Senior Citizen? Good Health is Important!

It’s hard being a healthy senior citizen.  Most of us have taken care of families and worked all our lives, planning meals and getting regular exercise.  Then comes the day we retire.  Suddenly, everything changes.

It’s more important in your senior years than ever before to eat healthy and exercise.  Information is thrown at us every single day about cancer-fighting foods, health and fitness, benefits of red wine, taking vitamin supplements and similar treatments for those maladies that plague us as we age.

The trick is not to get too bogged down in the information, but to disseminate it so that it works for you.  Follow a few rules for healthy eating and make some physical changes.

1. Research your family history.  Know warning signs and symptoms of things that you might be susceptible to, i.e. diabetes, heart disease, and cancer.  By making a few simple changes in your diet you can add cancer-fighting foods to your table and by lowering portions and cutting out extra sugar you can manage diabetes.
2. It’s very important to get some exercise.  It doesn’t have to be all in one chunk. Walk around the mall a couple of times.  Park your car farther from the store.  Make an extra trip around the inside perimeter of the market or climb a set of stairs.  All of these things will give you benefit.
3.  Practice good sleeping habits.  Go to bed at the same time every night and get up at the same time every morning.  The continuity will allow your body to function better and leave you feeling refreshed.  Late night parties are a thing of the past.  Take a good book to bed, read for a little while and fall asleep naturally.
4. Stay involved in activities you like to do.  Turn off the television and do something – anything!  Studies have shown that people who age have a longer life and better brain function if they stay involved.  Do volunteer work, visit a shut-in, lead the choir, sew baby blankets for the hospital or be a wheelchair pusher at the VA.  These things keep you feeling good about yourself.
5. Cultivate friendships.  Now more than ever you need people around you who care.  Spend more time with family but be independent and enjoy your life.

These are only a few things that will keep you healthy and happy in your senior years.  Make them the best years of your life!