As each day passes, so does our age increase, and with increasing age comes aging. Aging is an inevitable process, although it comes with an overload of happiness, extra free time, infinite wisdom, and financial gains (senior discounts and others), it can also have downsides like wrinkling, decreased immunity thus susceptibility to illness, and often loneliness. Although we can’t stop aging, what we can do is make sure that we go through it the best way possible and we can achieve this by aiming to stay healthy as we grow older.

Why should we strive to stay healthy as we grow older?

-To stay energetic and help control your wealth.

-To prevent some diseases and delay many health conditions that come with aging like high blood pressure, osteoporosis, type 2 diabetes, and certain cancers.

-To keep your muscles stronger so you can keep doing your day-to-day activities without becoming dependent on others.

How can we stay healthy as we grow older? By…

-By adopting a healthy diet.

-Working well to have a positive mindset and lifestyle.

-Exercising regularly.

-Get involved in activities in your neighborhood to help you stay proactive.

Adopting a healthy diet: you don’t have to change everything you eat just because you’re getting older, you can replace some not so healthy options with healthier alternatives eg replace all chocolate with dark chocolate, replace ice cream with frozen yogurt, replace beer with spirits or wine, replacing butter with margarine and others. Add fiber to your diet because fiber reduces constipation, helps to lose weight, reduces the risk of diabetes, heart disease, and colon cancer, and lowers your blood cholesterol level. Try the Mediterranean diet which promotes foods such as fish, fruits, vegetables, whole grains, and beans. Drink more water, staying hydrated will give you more energy and flush out toxins.

Working well to have a positive mindset and lifestyle: we can have a positive mindset by focusing on the good things, practice gratitude by keeping a gratitude journal(you can do this efficiently and easily by downloading the Gratitude app on Apple), practicing positive self-talk, spending time with positive people, opening ourselves up to humor, treating ourselves to some self-care every day, identifying our areas of negativity and tackle one area at a time and avoid spreading gossip.

Exercise regularly: Exercise 15 to 30 minutes daily or a few times a week. Try a combination of aerobics ( walking, swimming), and strength training with light weights, if you don’t like exercising, try other activities like gardening, dancing, fishing, tai-chi, or yoga. Any activity that you enjoy that’ll keep you in the right state of mind. Exercise can also improve diseases like diabetes. A healthy diet and exercise help feed your brain and improve your decision-making abilities as you get older.

Get involved in activities in your neighborhood: There are many ways to get involved in healthy aging activities in your neighborhood. Volunteering is one of the most popular and easiest ways to get involved. Volunteering can be done at a senior center, a hospital, or even at home with a loved one. If you are not able to volunteer, there are still plenty of other ways that you can get involved in healthy aging activities in your neighborhood. For example, you could attend or organize community events such as health fairs or fitness classes. You could also take care of someone else’s pet while they visit the doctor or help out with yard work for an elderly person nearby.

What if you’ve not been active for most of your life, do you think it’s already too late for you to get started living healthy and even get fit? No, it’s not, you can start your health and fitness journey at any point in your life, regardless of your age. These are how to become healthy and get fit(and stay fit) at any age,…

When you’re in your 30s, here you’re still close to your peak fitness level, cardio is key here, get involved in 20-30 minutes of running, a dance class, or hit the gym. Start slowly but push yourself daily, start with 5 - 10 reps and keep increasing this regularly. Because you start to lose bone mass in your 30’s, it is important to consume high calcium foods such as broccoli, spinach, kale, almonds, yogurt, and cheese, and incorporate omega 3s which have both short term benefits like improved mood and cognition, and reduced inflammation, as well as long term benefits like an improved mental and cardiovascular health.

When you’re in your 40s, due to hormonal fluctuation, your metabolism starts to slow down as you head into menopause causing weight gain and faster loss of muscle mass, thus here, you should do a lot of strength training to help you build and retain your muscle mass, gradually work up to using heavier dumbbells or adding more reps to your push-ups. Eat foods rich in good carbs like whole grains, this will help you stay energized all day, you can add some anti-aging food eg spinach, almonds, broccoli, avocado, coconut oil, and olive oil to your nutrition list to help your heart, brain, and skin stay healthy.

When you’re in your 50s, you’ll experience increasing bone loss, especially in females due to menopause and decreased estrogen levels. Low estrogen also facilitates weight gain. At this age, you should turn to exercises that can keep you lean, strong, and safe. Adding yoga to your routine will be amazing to keep you in a good state of mind while keeping the extra pounds away. Here, it is important to eat meals that contain several key nutrients daily and eat high protein foods eg beans and lentils, eggs, tempeh, fish, lean meat, poultry, dairy products, nuts, and seeds.

Conclusion:

Even though we cannot stop ourselves from aging, we can put effort to make sure that we age in the best way possible. By following the tips above, be assured that you’re going to age in the most amazing way there is. Do you think there are other ways to ensure that you age amazingly? If there is, be sure to drop a comment below.