How Can Your Senior Get Fitter Today?

Fitness involves a lot more than just having big muscles. And at this stage of your senior’s life, it’s entirely possible that some small changes will do a lot more for her overall fitness level than some of the bigger changes she might be thinking of trying. Hire in-home care providers to help her follow a plan,

Here are some ideas to get her started.

Get with Her Doctor about Health Issues

In-Home Care Ridgewood NJ - How Can Your Senior Get Fitter Today?

In-Home Care Ridgewood NJ – How Can Your Senior Get Fitter Today?

It’s so tempting to want to ignore chronic health issues, especially if they’re ones that your elderly family member can’t cure. But ignoring them doesn’t help anything. What it can do instead is make your senior’s health worse. With that in mind, she needs to make sure she gets with her doctor and verifies that she’s doing everything that she can do to keep her existing health issues under the best control possible.

Up Her Water Intake and Ditch Excess Salt and Sugar

Odds are really high that your senior isn’t drinking enough water. If she doesn’t know how much water she’s getting, it might be a good idea to start tracking intake. There are a lot of apps that gamify things like water intake. Your senior can also track water intake in other apps, like the one that goes along with a fitness tracker, if she’s wearing one. Getting at least 48 ounces of water a day is a good starting point.

Most people eat too much excess sugar and salt, partly because these ingredients are used a lot in pre-packaged convenience foods. Reducing her intake of both can have some big health benefits for your elderly family member. If she’s finding that to be difficult, in-home care providers might be able to help by cooking healthy meals and snacks for your senior.

Eat Smaller Meals More Often that an In-Home Care Aides Prepares

It might also be a good idea for your elderly family member to consider eating smaller meals more often. This can help her to avoid feeling stuffed later in the day and can keep her blood sugar even throughout the day. Again, in-home care providers can help to make sure your senior has plenty of healthy variety and they can remind her to eat.

Make Sure She’s Sleeping and Resting

Sleep and rest are two different things and it’s possible that your senior isn’t getting enough of either. As she ages, it can take longer and require more energy to do all the things she’s done before during the day. Having help from in-home care providers allows your elderly family member to rest a bit more often and exert herself less. That means she has more energy for things that she wants to do. She may also be less exhausted in general, which can oddly enough interfere with sleep quality.

These changes might not seem to be big ones, but they can make a difference in your aging family member’s overall fitness levels, even before adding exercise into the mix. Your senior should talk to her doctor about whether exercise is right for her before adding that to her routine, too.

If you or a senior family member are considering hiring In-Home Care Services in Ridgewood NJ, please contact the caring staff at Caring Solutions Home Care LLC. In-home senior care servicing Bergen & Passaic Counties. Call today at (973) 427-3553.

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Pamela DelColle, RN, CCRN