Growing older often means a heightened awareness of our bodies and common ailments that can occur more frequently. Issues such as incontinence, joint and muscle stiffness, or lack of balance become normal parts of our lives that we can minimize by pursuing a healthy, active lifestyle. Listening more closely to what your body is telling you, and incorporating some basic habits into your daily routine can greatly improve quality of life and possibly prevent some more serious health issues in the future.

Maintaining a healthy lifestyle as a senior is very important and can be implemented with a few simple changes. Proper senior care and senior health can not only improve your quality of living, but can also extend the length of your life. It keeps the mind and body fit, protects against and fights off disease, and keeps current ailments from growing worse.

Ways to maintain a healthy lifestyle includes staying active. Participate in fun, rigorous activities such as water aerobics, brisk walking, golf or tennis. With increased activity, it’s important to maintain a healthy diet as well. A complete daily vitamin is vital for supplementing your daily food intake. Make sure to eat well-balanced meals and in moderation. Taking in more calories per day than is burned could lead to obesity and other serious health ailments such as diabetes. Overall, you should remain active as you grow older and continue to eat foods that are full of nutritional value that also contain important vitamins and minerals to sustain a healthy, active body.

Common Senior Health Ailments

The natural aging process occurs both mentally and physically over the years, and it’s our job to make sure we are providing both our brain and our body with regular tune ups. Medical experts believe that there is a strong correlation between staying physically active and maintaining a sound mind. When the body constantly utilizes the mind to perform physical activities, the mind grows stronger and, as research has shown, can slow down the progress of mental diseases such as Alzheimer’s.

Although age undeniably takes its toll on the mind and body, there are numerous ways to prevent or even ease the progression of certain ailments. For instance, osteoporosis can be prevented early by getting daily recommended amounts of calcium and Vitamin D. Frequently participating in weight-bearing activities or exercise also helps to lessen the chances of developing osteoporosis. Diabetes can be prevented or delayed by increasing your level of physical activity and maintaining a healthy well-balanced diet. A healthy diet and regular exercise along with maintaining an active physical and social life has also been suggested to prevent or slow down Alzheimer’s. While these are only a few ailments many seniors face today and some potential preventative measures for each, preventative health care and treatment options are available for nearly all senior health concerns.

Advice for Living an Active Adult Lifestyle

Healthy adult lifestyles can often prevent health care issues from occurring or help seniors to improve their quality of life. Preventative senior care is vital to senior health and for keeping our body and minds fit as we grow older. Certain activities may thwart off illness, and will actually improve mental and physical functions. Here is a list of preventative healthcare activities for both the body and mind:

• Maintain a healthy diet – A healthy diet, rich in fiber, calcium, fruits and vegetables, is key in preventing or delaying most senior-related ailments. Providing your body and mind with necessary nutrients and vitamins is essential for senior health.
• Exercise – Regular, non-strenuous daily exercise keeps your heart, bones, and other vitals working as they should. Physical activity can prevent a variety of physical ailments including heart attacks, and can help build up bone mass (helpful in the prevention of osteoporosis). However, it also has a large range of mental benefits, and helps to improve brain function – which is important in thwarting the progression of Alzheimer’s.
• Leisure Activities – Leisure activities encompass anything that provides a relaxing environment combining a social, physical, and mental aspect. This improves areas in both the body and mind which has proven effective in preventing or slowing the progression of Alzheimer’s as well as many other senior health concerns.
• Exercise Your Mind – Exercise your mind on a daily basis by learning something new, playing games, participating in social activities, reading, and anything else that challenges your brain and offers an opportunity to expand your knowledge.

Preventative Senior Care

Generally, your family practitioner can help you decide where to go for certain diagnostic tests, or will perform the tests themselves. These tests may include anything from a bone density analysis to hearing tests to sleep studies. If you’re concerned about symptoms, see your doctor for advice on the correct path to take.

Tags: diet, fat, Health, Weight Loss

In order to lose weight you must take in fewer calories than you use. Many diets, like the Slim fast diet, follow this general principle — having a dieter eat less than they normally burn. Let’s take a look at the Slim fast diet to see just how effective it can be.

We won’t know whether this slim fast diet works until we understand the basic principles behind it. In essence it revolves around drinking a shake in place of two meals for the day. The dieter can eat a sensible dinner, and can also eat two pieces of fruit and the Slim fast nutrition bar as snacks. At 1200 calories each day this diet is about 500 down from an average female’s diet, and 1000 down from an average male’s diet. Add exercise and you’re sure to lose weight on this diet.

