Rally’s made a list: 10 simple habits that might help you age a little healthier, starting today. Pick and choose what fits your life. Some take five minutes. One involves standing on one foot at the bathroom sink. But they’re all very doable for most of us older adults. How many of these are you already doing? Don’t sit this one out—oh, and there’s a tip for that, too!
EPISODE TRANSCRIPT
Hello, Beautiful People. Hey, welcome to the Silver Beast Podcast. I’m Rally Preston, 71 years old here. Hope you’re doing fantastic.
Today I’ve got 10 simple things you can start doing right away that might make your life a little bit better. Well, at least healthwise.
Look, I’m sure most of us here are baby boomers. So, it wouldn’t hurt us to pick up a healthy new habit or two. That’s why I started this podcast – I wanted to learn more about how to age healthier. So I started looking into it, and then, you know, I blab about it here.
So I’ve got 10 things here, all very simple ideas I’ve run across, that might help us. So just pick and choose what makes sense to you.
Alright, let’s get into them, and no particular order here.
Number one. Add five minutes of brisk walking every day.
So there was this big study that tracked over 100,000 adults, and they all wore activity trackers. The researchers wanted to know what a few extra minutes of brisk walking might do. So they crunched the numbers, and it came out to a 6% lower risk of dying – at least for those folks who didn’t exercise much. And double that to 10 minutes, and the low-activity group had a 9% lower risk.
So the point here is the people moving the least, to begin with, needed just a 5- or 10-minute daily brisk walk to do better. And a brisk walk just means you’re breathing a little harder. So there you go, idea number one: get at least a brisk 5-minute walk in every day – you might live longer.
Alright, number two. Sit thirty minutes less every day.
Now this one was from that same study – the 5-minute brisk walk one. Sitting for a half hour less every day showed up as a plus too. Even for people who already exercise. We sit too much, right? So just make it a point to get off the couch or away from your desk – wherever you plant your butt most days, and move around more. Just try to shave at least 30 minutes off your usual sitting time every day. So when you realize you’ve been sitting for a spell, as my granny used to say — just get up and walk around a little bit. That’s it, very simple.
Alright, number three. Lift something twice a week.
Ok, this one is a little more work, yeah, but worth the effort. We lose muscle as we age. But if you can just do a little resistance training, like with light dumbbells, or resistance bands, whatever you’ve got, you’re going to keep those muscles stronger longer. And you still need those to carry groceries, climb stairs, carry a grandkid – whatever it is. And bodyweight exercises work here too, push-ups and so on. Chair stands too; just sit down and stand up for, you know, 10 reps or so. Wall push-ups work. Just see if you can get 20 minutes of some kind of resistance training at least a couple of times a week.
Alright, number four. Practice your balance.
Taking a tumble can be a disaster for us. So let’s get ahead of that and get our balance back in shape. Here’s a great way to do this: Stand on one foot while you brush your teeth. Stay, stay near the counter. Hold on to it with the other hand if you need to. Keep one leg off the floor for like 30 seconds, then switch legs. Now that may sound easy; flamingos do it all the time, but it’s a little harder for us. But just try it – makes brushing your teeth more fun, well, challenging, anyway. And of course there are other things you can do to help your balance. You can take something like Tai chi. Tai chi is great. It’s slow. Gentle. Easy on the joints. You can take a class or just follow along with a YouTube video at home. Keeping your balance is so important – try to work on that.
Alright, number five. Keep the same bedtime and wake time.
Your body loves a schedule. If you can keep your sleep schedule consistent, you know, within an hour of the same time every morning and night, it’s a great anchor for your health. Your body runs on a circadian rhythm – your 24-hour internal clock. So the closer you can get to that natural rhythm, the better off you’ll be – heartwise, your metabolism, immune system, cortisol level, hunger, body temperature – just a whole bunch of stuff runs on that cycle. Plus, a set sleep time and wake time gives you a better chance of a deep, restful night’s sleep, and that fixes a lot of things too. So if you haven’t mastered this yet, just figure out a consistent sleep schedule and stick to it. So simple, but it could make a huge difference.
