Are you aging well?
Are you aging well? A long time ago I worked in a pharmacy and many of my patients were senior citizens. They often told me “Oh dear! You don’t want to get old!” to which I always replied, “Yes I do. The alternative isn’t very good!”
Aging isn’t appealing and in a society that seems to value looking young over wisdom and experience we try to hide our aging in many ways. (BTW, I stopped colouring my hair!) The reality is, we can’t stop aging. Don’t let the anti-aging commercials for expensive products trick you into thinking that you can. We can’t stop aging but we can choose how we age.
Our choices include the food we eat, how much we move, how long we sleep, what thoughts we put into our heads, and how much stress we allow in and out of our lives.
A healthy lifestyle before old age helps us to age well. Proper nutrition, enough sleep, and exercise on a regular basis are for our senior health what RRSPs are for our retirement income, an investment.
The earlier we start investing the better the benefits. But it’s never too late to adopt healthy lifestyle habits. Habits are hard to form but if you keep at it you’ll get into the habit. Do you ever have to force yourself to brush your teeth before bed? No! Because your parents, probably, instilled that habit in you when you were young and now it’s routine, you don’t even have to think about it, you just do it. Many other good habits can become as regular as brushing your teeth. You just have to repeat them often enough until you do them naturally.
Eating nutritious food, exercising, and even positive thinking can be learned and incorporated into your lifestyle slowly and steadily until they become…a habit, a part of your daily and weekly life.
I’m not saying it’s easy. I’m saying it’s possible, if you want it to be! If you put in the effort. It’s an investment you can choose to make now in order to live better later.
To find out more about what you should be doing to age well, join me and Dr. Vivien Brown on Tuesday, September 17, at 6:30 PM. Dr. Brown will be talking about her book “A Woman’s Guide to Healthy Aging – Seven essential ways to keep you vital, happy and strong”. You can learn more and register here.
Dr. Vivien Brown is a family physician in Toronto, a well-known national and international speaker, and author of A Woman’s Guide to Healthy Aging – Seven essential ways to keep you vital, happy and strong. Dr. Brown is past President of the Federation of Medical Women of Canada, Former Chair of the Consumer Education Committee for the North American Menopause Society, board member of the Women’s Brain Health Initiative, and Health Choices First.
Let’s break the menopause taboo. Let’s talk about menopause.
Teresa Isabel Dias is a pharmacist and Certified Menopause Practitioner (NCMP) who provides education and support on symptom management for women at work and at home so they’ll feel like themselves again and enjoy a vibrant and productive life.
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