This Slim fast diet is easy to use, that’s important. If people can maintain a diet without much difficulty, they’re likely to be successful. another healthy aspect of the Slim fast diet is drinking a lot of water – 6 to 8 cups everyday.

One great problem with the Slim fast diet is that it is difficult to get needed vitamins, minerals and other nutrients necessary for healthy living. Slim fast shakes and bars are simply not complete as far as nutrition. Unfortunately, many people on this diet also cut out that real meal. They want to lose weight even faster. But that’s a very bad idea because it’s far too few calories, and multiplies the problem of missing certain nutrients.

There’s a modified version of the Slim fast diet which includes drinking only one shake each day, and eating two regular meals. many people tend to eat junk food at lunch, so replacing that meal with a shake is a good idea.

Like any diet, the Slim fast diet can work, but it must be followed with caution. Use common sense.

Tags: diet, fat, Health, Weight Loss

How many of us actually know just how beneficial fiber is to our diets? The answer is “not many.” Not only are we unaware of the benefits, but we are also unaware of the recommended daily dosage. Recent study shows that most people consume only 14 grams of fiber per day. The recommended dosage ranges anywhere from 21 to 38 grams. So what are some of the benefits of this particular compound and how can we incorporate more of it into our daily diets?

Changing a diet is a big change for most people. Going from the normal burger and fries to a turkey sandwich with salad or simply going from ice cream to a whole fruit for a snack can be a challenge. The reason it is so hard is because it has become part of your lifestyle. Something that is really easy to incorporate into your burn fat diet is foods with high amounts of fiber.

Dietary fiber provides the body many health benefits. Eat more fiber. Fiber is found in fruits, vegetables, whole grains and legumes. It is best known for its ability to prevent or relieve constipation; however, dietary fiber provides the body with other benefits such as:

1. Lowering your risk for diabetes

2. Lowering your risk for heart disease

Soluble fiber represents one half the team known commonly as fiber. Together with insoluble dietary fiber, it has many important functions. We’ll cover some of the benefits of soluble dietary fiber in this article, how it works in our body, the importance of good bowel bacteria in relation to it, and some surprising sources of insoluble fiber.

There are two primary types of fiber: soluble and insoluble. The latter passes from one end of the digestive tract to the other virtually unchanged. Cereals, vegetables, grains, and seeds are usually comprised of more insoluble fiber than soluble fiber.

Most people do not know about the advantages that high fiber foods offer, the ones who do, certainly add them in their daily eating. There are different types of high fiber foods available in the market according to the different lifestyles. For example, a person with a table job who has to sit all day long needs a low fiber meal while a person with a busy schedule and a tough and tiring job will need a high fiber food.

One of the many benefits of a high fiber diet is weight loss. Fiber expands in your stomach and takes up a greater volume; thus, it makes you feel fuller and less likely to consume excess food. High fiber foods, by nature, also tend to be less calorie dense. This means that they contain fewer calories in the same amount of food. Finally, weight loss is one of the many benefits of a high fiber diet because foods with fiber generally take longer to chew, which means that your body has more time to register that it is full.

Tags: diet, fat, Health, Weight Loss

Maintaining a healthy diet throughout life can do more than just keep you slim and fit. Healthy eating is important to senior health care and can sometimes prevent diseases such as heart disease and cancer, as well as provide relief for diseases such as osteoporosis. Unfortunately, the importance of eating well is often pushed aside by our busy day to day lives. We continue to jeopardize our future health and get caught up in the cycle of fast food, large portions and sodium laden meals. A healthy diet doesn’t have to be daunting on our schedules, or mean giving up all the food we love. A simple eating plan can actually make meals and snacks more efficient for both our time and our bodies.

