When it comes to health, everyone should be taking good care of themselves. Still, this gets even more important when we talk about getting older. As women, we generally don’t like to think about it, but changing our habits can make us age really well… or it can just as likely cause us to age poorly. Unfortunately, it’s true. Bad health habits can make us look much older than we actually are. Not only that, but they can also deteriorate our quality of life, too. If you want to stay healthy and fit at all stages of your life, then here are some tips to help you take better care of yourself today.
Watch What You’re Eating and Drinking
Maintaining a healthy and balanced diet is one of the best things you can do for your body. For instance, your nutrients have to be distributed in proportion to each other. This means that carbohydrates should account for 55-60% of your total intake per day, fats should make up 25-30%, and proteins should be 12-15%. Also, don’t forget to hydrate, as many of us are chronically dehydrated and don’t even know it. You’ll want to drink between one to two liters of water per day. You can hydrate yourself with soups, tea, or fruit juice. In turn, your body will feel better, and you can ward off illness and disease much easier, too.
Engage in Regular Exercise
If you don’t ever engage in routine exercise, then now is the time to start doing it. If you have a sedentary lifestyle, it can be a major risk factor for a variety of different diseases. These can range from hypertension (high blood pressure) and diabetes, to the more dangerous ones, such as heart disease and even cancer. However, you can take steps to prevent this by staying active and doing daily exercise, whether it’s running, jogging, or playing a sport. It’s up to you to decide how you want to get your recommended 150 minutes of fitness in!
Keep Your Medicine Organized
As you get older, it’s common to develop diseases like diabetes or hypertension, but it doesn’t mean that they’re inevitable. There are ways you can try to avoid them, like having a healthy diet and staying active. Even so, though, you can develop them for other reasons, such as genetics. If you have multiple conditions to manage, then you need to keep your meds organized and up to date. You don’t have any excuses for not taking your meds! Even better, some services offer a discount prescriptions card if it’s financially difficult for you to afford them.
Stop Smoking
You probably know this already, but smoking increases the risk not only of lung cancer, but it can also lead to a host of other diseases. These can include heart disease, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD), diabetes, and an elevated risk of a stroke. If you have been smoking for years, stopping can be tough – but it’s also incredibly important. Yes, smoking affects you directly, but it also affects the people around you. One of the main risks is due to secondhand smoke, but nobody likes to witness someone they care about getting sick. By quitting, however, your lung capacity can greatly improve and put you back on the path to better health.
Do Your Health Checkups
Even if going to the doctor is not one of the most pleasurable things ever, it’s still very necessary for your wellbeing. At your appointment, your healthcare provider can find any number of possible diseases before you even start to show symptoms. If they diagnose you early, then you have a better outcome in the long run, especially since some diseases only get worse over time. Preventive health care has been making its way in the last few years, and this is not only about going to the physician regularly. Preventive health care is also getting educated on possible risk factors, and if you can change them, how to do it.
In the case of us women, there are some health checkups that it’s just better not to miss. For instance, we generally have a higher risk of developing breast cancer, so you can never be too sure. In short, try to take good care of yourself. Maybe you don’t even consider yourself mature – and that’s perfectly fine! Even if you’re young at heart, it’s better to develop these habits now. That way, if you ever do need to take charge of your health, you already have a good foundation of healthy habits to build upon.
Getting a cold is one of the most irritating and frustrating things that can happen, yet it’s something that most of us experience at least once a year. When your nose is stuffy, your head is foggy, and your throat is scratchy, it can feel like you’re a lost cause. No amount of paracetamol, ibuprofen, and VapoRub seems to save you from the dreaded effects of the common virus.
