Weight Loss Tips for Seniors
Written by Sky Taylor, Diet Bites
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The Ageing Senior & Weight Loss
Volumes of books have been written to assist the ageing human in dealing with all the woes and ills of growing old. We look forward to getting to the stage early-on in life. To a time where we can just sit back and enjoy the rewards of hard work.
That's becoming more difficult to do in today's world and the state of the American economy. Things are so bad for some seniors that they wonder where their next meal is coming from, and they are in such poor health that they are unable to work.
That's the thing about growing old; we all age differently.
Some time back, I was at the market with my mother who was 71 years old and in very poor health.
Her body frame was in such a sad shape that it was difficult for her to walk; I had pleaded with her to get into one of the automated carts, but she stubbornly refused saying that she would be embarrassed 'driving one of those things'. So here we went, her pushing the grocery cart so that she could lean on it as she drug herself along and me looking frustrated and not knowing what else I could do to help the situation.
Nonetheless, we had managed to get everything that she was out of in her medicine cabinet as well as in her kitchen fridge and pantry, and we went to the check out line. There was this tiny lady standing behind me and she told me that I should treasure the precious moments that I was spending with my mother. She said that she used to go with her mom shopping, before she had passed.
We talked a bit more and the lady was so nice; I thought that she was about my age. Then she suddenly asked me how old my mother was and I told her she was 71; the lady responded, 'she's my age'. I could have been knocked over with a feather and frankly, it was very sad to see that my mother was in such poor health.
Simply put, we do not all age alike. We age based on things we have went through, our gene pool effect, the climate in which we live as well as certain illnesses that we may have caught along life's highway that impacted our health.
When my mother was just a small child, the traveling doctor diagnosed her with yellow jaundice. She was never quite the same after that. Whether the doctor was accurate in his diagnoses is still questionable, but the fact was - my mom never really recovered.
And as she grew older, her body frame became broken and she required the use of a cane. If she had needed to find a job and work for a living, it would have been an impossibility.
With this said, we can control our health in our golden years to a minimal level. The following tips can assist:
- Try to maintain your recommended weight; if you are overweight, then make it your goal to lose.
- If you smoke or drink, give it up for better health. Even one drink per day can cause liver disease in women.
- If you take medication drugs, do you really need them? Are you too anxious to grab an over the counter medication for pain? They do not come without risks to our health.
- Dental health is so important as we age, as are those annual check-ups. Be sure to get yours.
- Embrace a healthy diet containing three solid meals per day patterned after the American Food Pyramid; also enjoy two healthy snacks.
- Opt for reduced fat dairy products and keep dietary fat content minimal. Watch your sodium and sugar intakes as well.
- While you might not be able to run the back-forty, if you can walk then aim to do such each and every day.
While the gene pool mandates much of what we end up with amid our golden years, we can still make lemonade out of lemons at times.
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