How to stay Fit and Healthy to Enjoy the Golden Years

Living the Golden Years Healthy and Independent

It has been said that young men have visions and old men have dreams. That's precisely the way your life should be. As a young person, you want to pursue goals you created and these typically designate a certain time stamp in your life. As a senior, age 65 and older, you want to enjoy your golden years ahead and look back on the good times lived in the past. The factors that directly impact how much you enjoy your golden years include:

Creating Happy Moments
Financial Stability
Physical Exercise
Mental Exercise
Safety
Healthy Nutritional Eating

People born between the years of 1946 and 1964 are considered Baby Boomers. The countries noted for having a large increase of baby births after World War II includes the United States, Australia, and Canada. In the United States alone, there were 79 million babies born during the Baby Boom years. While Baby Boomers are known to be independent and hard workers, they have to consider a few things to remain healthy, content, and independent.

The golden years should be very happy years. Think on what makes you smile. Spending time with friends and family usually makes people smile. Looking at old photos can make you laugh. Create happy moments and take lots of pictures. Take vacations. You may want to consider traveling the world or going fishing often. You could also choose to give back in life by teaching, volunteering in the community, or counseling. Whatever you do, make sure it is something non-stressful and fulfilling as a person.

When it comes to being happy, too many people equate happiness with being rich or well off. While that may be true for some people, the fact is having money can make life much easier and less stressful in some aspects. The older generation living their golden years should not spend most of their time worried about finances. Good planning in your youth years should yield financial stability in the golden years. First, decide what financial goals you want in life. Then decide what steps need to be taken to accomplish those goals.

A common way to create financial stability in the future is to save money. Some people put aside a percentage of their choosing, like 5% or 10%, and save it either in a bank or cash under the mattress. If saving in the bank, hopefully the savings is building good interest on top of the total monies in the account.

Another way to try and build your income is to invest in CDs, bonds, or stock market. Although, these are not guarantees of large returns, in many cases, it is better than putting your money under a mattress. You can also look into buying and selling homes. This is a high-risk type investment, but for those who do well in it, it can yield a faster return on your money.

A must for all ages is to control your spending. It does not matter how much or how little income you earn. If you are spending too much of your check, you will always live check-to-check. In other words, do not live above your means. If you have discretionary income after putting some aside for savings, spend it wisely. Be frugal if necessary.

Plan for your retirement while you are young. If you are working for an employer that offers 401K, set up an account. Sometimes employers offer to match up to 6% or a different specified percentage to employees participating in 401K. In this case, you should do the maximum investment that your employer will match. It is free money. Whichever the case, do not wait until you are next to your golden years to consider what to invest. Other investment opportunities are offered through insurance businesses. These companies may offer annuity accounts, life insurance, or Roth IRA. Take the time to do a little research as to what is available to you and which investment makes sense for you at the present time.

Also, eliminate debt as much as possible. Do not spend your life living off credit cards. Debt creates stress that most people want to do without. Eliminating debt, gaining more income, or even just saving more money will increase your net worth.

Staying in shape and remaining active is important to our physical ability. Exercise gives you added energy and stamina. Walking is great exercise. There is also swimming, bike riding, hiking, dancing, yoga and much more. Pick any physical activity that you enjoy and can endure without discomfort. Engaging in exercise routines that you like will help motivate you to go back and do it again.

In addition, we also need to exercise our minds for overall health and well-being. According to the World Health Organization, the main mental health issues older adults face are mood disorders, anxiety, and cognitive impairment. Staying involved with family and friends can provide social and emotional support to reduce the risks of mental aging. Another way to keep your mind healthy is to play mentally challenging games such as memory games. Keeping your mind active is key to staying young.

Safety can sometimes be overlooked when it comes to growing older. While knowing people have different needs, there are a few safety points to keep in mind for our group of baby boomers. They are safer in their homes if the home is modified to suit their needs. Sometimes wheelchair accessibility is a necessity. Others may need new flooring installed so they do not easily slip and fall. Perhaps more phones around the house in case of emergency. If the person has memory issues, keep a list of important names and numbers next to the phones.

