Last Updated on December 30, 2020 by HodgePodgeDays
We’re all guilty of failing to take our health seriously. When you’re young, it seems that you can eat whatever you want or sit and watch TV as much as you want without ever noticing the negative consequences to your health. However, you’ve probably noticed as you start to get older that this isn’t the case. If you eat too many biscuits and spend most of your day sitting at a work desk or lounging on your sofa then you’ve probably noticed that your figure isn’t quite what it was. You might also have noticed that a bad night’s sleep seems to completely deplete your energy, whereas you used to pull all-nighters and feel fine the next day. Even your mental health has suffered because adult responsibilities have given you stress and anxiety.
The point is that your health starts to suffer as you get older. Some of it is unavoidable; aches and pains might just call for a visit to the doctor to get yourself sorted out. However, a lot of it is down to you. When you were a kid, you’d run around everywhere and stay healthy without even thinking about it. As an adult, you have to put in a little effort to maintain that level of health. You might be a little busier than you were as a child, but that doesn’t make it any less important to keep your body and mind healthy. The older you get, the more important it becomes to take your health seriously. You can be as healthy and happy as you were when you were younger, but you do need to work at it. Here’s some health advice that should help you as you age.
Eat well.
Diet is important no matter how old or how young you might be, but it’s certainly something that you need to take seriously as you get older. You might have been able to get away with eating a lot of junk whilst you were younger, but you probably see the effects on your waistline now that you’re a little bit older. And an unhealthy weight is only one symptom of a larger problem if you have a bad diet. Your body needs certain vitamins and minerals in order to function healthily. It even affects your mental health; the gut controls the mind, after all. You should aim to eat food that’s rich in starch and fibre (e.g. bread, pasta, and cereals), as suggested over at www.nidirect.gov.uk/articles. The fibre will keep your digestive system working properly. Additionally, your body needs iron, which you can get from foods such as beans, bread, and green vegetables. The point is that your diet needs to be full and varied.
Sleep well.
This is easier said than done. You can’t really command yourself to sleep well. In fact, they say that sleep is the one thing that becomes harder to achieve the more you try to do it. That’s because sleep is all about resting your body and your mind. It’s not a time during which you should strain yourself. It’s a time to unwind and recover from a long day. And whilst there may be more to worry about as you get older, you need to put those worries to bed (if you’ll excuse the pun) when you’re trying to sleep. We’ll talk more about mental health in this article if you’re struggling to quieten an anxious mind, but depriving your body of the rest it needs has an effect on your physical health too. As we’ve mentioned in the past, protecting your immune system is crucial to good health. But you need rest if you want to keep your immune system strong and avoid getting colds or feeling unwell.
There’s a lot you can do to improve your quality of sleep. For starters, you could avoid technology for an hour before you go to sleep. Read a book or talk to your loved one in order to relax your mind. Straining your eyes and stimulating your mind with a bright screen is going to make it very difficult for you to slowly drift off to sleep. You need to give yourself peaceful conditions so that you can gradually relax. Of course, as you get older, physical problems might be preventing you from sleeping just as much as mental problems. You could check out www.procterhealthcare.co.uk/incontinence for incontinence products such as bed pads that could put your mind at ease. It’s all about giving yourself the most relaxing and comfortable conditions to allow your mind and body to relax. A firm mattress is also important if you want to ensure that your back is well-supported whilst you rest; that might help you to stop waking up with bodily pains.
Exercise well.
As we get older, many of us feel less incentivised to exercise. Maybe you give yourself the excuses that you’re too busy at work or looking after the kids to find time for exercise, but the truth is that many of simply don’t want to do it. Perhaps your body aches a little more than it used to, and the thought of pushing it any further is painful in itself. But you don’t need to push your body to its limits in order to stay healthy – you just need to keep it moving. If you find the time for some sort of physical activity every day then this could make a huge difference to your health as you get older.
For example, a little bit of cardio could go a long way. Find half an hour a day to do some light jogging around your local area; you could even do it with your family or friends to turn it into a social event. As explained over at www.bbc.co.uk/science, cardio activity helps to reduce the risk of high blood pressure and heart disease. On top of that, it keeps you mentally healthy. It certainly becomes more important than ever to keep the brain sharp as you get older.