# 1: Your Metabolism Is Slower: It's Harder to lose weight, so your already at a disadvantage. When your body is older, it's susceptible to this so your best bet is to beat it by becoming healthier. This means eating a whole food diet (anything that comes from the ground), eating your proteins whether that be meat based or plant based, decreasing carbohydrates (except for vegetables which are carbs), decreasing sugar and bad fats and exercising at least 30 minutes or more at least 3 times a week.
#2: You are susceptible to getting the diseases that you are genetically inclined towards so you need to stop the vicious cycle before it creeps up on you. The best way to not be another statistic, is to get a jump on getting healthier before you get the disease. This will decrease your risk significantly. For example, my mother has heart disease so I know I have to keep my heart as strong as possible. This means not having foods with a lot of saturated fat and exercising more than the average person. One way to help track this is by using your Apple I-Watch. I'm really adapting to this quite easily and to the point where I am enjoying looking at my report every day with the food tracker and exercise and sleep trackers. It's very motivating! I work in a doctor's office and some of the people I see in there, are my exact age and yet they are using a cane and they are on many medications to alleviate pain, etc. If you can keep yourself in good condition, you can stay away from the vicious cycle of being on various medications. There are too many side effects that will decrease your health as well.
#3: Your organs may be dirty and may need to be cleansed from decades of not eating so well. A good detox diet is a great idea and can be done during the Winter months while you have more time especially during those snowy days. Intermittent fasting is a great strategy to use for resting your organs especially your liver which processes your hormones, your sugar balancing, etc. Think of your organs always working so hard every time you put something into your mouth. They need a vacation every now and then too! Your organs will work more efficiently when you don't use them and they can help repair tissues when not in use as well. Insulin resistance is a great example to use. That's when your liver cannot process insulin in the balanced way that it should because of overuse. Think about it! While you are on vacation drinking and eating whatever you want, your poor liver is working overtime to keep you feeling well. Give it a break! It's your body, appreciate it -- it does a lot of work for you!
#4: Whether you're a man or a woman, your hormones change. After age 45, there is less HGH being produced, which helps with metabolism and looking younger. There are receptors that turn on and off with regards to hormones and running the body efficiently. In women, the appetite suppressing hormones decrease and the hunger hormones increase so why wait until you start having these symptoms. Nip it in the bud! By changing your eating habits for the better, you can combat this by incorporating vegetables and decreasing sugars that can exacerbate the problem.
#5: A sedentary life can kill you. You need to exercise more than you used to and it needs to be more cardio then weight training. For most people over 45 years old, there may be some controversy over this, but in my opinion, cardio workouts should be planned into your cross training routine for more than 30 minutes, at least 3X a week or more consistently. Your I Watch can help you with this. Weight training only needs to be about twice a week for a woman and three times a week for a man. If you have a desk job where you are sitting for at least 6 hours or more, the routine needs to be tweaked a little more than what I just mentioned. So in a 7 day week, a typical workout week should be: Sunday, Tuesday, Thursday, either bike, treadmill, elliptical, rowing machine or stair machine, 45 to an hour if you are overweight. Monday and Wednesday can be your weight training days and Saturday is your rest day or yoga. Also, put a little hill on your treadmill and track your heart rate with your I Watch. You should stay between Zone 2 and 3 for heart health.
#6: Your Sleep Pattern Changes when you get older. My specialty is Sleep and there is a lot of information out there on Sleep but basically, it's not about how many hours of sleep you get, it's how deep your sleep is and how many times you can attain it. I have been tracking my Sleep on my I Watch and I can tell you, I've had some days where I only got four and a half hours of sleep but when I saw that my deep sleep was in the first half of my night, I wasn't beating myself up over only getting four hours. So try tracking your sleep because it's well worth getting the evidence in front of you. I'm learning a lot myself. Sleep needs to be a top priority when you are getting older because if you have a deficit in sleep, you will feel it. You won't be able to function well and you'll have memory issues, among other things. So get your ZZZZs. If you are having trouble, please let me know. We can talk about it.
Overall, your health needs to be a priority if you are over 45 years old. Now is the time to work on becoming healthier before dis-ease sets in. It's crunch time, folks. So get your ducks in order and make your health and your body a priority. Self Care is all about you and you need to take the first step towards it!