39. Game On!

Is your competitive streak a notch higher after holiday gatherings? From charades to grab-bag steal to drop the candy cane in the bottle or maybe a little beer pong, we’ve been stepping up our games, so to speak. And it’s been a blast. Next step: leveling up… why? … how? Listen up and learn!

Email me at hello@laurieadamscoaching.com or check out the flaming hot webpage: www.fireupat55plus.com

This episode was produced by The Podcast Teacher.

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Hi, and welcome to the Fire Up at 55 Plus Podcast, a show about how to put yourself first in your second act of life. I'm Certified Life and Weight Loss Coach Lori Adams, here to empower you to let go of guilt, take charge of your health, then find and fulfill your dreams. It's never too late, so let's get started. Today I am here to say game on. Is your competitive streak a notch higher after holiday gatherings? From charades to grab bag steel to drop the candy cane in the bottle, or maybe a little beer pong. We've been stepping up our games, so to speak, and it's been a blast. Next step, leveling up. Why? How? Well listen up, that's what I'm here to teach you today. So true confessions. I used to open my phone first thing in the morning to see if there were any new adorable or funny photos of the grandkids, who of course are the most adorable grandchildren on the earth. Or to check email or Facebook, Instagram, or such. But now don't tell anyone. I'm hyped up to open the new Wordle or Connections or Crossword. Or Candy Crush. Some people can't handle competition. Quoted from bridesmaids, Annie Walker. Some people can't handle competition. I can, she said. This is all part of a perfect storm, this episode. Because I was doing the wordles a little guilty pleasure. And I was playing games over the holidays. Wow, that was a blast. Most of them from the internet, new games we found. And then I was talking with my niece and nephew, adult children, at a family gathering. And we started talking about games after we had just finished some. And then I mentioned that one of my grandchildren had received a Nintendo Switch. And then the adult children who are in their thirties started talking about how much they love Nintendo Switch and how cool it is. So I started asking about it. And my husband did too. And I said, Well, if we were to get something like that, what games would you recommend? So they looked at us, baby boomers, and they said there's one about building a farm. You know, and you build your farm and you put the animals in and you plant the crops. I thought, well that doesn't sound like very much fun. So then I told them we'd like to do something more like a racing game. Together, be a little competitive. So they started mentioning some other ones that sounded a lot more interesting. I guess Mario Kart is a big deal. And since we're all into Harry Potter, the Hogwarts game was recommended. I was still thinking okay, these sound a little tame, I mean Mario. I saved the princess on a Game Boy back in the day. But okay. So then my husband and I said, you know, we really didn't purchase anything for each other for Christmas. Let's go see what Best Buy has in terms of Nintendo Switch. So he went online, he found a Best Buy still open, and we bought and bought the Nintendo Switch. But during the transaction, a sales girl was helping us. I should say saleswoman, a young woman. No idea how old she really was, probably maybe late twenties, I don't know. But anyway, she looked at us and we were asking about which games to buy. We'd already picked up the console. And she was walking around, she said, Well we really don't have a lot after Christmas. Duh. But she started to name some. She took us over and she started to name some games like Well, you could do this. Mario Party isn't as difficult as Mario Kart. And oh here's one. This is one where the two of you work together and you run a restaurant and you have to cook together and I was like, I don't want to cook together. I want a game that's competitive. And then she looked at us and she said, Well, who is this game a gift for? And we were, well nobody. It's for us. And she was like, Well, aren't you too cute? And we just started laughing. Anyway, we went home and we went on the Nintendo website and we started to look for something that would be a little more competitive, a little more fun, a little more challenging. Game. Where we would have a game changer, a game of life, get our game face on. I found all kinds of puns. Okay. So then I thought, I gotta Google this, I've gotta write an episode about this. Because I want to know, is this just gonna be a couch potato land where we're starting to play games instead of watching TV? And I looked up brain health and games. So first, my guilty pleasure the wordles. And I found from a doctor Elizabeth Boots, a neuropsychologist and director of brain health at Hartford Healthcare IR Neuroscience Institute, who said word games such as crosswords and word puzzles can be beneficial for brain health. They challenge our vocabulary, memory, and language skills, which are important cognitive functions that tend to decline with age. Okay, now I'm all in. Then the video games. I found that certain types of video and computer games, this is a quote also, such as those that incorporate strategy, okay, Hogwarts, and critical thinking, have been found to boost cognitive performance and significantly improve brain health in older adults. Woohoo! They can potentially enhance brain plasticity and reduce the risk of age-related cognitive decline. Another quote from Dr. I can't say his first name, BASIC, an assistant professor of psychological and brain sciences at the University of Texas. Well, I'm not going to go on and on with these quotes. I did the Googling for you, so you're just going to have to take my word for it, that I found all kinds of benefits for brain health on the Googles, but I am going to qualify that by saying I did not find that they necessarily reduce dementia or Alzheimer's, but they keep your brain healthy longer, or they can. As long as, here's another qualifier, you do it in moderation. You don't become the couch potato that sits all day long playing the video games in a daze. That you also think about environments that'll give you physical gamanship. So then my niece and nephews started talking to me about the Wii game that totally went over our radar, and that you still can get Nintendo Switch games that do bowling, that get you like to get up and walk around. So we may explore those at some point. But we're doing some pretty regular exercise as it is, so I'm not too worried about that. But Dr. Peter Snyder, okay, one guy I'm going to still quote, said it's crucial to consider the potential negative impacts such as increased sedentary behavior and a potential addiction risks I can see becoming addicted. I'm almost addicted to Wordle as it is. So then I thought, well, where can I find out more about developing, becoming competitive with physical activity? And I thought right away of the Adventure Us Woman website. This is a group that organizes travel for women of a certain age, or at least, you know, older, midlife, to get out of their comfort zone and use their help and be in a sense of community