A healthy retiree is a happy retiree. Here’s what you can do now to improve your health in retirement.
Although most middle-aged people say that after retirement, they hope to be physically active, a great many follow a lifestyle that almost certainly sabotages that goal.
Think about the life you envision after you retire. Now, level with yourself. Will you be physically able to live that life? If you are significantly heavier and less fit than you were five, ten or even 20 years ago, that downward trend will very likely continue unless you make a determined effort to change it.
If you are less healthy and fit than you should be, put more energy into improving your health than into growing your investment portfolio. It’s extremely difficult to feel good about life if your health is poor, no matter how much money you have.
Immediate Ways to Improve Your Health
There’s certainly no shortage of health advice. Fish oil! Tryptophan! Melatonin! The truth is, we don’t need quick fixes; we already know the key ways to stay healthy, and none of them requires odd chemicals or esoteric vitamins.
Here are a few basic, medically sound strategies for improving your odds of living to retirement age and enjoying it once you get there.
Stop Smoking. As you already well know, smoking often brings on potentially life-shortening and life-degrading health problems, including cancer, emphysema, heart disease and ulcers. Kicking the habit will very likely have a more positive influence on a smoker’s retirement years than any other single act.
Control Blood Pressure. After stopping smoking, the most important single thing you can do to improve your long-term health is avoid high blood pressure. According to statistics, by age 60, 60% of us have blood pressure so high that it should be medically treated, and many more with elevated blood pressure are at substantial increased risk of heart attack and stroke (including the strokes that can cause senility).
Clean Up Your Diet. Eat lots of fruits, vegetables and whole grains, and cut back on fatty, salty and calorie-laden foods.
Get an Annual Physical. Forty years ago, an annual physical exam rarely did much good, because tests couldn’t spot more than a few serious health problems early enough to help. That’s no longer true. Some important checks: cholesterol tests, colon examinations, mammograms, pap smears (to detect cervical cancer) and prostate exams.
The Exercise Connection
When she was 88, the great actress Helen Hayes remarked: “If you rest, you rust.” Regular exercise, especially if it provides both an aerobic workout and builds muscles, bestows a wide range of significant benefits: weight control, improved cardiovascular health, and stress reduction. Exercise also wards off mild depression and greatly improves strength; people who exercise into old age are far less likely to become frail or suffer from osteoporosis (a disease in which bones become porous, fracture easily and heal slowly). Exercise makes us feel better, look better and can even enhance our sexuality.
Finding Time to Exercise
If you are convinced that you can’t reduce your work and family responsibilities enough to begin a meaningful exercise program, here are some suggestions:
- Work less. In order to work less, cut your spending or, if you enjoy a modest financial surplus, trade it for extra time. You may not be able to save as much for retirement, but if you use the time to exercise more or develop other interests, it’s a smart choice.
- Turn off the television. If you spend more than a few hours a week in front of the TV, you already have available all the time you need to exercise.
- Join an exercise facility near work and go during your lunch hour.
- Share child care with other parents.
- Cut down on commute time.
Remember that a healthy retirement doesn’t just happen. It needs to be planned for in exactly the same way you would plan for your financial health. Start now, its never to early, and enjoy those golden years. After all whats the point in travelling this fantastic country of ours if you cant see everything when your out there.