Hitting 65 doesn’t mean your best years are behind you – it just means you need to be a bit smarter about how you take care of yourself. The seniors who seem to have it figured out aren’t necessarily doing anything revolutionary. They’ve just learned what works for their bodies and circumstances, and they’ve stuck with it.
The frustrating part about most health advice for seniors is that it either sounds impossibly complicated or boring as watching paint dry. But the truth is, the stuff that makes the biggest difference is usually pretty straightforward. You just have to cut through all the noise and focus on what actually matters.
Eat to Live (Don’t Live to Eat)
Eating isn’t about eating less in a restrictive diet. It’s about keeping your energy levels high enough to do what you love and your body active enough to do so to maintain independence. So many people think as they age they just need to eat less (assuming less is more)—but not necessarily.
For example, did you know that as you age, you actually need more protein than when you’re younger? For a 150-pound individual, that’s about 80 grams of protein per day. That equals two eggs for breakfast, a serving of chicken or salmon for lunch and Greek yogurt or a handful of nuts after that.
Additionally, 5-6 smaller meals work better than 3 larger ones. Your stomach fills up faster as you get older and metabolism naturally slows down. Therefore, spacing it out keeps energy levels more constant throughout the day. It’s also easier to get everything in without feeling like you’re going to pop.
And drink more water, it’s so important! Just because you don’t feel thirsty doesn’t mean your body doesn’t require it just the same. Half of the ailments that send seniors to the doctor’s office—confusion, dizziness, constipation—could be easily avoided with one or two additional glasses of water every day.
Exercise That Doesn’t Hurt
There shouldn’t be any need for gym subscriptions or hard-as-hell exercise programs. Exercise is whatever will keep you disciplined over time. For example, walking is still one of the best things anyone can do for themselves—but adding some strength training helps take it up a notch.
Muscles contract as we age—it’s just the way it goes—but introducing resistance training three times per week helps mitigate it faster than you’d think. Now, I’m not suggesting you start deadlifting your body weight—but simple work with resistance bands, light weights—or even bodyweight—is helpful. Maintain the strength required for daily operation—carrying groceries, getting in and out of chairs, climbing stairs.
Most people only engage in balance training after they’ve fallen—and that’s wrong. Simple balance training can help avoid most falls in the first place. Try standing on one foot when you brush your teeth or heel-toe walk down the hallway. Many classes like tai chi can help promote this—and promote friends around you, too.
Start slow and build gradually over time. Five to ten minutes of walking every day plus some basic strength training twice per week will work tenfold better than thrice per week by going all out once every week and being sore for three days as a result.
Keep Your Social Life Thriving
Social isolation is what most seniors fight against—but it’s easy to do so without realizing it’s happening. With retirement, daily patterns change; health complaints determine what one can do (or not do). Losing significant others decreases the circle naturally; thus, those who want to maintain health as seniors are those who keep themselves actively engaged.
One of the best ways to get engaged is through volunteer efforts—studies show that seniors who volunteer at least weekly live longer and enjoy life more frequently. It doesn’t have to be anything huge—a library program where they read to school-aged children or helping at a community charity effort or saying hello to patrons at a museum—for as long as it’s within interest levels matched with ability levels.
Technology can help support the endeavor—and family members from a distance. Video calls with grandchildren, online forums centered on hobbies and social media pages can fill gaps when in-person interactions are not available—but should never take their place.
Good Safety Planning
Good safety planning champions independence—not takes it away from you. This means avoiding falls and avoiding issues with emergency preparedness while preventing monitoring of medical transitions.
Health monitoring has come a long way from those old emergency buttons. Looking into senior monitoring devices in Canada can help you understand how modern systems track daily wellness patterns while providing emergency help when you need it.
The best preventative safety measures never make you feel like you’re living in a hospital setting; emergency contacts are accessible, storage systems for medications and home modifications that assist daily living are better ways to get everyone aging in place happily and comfortably.
Proper check-ups are important through medical systems but should not be overwhelming within a social calendar; preventative measures resolve issues before they become drastic enough for more drastic actions yet still allow one to enjoy aging instead of worrying about upcoming appointments every other week for every little twinge and creak.
Making It All Come Together
Those seniors who successfully operate healthy, independent and functional make this routine feel manageable—not an overwhelming overhaul of lifestyle. It’s about creating balance between knowing what’s good for you without feeling compelled to turn life into a health project.
Having some sort of routine helps allow essential important things not go by the wayside but enough flexibility exists to avoid feeling beat up when natural aging inconveniences come into play and detract from a perfected plan.
Ultimately, what you’re trying to achieve is a less-fatiguing day-in-and-day-out lifestyle for as long as possible so you might enjoy the best out of life while in your golden years. This means health awareness through eating, exercising, socializing and safety—but not stressing about any one facet enough to inadvertently jeopardize everything else.
Aging isn’t a sprint, it’s a marathon; therefore, there’s got to be a focus on what’s maintainable for each individual without getting sidetracked by all the extra information that comes over the decades from experience. Eventually some focus improvements on each facet make successful adjustments over time that help how you feel—and how long you feel well enough!
