Being in your fifties can be a wonderful time in your life. You’ve raised your family and can now enjoy your grandkids, you’re established in your career (and can start thinking about retirement if you’re lucky) and you generally have more time and money than you have in earlier years of your life. Here are some of the ways you can live a healthy and happy existence.
Find activities you enjoy
When you’re young and spritely it’s all about pushing yourself- slogging it out at the gym, feeling the burn and pushing your limits. But the same isn’t true as you get a little older, and actually it’s important to know what your limits are especially if you have any medical issues. Injuries can be sustained a little easier and pushing yourself too hard can cause more harm than good. However, it’s so important to stay physically active, you just need to find the right exercises for you. Walking, swimming and biking are all good options as they are low impact but sculpt the body while burning calories and building cardiovascular fitness. Activities like gardening can also be useful, this can give your body a great workout without it really feeling like exercise. Sports are great and can be a way for you to get social, you could meet with a friend once a week to play something like golf, tennis, badminton or squash.
Stay social
Speaking of being social, this is an important element of wellbeing not to overlook. As humans, we’re social creatures and loneliness has a massive impact. It can be a little more difficult when your kids have left home or you’re retired or semi-retired as you’re simply not around people as much each day. So make the effort to meet up with people, throw dinner parties for friends and family, invite them over or arrange to do things. If you’ve lost contact with many of your friends, consider joining a meetup or friends app where you can attend events in the local area which are designed for others in the same boat.
Attend all of your appointments
It’s no secret that as we age, more things start to go wrong with our bodies. So keeping on top of our health is important, and this means attending checkups and appointments before things go wrong. From eye tests to the dentist to cancer screenings and anything else you’re invited to, be sure to go along. Cancer screenings are usually based on your age and gender, they look for early changes as this is the stage where the disease is at its most treatable. Left until symptoms occur and it can be too late, ending with the illness and hospice care. So be proactive, if you’re invited for a pap smear, a mammogram or any other kind of screening test based on your risks then be sure to take it up.
What are your favorite activities to stay healthy?
