sister’s at. So she spent time there. So when I was in India, I said, hey, I’m not coming back as soon as I thought it looks like it might be a couple of weeks. Um, she was like, ok, she made sure her work was taken care of.

That was her first, you know, mission, make sure the dog was taken care of and she basically traveled between Ohio, Arizona. Um I actually flew and met her because she, she travels for work. Um So she’s a medical director for um muscular diseases. So she, she, she has a little, you know, the compassionate care, health care stuff too is Arizona home for you all for her Chicago is home for me. It is very cool. And where, where are your folks now? They’re in Chicago, they’re in Chicago, they’re, they’re staying there, you know.

That’s right. You know, I run an aging in place business as you know, so I was able to really set them up with everything they needed in the home to make sure my dad was comfortable. Um I would definitely say that was, you know, a blessing in disguise that I fell into this and, you know, you already were working in aging and place when you went to India. Yes. Ok. Yeah, I had been there for a year and, you know, it’s kind of one of those things that you get certified because you want to do good and you realize, like, wow, that certification was worth it just to help my family, your family.

It makes you want to get into that field as a, you know, a young man. Yeah. You know, I think a lot of it has to do with just um in general II, I like business. I like finance. I like all that, the fun stuff that create um some type of entrepreneurship that we all seek. And, you know, I was just reading and doing statistics studies that showing that, you know, by 2030 60% of America is going to be over the age of 65. So when you start looking at that, you’re kind of like, all right, where are they going to be housed?

Who’s going to take care of them? And you had, you asked a beautiful question if I had Children and you know, the the answer is it was no. And as I’m looking and reading the statics uh statistics, I’m looking at my wife and saying, who’s gonna take care of us? Like this dog is not going to take care of us like, like what are we gonna do? Um So then it was like, well, let’s start something that we can actually start helping people right off the bat.

So I got cap, certified, certified aging in place professional. Um, tell a little bit about that like cap certification in case somebody is interested in that cap certification is being able to go into a bathroom and understanding the structure that you need in order to put a um, a zero entry shower and making sure that the membrane is waterproof, making sure that the studs are x amount of um, feet apart or inches apart, I should say and then making sure that there’s a backbone like a two by 10 or a one by 653.

So when you are ready to put in a chair, a grab bar, those things are already in place. Um So it’s like a construction more like in a construction field almost, it’s a, it’s an absolute construction field with an emphasis on mobility challenge and understanding site. Um So lighting is a big part of it. So when you say construction, it’s also design, universal design of a um an area in your room or your home that you need and you always look for like the main areas, right?

The bathrooms, the masters, the kitchens, um and then the TV room like those are your main rooms to make sure that, you know, you have ambient lighting when the time is appropriate, depending on your, your eyesight. Um You know, you, you’re going with your, your circadian rhythm, you know, in your house, if you’re having trouble sleeping, just really looking at overall. Um, it’s interesting. Yeah. And what are some of the changes you had to make in your parents’ place? Grab bars were the first thing, I mean, that was a big thing for my dad just to walk, uh, being able to set them all up.

The other was a shower, you know, making sure that he can just walk right into the shower with his, you know, uh, walker et cetera, um, a bench so he can sit in there, um, a handheld shower, right? So if he did, he can grab it and shower himself or if somebody else was doing it, they can actually grab it while he’s sitting and he can shower himself. Um, so little things that we thought of. And again, you know, I’ve, I’ve been in one, I just remodeled the home right now.

One that I purchased put my money where my mouth is and II I literally opened up all the doorways, you know, 36 inches, 42 inches. You can do a full 360 in a wheelchair in every single room, including the bathrooms, I redid and kitchens. Um, but I’ll tell you it wasn’t, it wasn’t, um, cost, let me put it this way. It was expensive for anyone trying to, yeah, it was expensive for anyone trying to flip a home or trying to do this. Um, you know, that it’s a tough, it’s a tough sell, um, to put that kind of money into it.

