Allison Davis (00:00):

Baby steps. I mean, you just start with one thing or a couple of things, but baby steps. And my framework is called the self-perpetuating circle of purpose. And so, in it is body work, brain work, and world work, and all the longevity habits fit into those three categories.

[Music Playing]

Stephanie McCullough (00:29):

Hey, dear listeners, we need to let you know that Kevin and Stephanie offer investment advice through Private Advisor Group, which is a federally registered investment advisor. The opinions voiced in this podcast are for general information only and are not intended to provide specific advice or recommendations to any individual. To determine which strategies or investments may be suitable for you. Consult the appropriate qualified professional prior to making a decision. Now, let’s get on with the show.

Stephanie McCullough (01:04):

This is Take Back Retirement, the show that’s redefining retirement for women. Retirement is an old-fashioned cultural concept. We want to reclaim the word so you can make it your own. I’m Stephanie McCullough, financial planner and founder of Sofia Financial, where our mission is to reduce women’s money stress and empower them to make wise holistic decisions so they can get back to living their best lives.

Kevin Gaines is my longtime colleague with deep knowledge in the technical stuff: investments, taxes, retirement plan rules. He’s a little bit giggy and quantitative, I’m a little bit touchy-feely and qualitative. Together, through conversations and interviews, we aim to give you the information and motivation you need to move forward with confidence. We’re so glad you’re here.

Stephanie McCullough (01:52):

Coming to you semi-live from the beautiful Westlakes Office Park in suburban Philadelphia, this is Stephanie McCullough and Kevin Gaines of Sofia Financial and American Financial Management Group. Say hello, Kevin.

Kevin Gaines (02:04):

Hello, Kevin.

Stephanie McCullough (02:05):

Today, we’re going to dive into staying healthy in this current chapter of our life, and we found a really fun person to talk to, Allison McCune Davis. She’s an author, a traditional naturopath, and a mom of five who pursued entrepreneurial business in the world of natural health for the last 14 years while raising her family.

Stephanie McCullough (02:27):

She’s got a new book out that came out in January, Sixty Is a Good Start: A Powerful Body, a Purposeful Life, and a Plan to Make it Happen. She advocates for re-imagining life after 60 and inspires women to embrace aging as a time of opportunity, vitality, and purpose. And she’s going to share with us some of the places where she got her research and kind of as we know, like all of the sources are kind of telling us the same things.

Stephanie McCullough (02:52):

So, what I appreciate is that she’s put it into a structure, and she’s got tips for actually doing it. So, let’s get to our conversation with Allison.

Stephanie McCullough (03:04):

Allison Davis, welcome to Take Back Retirement.

Allison Davis (03:07):

Thank you so much. It’s an honor to be here.

Stephanie McCullough (03:10):

I’m so excited to dive into this. We’d love to hear your story about how you came to focus on this work and kind of you know the keys to health at this phase in life.

Allison Davis (03:20):

Yes. Well, a few years ago, I turned 60 and I kind of freaked out. I was just like, “Oh my gosh, how could that even be?” That whole year, I was very introspective, and I recalled turning 50 and turning 40, kind of the same thing. I remember the whole year before those decade birthdays, I was just introspective and I was just in my mind, just thinking, “Am I doing what I’m supposed to be doing? Should I be doing something different with my life?”

Allison Davis (03:55):

But, well, at 40, I was pregnant with my second child. I started late, started at 37 with my first. And then at 50, we were in the middle of adopting our fifth child from Ethiopia. Again, I was busy, so occupied, so I was like yeah, okay things are okay, I guess, but then turning 60, right. So, I have five kids, my big three were out of the house, the third one’s in college, but away. And then I do have two left because again, I started late, later than most.

Allison Davis (04:31):

I have a 15 and 18-year-old still here, but they’re very independent. I mean, they’re just out doing their own thing, right. And I just felt like — and I have read too, that this is an age, now for some women it could be 50, I think 50 to 70, we’re talking about that kind of area. It is a transformational time for women, okay.

Allison Davis (04:53):

We’ve spent the last 30 years probably either deep into raising kids or a career, or a combination of both. I mean, But for 30 years, you know we have been serving, we have been giving, we have been just really working our tails off, right, and we get to this point where things are just really changing. And I mean, we really have some time to think. I love the line, leave room for the magic, leave some white space in there, because it’s an opportunity. It’s an incredible opportunity to rethink what are we doing right now.

