Making good lifestyle choices and avoiding bad habits is the key to enjoying a higher quality of life at any age, especially once you reach your Golden Years. Healthy habits such as eating right, exercising regularly, and staying socially engaged can help ensure that the second half of your life is just as rewarding as the proceeding decades. If you’re not sure what that looks like, growing older with dignity and independence is possible by embracing a few simple healthy aging practices – starting with those that follow.
Healthy Lifestyle Tips for Older Adults
It’s no secret that as the average senior grows older, their hair sports more grays and their face more lines. Achy muscles and joints often keep older adults from participating in activities they once enjoyed. Still others experience cognitive changes that make remembering important dates and facts more challenging.
And although it’s true that nobody lives forever, slowing down the aging process is possible by taking these steps:
Avoid bad habits
Whether it’s smoked or chewed, tobacco harms almost every organ in your body while contributing to numerous health problems. If you use tobacco in any form, kick that bad habit to the curb right away.
Other unhealthy habits to avoid include a sedentary lifestyle, drinking alcohol to excess, not socializing enough, and eating too many processed and sugary foods that lack the essential nutrients your aging body so desperately needs.
Eat whole foods
As more of a way of eating rather than an actual diet, this concept means loading up on fresh veggies and fruits, along with whole grains, nuts, and low-dairy food items. A whole food diet also means reducing your intake of fatty meats, butter, sugar, salt, and highly processed foods.
Many studies have found that eating this way may help you live longer by protecting you against heart disease, cancer, Parkinson’s disease, Alzheimer’s disease, and other life-shortening medical conditions.
Exercise regularly
If you are otherwise healthy enough to do so, working out for 20 minutes 3 to 5X a week goes a long way in slowing the aging process. Regular exercise benefits older adults in low-impact exercises for seniors include Yoga, Tai Chi, walking, cycling, swimming, and water aerobics.
Add dietary fiber
Not only does fiber fill you up for longer, but increasing your fiber intake helps reduce your cholesterol levels and odds of getting constipated or developing heart disease, type 2 diabetes, and colon cancer. Ways to add dietary fiber include swapping out white bread for whole grains and adding kidney beans to your soup or apple slices to salads.
Take supplements
Once you reach age 50, your body requires more of certain vitamins and minerals to perform optimally. Although dietary nutrients are the best kind, you can also take daily supplements in pill form to ensure you are getting enough.
Examples of vitamins and minerals you may need to supplement include:
- Calcium for bone health
- Vitamin D
- Vitamin B12
- Vitamin B6
Note: Before taking any supplement consult with your doctor first.
Stay connected
Loneliness and depression can be harmful to your health at any age. In addition to being at higher risk for dementia, seniors who report feeling lonely and socially isolated tend to have more trouble performing activities of daily living (ADLs) such as bathing, getting around, and toileting.
The bodies of depressed seniors contain higher levels of stress hormones, which are linked to joint inflammation and diabetes. As an aging adult, it’s vitally important that you stay connected by doing volunteer work, joining a travel club, utilizing social media, or simply spending quality time with friends and family.
An Extended Family in Your Loved One’s Home
Helping aging loved ones embrace healthy practices can be challenging with everything else on your plate. At Assisting Hands Home Care, our professional in-home senior care services allow clients in the greater Boston, MA, area to remain safely and comfortably in their own homes. Our trained, dependable caregivers and personal assistants can help your family overcome its eldercare challenges while making your loved one’s home an even better place to be.
Our turnkey home care services include everything from companionship, meal preparation, medication reminders, and transportation to light housekeeping, laundry, and personal care assistance with bathing and dressing. From a few hours a day to around-the-clock care, our customized in-home care solutions have got your family covered. To learn more about Assisting Hands Home Care or schedule a free consultation for a senior in Northwest Boston, click here now.
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