But if you’re looking at, uh, maybe, and I maybe throwing a little real estate in here. But if you’re looking to rent it out or, you know, owner finance or do something for the veterans side, this is a great, great option. Are there, is there any help, like, are there any services out there that if folks, you know, find themselves in the need to kind of get their home in an in place state that is there services that they can tap into to help them with that?

You know, Sarasota, Florida. Um I’m, I’m from, I’m from Cape Coral Fort Myers area. Um But Sarasota is one of the most beautiful cities that, that actually help builders get their permits faster within a week if the builders are able to show that it’s an aging in place home, which is huge because it usually takes six weeks to months to get a permit. So a builder. Um So that’s one of the things they’ve done. Another thing Sarasota has done is they’re actually working with different technologies right now in order to help the aging in place um technologies like home, you know, home systems, et cetera.

Um So like a camera. Is that what you call that thing? A ring camera? You do the Yeah, exactly. You know, trying to put those kind of, to just be more available. Yeah, it’s nice too for a caregiver to kind of be able to help their parents remotely. We talk a lot about things like remote caregiving and long distance caregiving and things like that. Well, yeah, you certainly, I can tell that you love to build, build things and I’m so grateful that you’re in this space and that you are able to, to also help your, your folks out.

Um, what do you see trending? What do you kind of see trending right now in your space that excites you home? Automation? Like what does that entail like? What, tell us more about that? So I’m working on it in my own home. Um So where you walk in the doors automatically open through a proximity badge or a fingerprint, um motors on top, literally opening your doors closing up. Um So automation that it knows it’s you lighting inside your house knowing what time it is knowing what temperature, et cetera that you have.

Um you know, the circadian rhythm, I bring that up mainly just for better sleep, better overall health. Um There are reminders now that you can use with these chat GP T et cetera programs that remind you to fill your medication, take your medication all through Alexa apps. Um You know, Alexa is one but there’s obviously many more Josh A I et cetera smart speakers, there’s a lot out there. Um Sound systems again, you know, the days just coming back from Japan, I was like, these things are amazing.

Every house needs to have one that, you know, it’s the easiest way for elders to really stay clean. And um I thought that was amazing, but, but little fixes like that, you know, lights that automatically go on. So if you go to the restroom, you wake up in the middle of the night, a motion detector will put on a nice ambient lighting on your floor that directs you literally directs you right to your ba uh bathroom. And then when you go to the bathroom, the lights automatically turn on.

Um the, you know, obviously on these bidets over there, it, it automatically opens up, you know, and you just have to sit down and kinda walk away, you know, get back to your destination and then the light turns off. Um There is this really cool tool and I’ll plug a guy named uh Jeff Galea at Boca Tech, which is in Florida. Um His whole company got certified aging in place. He got, he had the whole company in there. Um I have an assistant, my assistant has cerebral palsy.

So my assistant actually met me there a year and a half ago and Jeff had Jeff’s big into the theaters and the sound systems, et cetera smart homes. So we walked in and um my assistant got stuck um in his wheelchair. He’s got one of those really cool automated wheelchairs, he can stand up and do all this stuff. So, you know, he goes in and he get, he got stuck, he came out, um, you know, we got him out, we couldn’t lift it. It was like 2630 £212. So we were very hard to lift it.

Um, it was tough. Um, so we, we got, we got him out and, um, a year later, Jeff goes, hey, I’m doing a grand opening, you know, I’d love for you to come and, you know, you know, bring your, bring your guy too. Well, I couldn’t go, I was out of town but, but my assistant went and uh, Jeff re did the whole place literally the whole place in that specific theater room. He redid it. So Garrett could actually, sorry, I said his name, but um, he could actually get in and make a turn and be able to, on his experience.

He was like, oh, this needs work and he came back and, yeah, which I thought that was amazing for um, a business owner to really take into consideration. And that was in West Palm. So that was, uh, how can business owners like, you know, I, I used to be, my mom was in a wheelchair for part of her time when she was mobile and she was in a bariatric wheelchair. And I remember like knowing which restaurants I could easily get her in and out of it and then just like banging the door at like, I think it was Marlowe’s tavern and I was like, oh, it was just, felt really hard to, to get it.