While a healthy diet is important for an individual of any age, it is especially important for seniors and senior health care. Creating a healthy lifestyle while we are younger, and maintaining it as we grow older, can prevent many senior health care issues, and keep disease at bay. While many seniors rely on specialized senior services for their senior health care needs, it’s important to do all we can beforehand to maintain our health and practice preventative care. Below is a list of diseases and the foods that help to prevent or manage disease:

Osteoporosis

Our bones continue to grow until we reach our maximum bone density somewhere in our late twenties or early thirties. Slowly as we age our bones become less dense which can eventually lead to Osteoporosis. Building up our bone density while we are young is a sure prevention method, but there are a variety of foods that can help prevent or provide relief from the disease as well. These are:

• Foods rich in Vitamin D such as dairy products, oily fish, and liver are vital for bone production. Exposure to sunlight also produces Vitamin D. Calcium, in low fat milk and other dairy products, is equally important for healthy bones.
• Aside from nutrition, exercising regularly with low- or high-impact cardiovascular activities can force bones to strengthen. Many senior citizen communities and activity centers offer physical activity and exercise programs ideal for seniors.

Heart Disease

Coronary heart disease is a senior health care issue that can also be prevented through healthy lifestyle choices. Heredity, and poor diet are risk factors for heart disease, and a variety of basic nutrition solutions can prevent or help individuals manage the disease. These include:

• Removing saturated fats from your diet. Replace them with unsaturated fats such as skimmed milk, low fat cheese, and lean meat.
• Eat fruits and vegetables, and limit your total fat intake.
• Eat fish rich in omega-3 fatty acids such as mackerel or salmon, and grill any meat to remove the fat.
• Adding soy to your diet will reduce cholesterol, and also lower the risk of heart disease.
• Stay away from Trans fats found in fried foods and some baked goods.

Cancer

Research has shown that eating a healthy diet and practicing healthy lifestyle habits can prevent the onset of cancer. Risk factors for cancer include smoking, overweight, and excessive drinking. Though quitting smoking and drinking in moderation will help in the prevention of certain cancers, eating vitamin rich foods and avoiding others to maintain a healthy weight can also play a major role in senior health.

• Fruits and vegetables are vital to Cancer prevention and weight control. Eat a large variety every day.
• Avoid large amounts of red meat and processed meats.
• Wholegrain breads and other sources of fiber such as almonds are essential for weight control.
• Eat fish rich in omega-3 fatty acids as well as beans and legumes that are full of fiber, protein, complex carbohydrates and important minerals.

Eating well and maintaining physical activities don’t guarantee the prevention of disease, but contributes toward your physical and mental well-being. A variety of senior citizen services are available, such as senior nutritionists that can offer advice on healthy eating and exercise to improve or maintain senior health. Other healthy foods to build into your healthy lifestyle include:

• Whole Grains
• Almonds
• Beans and other legumes
• Avocados
• Olive oil
• Dark Chocolate
• Eggs

Tags: diet, fat, Health, Weight Loss

Everybody knows about the health risks of overeating. What some people don’t know is that emotional eating is the biggest factor in overeating. Without understanding emotional eating, losing weight is virtually impossible.
Overeating and emotional eating, however, have many hidden consequences. Below are five you should consider.

1. It Can Damage Your Relationships

Relationship stress is one of the most common triggers for overeaters. When there’s tension, or in the aftermath of a fight, food seems like a safe haven. Once in a while, this escape into flavor is normal.

However, the more accustomed you get to the relief, the sooner and more frequently you will turn to food when the going gets rough in a relationship. Instead of working through your differences in the living room with your spouse, friend, or family member, you will find yourself making a trip to the kitchen at the very first sign of tension. As time goes on, problems pile up in the relationship, tensions build, and tempers flair. The habit of turning to food for comfort gets so ingrained that you don’t learn the necessary skills of communicating, getting needs met and deepening intimacy. Over time your relationships don’t get better, you just get bigger.

2. You Neglect Your Ambitions

Many people overeat to relieve frustration with where their life is going. You might feel stuck or under-appreciated, and turn to food as a reward. When this habit gets out of hand, you will begin to neglect your ambitions. Instead of going out there and pursuing long-terms goals, you will more and more frequently turn to food for fulfillment.

One of our members, Susan, shared an interesting story with us on this point. She said that most of her life she wanted to be writer, but she always criticized herself for not being “good enough.” She felt stuck. Her ambitions felt out of reach and she began turning to food for comfort. After a while, she stopped writing all together and used food as a way to push down her disappointment. Instead of working on her craft she just gave up.

Luckily, Susan was able to break this pattern. She saw how emotional eating was interfering with any chance she had of reaching her goals. When she got her emotional eating under control she started to write again.