Allison Davis (05:33):

And one of the things that kind of got me going was I had turned 60, and then my best friend from childhood, from age six, we were hanging out together and she said, “Well, I hear 60 is the gateway to old age.” And I was just like, “No, I refuse to accept that.”

Allison Davis (05 :49) :

And I was telling my husband about it the next day, I just was really passionate about it. I engaged in basically a seven-month little searching journey from the moment I turned 60 till seven months later of just like okay, something’s changing, I don’t know what it is, it’s bigger than other times. This is going to be a big change. Like what my next decade’s going to look like. I knew that much, but nothing more. I was like I don’t know what this looks like, I don’t even know.

Allison Davis (06:24):

And I just thought, “I think I’m going to have to say yes to some things that sort of pop up in my life. And even though those may not be the things, but they may lead to the thing.” So, have you heard of Jesse Itzler?

Stephanie McCullough (06:36):

Yes.

Allison Davis (06:37):

Okay. So, husband of Sara Blakely who invented Spanx.

Allison Davis (06:41):

And his whole thing is, number one, is he wants you to create a misogi, which is a Japanese word for a life-changing event. In your life every year, he wants you to have a misogi. So, it could be anything. It could be-

Stephanie McCullough (06 :54):

It’s just like an objective or something, like a goal kind of a big thing.

Allison Davis (06 :58):

Just like a goal that you’re going to do this year that’s memorable. You’ll be like oh yeah, in 2021, I did blah, blah, blah.

Stephanie McCullough (07:04):

That was the year. Great.

Allison Davis (07:05):

It could be hike up a mountain, it could be repair relationship, could be lose a certain amount of weight. Just absolutely anything that’s big, that’s going to be a stretch, but you can do it. You think you can do it.

Allison Davis (07:16):

So, the first few months of that year, 2021, I’m like, “Oh my gosh, what could I do? What could I do?” And I’m in this group, in this Facebook community, I don’t know any of these people, but I’m just seeing them talk about all the things they’re doing and they’re really living life and they’re all ages.

Allison Davis (07 :33):

And so, finally in March of that year, still hadn’t decided, and he said ah, and this woman got on there and said, “Hey, I’m going to do 75 Hard starting tomorrow, does anyone want to join me?” Well, that’s a big challenge for 75 days, it’s created by this big muscular tattooed guy. Like, I was not his target market. And I had heard about it four months prior.

Stephanie McCullough (08:00):

It’s like a health and fitness thing, right?

Allison Davis (08:04):

It’s health and fitness, yes.

Stephanie McCullough (08:04):

Like strict rules every day.

Allison Davis (08:05):

You do two exercises, 45 minutes each, one has to be outside in the elements. Doesn’t matter what the elements are, you know the weather. You’re drinking a gallon of water. That’s a lot, several other things. And you got to do that for 75 days. Now, if you miss anything, you start over. It’s just hardcore.

Allison Davis (08:25):

I thought four months ago when I listened to the podcast about it, I was like, “Oh, there’s no way. There’s just no way.” So, now, four months later, I’ve been in this group for three months listening to all these people talk about all these cool things they’re doing, and this girl says that, and I’m like I’m going to listen to that podcast again. So, I go back, 45-minute podcast. I listened to it, and I thought, “Could I do that?”

Allison Davis (08 :52):

Because I was already walking here and there not every day. And I was doing a Pilates class three times a week, sometimes five times a week if it worked out. So, I thought you know… and I could just do some yoga stretching on the weekend, I mean.. I could sit and stretch on the floor for 45 minutes, that counts. And if I could just walk every day, that doesn’t sound … so I thought, “I think I can do it.”

Allison Davis (09:19):

And I love this story because it is an example of a line I love that we are the five people we hang out with. They could be online, whatever the five voices in your head, right. Maybe it’s people you’re around all the time or whatever. But we are the five people we hang out with.

Allison Davis (09 :41):

And so, I’ve been listening to those people for three months. And that’s the only thing that changed between me thinking I could do it and me thinking I couldn’t do it. And I did it, I did it. And it was probably one of the best things I’ve ever done. One of the biggest accomplishments was that 75-day thing.

Stephanie McCullough (10:01):

Did you have to restart at all, or did you go straight through it from the beginning?

