Quality of Life

I’d like to live to 120. These are the things I do everyday, or try to do, to live a long healthy and happy life.

Start every day with a glass of water.
We can get dehydrated when we sleep and don’t drink for hours on end. Instead of going straight for the coffee have a glass of water first.

Get 8 hours of sleep a night.
If that means going to bed earlier or getting out of bed later, do it.

10 squats.
As we age our ability to sit down and get back up gets worse because we lose hip mobility. Squat to a low chair and then get back up 10 times or if you don’t need a chair try and go as low as you can and then back up, do 10.

Gratitude Journal.
Life’s tough and sometimes we forget to be grateful. A gratitude journal works as a good way to help us reflect on our day and focus on the positives.

Lean Meat or lean protein.
As we age we tend to eat less meat and start eating more carbohydrates and fat. We also typically become less active. The combination of these leads to us losing muscle mass as we age which is associated with a decrease in quality of life. Eating lean protein helps us keep our muscle.

Fruits & Veggies, eat them. Vitamins and minerals that our body needs to operate and work optimally are in fruits and veggies, if we don’t eat enough our body won’t work as well.

Lift a weight even if it’s your body.
Working out with weights can be intimidating. However lifting weights makes our bones more dense and stronger. Reducing our chance of fractures and falls. You can have all the vitamin D and calcium you need to build strong bones but the body isn’t going to use it to build strong bones unless you tell it to. Lifting weights and doing body weight exercise tells the body to make stronger bones.

Meditate. We get in our own way a lot, meditation can help with that. Download the Headspace App, it has a free edition. Then use it.