What’s it all about?! Well, simply put, healthy aging is about practicing a healthy lifestyle as we get older. Thinking healthily and keeping our brain active, eating nutritiously, and keeping our bodies fit and strong.
Why is Healthy Aging important? Making certain changes to our lifestyle now, can help to improve our quality of life and general health as we get older! Aging healthily, can also help to reduce or prevent the burden of age-related diseases like heart disease, diabetes, and arthritis.
What are the 3 principal elements of Healthy Aging? There are many ways to support our health and to make our bodies stronger! Our general well-being requires a combination of:
- Healthy eating: Our diet plays a significant role in healthy aging. The foods we eat now will have a considerable impact on our health in the future. It’s important to nourish our bodies, to eat nutrient-dense foods such as fruits, vegetables, and wholegrains, and to avoid eating too many processed and packaged foods, and trans fats (bad fats).
- Mobility, flexibility & exercise: Exercise is important at every age, but it’s especially important to keep our bodies fit and strong as we get older. To remain physically active, to keep our bodies moving every single day! To maintain our strength, to keep our joints flexible, to stretch and strengthen our muscles, and to take care of our heart.
Our current health and physical limitations will of course play a significant role in what we can or can’t do, but even so, just a small change to our lifestyle can contribute toward a better quality of life as we age.
- Looking after our emotional well-being and keeping our brain active: In addition to the foods we eat and being physically active, maintaining good health is also about looking after our emotional well-being and keeping our brain active too. Our emotional health is an integral part of our well-being. Our psychology affects how we think and feel, how we act, and how we relate to other people. It may also have repercussions on our physical health too. Adopting a healthy way of thinking, keeping our brain active and alert, and staying social are all important components of healthy aging.
Getting started: It only takes one thought, and a little motivation! Find out more on healthy living in the “Life Doesn’t Stop at 50 Survival Guide on Aging Healthily!”
Thekla Coumas is a Naturopathic Nutritionist, Alkaline Diet Adviser, and Life Coach.
She shares her own personal healthy aging experience, adventures, and tips on how to age healthily through her book, and her ‘Life Doesn’t Stop at 50’ social media platforms and website www.lifedoesntstopat50.com