Allison Davis (10:04):

No, I didn’t. It was a combination of I had just turned 60 and this was my misogi, when I had first heard of that concept. I think it was also spring, it was March to May. It was a good time to do it of the year. It wouldn’t been so great in like January to March, but it was mid-March to the end of May. And so, just had a lot of motivation, I think, too. So, all of that added up.

Allison Davis (10 :34):

And then I also was in a mastermind of women where we were just asking those questions, looking at your life, whatever, just are you doing what you should be doing? And so, finally, it was in that midsummer, I was doing a meditation, deep breathing kind of thing I really like. And it’s like you struggle, you struggle, you struggle, you’re trying to figure stuff out. And then all of a sudden, one day, you’re like, “Oh, I know what I’m going to do, I’m going to write a book on this.”

Allison Davis (11:02):

And that became what I sort of foresee my next decade looking like. I mean, that was three years ago, so it was just published in January. And so-

Stephanie McCullough (11:12):

Congrats.

Allison Davis (11:13):

Now, I’m creating a program to go with it, which will be hopefully ready in a few weeks. And so, just focused on helping women taking the combination of my work in natural health, my fascination with longevity, centenarians, how do they get that, how do they do that? What are those lifestyle habits?

Allison Davis (11 :36):

And then also, the planning that I use. I call myself a planner addict. As a TV producer, planning is essential, detailed planning. And then I homeschooled my kids for 20 years, so that was also detailed planning. And you have to have a plan. I can tell you all this great information about longevity and natural health and all this stuff, but what’s the plan? We need a plan to execute on this.

Allison Davis (12:05):

And just something, I was just like what would women do? What would they actually do day-to-day that could move the needle forward for them in these areas? And what I end up talking about are these lifestyle habits that lead to longevity.

Stephanie McCullough (12:24):

So, one of the things that Kevin and I have to do with clients, when we’re doing the financial planning, because people ask like do I have enough to retire? Am I on track to have enough to retire? It’s all kind of about enough. And of course, part of the answer is trying to make a guess as to how long you might need money.

Allison Davis (12 :43):

That’s so difficult, I can’t imagine.

Stephanie McCullough (12 :45):

We can’t possibly know. But we’ll look at some basic longevity things and remind people that that life expectancy number is the middle. Half the people live longer than that, and they say, “Oh, I don’t want to live that long.”

Kevin Gaines (13:00):

Don’t always have a choice.

Stephanie McCullough (13:01):

You might not have a choice in the matter, so how can we live well? The idea of health span matching your lifespan.

Allison Davis (13:10):

Yes. We don’t want to end up in bed for 5 years or 10 years.

Stephanie McCullough (13:16):

Hobbled or unable to be doing the things that we love.

Kevin Gaines (13:22):

And we all know somebody, or we’ve all heard the stories of that, that they develop some sort of ailment that impacts them physically, but to put it bluntly, it doesn’t kill them. It incapacitates you, but it doesn’t kill you, and if you’re otherwise healthy, it can go for a while.

Allison Davis (13 :40):

I know. Oh, I know. My parents and my husband’s parents, we’ve definitely seen it, for sure, and it’s not pleasant. I mean, maybe that’s why I’m also very tuned into this, because I don’t want to have that.

Stephanie McCullough (13 :57):

So, you talk about lifestyle habits, and I think maybe one of the misconceptions, at least that I’ve had for a long time is that I have to do some big grand wholesale change of my life, and that doing just a tiny thing every day, that’s not going to make a difference. Is that true?

Allison Davis (14:12):

Well, no it’s not. One of my favorite words is baby steps.  I’ll tell you, also, one of my favorite women to watch, if you’re on Instagram, you can find her there, have you heard of Joan McDonald?

Stephanie McCullough (14:26):

No.

Allison Davis (14:27):

Oh my gosh, you got to follow her.

Stephanie McCullough (14:29):

Okay.

Allison Davis (14:30):

And her Instagram handle is Train with Joan. She is now 78. When she started getting healthy, she was 70 and she was really overweight and sick on lots of medicines, and all this stuff. Her daughter is a health coach, actually down in Mexico. She lives in the United States.

Allison Davis (14 :52):

And so, her daughter finally was like, “Mom, you got to come down here and let me help you get healthy.” So, she did. She went down there and started at age 70, just little by little by little. And probably at, I don’t know, 73, I mean, just little by little she got better and better.

Allison Davis (15:11):

And for the last — gosh, I mean, she’s got 2 million Instagram followers, she’s got a book out, she’s got an app out. So, I love just to follow her and just watch her. Because she’s so sweet, she’s just like your grandma.