What can businesses do to get smarter about that stuff? I think. Um, I think the first thing is, is ramps, I mean, the most inexpensive, easy thing is ramps and grab bars, um, grab bars in their, in their bathrooms, ramps to help people get into the doors. You know? You know, you look at it, most doors are 226 inches. You know, we need to get them at least 230 inches. So if they do any build outs, 210 inches is the, the minimum, you know, get up to 2000 inches. That’s great.

It’s great for builders too, you know. Um, you know, so I, I think for business owners just being able to, you know, two things, their website themselves, they should have an accessibility side, you know, that you can add on the component ad a compliant. You know, that’s the first thing for any business owner. The second thing would absolutely be, you know, if you have a walk in store, get a type of ramp or something that’s easy for people to get in. Um, and, you know, I think depending on the store, it’s hard for me to get more into it.

But depending on the store, there might be some other options if it’s a clothing store, you know, put up extra bars. Yeah, lower the mirrors like it’s lower the cash register. It’s just all those things like you notice when you’re doing it, I got to the point where it’s like I knew on road trips with my mom, it was easy to get in and out of mcdonald’s was did a really great job of like I had, they had a back entrance. I could get her into the bathroom quickly because it was always like we need to be there fast.

Uh And I, and we just spoke about Chicago, you being from Chicago, my daughter living there and we went to, I think it was North Beach and I was so impressed. I like, walked out and I was like, oh, but they have something accessible for people to access to get to the water. Yes. So good job Chicago, like exactly such an amazing, amazing thing. Um Well, you’re building something else too. In addition to running your business. You’ve got um Boomer News. Yes. Oh, thank you. That was so sweet of you to bring up.

Tell us about the Boomer News. Well, you are a, a sponsor of that. So I want to first say thank you so much for, for being a sponsor on that and um bringing more credibility to the site with what you do and what we’re trying to accomplish. So thank you so much. So Boomer Dash News. Um And there’s a hyphen in between. So Boomer hyphen news. com, the goal behind that was my, I was trying to really look for how do I help our boomer generation get the news that’s actually pertinent to them right at a certain age.

It’s kind of, you know, hey, let’s look at news that really affect me and what I’m trying to do. So I had 123 categories from caregiving to housing, to legal, to insurance, to travel, um health care. Um II, I should say wellness as well, you know, things like that that really speak to our Boomers. I created blog as well. I think I have 212 some odd blogs there that um just really cater to our boomer generation. So I’m an it guy. Um And I, I do have a, a little development company that um I, I work really close with.

And what we’ve done is we were able to build an engine that curates all the most read and most popular articles that Boomers in that specific age group. And I, I put 2000 to 265 is what I threw in there as far as the ages. So technically, you’re calling me a Boomer. Me too, I’m calling myself a boo at some level, you know, because we’re the ones that again, from just my experience, we’re the ones that kind of understand like, oh maybe this is something, for example, the legal, you know, the wills, the homes, oh my dad has a bunch of businesses.

I need to figure this out what’s going to happen to him. Um But at least kind of throwing it in your, you know, reading scenario for the day. Um So what I did was I created Boomer News and what it does is literally, it grabs all these awesome articles from across our country. Um, or we do have some internationals that, that we grab info from, but we bring it into our site. So you have a nice easy newsletter to read. It’s literally all news feeds. Um, our advertising, uh and our sponsors are the ones that have helped us with this to make sure that, you know, we can continue funding this, making sure it’s a great um resource changing things as we need to um to make sure that the experience is there that people are getting the information they want.

We have a newsletter which I love because our newsletter feed, you can get it monthly, weekly or daily. So there’s no if ands and buts we’re not forcing you to get something every week. Um And again, I, I built the thing so I have all control in the back end. We’re literally not doing anything other than trying to provide you guys with the best news out there. And thank you so much for giving me the opportunity to plug that. Well, I think things are just, we’re all really busy, right?

