With age, the tendency to eat healthy, exercise and remain fit reduces. Elderly individuals are hard to motivate as they might feel that this is the time to rest and enjoy their days rather than restricting themselves to diet food and getting off the couch to exercise. In reality though, this is time when they need to focus more on their body and mind. So if you are having trouble with getting an elderly individual in your house to stay fit, here are some ways in which you can motivate him/her.
Don’t hand a book, rather talk
No one likes being thrust with a book on the face about how to stay fit. Your best approach would be to first start a casual conversation about how much you care for your health and if there is anything that you could do to help them. This would, in most cases, break the ice and you can then proceed to casually encouraging them to start eating healthy or exercising,
Encourage them to take routine screenings
The chances of being affected by a variety of health conditions like osteoporosis, arthritis and breast/colon and prostate cancer increase with age. Hence, it is considered essential to go for routine screenings in order to spot problems as early as possible.
Elderly individuals may not be that pleased to go to a doctor’s office quite often as they fear that routine visits mean they have a serious health problems. In this case, you can opt to slowly talk them into it, and probably accompany them as well. Another better way to do this would be to go for a health screening yourself so that they know nothing bad would come out of it, and follow you.
Have an eye on the pantry
One of the mains reasons elderly individuals choose to eat unhealthy foods is because they don’t have the patience to cook healthy alternatives. Your initiative in this case would be to gently explain to them about the benefits of healthy eating. You would also need to show them how easy it is to cook healthy foods by cooking some of them yourself.
When buying groceries, encourage them to go for organic food products and leave out the less healthy varieties. You can also urge them to grow their own food at home, or else, grow it for them. Last but not the least; you can lead by example by eating healthy yourself. This way, they can watch and learn.
Combing healthy living with some pleasure
If you have a hard time convincing your parents to exercise, consider getting your children in on the act. Your parents can never say no to their grandchildren. Instruct your kids to ask their grandparents to take them to the zoo or a picnic that requires quite some walking and running. Your parents would hardly realize they are exercising as well as they run around with your kids.
Motivate them in the way they like
Health club memberships are considered great gifts today. But your parents would hardly consider them worth anything. So do it their way. Record some of their favorite old songs onto an iPod and ask them to wear it when walking. In addition to relaxing their mind, this would help them enjoy their walk rather than dread it.
Start small and then move onto bigger things
Instead of asking them to jump into a complete workout routine (it would probably scare them away for life), consider starting with a small step like walking minutes every day. They can even do this on the front lawn. As time passes, increase this duration to 10, 15, 20 minutes and so on. With time, you can also start introducing other forms of exercises into this routine, including jogging. This way, their bodies would be able to cope easily with the routine.
It may be really hard for you to get the elderly individuals in your house to lead a healthy lifestyle. Fortunately, there are many ways in which you can do this without actually forcing the in any way. From checking their food pantry, teaching them to cook healthy meals and exercising to leading by example, there are so many ways your parents can adopt a healthy lifestyle.