Stephanie McCullough (15:26):

So, it’s not too late and small things help.

Allison Davis (15:28):

No, that’s the thing, that’s what I’m saying is, I mean, look at her example. And there’s lots more than that. But baby steps, I mean, you just start with one thing or a couple of things, but baby steps. And my framework is called the self-perpetuating circle of purpose. And so, in it is body work, brain work, and world work. And all the longevity habits fit into those three categories. And then I have the big five in each category.

Allison Davis (16:02):

So, you are going to pick one thing from each category. If you just want to pick one thing from one category and do that for 60 days, my book’s called Sixty is a Good Start; not only is it referring to 60, the age, which it is, that’s when I wrote it – but it’s also referring to 60 days is the minimum number of days to create a new habit.

Allison Davis (16:24):

Now, it could be more, could be up to eight months. This according to Dr. Caroline Leaf, she’s a neuroscientist, oh man, I bet she’s written at least 20 books. And she’s literally proves that by looking at the nerve cells in the brain, and you can see habit imprinting and it growing into something that becomes automatized, like brushing your teeth. So, it’s just little by little by little.

Allison Davis (16 :53):

So, my program is getting you to do a 60-day dare. You can do it on your own, you can do it with your friends, you can do it with me, whatever you want. But just starting those habits and you’re picking something from each category or one category, whatever works for you. But yes, it’s just little by little. Start with what you think needs the most help and then go from there.

Stephanie McCullough (17:17):

How did you come up with your three categories of body, brain and world?

Allison Davis (17:21):

Well, when you look at longevity, and so, I’m looking at the Blue Zones. Those are five areas in the world that have large conglomerations of centenarians, people that are a hundred years old or older. And so, demographers started looking at them in about 2000, maybe a little earlier, in identifying these areas.

Allison Davis (17 :46):

And so, there’s Sakarya, Greece, Sardinia, Italy, Costa Rica, there’s an area in Costa Rica – Okinawa, Japan, and Loma Linda, California. And so, they tried to figure out what are the commonalities between these people?

Allison Davis (18:02):

So, I’m looking at that. There was another guy who went and checked out all those areas too, created a film series called The Human Longevity Project. There’s a bunch of Harvard studies that have looked at this too over long periods of time with huge numbers of women. One study had 226,000 women.

Allison Davis (18:22):

And then also, the book Radical Remission, which is Dr. Kelly Turner’s book on cancer. And so, looking at longevity from that lens, and these are people that had outcomes that were great, but weren’t expected. That’s what she means by radical-

Stephanie McCullough (18 :39):

Gone through cancer.

Allison Davis (18 :40):

Gone through cancer, but most of these are like with alternative changes in their lifestyles. All of these are saying the same things. And what they’re saying fit into those three categories, so let’s just take body work, and they are eat well. So, go attend to your diet. Use herbs, source products carefully, exercise, get into nature, get enough sleep. Those are what they all kind of came down to in the physical body area.

Allison Davis (19:12):

In the brain area, so I call that brain work, it’s lower stress. Well, we can lower stress by lots of things. Pretty much everything that I want you to do is going to lower your stress: be optimistic, follow your intuition, pray or meditate daily. There was a spiritual element to all of these.

Allison Davis (19 :33):

And then in the world work, so your outer world, it’s belong to a faith-based community. It’s pretty interesting that that was in all of them. Put family and friends first, so relationships, and then have a purpose that energizes you. So, that’s everything when you kind of bring it all down to.

Stephanie McCullough (19 :55):

And what I’ve heard about the Blue Zones is like these things are just kind of built into the structure of people’s daily lives, they’re not thinking, “Oh, I need to eat healthy.” This is what people in Sardinia eat.

Allison Davis (20:07):

Yes. And the thing about the Blue Zones, and James Clear talks about this in his book, Atomic Habits, I’m sure you’ve heard of that.

Kevin Gaines (20:15):

Yes.

Allison Davis (20:16):

Is one of the strongest cue for changing our habits is environment triggers behavior. And my friends say, “You say that all the time.” Yes, because it’s so true. We have to set up our environments to trigger the behavior we want.

Allison Davis (20 :33):

And that’s what’s going on in the Blue Zones. Their environments nudge them to do the things, whatever the things are. They’ve got a garden outside, so they’re gardening, they’re getting down and up and down and up. They’re herding sheep, their environments do that.

