Category: Westchester

For those seeking an active retirement, a transition to independent living is an exciting life change. No matter how thrilled about a move you may be, however, we understand the process can be stressful at times. With careful planning and consideration, the move can be made simple and can become a positive and enriching experience. To help you get started, we’ll share 7 tips for moving to a senior living community.

1 | Start Planning Early

Moving to senior living involves various considerations. Start the planning process early to avoid unnecessary stress. Create a timeline including when you want to move and include tasks such as:

• Visiting several communities of choice
• Beginning to sort, organize and downsize your possessions
• Deciding on the type of senior living floor plan that best fits your needs
• Handling legal and financial matters
• Planning your move-in date

2 | Visit Different Communities

Explore various senior living communities to find one that aligns with your lifestyle and preferences. Visit multiple communities, talk to staff members and residents, and participate in community activities and programs. This firsthand experience will give you a better understanding of the atmosphere, amenities, and social opportunities each community offers.

Be sure to keep a list of your top favorites so you can continue to evaluate which would be your best move. If you’re stuck between two, visit both again.

3 | Understand the Financial Aspect

Different communities offer different pricing structures. Research your options and inquire about what is included in the fees.

Consider how you’ll pay. Will you sell your home or put a down payment on your lifestyle? You’ll need to know how you’re financing the move.

4 | Downsize Thoughtfully

Downsizing is often a necessary part of transitioning to senior living. Take the time to declutter and downsize belongings thoughtfully. Keep items with sentimental value, and consider the size and layout of your new living space when deciding what to pack or bring along. This process can be emotionally challenging, so enlist the help of family and friends for support.

5 | Prioritize Health and Wellness

It’s essential to maintain an active and healthy lifestyle to enhance quality of life during the aging process. This is why many senior living communities provide a range of health and wellness services. Prioritize communities that offer fitness programs, healthcare services, and a focus on overall well-being.

6 | Stay Connected with Family and Friends

Moving to senior living doesn’t mean losing touch with loved ones. Choose a community that encourages socialization and visitation. Make an effort to stay connected with family and friends through regular visits, phone calls, and virtual communication.

7 | Embrace the Community Lifestyle

Senior living communities offer a variety of activities and events to foster a sense of community. Embrace this lifestyle by participating in activities, clubs, and outings. Building connections with fellow senior living residents can lead to lasting friendships and a more fulfilling experience.

Experience Luxury Senior Living at Waterstone of Westchester

Making the move to senior living is a big decision, but our residents often tell us they wish they’d done it sooner! When you make the move to Waterstone of Westchester, you can enjoy:

• A maintenance-free lifestyle
• A beautiful floor plan that’s perfect for you
• Engaging programming
• Opportunities to enhance your wellness
• Delicious chef-prepared meals
• For those who need assistance living as independently as possible, we even connect residents to supportive care services they need through premier healthcare providers

Our concierge can easily help to connect you with moving services, organizing companies and more to make your move as smooth and seamless as possible. Call us today to learn more.

The most wonderful time of the year is headed our way, and Westchester County is bustling with holiday shopping pros, seasonal fun seekers, and holiday light display lovers. If you’re looking for family-friendly things to do in Westchester County, look no further – we’re here to be your guide.

Family-Friendly Holiday Events Near White Plains, NY

Holiday Light Displays

Westchester’s Winter Wonderland Drive-Thru Holiday Light Extravaganza at Kensico Dam Plaza in Valhalla is the perfect place to make memories with your friends, family, and grandkids! Drive through 1.2 miles of lights.

Don’t forget to search for downtown Christmas tree lighting and Menorah lighting ceremonies as the season nears!

Parades

Many local towns host holiday parades like the White Plains Holiday Parade, featuring bands, floats, and costumed characters.

Festive Performances

There are plenty of holiday-related performances around the area. From children’s concert choirs, theater events, or even caroling, there’s something to suit everyone’s preferences.

Still trying to figure out where to start? Try the Westchester Broadway Theatre for a holiday-themed show or musical, or check out The Westchester Ballet Company for performances of favorites like The Nutcracker.

Holiday Markets and Shows

Holiday markets abound when the season begins! Check out the Hastings Flea Holiday Market in Hastings-on-Hudson or the Greenburgh Nature Center Holiday Train Show.

Festivals

Attend the Annual Greenwich Reindeer Festival, located at Sam Bridge Nursery Greenhouses at 437 North Street, Greenwich, CT. This event begins on November 24 and ends on December 23, so it’s the perfect way to celebrate the beginning of the season and all the way through it!

Santa Sightings

The holiday season wouldn’t be the same without a visit with Santa. Visit the Cross County Center at 8000 Mall Walk in Yonkers, NY, to see Santa.

Ice Skating

Ice skating rinks make you feel like you’re in a true winter wonderland. Watch the grandkids skate at the Cross Country Center. Want to travel a little further? The Rink at Rockefeller Center in New York City is an iconic place to skate.