Alright, number six. Eat protein at every meal.
Now many of us do something like toast and coffee in the morning, a light lunch, and then a huge dinner. But muscle tissue really prefers to get its protein spread out throughout the day. So for protein, try eggs in the morning. Greek yogurt, maybe. Chicken maybe at lunch. And then more plant-based proteins like beans, ideally at dinner. Whatever you choose – but the real point here is to spread out your protein intake over the whole day. It’s harder to get the protein we eat into our muscles as we age. If you wait to get most of it at dinner, the protein your muscles can’t handle will either be burned off, or it gets converted into fat and stored. Alright, that’s enough there.
Number seven. Good friends, and a reason to get up.
Now this tip gets overlooked a lot, but it’s solid advice. Close relationships are linked to longer, healthier lives. Many studies have documented that. And it’s so important to have a purpose in life. Now, for us retirees, when we were working, we got both, right? We had work relationships, made friends, and of course we had a purpose, at least 9 to 5.
So if you’re not working now, you still need both: companionship and a reason to get up every morning. So there’s lots you can do here. Call a sibling once a week. Have lunch sometimes with your friends, golf buddies, pickleball pals – whoever they are. And if you don’t have many of those, try volunteering at some community organization a couple of times a week – there’s so many groups that would love your help. Volunteering is a great opportunity to make friends, and of course, have a purpose you can be really proud of.
Alright, number eight. Check your blood pressure at home.
You know, high blood pressure may not have any symptoms. You feel okay until you don’t. It’s one of those. So a home blood pressure monitor is a good investment, just to get a sense of, you know, how you’re doing without a doctor’s appointment. The basic ones aren’t that expensive – maybe 30, 35 bucks or so. Just follow the directions, or you can watch a video on YouTube. Take your blood pressure, ideally, about the same time every day. Do it for several weeks. Jot down each reading in a little notebook or something, day by day. If it’s consistently elevated, let your doctor know that. And of course, if it’s crazy high most of the time, that’s when you need to get medical treatment right away – do not ignore that.
Number nine. Eyes and ears – get them checked.
Okay, this one, most people ignore. Me included. But I’m gonna quit putting it off, and I hope you finally get yours checked too. I mean, they’re the simplest thing – vision and hearing checkups. Quick and painless. And I do know both typically fade slowly. So we wind up doing our own adjusting. You know, turn up the TV. Buy cheap readers at Costco. That’s a little crazy to keep doing that – and I’m talking to myself here. So let’s get these checked — when your eyesight’s not so great, that raises your risk of a fall. Would you rather get a hip replacement, or your eyes checked? Yeah, that’s an easy choice, right? And hearing loss, you just kind of back away from conversations — especially, you know, the low-volume ones. And of course, that’s not good. Disengaging like that. Eye exam every year or two. Hearing test too. We need to do those.
Alright, last tip here, number ten. Drink water.
Now, as we age, our thirst weakens. So you can be running dry and not even know it. Until you feel tired all of a sudden. Or dizzy. Or foggy — brain fog. Then we blame our age. Getting older. But hey, not so fast – maybe all we need is hydration, just some water. So sip it all day. A glass with each meal. A glass with every pill you take. Just keep a bottle handy so you can see it. And soup, tea, and melons count too. But if your doctor limits your fluids for some reason, listen to your doctor. But for the rest of us, we need to drink more water.
Okay. That’s it. Ten little tips. I hope a few of them stick with you. They’re all solid, proven things you can do. And look, we’re all getting older, so we might as well make it as healthy as we can, right?
Alright, this is Rally Preston. Thanks so much for hanging out with me today. Now go be a beast, and I’ll see you next time on the Silver Beast Podcast. Take care!