Allison Davis (20 :54):

And so, that’s one thing that’s just really a big deal in our homes. How can we set up our environments, put our tennis shoes out so we see them when we wake up. They’re not in a closet. Put the fresh fruits and vegetables cut up and ready to eat in glass bowls at eye level in the fridge. Just have the water bottle just ready and sitting out, have the other one sitting on your entry table (that’s what I do). So, I see it going in, I can just grab it. All those little things that help us.

Kevin Gaines (21 :30):

So, getting back to the earlier question of it doesn’t have to be big things or little things, it sounds like it’s got to be little things.

Allison Davis (21 :37):

Yes, it does. I don’t think you can do with big things, it’s too much.

Kevin Gaines (21 :39):

Otherwise, the big things sets you up for failure.

Allison Davis (21 :40):

Exactly. It has to be little things, baby steps.

Stephanie McCullough (21 :47):

And I feel like, I mean, for a long time I would think, “Why the frick do I have to join a gym? Like that just seems ridiculous. I should be able to do this in my everyday life.” But our lives have changed and our environments, for the most part are not set up to have these things built into them.

Stephanie McCullough (22:06):

I pretty much would sit in this chair 10 hours a day and do very well at my work and my job, it kind of rewards and affirmation and feedback that I’m doing a good job. But health wise, that is not so good.

Allison Davis (22:20):

Right, right, right. So, we have a little watch, I love the timer on there and it’s like okay, I’m going to set it for an hour, and then I need to get up and walk around or just things like that. I love timers, they help me.

Stephanie McCullough (22 :36):

Yeah, so we’ve got to be intentional about creating things in our environment.

Allison Davis (22 :40):

We do.

Stephanie McCullough (22 :41):

To remind us to set it up for success, right?

Allison Davis (22 :44):

Absolutely. Planning is a big part of it. I also have a planner that goes with my book (and there’s going to be an app too), I’m just trying to give people all the tools. Yeah, some people like to do stuff on a paper planner.

Allison Davis (23:01):

You do need to plan your day, you need to plan your week. I like on Sundays to plan out my week, just take quiet half hour or something. It doesn’t even have to be that long. But just to plan out what does it look like? Where am I going to do the things I need to do to take care of this one physical body I get? What a gift. I mean, I don’t get another one, I better take care of it. We take care of our cars better than our bodies.

Stephanie McCullough (23 :30):

Well, I don’t, but yeah, most people do.

Allison Davis (23 :34):

Yeah. Right.

Stephanie McCullough (23 :36):

I mean, Kevin gets here in the office at 6:00 AM. There are no other cars in the parking lot at 6:00 AM, but he parks far away from the building. That’s one little habit he does to make himself walk to the building, take the stairs.

Kevin Gaines (23 :50):

Yeah, and if it wasn’t for those seven donuts, it’d probably work.

Allison Davis (23 :57):

Right. Put something else there, get something else there that you see first.

Kevin Gaines (24 :03):

But that’s also what you’re talking about here, is maybe not accountability, but at least setting a structure that it’s easier for you to follow. Because the whole problem with you join the gym, you go by yourself, you go for a little bit, and we all know the story, or even the temporary clothes hanger in most of our bedrooms-

Allison Davis (24 :26):

Yes, the treadmill.

Kevin Gaines (24 :26):

Marketed as a treadmill, but let’s be honest. But it’s trying to hold yourself accountable. That’s why everybody says, have an exercise buddy or an accountability buddy, or whatever term you want to use there.

Allison Davis (24 :40):

I absolutely think we have to have the accountability piece, and I’ve tried to get away from that for years. And for me, it just never works. I can maybe do stuff on my own with nobody else involved for a while. I do this Pilates class three times a week now, and I’ve been doing that for, gosh, I bet five years.

Allison Davis (25:03):

I love that class, I love the teacher. There’s four other women in the class. So, it’s not a big class, it’s accountability. I mean, I’m paying for it, so that’s one thing that’s going to make me do it. And also, I think if you can find a few friends – my husband goes and walks every morning at 6:00 AM with a couple of friends that live on our street a block away. And that’s huge, that’s important. And they only don’t meet if the temperature, as he says, is in single digits. So, they’re pretty tough.

