By Julie E 
Photo Credit ( Pixabay )
Growing older doesn’t always mean slowing down. Physical youth isn’t the only thing that makes you young. People our age often don’t think they need to take care of their physical health. However, as we age, we understand how important it is to stay active in order to stay healthy and fit. To age well, you have to choose to do it. According to the Journal of Aging Research, being active lowers the chances of dying too soon. Plus, as you age, being more busy makes you more likely to live longer. But tasks shouldn’t be the only thing you think about.
How to Stay Young After 60
You are the age you think you are. Some people in their mid-30s feel like they’re sixty years old already. Getting enough sleep, eating right, and exercising are all important parts of staying young as you age. Living a better life will be harder if any of these things are out of whack. You may be wondering how you can feel younger and stay busy if you are over sixty. Talk to your doctor first. It can be hard to start being physically active, especially if you don’t do it very often. Planning a routine is important, but knowing what your body can do is even more important. If you want to be healthy, it doesn’t help to hurt yourself. After sixty, here are some important things you can do to stay healthy and fit:
- Stay at a healthy weight
As you age, your body may naturally want to eat more carbs and artificial sugars. Limiting how much you eat is the only way to stay at a healthy weight. The body mass index chart makes it easy to find a “healthy weight.” This guide gives you a rough idea of how much you should weigh based on your height. Keeping a good weight is very important. Our bodies can only hold so much weight as they age. Every extra pound of fat that you have on your body makes it harder to move and support yourself. This stress on your heart and muscles goes away when you lose weight, making you feel healthy and less confined. You can stay at a healthy weight and keep your heart and lungs from having to work too hard if you keep track of what you eat. Most assisted living facilities in Boynton Beach serve well-balanced meals to keep their residents healthy and fit.
- Work out regularly
An exercise plan could be as easy as going for a walk every morning for an hour. At some point, you’ll move on from walking to running. Still, it has to be a serious effort to stay fit. Too many times, people start walking or running but stop because they get busy with other things. If you walk or run every day, you can improve your circulation and keep your muscles from getting weak from not using them. You might need to plan when you can walk or run if you’re older and don’t do much. Plan to go at least a few times during the week, even if you can’t make it every day. You can set up a place to work out inside if the weather doesn’t let you do it outside. As time goes on, you’ll start to push yourself, which will make you stronger.
- Give up drinking and smoking
Smoking and drinking are habits that last a lifetime. As you get older, though, there’s no reason to keep using these drugs. From 2004 to now, the Surgeon General has written about how many toxins are in cigarette smoke. People who drink too much alcohol can also get health problems, from cancer to cirrhosis of the liver. All of these things can make things harder as you age. One more thing that smoking does is make it harder to breathe. You’ll never be able to reach your ideal fitness level if you smoke and work out a lot. Once you turn sixty, giving up smoking and drinking should be very important to you. When you get older, you need to think about your health in a different way. Your body isn’t as young as it used to be. If you smoke and drink, you might look older than you really are.
- Get enough rest
Once you hit sixty, sleep becomes even more important for keeping your body running smoothly. It’s not just how much sleep you get either. It has to do with how well you sleep. Being able to sleep well means getting enough rest at night. As people age, they usually get eight to ten hours of sleep, but the quality of their sleep gets worse. They feel like they need more all the time and are bored when they’re awake. It takes some trial and error to find the best time and amount of sleep. That being said, you will feel much better about the world once you figure out what helps you sleep the best. An assisted living home in Boynton Beach can be a great place to rest and get a good night’s sleep.
- Think things through
We lose some of our brain abilities as we age if we don’t use them. Crosswords and other brain games can help people keep their minds sharp. It might take a little longer if you’re still working or learning a new skill, but your brain will still be working. Aging is sometimes just the body getting older, but it can also mean the mind losing its smarts. Talking about things with someone else or just telling them what you know keeps your brain very sharp. The more intelligent something is, the better it is for keeping your mind sharp. Playing board games like Chess or Bingo can help because they fire up the parts of your brain that help you see patterns and plan strategies.
- Take it easy and heal
After sixty years old, you’ll start to understand that you need more time to unwind. That doesn’t say anything about how well your body can handle the outside world. What it really means is that you know you will need time to get better. You may find that you need to come off the field a bit more often if you play sports. You might even need to take more breaks every day. Both relaxing and getting better are important for staying healthy. When you push your body or mind too far, they will break down. The problem is that it takes longer to get better after a breakdown at this age. Don’t stress out too much right now. Later, you’ll regret not taking a break.
Do not overdo it.
Think they’re younger than they are. This is one of the most common ways older people hurt their bodies. That being said, sometimes it’s just the people you hang out with. For a while, you might be able to keep up with people ten or twenty years younger than you. You could even do some things better than them. You should know that they are younger than you, though. Living in a neighborhood with people of the same age could help you stay young and busy as you get older. Athletes and thinkers of the same age can enjoy the same activities and fight on an even playing field. Courtyard Gardens and other places like it offer many ways to stay busy well into old age. You should use your body as long as it’s still alive. You can look forward to getting older if you stay fit and healthy.