Eating healthy is key to enjoying your entire life. Healthy food yields a healthy body. Make sure you are eating protein, good starches, and healthy fats. Look into eating super foods. These are foods that are packed with nutrients such as avocados, kale, rainbow chard, parsley, black eye peas, dates, and quinoa. There are so many options to choose. Healthy foods will give your body a natural lasting energy and overall help you feel good. Better eating habits do not mean diet as most people feel it is. Eating healthy should be a lifestyle. Diets focus on weight loss. They come and go like fashion and do not focus on the health of the body. When an individual can eat for health, the body starts to function as it should and many times the unnecessary weight naturally comes off.

Nutritional meals and exercise in combination help lower bad elements in the body and increase and maintain the good elements. If you are unable to obtain this good health with food alone, you can look at supplementing your meals with vitamins, like Tim Grosvenor, a 69-year-old baby boomer. Grosvenor was low on energy, had history of back pain and was diagnosed with coeliac disease. Needless to say, Grosvenor began taking MAX, a supplemental vitamin, and has been for 10 years now. He does not suffer from these issues any longer.

Read Tim Grosvenor's story of how he became more active with help from Max nutritional supplements.

The key to remaining Active in the Golden Years is good nutrition and a little regular exercise.

What Baby Boomers Need to Know about Glutathione and Anti-Aging

You've certainly heard of the importance of antioxidants in preventing the signs of aging. Scientists first began to understand the role of free radicals play in the aging process in the 1950s. When free radicals attack the cells of the body, the cells are damaged, and this damage reveals itself slowly as a person ages. Antioxidants such as vitamin C have the ability to neutralize free radicals and heal the damaged cells.

Researchers have in the last few decades discovered an extremely powerful antioxidant called glutathione. It consists of three different amino acids, and it is essential for the metabolism of cells. The liver naturally produces glutathione, and it is found in every cell of the body. Glutathione protects cells from the oxidative stress produced by free radicals, and it is needed for the immune system to function. It also has strong detoxification properties.

Glutathione is absolutely necessary for nutrients and other antioxidants to support the body. It keeps us from getting sick, and it protects the mitochondria that fuel our cells with energy. Glutathione also performs the essential task of cleansing the body of toxins. In our present world, full of pollution and dangerous chemicals, this is more important than ever.

While glutathione is indeed made naturally by the body, the levels of this antioxidant begin to decrease around age 20. From approximately then on, the body's glutathione levels decline 8 to 12 percent a decade. This means that at age 50, a person will have only 60 to 70 percent of the glutathione they had as a teenager. No wonder we feel less active and strong as we age.

You probably know that vitamins can help you when you feel like you are getting sick, or when you're exhausted or stressed. However, did you know that glutathione protects and heals your cells from damage more powerfully than any other antioxidant?

According to recent research, decreasing glutathione levels may be directly responsible for heightened cancer risk, fatigue, general poor health, memory loss, and many of the other afflictions we take for granted as we age today.

Increasing the glutathione in your body strengthens the immune system, reduces inflammation between the cells, cleanses the body of toxins, and slows aging. For baby boomers that want more energy, better health and a more youthful appearance, this sounds like great news.

Unfortunately, the tri-peptide structure of glutathione is too delicate to survive digestion, so oral glutathione supplements are not effective. Glutathione provided intravenously is only somewhat effective. The real key to increasing the body's glutathione levels is to increase the body's ability to produce and store glutathione all by itself.

Baby Boombers Need to Know about Glutathione

The body creates glutathione naturally from the amino acids in foods. In general, raw foods provide these building blocks of life better than cooked foods. Foods like tomatoes, spinach, broccoli, avocados, and asparagus are some of the strongest glutathione-boosting foods. That's why they are often called "superfoods."

All fresh fruits and vegetables provide necessary ingredients for glutathione production, and are therefore good for your health. Kale, cauliflower, Brussels sprouts, and cabbage are also particularly effective. They contain antioxidants that can fight illnesses like cancer, and they may also help weight loss. These foods also contain other vitamins and fiber.

Spices like garlic and turmeric, as well as fresh unprocessed meat and raw eggs provide the amino acids needed to produce glutathione. Un-denatured whey protein is a good source of amino acids. Avoiding food and drinks high in sugar, including concentrated fruit juices, and exercising regularly are other ways to stay healthy as you age. Nevertheless, eating healthy foods will result in only minor glutathione increases, as verified by clinical trials.

There is another solution: nutritional supplements that increase the body's ability to produce glutathione. While eating well and exercising remain important, glutathione enhancing supplements will significantly boost your health so you can enjoy an active life and look younger than your actual years.