Allison Davis (25 :45):

But I really think some kind of accountability partner or group, or something is really necessary to be able to go in there and be like, “Oh, this is working, or this isn’t working, or I need help, what do you think?” Just that feedback. I don’t think we can do it alone … I mean, some people can, of course, there’s those. But for the average person, I think we need each other.

Stephanie McCullough (26:13):

So, that’s kind of on the exercise part, but one of the things that I have known for a long time is good for me, I even enjoy it, and yet I have often struggled to do it is to journal. Like sit down with the blank page and a pen and just kind of spill out whatever’s zooming around in my head, and inevitably I get somewhere, often it’s the surprising place I get to.

Stephanie McCullough (26 :38):

Somehow there’s a story in my head that that’s an indulgent thing, and I’m supposed to be doing other things. That’s just kind of indulgent and silly and I don’t do it. I’ve gotten a little better lately. But what are your tips for kind of that stuff that-

Allison Davis (26 :54):

I would say it’s not indulgent, and it’s part of self-care. I mean, self-care is not indulgent. It’s like put the oxygen mask on first before you’re going to help somebody else. I remember at age 55, I got to this point where I had not taken care — I was not exercising. For the previous 20, 25 years I was being a mother, and I was deep in it. And I just was putting that on the back burner, which was important, but something came up or just other things were priorities.

Allison Davis (27 :32):

And so, finally, I remember I read some book about exercising later in life and I was like, “Okay, I thought it was too late, but it’s not too late.” And so, I just got the mentality that if these kids wear dirty clothes to school or if they eat cereal for dinner or whatever (I mean, I was going extreme), they’re going to be okay. But if I don’t take care of my body, then there ain’t going to be a mama to take care of these kids.

Allison Davis (28:01):

And even to the extent of well, I could be sick in bed and there still isn’t a mama to take care of these kids or worse. But I have to kind of go extreme in my head to then go, I am going to exercise three times a week at that point. I do a little more now, and I don’t care what anybody else says. There’s no getting around it. My whole life is going to revolve around me getting to that exercise those three times a week.

Allison Davis (28 :34):

And so, it just did. And if someone said, can you go do blah, blah, blah, no. It just had to become the priority. It’s like we all get to a threshold I think, on different issues or whatever the issue is – it could be our finances, it could be our physical health, whatever it is. And we finally are like okay, enough, I’ve got to do something. And so, that was what happened. For me, was just realizing, and this is not indulgent, this is essential. It just is.

Stephanie McCullough (29:08):

It needs to be non-negotiable.

Allison Davis (29:29):

Yes, yes. So, go ahead and journal. I mean, seriously, if that’s what … because for some people, it’s other things, but for some people it is that journaling, and it’s like just get the stuff out of your brain onto the paper, and then you can think clearly. I understand that I’m kind of the same way. It’s kind of my Sunday planning is like that.

Allison Davis (29 :33):

I’m just like oh, these things are floating around, get them out, write them all down. There’s a place in my planner to do that too because I do think that’s important. And then you can sort of think clearly, and get a little more organized about what’s going on, and what you want to do.

Kevin Gaines (29 :49):

Now, some of the things you’ve talked about, I would almost sum up as positive engagement, whether it’s with yourself personally having an optimistic outlook on life, or being engaged with family, community, faith. For lack of a better word, how does that positivity help when it comes to health and longevity?

Allison Davis (30:14):

I mean, it’s just looking at the glass half empty versus the glass half full. I mean, when we look at the glass half empty, that’s just not very fun. It’s like do we want to be happy or not? Do we have a negative mindset or positive mindset? Do we have an accountability mindset or a victim mindset? That’s really what it kind of can come down to on that.

Allison Davis (30 :40):

And I’ll never forget, I feel lucky that I learned this early on. I was in my twenties, I think I was like 23 maybe. I lived in Texas, and I came home to visit my parents, and my dad and I went for a walk, which wasn’t something we did very often, but we went for this walk. And I guess I was just sort of like downloading just this and that, and this is going on in my life.

Allison Davis (31:06):

And he’s just listening and finally, he is just like, “Man, you are looking at the glass half empty.” And I was so taken aback by that statement, maybe I hadn’t heard it until then. And I’ve just always remembered that.

Allison Davis (31:21):

And I’ve had another, several things that have just kind of early on got me in that mindset of it’s really all about how I’m looking at things and being responsible for my life, what’s in my life. I’m the only one that can do anything about it. Nobody else is going to, they’re worrying about their own lives.