Events at Waterstone of Westchester

There is always something going on within our community, too! Enjoy our fun activities with your grandchildren, invite the family to savor a delicious dinner, relax in your residence, enjoy social hour or movie night with friends, or partake in a compelling lifelong learning program.

Make Waterstone of Westchester Your Home for The Holidays and Beyond

With a wealth of things to do right here at our community and in the surrounding area, Waterstone of Westchester is the perfect place to enjoy the holidays – and a fulfilling lifestyle year-round. Give us a call to learn more about life at our luxury senior living community.

Retirement is a great time for you to focus on doing what makes you happy. With plenty of leisure time at your fingertips, you can fill your days with all kinds of exciting activities and interests that fulfill you and make you happy.

But how do you pick? While you may have been daydreaming of retirement for a while, transitioning to retired life does take some time, and you may not know what kind of hobbies you’d like to try.

Whether you’re seeking a new hobby you’ve never considered before or you’re picking up an old hobby that you never had the time to fully commit to, there are so many opportunities for you to find something that you love. These hobbies for retired men can help you get started on finding your next favorite pastime.

Woodworking

Have you always been interested in building and creating? Woodworking could be the perfect hobby for you. You can create objects for function and decoration – like a chair, cutting board, bowl, or a sign – there’s no limit to what you can do with woodworking.

Check out this guide for beginner woodworkers to help you get started.

Reading or Joining a Book Club

If you have a to-be-read pile that’s grown over the years, now is your time to tackle it. Reading is a good way to unwind and get lost in a good story.

Do you love to discuss stories after you’ve read them? You could consider joining a book club so you can meet new people and spend time talking about the books you’ve read.

Cycling

Finding ways to make fitness one of your hobbies is a fun way to make sure you exercise regularly. Cycling is a low-impact activity where you can decide the intensity.

This activity provides a lot of health benefits for older adults:

• Increased cardiovascular function
• Strengthened muscles
• Improved flexibility
• Enhanced coordination and posture

Cooking

For many people, there’s no better way to spend your time than getting creative in the kitchen. Finding recipes that interest you and cooking them yourself builds independence and confidence, and you get a delicious result at the end. Here are 30 dinner ideas you can try.

Board Games

While there are classic board games like chess and checkers, you’ll find there are all types of board games  you might enjoy. They typically involve strategy and solving puzzles. You and a group of friends can have hours of entertainment from any board game.

Popular board games include:

• Monopoly
• Trivial Pursuit
• Clue
• Backgammon
• Battleship

Collecting

Curating a collection can be a great hobby that’s ongoing. It keeps your brain active as you’re searching for the next piece to add. Collections can include stamps, books, coins – anything that interests you.

You may even find gatherings for people with similar collections to you. Attending those to show off your collection and learn from others is a fun way to meet people interested in the same things you are and see what they’re doing with their collections.

Birdwatching

Birdwatching connects you with nature and combines learning about natural wildlife in your area and physical activity. You can research all the local birds in your area and learn how to identify what they look and sound like.

This can be a solo or group activity – so if you want to expand your social circle, you can seek out local birdwatching groups to join.

Golfing

This is one of the more popular hobbies for retired men. Golf keeps you active and gets you outside for hours at a time. Who doesn’t love the fresh air and the sight of the putting green right before tee off? Beginners can take a look at these helpful tips on how to golf.

Partaking in Martial Arts

If you’re looking for creative ways to stay active and fit, martial arts may be the answer for you. When you think of martial arts, you may think of Bruce Lee and moving at a seemingly impossible pace – but there’s a relaxing and slower side to martial arts.

Tai chi is a popular martial art that benefits both your mental and physical health, making this one of the best hobbies for retirees. A gentle exercise, tai chi focuses on transitioning slowly through specific motions and deep breathing. 

This type of martial art is adaptable, so people of all abilities and ages can enjoy the benefits of tai chi.

Camping

Do you love the great outdoors? Spending some time out in nature can be a great way to relax and recharge your batteries. Finding local campgrounds to pitch your tent and go for a hike in the woods will have you feeling one with nature in no time.

However, camping isn’t limited to sleeping in a tent. You can look into renting an RV and enjoying spending time outdoors while knowing you have the comforts of the RV to come back to at night. 

Fishing

You can combine fishing with camping – but if sleeping outdoors isn’t quite to your liking, it’s perfectly fine to spend a few hours fishing by a river or lake. Fishing requires skill and patience, and puts you in the serene presence of water. Take a look at the best fishing spots near you.

You can learn all about the fish local to your area and enjoy the peace and quiet of waiting for a bite on the fishing line.

Learning Something New

Retired life is the perfect time to learn something new or delve deeper into a subject you’ve studied.

You can learn a new language or brush up on your second or third language, and you can learn more about events from your favorite time in history or learn about the mysteries of the cosmos. Furthering your education and expanding your mind with new learning opportunities will allow you to continue to grow and flourish.

If you’re interested in giving your time back to others, you can also help others learn something new by becoming a mentor. If you were a teacher, you can volunteer by mentoring students in your subject of expertise.

