I became interested in healthy ageing about six months ago when I realised that this was something both my husband and I stood for. Unwittingly we had adopted a healthy ageing lifestyle. As a result I now want to share it with others because it is undoubtedly making a difference in the quality of our lives.
So in this article I am going to share some of the elements which I believe are important parts of our lifestyle.
Let’s start with food. Both of us enjoy good food and good wine but we also realise that we need to balance this with healthy choices. So during the week our goal is to have a diet free of alcohol and other inflammatory ingredients like caffeine, gluten, dairy & sugar and eating more vegetables and complex carbohydrates like sweet potatoes and quinoa. We’ve been surprised at how well we feel eating like this. We have learnt that the key to good physical and mental health lies in having a healthy gut!
The next thing is exercise and we aim to take some kind of exercise every day whether it be a walk or gardening. It gets us out in the fresh air and it’s great, again, for our mental health. I also go to a gym class twice a week which I really enjoy.
We believe in lifelong learning and, yes, you can change your brain structure by what you feed your brain with. We read avidly including personal development books so that we can continue to grow as human beings. I am also studying French as well and I plan to do a photography course at some point.
It’s important to have a sense of purpose in our lives. We get that through running our business through which we can really have a positive impact on people’s lives. And we believe if there is something you love to do just go and do it!
Mindset is a huge part of all this and mixing with positive, like minded people of all ages is brilliant along with what we feed our minds with in terms of books and what we watch and listen to. I also have a daily habit of writing at least 5 things down of what I feel grateful for. Having an attitude of gratitude is known to have massive benefits.
And last but not least is having fun. Fun means different things to different people. For us it’s spending time in France, travelling to the US to see our family, days out in this country, all sorts. We are currently creating a list of 70 things we want to do over the 2.5 years that cover our 70th birthdays and have just started doing them! That’s fun!!
So there you go .. my take on healthy ageing. I hope it helps!
Ann Girling