And we’re like trying to juggle a lot of different things, particularly if you’re family caregivers, you’re trying to get smarter about the, you know, aging in place and older adult space um for ourselves and for maybe those that we care about and, you know, mine’s not as automated and it is amazing, but definitely the, I have the same kind of idea with newsletter is that, you know, once a week giving folks something happy, something healthy, something caregiver related. Because I wanna, you know, make that easy for people.

Like I know they are just in a, you know, a lot of, a lot of different directions. So we’ll be sure to link so folks can kind of uh to check that out. But, you know, I love you have a passion for sure, building, building, building, technology, building, um physical spaces and, and um and helping older adults in the process. So that’s amazing. I want to kind of flip to a self care, self care stuff. Um You know, you had told me that, you know, a unique self care tip that you learn on the practical side.

Like we talk about the eight categories of self care for me. Um And practical being, one of them is to always remember your why and your what um and to accomplish and to find the easiest route, like explain a little bit about why that practical self tip care tip is important to you. Um You know, I for real, I think it just has to do with you. It goes back to time. You know, I really live my life in timelessness as much as possible. If anyone even understands what that means, I just take things day by day, hour by hour.

Um If I know some future thing is coming up, I’ll plan accordingly, but you can’t over plan anything in life. Um You know, I learned that from this trip with my parents, we had no idea that was gonna turn out the way it was that I was gonna lose, you know, four months of work as an example, you know, come back and start all over again. Um You know, you never think of that stuff, but those are all things that, um you can’t control, right? So think of things in a practical manner of just, um, you know, let’s, let’s handle the situation at hand now.

Well, you know, everything else where everything works the way it’s supposed to. Um, as long as you don’t give up, as long as you continue, you know, being motivated and, you know, understanding what your goal is. And um fortunately enough, my wife and I have, have been um, ok in life. Um, you know, we obviously all have our problems and struggles, uh health wise, et cetera. But, but in general, you know, maybe when you do as much traveling as we have the opportunity to do, you see the rest of the world and how they live, um, you see, um how grateful, you know, this country has been to every, every one of us we’re all foreigners, you know.

So like, um how lucky we are to be able to express ourselves and do these things like that. To me is just practical. Um You know, you, you, you live day by day, you do what you can do, you help as many people as you can and um good things, good things always happen. You know, we have nothing to, to, to feel bad about, you know, just take care of ourselves, take care of our health. You know, you said self care. That’s probably one of the biggest things, take care of yourself so you can continue doing good things.

What is your self care look like? Be like? What do you, what are some of the things that you prioritize for your health and happiness? Oh. I think for me, I like to play so, so as much as play time as I can have, it’s like being a kid again in the eighties, you know, as much as play time I can have. Um, I will take advantage of it as much as I possibly can. If I have five minutes to go do something and hang out with a friend, I’ll go do it if I have five minutes to bother my wife and she’s in between a break, I’ll go run and do that, you know, mess with my dog.

Um, uh, I think for me is just a lot of the simple things that, um, there’s no control over anything. Right. There’s no control. You do whatever you want, you just have a good time. And, um, I think finding time to play is, is big. Um, that’s just on the mental side. I think on the physical side, you know, I started this thing where I do 100 push ups a day and I’ll tell you, I started doing like, 10 push ups here, maybe eight push ups here, maybe 12 push ups here, but I can do 4550 push ups.

No problem now. Um, I think just by and just by doing something like literally, you know, 10 every hour, 10, every 0003 minutes, um, five every 30 minutes, you know, you can reach a goal. It’s those little goals, right? Um, so I think that’s really helped me just kind of keep the food habits going because I am getting up in the morning and I’m doing, you know, the X amount of push ups, X amount of sit ups, you know, just the little things, you know, I don’t go to the gym, I’m not trying to get huge or anything like that.

Um, I’m just trying to maintain myself, keep my physical activity going. Um, one thing I do lack, I will say is, is running more and maybe a little more cardio than I need. But, um, in general, I think take my vitamins and supplements have been, um, also a mental motivation for me to stay on a healthy track. Yeah, I love that you brought up different things. Like it’s, you know, I think a lot of times people think automatically about the physical self care and certainly a part of it but you brought up the emotional, um, and also the, you know, the supplemental, um, which I guess is partly physical too.