Ancestry

Are you interested in where your family is from? You can trace your ancestry to see how far your family tree expands – you may even discover some branches you never knew existed. You can also look back generations to see where your ancestors traveled and how your family tree led to you.

If you’re interested in tracing your family history, these tools can help you get started. 

Enjoying Your Hobbies at Waterstone of Westchester

Waterstone of Westchester creates all kinds of opportunities for residents to have an active retirement. With all kinds of clubs, social programming, and events, Waterstone always gives you something to look forward to.

Get started enjoying your free time after retirement! Check out the extensive offerings of events and activities at Waterstone of Westchester.

In our previous Tech Talk blog post, we shared the benefits of Amazon Echo and how its Alexa technology can help enrich and enhance your lifestyle. Today, we’re sharing another piece of lifestyle technology that literally follows you wherever you go: the Apple Watch.

What Is the Apple Watch?

Remember the old Dick Tracy cartoons and his famous two-way radio watch? The Apple Watch takes that idea and runs with it for a 21st-century device that does more than just tell time: It’s a communication hub, a health and fitness tracker, a music player, a portable link to the internet, and so much more.

Originally released in 2015, the Apple Watch is now in Series 8 and has all-new features, including an electrocardiogram app, a temperature sensor, a heart rate sensor, a blood oxygen app, a sleep monitoring app, and more. These new features make it an especially useful device for seniors and their family members because it provides a next-level, immediate view into one’s health, fitness and safety.

How Can Apple Watches Help Seniors?

Most people use the Apple Watch for health and fitness (which Apple Watch models were originally designed for). As a fitness tracker, the Apple Watch has heart rate monitors, step trackers, and goal settings so that you can gamify your health and wellness.

The newest Apple Watch SE and Apple Watch Series 8’s echocardiogram app is a useful tool for seniors who may have heart issues. It has irregular heart rhythm notifications, as well as high and low heart rate notifications. It also provides information on your sinus rhythm and atrial fibrillation, among others. The Apple Watch’s technology can store all this medical information, which makes it easy to upload real-time, accurate data to your doctor or caregiver.

Benefit for Seniors: Fall Detection

All Apple Watches have a built-in accelerometer and gyroscope, which can detect falls – a very helpful feature for seniors who may have balance and mobility issues. When the watch detects a fall, it activates an Emergency SOS feature that can be dismissed within 60 seconds. If the message isn’t dismissed, the watch can automatically contact emergency services and share accurate, real-time locations so that medical professionals know exactly where to go to provide assistance.

Benefit for Seniors: Emergency SOS

The Apple Watch – like other Apple products, including the iPhone and iPad – includes an Emergency SOS feature that lets you quickly call 911 with just the press of a button. Seniors can also set up their watches to send a message to caregivers, family members, or other emergency contacts if an accident or emergency occurs.

Benefit for Seniors: Medical Alert

No longer do you need to wear a physical medical alert bracelet in the event of an emergency. The Apple Watch allows you to set up a Medical ID in the Health application. There, you can store information about allergies, medications, blood type, emergency contact numbers, and more. It’s a streamlined, easy-to-update feature that allows you to keep track of important health information.

Health Monitoring Options for Seniors and Caregivers

Beyond providing fitness monitoring and emergency service features, the Apple Watch has a variety of non-emergency trackers that can help seniors and their loved ones create health goals and monitor a variety of factors to determine trends and locate any issues.

Benefit for Seniors: Sleep Monitor

Getting a good night’s sleep is instrumental for cognitive health and overall wellness. The Apple Watch can record your sleep trends for the past 14 days, estimating how much time you spend in each sleep stage. You can also create bedtime schedules that help you meet your sleep and wellness goals.

Benefit for Caregivers: Check-Ins

The Apple Watch can allow loved ones and caregivers to check in on senior family members via free apps like ElderCheck Now. When this app is enabled, approved individuals can check their loved one’s heart rates and request check-ins through the Apple Watch. With just the press of a button, seniors can let their loved ones know that everything’s fine, providing peace and security for everyone involved without even having to make a phone call.

Benefit for Seniors: Medication Reminders

Using another free App, Mango Health, seniors can get medication and healthy habit reminders so they don’t have to worry about missing a dosage. Other apps like CareZone include features such as prescription medication deliveries and other time-saving options that allow seniors to live a little more independently.

Benefit for Seniors: Connection and Entertainment

Of course, as with other lifestyle technologies like Amazon Alexa, the Apple Watch is plugged into all the benefits that you enjoy on your iPhone, iPad or Mac computer. With just a few taps, seniors can check the weather, read the news, watch funny cat videos, FaceTime grandkids, listen to music … the options are only limited by your imagination.

Enhance Your Lifestyle and Stay Connected at Waterstone of Westchester

There are so many ways that technology can assist people of all ages, and at Waterstone of Westchester, we’re always searching out the latest and greatest technologies to help enrich our residents’ lives. Beyond health and wellness, engagement and entertainment, programming and connection, we also provide in-person, caring support to help you or a loved one. Call us today to learn more about the technologically advanced and personalized caring we offer.