Stephanie McCullough (31 :43):

And I like this idea of environment, and planning because I think I always just assumed it had to be willpower. First of all, remembering that I’m supposed to do these things and willpower to just like get over my reluctance and my inertia. Fricking get out there and do it. Kind of that hardcore trainer mentality. Like the 75 Hard just did, that doesn’t really work for me. But there are other ways.

Allison Davis (32 :08):

There are other ways. Again, it’s that baby steps. And then I like to reward myself. I mean, I love to needlepoint, that’s my little creative de-stressing hobby. And I will sit there and watch something on Netflix, but I don’t let myself do it until like usually the end of the day after I’ve done those things I need to do.

Stephanie McCullough (32 :32):

And some of these things, I feel like we’re doing them a little bit kind of … we can’t see the exact result. Okay, I go to the trainer twice a week, and I believe that I have had fewer injuries because of that, and that being stronger is a good thing, but I don’t see a tangible payoff from that. So, to some extent, you just kind of have to go on like this is good for me, 85-year-old me will thank me.

Allison Davis (32 :58):

But I think you will see evidence over some time. For instance, I think just drinking enough water every day. I mean, they say the — I forget what the percentage is, it’s high, way over 50% of ER visits are fixed with hydration.

Kevin Gaines (33 :16):

Really?

Allison Davis (33 :17):

Yeah. So, just drinking enough water every day, they say half your body weight in ounces.

Stephanie McCullough (33 :22):

Kevin is taking a sip-

Allison Davis (33 :26):

And you start doing that and you’ll feel a difference in, I mean, not very long. And one key to losing weight, is drinking a lot of water.

Stephanie McCullough (33 :37):

Oh, Allison, I appreciate your focus on this and like the structure you’ve brought to it, the thoughtfulness, because I think it can feel big. I have made myself a habit tracker list of like here’s the 27 things I should do every day, and that just feels exhausting.

Allison Davis (33 :56):

Well, and really, you should just pick a few of those to do every day.

Stephanie McCullough (34 :59) :

And then some of them will just become automatic and then you add a new.

Allison Davis (34 :04):

Exactly. The same here, there’s like 15 things I should do every day, but that’s just not going to happen. So, pick three to five, and then the next day, maybe it’s the same, maybe it’s different from your list.

Stephanie McCullough (34 :19):

That’s a good point. Well, how can people learn more? How can they find your book? Tell people how to find you.

Allison Davis (34 :24):

Okay. Well, the book is on Amazon and it’s everywhere. It’s everywhere you buy books, but it Sixty is a Good Start. My website, allisonccunedavis.com is where you can go. And then there is a link to the 60-day Dare, which if you just put your name and email in there, I will notify you when we are about to start that, which hopefully, is going to be very soon.

Stephanie McCullough (34 :50):

So, that’s like a group challenge that you do together?

Allison Davis (34 :54):

It’s going to be a group thing where I’ve got an app, and there’s a tracking thing in there for people that like to use an app. But also, we’re going to have weekly Zoom calls for accountability. So, I think that’s going to be really the best part because we need that.

Stephanie McCullough (35 :09):

Yeah, and just to know you’re in it together with other people.

Allison Davis (35 :10):

Yeah. So, that’s probably the best. I’m on Instagram too, so you can message me there if you forget.

Stephanie McCullough (35 :16):

Alright. We will put all those links in the show notes. Thank you again for joining us.

Kevin Gaines (35 :20):

Thank you.

Allison Davis (35 :21):

It’s been a real pleasure.

[Music Playing]

Kevin Gaines (35 :26):

So, Stephanie, here’s where I am with this, and it was early on in our conversation, and I’m paraphrasing. Basically, she was saying, “Having the knowledge is one thing, but you need to have a plan to implement it.” Well, the moment somebody says “plan,” us financial planners, we get a little, it’s like, “Yeah, yeah, yeah.” Yet again, it’s not financial plan or health plan or whatever, it’s just this general concept almost of planning to implement your strategy everywhere.

Kevin Gaines (36 :03):

And I think too many people … I get sensitive to this, it’s like oh, financial plan, financial plan. It’s like no, it’s just planning. We happen to talk about money, she’s talking about health and wellbeing. And I think it serves all of us to embrace the idea of planning as opposed to a plan.

