Staying Alive After 65 – Tips to Live the Life you Want During Retirement

Are you a caregiver of someone who is over 65 (or over 65 yourself)? Many of you are caring for parents or grandparents and are looking for ways to help them stay healthy as they age. My dad, who recently retired, has some great tips to help you stay healthy and active after the age of 65. We want to send a big thank you to Anthem Blue Cross who sponsored this post and allowed us to share these tips with you.

Getting out of bed in the morning isn’t just a challenge for teenagers; it’s a problem that many older people face – particularly when you finally opt out of the full-time job market and struggle to adjust to retirement.

When you are working 40 to 50 hours a week on your day job, looking forward to sleeping in on weekends, or relaxing on the beach, or pursuing other forms of restful, low energy options may rank high on your list of post-retirement fantasies. Nevertheless, when you finally are able to indulge in such activities on a full-time basis, you may discover that they are less satisfying than you once imagined.

You may find that full-time slothful living, like gorging on candy or ice cream, soon loses its appeal. After a week, month, or other extended period of sleeping in, getting up at noon, having a leisurely brunch, and maybe settling down for an afternoon of watching TV, you may finally discover that this is not how you really want to spend the remainder of your life.

Worse yet, you may soon begin to suspect that such a lifestyle is eroding your prospects for enjoying a happy, productive final chapter in your earthly existence.

So, what to do?

The first daily challenge you face, without the pressure to get up to go to work, is how to extract yourself from your warm, comfortable bed and prepare yourself to pursue more healthful and rewarding activities. Promptings from your spouse or other household members may not work, particularly if he, she, or they are on the same leisurely schedule as you are.

The solution: get a dog — one that insists on taking a morning walk (or is possibly inclined to deposit a little present on your carpet if you fail to get up and out in time).

The benefits of walking are well-known. Regular walks will help you lower your blood pressure, maintain a healthy weight, improve your energy levels, improve your balance and mobility, and help prevent a variety of inflammation-related diseases (including diabetes, heart disease, stroke, cancer, and dementia).

A 30-60 minute walk in the morning will not only make your dog happy but will help you live a healthier, happier, more productive life.

Beyond simply helping you get up and moving in the morning (or in the evening as well), adopting a dog will provide you with a faithful companion, one that will help you deal with stress, loneliness, or bouts of depression. (Cats provide similar benefits but are less useful in encouraging you to take daily walks.)

So, if you are struggling to get out of bed in the morning so you can pursue your retirement dreams in a more healthy, productive manner, you might want to consider adopting a dog – one that will tug on you, whine at you, and maybe even bark a time or two until you finally rouse yourself from your nice warm bed and take him (or her) for a healthy, life-preserving walk.

That is step one. Step two involves making sure you get high-quality medical care and stay on top of regular checkups and follow-up visits.

Anthem Blue Cross  is currently expanding its 2019 Medicare Advantage offerings with the additional services that address social and support services.

This new package of benefits provides some fantastic wellness services including:

• In-home support
• Adult day center visits
• Pain management
• Home-delivered meals after returning from the hospital
• Access to exercise programs
• Health-related transportation

Aging comes with some challenges but by taking care of your own health with consistent exercise and by staying on top of your healthcare needs, your retirement years can be some of the best years of your life. Having the options of great wellness services, such as the ones offered through Anthem Blue Cross helps older individuals better manage chronic conditions, avoid preventable health-related incidents, and live the life they want to be living.

Anthem’s Medicare Advantage plans are always working to improve and develop innovative solutions that simplify healthcare for individuals at every stage of life. With the new year, I encourage you to look for ways that you can improve your health and quality of life, whether you are a caregiver or learning a new normal with your retirement years.

This is a sponsored post written by me on behalf of Anthem Blue Cross.