When you’re retired, letting your heart health slip can be easy, you may not have time to make healthy food choices, or you might not have the energy to exercise as much as you used to. But if you want to live a long and healthy life, you must take care of yourself. In this article, we will discuss how you can ensure that your heart stays healthy during retirement.
Exercise
Improving your health and fitness is one of the best ways to improve your heart health, lose weight and help sleep better. It’s also a great way to reduce stress, making it easier to manage chronic conditions such as diabetes or high blood pressure.
Exercise has been shown to reduce depression and anxiety and increase self-esteem and confidence. These benefits are essential for maintaining good mental health in retirement communities.
Eat Healthily
A heart-healthy lifestyle includes eating a healthy diet and getting regular physical activity. The food you should consume more are:
- Eat more fruits and vegetables, such as leafy greens, tomatoes, and other red/orange/yellow vegetables.
- Oats: Oats are high in fiber and protein, which helps lower cholesterol levels and blood pressure. They also contain antioxidants that can help reduce inflammation and improve your immune system.
- Fish: Fish contains omega-3 fatty acids, which help reduce inflammation. Omega-6 fatty acids help reduce blood pressure, cholesterol, and triglycerides. Salmon is exceptionally high in omega-3 fatty acids and very low in mercury.
The food you should consume less are:
- Consume fewer red types of meat (beef, pork) or processed meats (hot dogs).
- Avoid trans fats in foods such as margarine, vegetable shortening stick margarine; some types of cookies; cakes; crackers; snack foods like potato chips & nachos; frozen dinners, including TV dinners or pizza with a crust made from enriched flour instead of whole wheat flour; crackers made with partially hydrogenated oils that contain trans fats.
- Fried foods (e.g., French fries).
- High-fat dairy products, such as whole milk and cheese made from full-fat milk. Choose fat-free or low-fat dairy; yogurt that contains no more than 5 grams of fat per serving; and cheeses with less than 15% milk fat by weight.
Spend Time With Friends
You should spend time with friends as socializing is good for your health, as it can help lower your blood pressure and cholesterol levels and reduce your risk of heart disease. It can also increase your serotonin levels, a hormone that helps regulate mood. There are many fun group outing ideas for active senior communities you can enjoy with your group of friends.
Give Up Bad Habits
It’s no secret that how you live daily can affect your overall health. In retirement communities, certain habits are particularly damaging to heart health. These include smoking, excessive drinking, excessive sugar consumption, stress, and lack of sleep.
To give up these unhealthy habits permanently:
- Refuse to start any type of new habit (including drinking alcohol) if it will have a negative effect on your overall health and well-being.
- If you already have an existing habit (e.g., smoking), don’t stick with it just because it’s been a constant part of your life for years or decades; instead, make a conscious effort to break free from those bad habits to improve yourself as an individual going forward into the future!
Live a Heart-Healthy Lifestyle Today
If you are interested in living a heart-healthy lifestyle, there are many things you can do to make it easier. Retirement communities are one of the most important aspects of living well. It’s easy to get into a routine that isn’t conducive to a healthy heart, and it’s easy to fall out of that routine. For more information on our retirement community, contact us today!
