7 Ways to Grow Old Gracefully
- Exercise Regularly Aim for 30 minutes of exercise each day. You can break this up into shorter stints of 10 minutes each. Take a walk in the neighborhood. Jump on your exercise bike. Lift some dumbbells while watching TV [Beginner Dumbbell Workout]. Or even work in the garden. It all counts – just be active! Exercise boosts your mood, helps to control your weight, strengthens bones and muscles and controls blood pressure & cholesterol.
- Get Enough Sleep: Ensure you get at least 7-8 hours of sleep each night. We have more details on healthy Sleep here or check out the CDC’s Sleep Resources .
- Get a Yearly Physical: Whether or not you are experiencing any obvious health issues you should have a basic physical once a year. Most insurance carriers will cover these appointments at no cost to you. It’s critical that you know your numbers; including cholesterol levels and blood pressure and getting screenings for breast, colon and cervical cancer are important. Ask for a full blood panel for lipid and glucose levels, thyroid function and remember to ask for a bone density screening.
- Maintain Your Brain: Crossword puzzles, reading and learning something new are all excellent ways to boost brainpower. It’s also important to reduce stress and anxiety. If you have never met with a mental health professional consider doing an assessment. Especially as life and social connections change, having someone neutral to talk to about your thoughts and feelings becomes important.
- Staying Connected: Studies have shown that having a social circle is one of the keys to aging well. Connections change as we age; children move away, parents and friends pass away, we lose work colleagues. Making and keeping new connections becomes important to our maintaining our mental health.
- Reduce Stress and Stay Positive: Life doesn’t get any easier as we age. As we lose personal connections our attitudes about life can go through some low points. Gratitude for what we have is a proven way to keep a positive outlook. Journaling and Affirmations are great tools for stress reduction and positivity. Laughter has been clinically proven to increase endorphins (the feel good hormone). Watch a comedy and laugh as often as you can.
- Eat Healthy: At every age a balanced and healthy diet is the key to good health. There are basic rules to Eating Healthy and as we age some adjustments should be made to accommodate our aging body such as:
- Eat mostly whole foods. Avoid processed and packaged food which contain more chemicals and fewer nutrients
- Less meat and more vegetables. Meat processing taps our energy and is harder for our bodies to digest as we age.
- Check vitamin D levels. Vitamin D is critical for bone health an important factor in aging well. Our bodies become less efficient in converting sunshine to D as we age.
- Consider supplements. Absorbing vitamins from food also becomes more difficult as we age. Check with your PCP first, but a multi-vitamin with B12 and B6 may help with energy levels.
There many more ways to Age Well and we will continue to add these resources as we build out this site. Please feel free to leave your comments and suggestions on how you have or plan to age well and we’ll consider adding them as tools.
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