5 Tips to Maintain a Healthy and Well-balanced Lifestyle as You Age

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As you age, a healthy and well-balanced lifestyle is important if you want to live a long, productive life. This will involve every aspect of your life, from what you eat to your attitude and what you do every day. A combination of healthy habits can ensure that you face life as you age in the best possible way.

1. Healthy eating is essential

Healthy eating habits are more important than ever when you start to age. Your metabolism slows down, and your sense of smell and taste can weaken, giving you less of an appetite.

You need to ensure that you eat enough protein, fruits, fibre, vegetables and whole grains. Health practitioners often recommend the Mediterranean diet. It has an emphasis on fruits and vegetables, whole grains, fish, and healthy oils like olive oil. These foods can help support energy levels and a strong immune system. It can also help you to sustain a healthy weight, which can prevent certain diseases such as diabetes or arthritis.

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2. Find ways to stay active

Exercise can add extra years to your life, and it is never too late to start. Some of the benefits of exercise are:

• It makes you more flexible and improves your posture and balance
• It strengthens your immune system
• It releases endorphins (feel-good chemicals)
• It improves the quality of your sleep
• It benefits the brain due to increased blood flow

The muscles get stiffer and shorter without exercise. Just five to 10 minutes of stretching exercises every day can help to increase flexibility. It’s best to start off gently and increase exercise over time. If you make sure it’s something you enjoy, you will be more motivated to stick to a consistent routine.

3. Improve your sleep quality

Sleep problems often increase as you age, but there are tips that can help you get a better night’s sleep.

•  Make your bedroom conducive to good sleep by ensuring you have a comfortable mattress and your room is cool, quiet and dark
• Incorporate whatever relaxes you in your bedtime routine, whether this is some calming music or reading, before you put the light out
• A good practice is to turn off the TV or computer an hour before going to sleep to reduce the effect of blue light on your sleep
• Melatonin is the hormone responsible for making you feel sleepy and artificial light can reduce melatonin production. Try to get as much exposure to natural light during the day as possible
• Getting exercise during the day will help you sleep better

4. Keep a positive attitude

Getting older can be difficult, especially if your health deteriorates and you start to lose your independence. It can be tough to stay positive, but a negative attitude will simply make things worse.

Here are some tips to help you stay positive: 

• Remember what you have to be grateful about, such as family and friends
• Try to accept the changes in your life and make the most of what you can do rather than dwelling on what you can’t do
• Don’t suppress your emotions but try to find healthy ways to deal with them, such as writing in a journal or talking to a family member
• Consider volunteer and social activities such as joining a book club or volunteering at a soup kitchen

5. Make sure your brain stays active

Your brain is like a muscle that you either use or lose. You can keep your brain healthy as you age by doing the following:

• Play word games
• Do crossword puzzles or Sudoku
• Read
• Play cards
• Learn a new language

Think about it like cross-training your brain. The more you challenge your brain, the better it will work.

Watching too much television is not a good idea as it’s a passive activity that does not stimulate your brain. You don’t need to do any fancy brain-training exercises to make sure your brain stays active. You can get just as good a brain workout by reading, putting together a jigsaw puzzle, or trying to learn a new skill.