Archive for May, 2007

At this age you should understand two different health tracks to aging.

You will be slow, flabby, forgetful and achy on the traditional track if you don’t follow a fitness program.

You would have enough brain power to know that you are forgetting unless Alzheimer’s has taken your mind completely.

You will be frightened and worried about the next few years, worried about the accidents and worried about your life.

Seniors fall largely because of the increasingly bended posture associated with aging and weakening muscles (Treating aging).

Without a fitness program, fall can take place with high blood pressure, cognitive problems and impaired vision. Flexibility is lost in shoulders and hips resulting in a tipped-forward posture.

Alternatively, you will be lean, happy and active if you follow a proper fitness program. Your mind will be sharp due to good nutrition, health and intellectual activities. You have a circle of friends to enjoy and to have fun together.

You enjoy freedom and independence that comes from maturity and retirement. You will be still young to use the knowledge wisely.

It’s true that exercising at seventy can be really a life saver.

You can prevent cardiovascular disease when you perform cardiovascular exercises regularly with healthy diet (Cardio exercise equipment).

You can improve your balance by strength training exercises.

Exercising strengthens your bones and you are less likely to fall. If you fall, it is less likely to break your bones. Even though exercising lengthens your life span and improve the quality of life, many people don’t do it.

People say all kinds of excuses for not exercising. People over sixty often say excuses like ‘I am too old’, ‘I am tired’ or ‘I am having medical condition. But the fact is all the medical conditions can be improved with regular exercising. It is hard to exercise if you are in pain from a recent knee surgery or other surgeries (Exercising when sick).

Many people do not like exercising. In olden days people used to work hard to get food to eat. Now it is not hard to find food these days. No need to leave your house for food.

You have to move six days a week from now onwards.

Remember, if you don’t move six days, you lose.

The older you get, the faster you lose it. Every one needs to do some form of flexibility, strength training and aerobics.

These are the important areas that improve your health and keep you feeling good no matter what age you are.

As you age there are few things which change. The first thing is how much your body can tolerate in terms of amount of impact you can withstand. The second thing is the recovery time.

If you are just starting your exercise routine:

If you are just starting your exercise routine, focus on building up your cardiovascular conditioning. For building cardiovascular conditioning, include swimming, low impact aerobics, aqua aerobics, and brisk walk in your exercise routine (Cardio exercise equipment).

If you want to walk up to your mailbox and back few times, it’s all right. The point is to move on and so you can chose any way to get moving.

Stretch out before and after exercise routine. In this age, the joints stiffen up. Stiff joints can contribute to falls leading to injuries. By stretching, your muscles and joints become flexible and you can easily move without falls.

You can start an exercise program at seventies also.

Fat at seventies can lead to diseases like heart problems, diabetes, and blood pressure.

It’s never too late to start an exercise program to lose weight (Weight loss on a busy schedule).

Be consistent when you start the exercise program. If you overdo it, you can’t be consistent.

Exercise intensity should be challenging to you but it should be easy enough to maintain for twenty minutes.

You can start with 10 minute exercise workout in the beginning and work your way up to 45 minutes of exercise. If you have membership in gym, you have to go to gym every day. Increase the speed. Work hard but not too hard.

Heart rate monitor to start exercise program:

Buy a heart rate monitor before starting an exercise program. It is important to check that you work at a level that is safe and appropriate for you. You can keep track of your exercise workout with heart rate monitor.

If you just check the heart rate monitor, it will tell the need to increase the intensity of workout or to back off the intensity. You want to work out at 60-75% of your total capacity. You cannot check it out while working on a stationary bike.

Whenever you visit the doctor, he always says to cut down on red meat, eat more whole grains etc.

How many are bothered to sit down and plan a healthy recipe that tastes good and nutritious?

Nobody is bothered and even your doctor do not have the time to outline what to eat.

Here are some of the healthy recipes which can be prepared easily. You have to buy fresh vegetables and prepare for yourself. You can leisurely chop the vegetables and mix ingredients while enjoying the music.

Healthy recipe 1: Irish oatmeal

¼ cup Irish oats, 1 cup soy milk, 1 teaspoon vanilla, 1 table spoon maple syrup. Spray pan with butter spray and put on medium heat. Toast the oats until they smell nutty and brown slightly.

Meanwhile heat the milk in saucepan. When milk begins to boil add the oats and all remaining ingredients. Lower the heat to simmer and cook thirty minutes.

Healthy recipe 2: Mediterranean couscous

1 cup whole wheat couscous, 1 cup cooked chicken or soy strips, ¼ bag mixed vegetables, 1 tsp Mrs. Dash original blend and ½ can low sodium diced tomatoes.

