Four Important Tips for Helping Your Senior Be More Active

If you’ve been trying to figure out how to help your senior to be more active, you might just need to lead with the benefits. Here are some of the ideas to work into your conversation. Always make sure you talk to her doctor about whether exercise is safe for her.

 

Home Health Care in Westfield IN: Getting Senior More Active

Home Health Care in Westfield IN: Getting Senior More ActiveN: Getting Senior More Active

 

Defining “More Active” Is Important

What does it mean for your senior to be “more active”? Believe it or not, she doesn’t have to start training for a marathon in order for her increasing activity to count. Even just walking around more at home can really help her quite a bit, especially if her mobility is an issue or she’s been avoiding exercise for a long time. Her doctor can help her to determine what, “more active,” needs to be for her right now at her current health levels.

 

Food Is Fuel

What your elderly family member eats is vitally important to whether she’s going to be able to increase her activity levels or not. Empty calories, meaning foods that have little to no nutritive value, give her calories but nothing else, really. Processed foods and convenience foods are often full of sugar and salt, both of which can be dangerous for your senior. Start gradually swapping out these foods for more whole foods, including fruits, vegetables, and proteins that fuel her body much more effectively.

 

Better Sleep Means More Activity Which Means Better Sleep

Sleep and movement are intrinsically tied together. The more your elderly family member moves during the day, the better she’ll sleep at night. This helps her body to recharge and gives her more energy during the day. With that energy boost, she’ll find that exercise becomes easier and easier to handle. It all works together.

 

All the Pieces Make up a Whole

These different aspects of what moving more can do for your senior all fit together to give her so much more than she might expect. She can start to have more time and energy for the activities that she loves, simply by moving more, eating better, and getting better sleep. It’s all a part of the larger whole. She may find that increasing her activity levels as well as using other tools, like assistance from elderly care providers, makes aging in place that much easier and more manageable.

 

Your senior can experience so many different benefits from starting to exercise and move more often. Even though she might not feel like getting more active at first, as she starts to see and to feel more of the good side effects, the whole thing gets so much easier.

 

If you or an aging loved-one are considering hiring Home Health Care in Westfield, IN, please call the caring staff at Home Services Unlimited. Serving Greater Indianapolis Area. Call for Immediate Info & Assistance: (317) 471-0760

Etelka Froymovich, RN, MHA
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