But, you know, I push ups, I’m like 100 push ups would be like, whoa, amazing. You know, I, I lived and as we get older, like, it’s so important to build our muscle strength and you, you know, your body weight can certainly help with that. But, um, you know, this was super embarrassing but I, I tripped on an old town in Chicago this past weekend. Like, I was very, I don’t even know exactly what happened but on the sidewalk, like, down, like went to and then luckily I didn’t hurt myself, but I was by literally, my next thing was like, I’m so great.

I strength train and work out. I get myself up and I’m not like brittle, you know. So, yeah, super. So just start somewhere, like, even a push up might be hard but like, put your hands against the wall and do wall, you know, wall push ups or I have a TRX that when I work out with my trainer, we do a lot of TRX pull ups and push ups and stuff that way. But yeah, and micro acts like little teeny things like your five minutes of play time, like go pet your dog.

Like that’s something that I do a whole talk on that for people like on Micro Act self care because so many people, you know, we don’t like to shoot on caregivers. We’re already doing so much. But at the same time, like we are so important to take care of because when we’re important, people, like all humans deserve, you know, to be cared for. And there’s so much kind of relying on us that it’s we, we, we are the nucleus of everything to kind of keep that going.

So um but a lot of people like will try to say, you know, I don’t have time for that and I’m like, what don’t you have time for your own? Like I don’t have time for your own health and happiness. Like we can’t do that. We have to figure out how to make that better. Yeah. Yeah. Sleep is important. You know, sleep is probably our biggest thing. My wife and I, we are, we’re usually in bed by 930. Um, you know, and we’ve learned that if we don’t get out of the house to go out with friends or out, you know, um to meet up with anyone, if we don’t leave the house by 630 we’re not going out, we stay home, then you’re into your bedtime. Yeah.

That’s right. That’s right. Does that? Well, let’s get the self care theme going. I have a few questions. I want to ask you from the, just for you daily self care journal. Um This is a tool that I put out in the world to hopefully help people prioritize their health and happiness. Um Thank you. Um Who do you lean on for support, Vinnie seems like a lot of people are leaning on you. Who do you lean on? Oh, my goodness. Um, you know, I lean on literally the experiences I’ve, I’ve been through, um, it’s hard for me to think otherwise.

I mean, I’ve, I’ve, you know, if I have a question about something, I will find the person that I feel in my life is the most experienced on it. Um, and it’s not a one specific person and to be honest with you, it’s usually kids, um, it’s usually kids are between the age of seven and 12. Um, I somehow now, like I go to them because they just are honest, they ask the right questions of like, why, why do you even care? Like, who cares? They let’s go do something else.

They’re like, they’ll start bringing things up and, um, or they start asking questions, why don’t you do it with someone else? You know? Does it make you happy? You know, these, these kind of questions? Right. And then I’ll, I’ll get myself over to the 26 to 30 year olds. Um, you know, I lean on them a lot because they’re motivated, they’re hungry, they’re trying to make a difference. They’re trying to be someone like that age I feel is like that’s the age of us trying to become, become something or learning or try or, or playing, falling into our place maybe, um, or not knowing and doing something. Right.

So, I think my, my lean on me support, you know, is definitely, um, others or, you know, everyone and it’s not just one person, it’s so many people. I mean, I’m gonna call you for caregiving, you know, like there’s, there’s no doubt about it. Right. So, um, you know, you’re, you’re fortunate in life I, I’ve learned to meet people, you know, and what you do with those relationships are, are really self important. Yeah, the network is key and I think to your point, like hanging out with younger people, they have got fresh ideas and different ways of doing things and they’re gonna kind of, you know, keep you busy and, and mentally active and all of those things.