Stephanie McCullough (36 :23):

That’s true. And planning being a verb instead of a noun. It goes on, it adjusts, it accepts the realities of your life. I mean, kind of the starting where you are and baby steps, baby steps. I feel like I hear this all the time and I’m like yeah, but I can do more than just the baby steps. And that’s unsustainable, it just doesn’t pan out.

Stephanie McCullough (36 :44):

I think it’s interesting, like I’ve heard that it takes 21 days to form a new habit, but some of this neuroimaging that she was mentioning (I don’t remember the doctor’s name) said that actually at 60 days, you can see the neurons like forming new pathways.

Stephanie McCullough (37 :59):

So, that’s an interesting thing to keep in mind, and maybe just do one or two or three for 60 days. And then stop following the influencers and reading stuff that tells you what else you should do. Like nope, I’ve got my three things I’m doing for 60 days, and then I’ll move on from there.

Kevin Gaines (37 :16):

To me, that sounds like the winning strategy almost. And we all get bombarded with oh, you got to do this, you got to do that. And it’s like well, I need to do all of them, so let me do all of them. And we just get overwhelmed, and we haven’t even developed any of these habits yet to her point. So, taking the time to do a couple things, you just get them done, if nothing else, you get some momentum going.

Kevin Gaines (37 :44):

And we’ve all seen this in our lives. We get a get a couple wins. Whether it’s one offs, or we know we start eating healthier or start saving more, whatever, and then we feel, I don’t know, inspired to keep going. So, it’s that motivation and maintaining that motivation.

Stephanie McCullough (38 :04):

I can’t remember where I read this, but a few years ago, I read that there’s a kind of a myth that the motivation has to come first before you take action, but it’s the opposite. It’s taking action and gaining momentum builds your motivation.

Stephanie McCullough (38 :18):

So, you kind of have to get off the couch and do those first things. Whether it’s setting up your environment, building the habits, doing the planning, and then like you said, once you have some momentum, then your motivation grows.

Stephanie McCullough (38 :33):

So, I get it, in theory, it all sounds good, but her point about you are the five people you hang out with, right like, maybe find some other friends who are thinking along similar lines. You each pick your habit and then check in with each other, and share inspirational podcasts or books or ideas or reinforcement to each other. That can be a big help too. And that keeps with the world work that she calls it, the connection and keeping your relationship strong.

Kevin Gaines (39 :06):

Yeah, staying engaged is — and social media for all of its downsides and yes, it does have a lot of downsides, but it does open up a world to you that it’s, I don’t know, if you’d say easier, but it’s more convenient to find people that are going to go on these little journeys with you.

Kevin Gaines (39 :25):

Again, they don’t have to go the whole all 18 steps to get it, but find somebody to be a workout partner, fine. That probably needs to be somebody near you. But a lot of these other engagements, you can have a group like she’s going to create and she’s going to create this accountability group.

Stephanie McCullough (39 :45):

But I can go on walks with my friend in California if we can time it right with the time zones or my friend in South Carolina. Like oh, we’re going to walk in these 45 minutes and we’re going to talk while we walk. So, there are ways that with technology, that we can do things when we’re not in the same town.

Kevin Gaines (40 :02):

That’s a great point. Not saying I’m old school or an old fuddy-duddy, but clearly, I’m an old fuddy-duddy because that never even occurred to me that you could just be taking a walk and just you got your earbuds, get the phone, and you’re fine.

Stephanie McCullough (40 :19):

This is a financial planning podcast, we talk about money, we talk about retirement, but what is that? Kind of what’s the point of having money if you don’t have a life worth being there for if you don’t have your health? Which is why we are happy to bring on Allison today. We hope you enjoyed this episode. We’ll talk to you next time. It’s goodbye from me.

[Music Playing]

Kevin Gaines (40 :38):

And it’s goodbye from her.

Stephanie McCullough (40 :43):

Be sure to subscribe to the show and please share it with your friends, show notes and more information available at takebackretirement.com. Huge thanks for the original music by the one and only Raymond Loewy through New Math in New York. See you next time.

Voiceover (40 :57):

Investment advice offered through Private Advisor Group, LLC, a registered Investment Advisor. Private Advisor Group, American Financial Management Group, and Sofia Financial are separate entities. The opinions voiced in this material are for general information only and are not intended to provide specific advice or recommendations for any individual security. To determine which investments may be appropriate for you, consult your financial advisor prior to investing. This information is not intended to be substitute for individualized tax advice. Please consult your tax advisor regarding your specific situation.