Get Off the Couch, Be Active, and Live Well After 50
We’re Living Less Active Than Before
Boomers are aging and retiring, and they are less healthy than their parents as they do it. 39% of them are obese compared to 29% of their parents and only 13% are in “excellent health” compared to 32% of their parents.
This deterioration in health correlates to a deterioration in lifestyle and nutrition. 52% of Boomers report sedentary lifestyles with no physical activity. That statistic, like many other health-related statistics, compares unfavorably with their parents’ generation, with only 17.4% reporting sedentary lifestyles.
All this even as our medical knowledge and skill improve! But TVs and electronics are powerfully seductive. Connecting to the world from a device you hold in your hand is amazing and offers many benefits, but unless you’re a Pokemon Go fanatic, you don’t get lots of body movement while you’re making those connections. Too often while you’re sitting looking at a screen of any type or size, you’ll end up munching some kind of highly refined packaged food product.
The Problems With a Sedentary Lifestyle:
Contemporary research reports these links between sustained sitting and major health issues:
- The body’s calorie burning ability drops to 1 per minute and electrical activity in the leg muscles shut off the moment you sit down.
- Good cholesterol drops by 20% after just two hours of sitting down.
- Men and women who sit for more than 23 hours a week are 64% more likely to die from heart disease.
- A study from the University of Massachusetts finds that sitting for a full 24-hour period causes a 40 percent reduction in glucose uptake in insulin, which can eventually cause type 2 diabetes.
You work a lot of years to get to retirement, and you look forward to finally being able to do what you want to do with your time — but if more than half of you continue your sedentary habits when you retire from that sedentary job, more than half of you won’t be able to follow your passions in retirement.
Be Active! Here’s How You Can Live a Healthy Lifestyle:
So here are some pledges to make to yourself to be active and live a more healthy – and more fun – lifestyle!I will move my couch and the TV into a room with no other attractions and go into that room only to watch a specific show. Better yet, I can commit to core-strengthening exercises any time I’m in front of a TV.
- I will limit the amount of daylight hours I spend with electronics. Nighttime too, for that matter. In addition to the issues associated with sitting, those hours in front of electronic screens wreak havoc with eyes. Dry eye is no party. New reports cite increasing levels of eye irritation, dryness, fatigue and blurred vision. All that screen time can interfere with sleep patterns by suppressing the sleep hormone, melatonin.
- I will find something I love to do outside that doesn’t involve sitting — volunteering on a farm or at an animal sanctuary, fly-fishing, hiking, swimming, foraging, bird watching, camping, gardening…and I will commit to it regularly.
- I will take a walk every. single. day. I will know what the weather is because I feel it.
- I will find a three-minute exercise routine focused on strengthening my core. I will get up every hour when I’m sitting to go through that three-minute routine.
Live the Most Healthy Lifestyle Possible
Some scholars tell us that hunter-gatherers were taller and healthier than we are today. If they died at a younger age on average, it was only because their medicine was less advanced, and a minor medical event for us could kill them. We can enjoy the same great health of hunter-gatherers AND have the benefits of modern medicine.
With simple changes in lifestyle and eating habits, it’s not hard to be active. We can live longer and better than any generation before us. In retirement, we can do all those things we always wanted to do – those things that stir our passion.
For more information about how to become your best self and be active, please contact us.
David Michael Gilbertson is the founder and president of 3 Elements Lifestyle, LLC., a Fitness and Weight Loss company that specializes in YOU!. With more than 15 years of experience owning, operating and managing clubs of all sizes, David lectures, delivers seminars and gives workshops on the practical skills required to successfully help you with your health and fitness goals. David also helps you build the teamwork, management, and training necessary to open your own fitness center. For more information on Licensing and Consulting Services Visit his website at www.3elementslifestyle.com or email at daveg@3elementslifestyle.com or call (805) 499-3030.