So, I love that answer. What, um, are you a movie watcher? This is a movie question. Funniest movie or funniest movie you’ve ever seen? Or one of the funniest movies you’ve ever seen? Like, if you could just put it on, you know, you’re guaranteed to laugh. Office Face. Office phase. Yes. The stapler and the, and the TRS report like P PPP S. Yes. Well, and I worked in it too. So that one definitely, like, resonated with me and I should, I should mention that to my, my son just started his first job, corporate job this week.

And so like seeing that life through his eyes as he comes home and like is telling me about his new job and yeah, but I think maybe he might need to revisit office space. Uh Yeah, good for that. Then even thinking that sometimes you’re like, I think this is our TPS report where I work. Yeah. Is there a habit you’re trying to subtract from your life? I think a lot of times we talk about adding habits, good habits. But is there anything you’re trying to subtract? Um, you know, I’ll, I’ll say this from my wife’s point of view.

The amount of walking around I do in the house. Um, she just wishes I had a swiffer in my hand. So, so maybe, uh, maybe not walk around as much and try and gravitate to, I don’t know, you know, I, I don’t know about a bad habit. I, um, I’d be willing to break. I think everything’s just, you know, I take things as they come. You know, if there’s an opportunity to drink a beer with a buddy on the dock, I’m there. Um, you know, if there’s an opportunity to go, you know, race cars or something, you know, I’ll, I’ll try it or if there’s an opportunity to do any foundation work, etcetera.

That we do and be a part of something like that and sponsor we’re in. Um, so I don’t know if there’s any bad habits I’m trying to bring. It’s good. Well, you’ve been focused on stuff like you’re, I think you’re, you’re clearly like your mindset is, is you prioritizing those things. So, um, so good for you. My husband is on the phone all the time like he’s in sales and so I, sometimes I don’t give him the swiffer though. That’s a good idea. He has started kind of walking and talking so he gets more steps.

But I’ll be like, hey, can you just walk the dogs while you’re having this conversation? Because I’m just frankly out of hearing him talk all the time. Like it’s just like, just, oh, go outside. Oh, funny. I love you. If you’re listening to this episode, Jason. Yes. Um, well, very cool. Vinny. I’ve enjoyed kind of getting to know you, you know, as, as we Boomer dash news brought us together. But I think there’s just so much more to what you are all about. Um, and I really think that the aging in place stuff is a hopefully a trend that we see continuing because people, like you said, are living longer.

I was a stat, I think that it was 10,000 people turning age 65 every day. But then I saw an A RP change it to 12,000 people turning 65 every day. So it doesn’t necessarily mean that it’s synonymous with disease. But I do think there’s a lot of things we have to be mindful about when we’re, when we’re um communicating and dealing with older adults. So thank you for bringing all of that to light. Oh, thank you so much for having me again. That was very kind of you to offer this spot and uh you know, to all the viewers and listeners keep listening. Um You learn a lot here. Thank you. Thank you so much, Vinnie. Thank you. Bye.

Do you enjoy listening to podcasts? So do I and I’m always up to support a fellow Care Prene whose podcasts I value Nicole will host of navigating the world with your aging loved one explores the world of aging and care. As a former guest, I can tell you that Nicole’s podcast has an ideal mix of practical tools and resources and messages of hope and encouragement. You can find Nicole wherever you download your favorite podcast or go to her website. Will gather.com.

Thanks for joining us today on the Happy Healthy Caregiver podcast on the whole care network. As always show notes that a company today’s episode can be found on my website, Happy Healthy caregiver.com. Just look under the podcast menu for today’s episode image and that will take you to the page with the links and information we spoke about today. You’ll also find other resources on the website along with links to purchase the just for you daily self care journal. When you purchase from my website, you’ll get a signed copy and for a limited time free shipping. If you’ve enjoyed what you heard today, consider subscribing to the show on your podcast platform, it really helps other family caregivers find the podcast and you’ll automatically receive our biweekly shows in your podcast listening queue. Maybe while you’re subscribing, consider leaving a five star rating and review or just simply talk it up on your social channels. Let’s stay connected. I’m on Instagram and Facebook as Happy, healthy caregiver. And until we meet again, please take care of you.

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