Health and fitness in 4 steps for women over 40…

After I turned 40 I slowly started gaining weight, same food and lifestyle but my body started showing change. Who so ever I spoke to about this, their response was about same… that after 40 most women tend to put on weight. And I accepted that cause it was easy…age’s fault not mine :). Soon I started accepting few more pounds and that became new normal for me. And let me tell you it did not end there, every year I increased by 5 pounds, hence in 3 years after turning 40 I was 15 pounds heavier. When I realized that how consistently my weight is increasing I got concerned. I started researching about the changes and how to best handle that. And I can not say that I was surprised to find that I should not have gained weight if I addressed the topic as it started. But I rather took the easy route and got to 15 pounds heavier.

As we age, our body changes. Some of these changes we cannot control but we can make this transition easier for ourselves with good lifestyle choices and paying attention to nutrition. If you are young and do not exercise or pay attention on what you eat, you may not see any repercussions immediately. But with age, our metabolism slows down and we have to make extra effort to ensure we eat right and exercise. Let me tell you that you can control your health at any age. Provided you listen to changes in your body and modify your routines.

Here are the changes I made in my lifestyle…

1. Sleep: I never thought I needed more than 5 hours of sleep each night but I started feeling more tardy in recent years. Simple fix for this was to ensure I am getting at least 6-7 hours of sleep. 8 hours is ideal if you can make that happen but so far I have been able to get to 6-7 hrs. only.
2. Vitamins:  As we age our body, bones, muscles everything goes through changes. Also understand for most people at age 40 is when the life is busiest, cause you have kids to look after. Older parents may be to take care. Your own body changing that you need to take and work. It is extremely important to understand where you are in your life and health journey and provide additional boost that can help you body. Vitamins/supplements are great source here. I worked with my doctor, got my vitals tested to identify deficiencies and we agreed on specific vitamins. Here are vitamins I am taking:
   1. Multi-vitamins
   2. Vitamin B12 ( Absolutely must of Vegetarians):
   3. Vitamin D
   4. Vitamin C
   5. Collagen
   6. Probiotic
3. Next important element is Exercise: At least 30 mins of workout, it can be strength training/Cardio/Hot yoga etc. Idea is to raise your heart run enough that it goes into fat burning mode. You can add additional 20 mins walk or jog if you have sedentary job. And make sure you don’t fool yourself by saying I run around whole day I don’t need exercise. All the physical chores we do mostly add strain to our body and hence can not be considered a workout. Workout needs to be intentional, again paying attention to your body and identify which workout works best for you.
4. And finally it is all about what you eat. Food: We all know whole foods are best for us, but at the same time we all want to indulge occasionally. That is the key word “occasionally”, if we can limit sugary/fatty food only for occasions there is nothing wrong. You can follow 90/10 rule, where you are eating healthy and wholesome food 90% of the time, and 10% you can have ice creams/fried stuff. Example of wholesome food are Whole/Multi grain bread/ Brown rice, fresh fruits and vegetables, lean protein, good fats like avocado and nuts.

In the future blog posts I will dwell more into each of these sections in details… Thanks XOXO.

 

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