3. It Bottles Up Your Feelings

It’s obvious that emotional eating pushes down unpleasant feelings. In the moment, this seems like a great thing. “Wow, I get to eat and not feel like crap!” It feels win-win.

However, feelings need to be addressed. They demand to be addressed. You might be able to avoid them for a while, but the important ones will keep coming back in new, unpleasant ways. The more you overeat to deal with your emotions the more emotions pile up in the background, waiting to come out. And the bigger that pile gets, the more frightening it becomes.

4. It Makes Your Fears Seems Larger Than Life

Everyone has something they don’t want to think about. It could be a challenge waiting on the horizon, or a particular shortcoming you think you might have. Many emotional eaters use food as a way to handle these sorts of fears. Rather than address the fear with practical, no-nonsense solutions and steps, you retreat into food.

The emotional eating habit prevents you from facing your fears directly. This allows them to take on a whole life of their own. Rather than being a simple challenge or self-doubt, they begin to grow and grow until they seem impossible to face. When a fear feels so large, eating begins to feel even more alluring.

5. It Can Make It Hard to Love Yourself

Anyone that truly knows the pain and struggle of overeating knows how much baggage comes along with it. Much in the same way relapsing smokers and alcoholics beat themselves up and belittle themselves for their lack of control, emotional eaters feel like their struggle is a moral failing, something that’s wrong with them. Many describe themselves as “failures” or “losers.” Despite having achieved many great things in their life, the emotional eating habit determines how they feel about themselves. This negative self-image, of course, leads to more emotional eating. It’s a vicious cycle that steals your self-esteem.

Conclusion

Each of the examples above shows how emotional eating and overeating affect more than just your body and health. The problem becomes a self-sustaining cycle. While stuck in the cycle, it usually feels impossible to get out.

The good news is that escaping the cycle is possible, and that it’s even easier than it feels. The key is to start making small, positive changes. Instead of eating after a fight, go to your spouse and talk about it. Instead of feeling frustrated, find a small thing you can do to move closer to your goals. You won’t all of a sudden have a perfect relationship or achieve your dreams. However, these small steps begin to snowball, just like emotional eating, but in a positive direction. The more you make small, positive changes, the less you will eat, which will make you feel better, which will make you eat less, which will make you feel better, and so on.

The bottom line is that these sorts of consequences to emotional eating are real and difficult to bear. But, it’s possible to escape the cycle with the help of Shrink Yourself that offers an online program that will help you end emotional eating, binge eating & understand the psychology of compulsive overeating.

Tags: diet, fat, Health, Weight Loss

Did you know that human beings are the fattest animals on the planet? Most of us gain the extra pounds due to bad eating habits and inactivity. It is very important that we determine the source of our bad eating habit before we embark on a weight loss program. Some of us are emotional eaters where we eat to make ourselves feel better. Then there are some of us who gain excess weight due to inactivity. Here are some great feng shui tips that can help you loose weight.

Stress is one of the most common causes of excessive weight gain. When the body is stressed, it stores a big portion of the food consumed. Much of the food consumed will be store as fat in a belly and buttocks. A stress-free body digests food better, converting most of the food into energy rather that fat.

To counter stress, make sure that the flow of chi in your house is healthy. The main door should be airy and spacious. There should be no large pieces of furniture blocking the main door. Walkways and corridors should be uncluttered, and the windows of the house must be kept clean. Every morning let in sunlight into the home to renew the chi of the home.

A home with a good flow of chi is beneficial in ‘washing’ away your stress after a long day’s work. If your house is cluttered and dark, the stressful energy that you shed when you come home will accumulate and in time cause even more stress. A good flow of energy will help you renew and rejuvenate.

The next feng shui remedy is to combat inactivity. The living room, dining room, office, or study should be painted in light and vibrant colors. Such bright colors stimulate the energy of the room and emit vitality. It will help you to become more alert, and physically active which will in turn contribute to your weight loss. Having grayish and dark colors in these rooms will make you lazy and sluggish.

In feng shui, the kitchen is the most important part of the house when it comes to your health. The kitchen should be painted with bright colors, preferable in shades of red to symbolize fire. The fridge should be cleared of all junk. Keeping foods that have gone bad or expired is extremely bad feng shui. Many feng shui practitioners believe that the kitchen represents the digestive system of your body, so you have to keep it junk-free for good health.

Tags: diet, fat, Health, Weight Loss