Do you ever worry about the future of your health and indeed your lifestyle? If you don’t, then perhaps you should reconsider. It’s worth pointing out that when you are younger, your body is far more resilient to health issues. You can expose it to more and get away with it. For instance, many people, when they are younger, will find that they can eat how they want without consequences. You can consume fatty foods, eat sugary snacks and you’ll never see any effects. Your teeth will stay white, and that tum will remain toned. However, as you age, things change.
Suddenly, your body doesn’t bounce back quite as much as it used to. Those late nights leave a mark as you can read about on TheGoodMansGroup.com, and the diet treats that you wouldn’t think twice about start to have a crushing blow. These are just some of the health changes that you will experience as you age. So, let’s look at how you can improve your health today to ensure that it doesn’t affect you in the future.
Getting Everything Your Body Needs
Be aware that as you get older, the good parts of your diet will become more important. You might go to the doctor one day due to health issues, and they will advise you that you need to change your diet. They’ll encourage you to get your greens and avoid too many red meats. They’ll urge you to get those minerals, vitamins and nutrients. If you are struggling to get all the ones you need in your diet naturally, they’ll advise you take supplements. With a supplement, you can get the things you need in your diet, regardless of your daily meal plan which can be useful.
They might also advise that you start purchasing superfoods. Packed with all the nutrients and vitamins that you need, superfoods are beneficial to those people who may have a mineral deficiency, and again this can be a nasty shock to the system as you get older. One minute you can enjoy sugary sweets and the next, you’ll need to replace them with real pieces of fruit.
When you’re thinking about your diet, it’s also worth considering the question of antioxidants. Antioxidants are natural vitamins and nutrients that are present in many of the foods that may already be in your diet. Blueberries, for instance, contain a large number of antioxidants and as such could be beneficial to you. Unfortunately, though, that doesn’t mean that you can munch on a blueberry muffin for breakfast. These are packed full of sugar so you’ll only see the benefit if you actually eat the fruit by itself.
Antioxidants fight back against the various issues with oxygenation in the body. Oxygenation has been linked to many health issues including dementia, which of course becomes more prevalent as you age. By the time you hit seventy, you are nearly eight percent likely to show some signs of this condition. As such, if there are changes you can make to your diet to prevent this, you should be taking these steps.
Antioxidants are thought to be more important these days because of the wide range of harmful substances that our bodies are exposed to. You might think that if you don’t drink or smoke, your body should be at a great level of fitness. However, this is not the case. Indeed, everything from levels of pollution to electromagnetic energy can be harmful to the body and may cause oxygenation.
Fighting Fit
Once you approach thirty, you should be making sure that you are following a regular fitness routine. This might include a full daily workout that could last anywhere between forty minutes and two hours. This will help you work off some of those calories and keep your body in terrific shape. If you are struggling to fit forms of exercise into your daily or weekly routine, there are a few possibilities here.
The first would be to make it a family task where everyone in the family works out together. Don’t forget, kids need to exercise too, particularly when you look at the shockingly high levels of childhood obesity in the world today. It’s not just about getting them on a good diet and working out with your children will ensure that you do actually get a solid fitness routine going.
Alternatively, you can incorporate more exercise into your daily lifestyle. A simple example of this would be cycling to work rather than perhaps driving if your office is close by.
One of the main dangers that you need to be careful of is the impact of simply doing nothing. Scientists have suggested that sitting down for hours can just as damaging to your body as smoking. That means that Netflix binges may be a worse habit than you think. The good news is that it is possible to exercise even when you aren’t active. For instance, did you know that you can complete yoga at your office desk? As you can see in the video below, there are various forms of this exercise that you can try and that will keep you fighting fit.
The trick is to keep your body working, moving and not to remain stagnant. Even just completing butt clenches at your desk could be enough to ward off the negative impact of staying still.
While exercise is certainly a positive, be careful of putting your body through too much. Research has shown that intensive forms of exercise can have long-lasting consequences. For instance, you may love going on your weekly run. Be aware that this puts enormous pressure on the joints in your legs and this can lead to arthritis. If you are already dealing with the signs of arthritis, there are ways to reduce the pain, and you can find more at ArthritisHope.com. Though ideally, you want to avoid the pain altogether and you can do this if you look after your body right now. Remember, a leisurely walk can be just as beneficial as a rapid sprint, and it will have a lower impact on your muscles, joints and bones.
Similarly, yoga can be just as beneficial as weightlifting, and you can avoid the danger of stretching or even tearing a muscle. Don’t forget, there are short-term consequences of this type of damage as well. An injury like this will mean that you won’t be able to work out for a while and once you stop for a few weeks, it can make it very difficult to get back into the swing of things.
More Than Physical
Moving on, we do need to consider more than just the physical aspect of your health. In other words, we need to think about how your mental health deteriorates as you age as well. Memory issues, for instance, can set in sooner than you think. Do you ever walk into a room and forget why you went in there? Are you about to speak to someone when you lose what you need to say? Now, it’s important to note that these aren’t always signs of serious memory issues. However, if signs like this are becoming more common, you may want to consult a doctor. They will be able to tell you whether you do show any signs of cognitive issues that can occur with age.
As already mentioned, your diet can play in part in your mental health, and you shouldn’t forget about those antioxidants. But there are other steps you can take as well. For instance, you can try brain exercises. The brain is like a muscle. If you don’t stretch it regularly, then it becomes less effective. It’s the same principle as feeling stronger after exercising. By exercising you are working out your muscles, and you can do the same with your mind. Some of the tasks could include crossword puzzles or problem-solving. You might think that watching TV or going to the cinema is working out your brain, but it isn’t. Brain scans show that when we watch media our brains aren’t particularly active at all, which is an issue.
Instead, you need to make sure that you are engaging in other activities that do involve active thought such as reading or even blogging. You can learn how to get started blogging on WordPress.com. Blogging, noting down your thoughts and feelings can be a brilliant way to make sure that you are keeping your brain active and constantly thinking. But it’s not just about testing your brain.
Social interactions are important too. If you work at home, you might not be engaging with people on a regular basis in the real world. As such, you’ll need to work other more social activities into your spare time to compensate. Joining a social club or sports team can be a great way to do this. Don’t forget, social isolation also increases the chances of depression. You can read more about this on PsychologyToday.com.
We hope you find this information helpful and start thinking more about the future of your health today. If you do, you can increase the chances that you won’t be impacted by some of the health problems that become more problematic as you age.
If you are ready to make a healthy change as a family, head over to Creating a Hearth Healthy Family.
Photo Credit: April Walker, Pixabay, Pixabay