while they try new things physically and go on great fun trips. This website talks about going on adventures like playing a game, gets you out of your comfort zone. And it helps you be okay with something new even if you're not good at it. You're not going to be a proficient skier and go on one of their ski trips. And you're not even going to be maybe a proficient swimmer and go on their white water rafting trips. But you are going to be able to go into new things where you learn and you're supported. They have so many different kinds of trips. Many of them are in the US, and then they have some really cool ones that are overseas too. Okay, here let me give you an example. She said when she was teaching stand-up paddle boarding 30 to 40 minutes into a class, adult students would be very frustrated if they couldn't stand up on a board, floating in the water. Then she would gently remind them that we've been doing this for all of thirty minutes your entire life. So give yourself a break when you learn new skills that are physical, and also with computers. We know we all didn't grow up with computers like my nieces and nephews did. We've acquired those skills over time, and if we've really stayed out of the video game realm, I'm really glad that my nephew's coming over tonight to show us some things. We can learn from anyone who's already proficient, and then we can take our time and have fun with it. So that is what we intend to do. So, being exposed to an environment, be it at home, playing video games, or out on the road, that is filled with novel, new stimuli and can benefit cognition, including memory, is going to show you how to tap into your nerve cells in your prefrontal cortex for memory encoding and retrieval. I got this information from the US Department of Health and Human Services National Institutes of Health. Anyway, there is all kinds of stuff that's been proven with behavioral brain research. In fact, down to the point where they found that playing Mario is actually better for your brain than Angry Birds. Who knew? I used to love Angry Birds. Okay. Another thing that experts and this Adventurous Woman website particularly encourages is for you to have a goal. So if you want to, you know, run a 5K, that's a great way to get in the game of running or even just walking again. And it's something that's doable, you know. I'm always saying that. It's something you can be supported for with a group or a teacher or a trainer, or even just getting out in your neighborhood and just going slow at your own pace to support yourself, have your own back. So if you have a goal like doing that, or a hike challenge, or biking, or swimming, or learning the Peloton and then getting into some competition with them and their community, it's all good for having a plan to have fun while you keep your brain active. And your brain's gonna have fun too, of course. You know, find a race that excites you. A Disneyland race, a rock and roll race, or charity-based. It helps you to feel good on many levels besides just the fun of competition and learning to do something new. Board games also reduce cognitive decline in older adults. Things like trivial pursuit, life, chess, checkers, or monopoly. My husband and I were recently felt great that we were able to scout out the old game Stratego from when we were kids. It was kind of a chess-like game, if any of you remember it, with soldiers on both sides, and we have to open that from Christmas and use it. Another great resource for finding out about games, finding particular games you can play, and how they will keep you at the top of your game is the AARP Staying Sharp website. They have all kinds of information about how to stay sharp, keen, and use your brain in many ways as you age. But they have a huge amount of games, and they have even listed the five most popular among them because I saw three screens of games, I just kept scrolling. And the five most popular in case you would like to look is Staying Sharp Pattern Match, Sequence Squares, Staying Sharp Double Up, and Split Words Arcade and Pathfinder. So just go to stayingsharp.arp.org if you want to learn more from them because they are an authentic source and they've done a lot on this, and there's a lot of fun stuff on there. Sounds a lot like the word games that I've been pursuing for so long. Okay. One other thing that I really want to add, because when I talk about a perfect storm, I talk about playing the games we've been doing and getting the nudge from the saleswoman to say, Oh, aren't you cute? As if, hmm, could you really do that competitive video game? And the third item in the storm is this wonderful book I'm reading by John A. Cuff, one of my coaches, and it's brand new. It's called All It Takes Is a Goal. And that's the title of his podcast he's been running for a long time, too. And John is so fun. He's great to listen to. He is a well-known, sought-after speaker who uses humor, but he also has all this research that he's done for everything that he's written about. And I think he's written eight or nine books now. And anyway, John talks about the most productive trick of all when you're trying to get yourself to do something new, a new habit to achieve a goal, is to make it into a game. He says, you'll get that dopamine hit from your game. It's driven by what scientists call reward and prediction error. So a game when you're playing it is going to give you that sense of I accomplished this, I learned this, or even I won this time, right? So that is a great way to approach new things that you'd like to do. The other thing that John says is that a game has a lot less pressure. It's just a game. It piques your sense of curiosity instead of rattling your fear of commitment. You don't even have to leave your comfort zone to answer the question, what game do I want to play? We always talk here about doable actions to support your life transformation that you want. And that requires change. There may be some discomfort in games, as far as learning a physical skill, as I've said, or new computer skills, or even how to play chess when you've put it on the back burner for many years. But that discomfort zone goes quickly as you start to enjoy it, because after all, it's a game. So I urge you to get into the game of life, try some new things, and I'll keep you up to date on who wins in the battle of the Adams couple in Nintendo Switch. So, for today, game over. I win. To coach with me one-on-one, to consider game changing actions, or to go through the Goldilocks version for doable change that I most often recommend. Or to coach for weight loss at MidLife Plus. Please just send me an email to Hello at LoriAdamsCoing.com so we can schedule an easy conversation about what you want. And to keep the transformational information coming each week, please follow FireUp at 55 Plus wherever you download your podcasts. And if on Apple, kindly share a review in a starworthy rating. It would be much appreciated. Hey, thanks for listening. To contact me directly, please reach out via email to hello at laurieadamscoaching.com. And I invite you to take a look at my flaming hot webpage, fireup at fiftyfiveplus.com. That's FireUp, the word at 55PLUS.com. And until next week, make the most of your sizzling second act.