Your sixties can be time of excitement or depression.

The choice is yours. If you want to start and maintain physical fitness, you can start now also making your sixties exciting.

If you neglect your physical fitness, it leads to depression (Managing depression).

Don’t forget to take tests to maintain physical fitness:

Blood pressure: Get you blood pressure checked often after age fifty
Dental check up: Have dental check up once in a year. Tooth decay can lead to heart disease.
Diabetes: Get a blood sugar test. You are at increased risk if you have blood pressure, high cholesterol, obesity or family history of diabetes.
Colon and rectal exam: Colon and rectal exam to check for cancerous growths.
Eye test: Eyes to be examined for every two years.
Prostate exam: Prostate test should be done starting from the age of fifty.
Mammogram: Mammography should be done as often as doctor recommends.

This looks like a long list but to maintain physical fitness these tests are necessary. These tests should be done from the age of fifty. Now the frequency of tests is increased at this age.

Is your appetite lower than it used to be? Do foods taste less tempting than they are used to?

There is a reason that is your metabolism is slowing down. Metabolism slows down a little even if you are exercising at this age.

If you don’t exercise, your metabolism dives into gutter. It means even if you eat little you gain weight. How unfair is that? Yes, but it is fact.

Your taste buds become less sharp than they used to be. Your sense of smell declines a bit as well. Taste and smell affect how much you enjoy your food. If you are on medicines, it also alters the food taste.

Prepare a healthy eating plan to get enough nutrients. Healthy eating plan includes wide range of foods. If you eat low quality food or eat the same food daily, you will be in danger of developing a nutrition deficit.

To get around this problem, healthy eating plan should be prepared and followed.

Healthy eating plan:

• Try food from different cultures. This makes you to expose to wide range of foods and broadens your mind. This also includes total amount calorie consumption throughout the day.

If you are beginning the fitness workout at the age of sixty, you have to concentrate on long and slow exercise sessions.

The range of workout should be kept between 60-65% until you become conditioned.

Before starting fitness workout or before increasing the intensity of workout, talk to your doctor.

It is better to exercise slowly and increasing the intensity gradually than to over-do it and never coming back.

Your aging can change the importance of fitness workout. You have to exercise six days a week. As you are retired, this is your new job. Like your old job, your new job is to exercise regularly whether you wanted it or not. If that old lion is trying to drag you away to devour, you have to use the stick called exercise to beat him back.

There are three types of fitness workout: cardiovascular workout, balance or core workout, and strength training.

Cardiovascular fitness workout:

Avoid exercises which stress your joints. If you have never exercised, stick with brisk walking, stationary bike, water aerobics, low impact aerobics [Types of aerobics] and treadmill.

Sixty is the age of forgetful minds and wandering thoughts.

Without following senior exercise program, you may be facing problems like arthritis, bad knees, and spinal stenosis.

But there are doctors and nutritional specialists who advise you on senior exercise and diet that can help you live a better, longer and happier life.

If you are not following senior exercise plan, you often have more aches and pains if you some how escaped from arthritis and osteoporosis. Your sleep may be reduced at this age, your sense of taste may be changing and you are probably on prescription medications.

You are not younger any more but at the same time it does not mean you have to lose your mobility and go senile.

When you are sedentary and hit sixties, the last thing you prefer is exercising and diet. You may think that it is too late to start senior exercise.

Unfortunately, if you do not start senior exercise, you have to suffer in the near future. If you start senior exercise, your body becomes flexible and the majority of old age problems do not come near you.

The key to healthy lifestyle is preventing problems before they occur.

Healthy lifestyle includes eating right, exercise and controlling weight.

Staying healthy with healthy lifestyle means to pinch problems that do come up.

Healthy lifestyle at fifty includes tests you have to add to your list to find whether you are suffering from any disease [Exercise program after fifty].

Osteoporosis: This is the age osteoporosis starts. If your bone density is less, focus on strength training and balance exercises.

Colon cancer: Get a colon and rectal exam. Make sure that there is not anything growing in there.

Diabetes: This problem is perfectly manageable and reversible with proper diet and exercise.

Prostate cancer: Prostate screening is important at this age. The sooner you start dealing with any problem; you have better chances of staying healthy.

If you follow healthy lifestyle, you can live long. For that you have to eat right and exercise.

Your kids are gone and you may or may not be living alone. Make friends to stay healthy. Join a fitness workout group. It can be aerobics classes, swim club, biking group or a sports club.