Greetings: This is Mike, the founder of Optimal Retirement Living. Admittedly, prior to this website, I had never had anything to do with website development. In developing this website, I chose to work with a website hosting company called Wealthy Affiliate, which recommended the website begin with this post, titled “About Mike”.
I am a lifelong Colorado native and a proud CSU Ram (actually 5th generation) and recently retired in late 2021 after a career in engineering, project management and advanced building technologies. I am happily married, and my wife and I share an adult son who recently graduated from college. I love cooking and the outdoors, and am relatively healthy for my age. At this point in our lives, after years of hard work and raising a family, my wife and I look forward to a long, happy, healthy retirement.
ABOUT MIKE – MY STORY
During my childhood years, I had severe asthma which limited my early childhood activities. Through the Christian faith of myself and my parents, over time, I not only survived, but thrived. I became active in sports in middle and high school and am now an avid outdoor enthusiast and lead a very active lifestyle. I am blessed to be married to a devout Christian wife, who has been an inspiration to me as I watch her stand strong in her faith as she deals with her own adult onset health issues. This life experience has given me a profound appreciation for health and wellness as well as the struggles many face.
Especially in my later years, I have witnessed the various health issues of friends and family, sometimes temporary, sometimes a chronic, lifetime disease. During the COVID pandemic, I have several friends and family members who not only contracted COVID, but have also had to endure long COVID and numerous “add on” ailments that are apparently an offspring of COVID. They have been to numerous doctors and clinics with no answers. This phenomenon is new to the medical community and to date, there are no cures and only rudimentary treatments for this mysterious disease and often related, debilitating effects.
WHY YOU WANT TO HELP PEOPLE
Watching friends and family go through their medical journey, I am sympathetic to their frustrations. Especially with long COVID, the health issues often are not a single malady but come with issues in several organ systems (cardiovascular, respiratory, endocrine, lymphatic, urinary, nervous, etc.). The frustration can be two-fold;
1. Each specialist (e.g. a cardiologist) would test the patient and respond, “your tests are fine, go see someone else”, and
2. In the end, the patient often receives no true diagnosis or cause from traditional medicine practitioners. I believe a weakness of traditional US medicines is that it is overly specialized. It is rare to find a provider who is willing to call all of the various specialists together and take a big picture, integrated look. This is even true in large hospital or multi-discipline clinical settings.
With no help or guidance from traditional medicine, many are now working with more holistic functional doctors willing to look at the big picture. As a major component to their alternative treatment, these practitioners use extensive testing, body cleansing and natural supplements. Given that my friends’ issues include the cardio-vascular system (an Achilles heel for senior citizens), I have done extensive research and have self subscribed several supplements with good results. You will notice I also have a series on “Nutritional Healing” as diet and exercise are key factors leading to a long, healthy life.
THE GOAL OF YOUR SITE
My purpose in establishing this business and website is to provide information, education, encouragement and insights to retirees looking to enjoy their retirement for decades to come. Having learned in our medical journey that a comprehensive, integrated look at a problem leads to a better solution, I decided to apply this to retirement living. Retirement is not just about saving money and then spending it down post-career. Life is more than money, and yes, more than even travel. I hope this website is useful to you as we look at the bigger picture to ensure you are living a full, happy, healthy retirement on any budget.
All the best,
Mike
www.optimalretirementliving.com