10 Easy Ways to Eat Smart and Be Healthy After Age 50, For Mature Women Only

Have you been caught up in the "eat everything on your plate, super-size it, junk food junkie, carbonated drinks, chocolate covered, giant size, all you can eat, french fries are vegetables, have another piece of pie, cake, cheesecake, ice cream cake and another helping of gravy, mac and cheese or pizza" lifestyle that has been the norm for years now?

We know better, don't we?

We know it is nearly impossible to change habits that we have practised for years and have loved from the beginning, don't we?

Yes, yes and yes. Me, too.

I have been fighting that battle for three years now. After three years (The first year I was sick for just about the whole year, the next year I only went to the doctor about every three or four months, instead of every week, or several times a week.) I feel better than I have felt in twenty years.

Yes, that long. Three years ago I had a good doctor tell me "You need to take care of this now, if you don't want to die."

That's all he said. I took him at his word and started working on my health problems that day. Here are ten things I believe have helped me get control of my diet.

1. Do Not "go on a diet." That is a sure way to get bored, tired and disgusted with your food because you will not like it; so you will substitute food that is wrong, or you will just give up and binge periodically. You cannot stick to a "diet" for life because you are human like the rest of us and food is a big part of living a happy life.


2. Set up your nutrition plan to go along with your exercise plan. If you can do it, keep a journal of what you eat every day and what exercises you do every day. Diet and exercise are both so important to us that they need careful attention, especially after age fifty.


3. If you have excess fat on your body anywhere from your chin down through your trunk to your knees; you will want to give that top priority for elimination. It is Not simply ugly fat that keeps your slim body from looking good and makes you self conscious in most of your clothes. Excess fat (any fat that covers up your muscles, especially abdominal muscles) on your trunk is a dangerous risk to your health, especially after age fifty.


4. If you do have excess fat, the only solution to get rid of it is a combination of an exercise program designed to target the fat, plus a nutritious diet of unprocessed natural foods, both of which must promote production of certain hormones and a higher metabolism rate in your body. Studies have proven that a comination of diet and regular exercise are necessary to get rid of the fat and keep it off.


5. Do not abandon your diet and exercise plans after a few months and slip back into old habits that caused problems in the first place. You need to change your lifestyle permanently to remove risk of disease and to preserve your self confidence.


6. Start with one thing you need to change in your diet and deal with that. Then go to the next thing that needs working on. If you change too many of your eating habits at once you may develop stomach and bowel problems. Determine what you need to do and decide that the changes you make will be permanent. It will not be easy but you will see improvement in a very short time.


7. Liquids is an area that deserves close scrutiny. Decide how much water you need to drink in one day and make a note in your journal to keep track of how much water you drink so you can adjust the amount as necessary. Note any drinks or juices you have and how much sugar they contain. Include coffee on your list and note whether it is decaffeinated or regular and how many cups you drink each day. These notes will be a valuable reference if you hit a plateau in your dieting plan and need help deciding what you should do about it.


8. If you have been taking over-the-counter vitamins and supplements you may need to adjust your dosage when you are about half way into changing your diet. If you have talked with your doctor about what vitamins and supplements you need to take, you will need to let him know about your diet and get advice from him about dosage as your diet changes.


9. As soon as you can, begin to eliminate processed foods from your diet. Look at your consumption of cakes, cookies, snack foods, frozen meals, breakfast cereals, breads, processed meats like hot dogs, cold cuts and sausage. Also, look at the canned foods you buy to see how much sugar, salt and other additives are in the food. Make a list in your journal of how much processed food you eat each day for future reference.


10. At every opportunity add fresh vegetables, fruits and whole grains and nuts into your diet. Think carrots, beets, squash, tomatoes, apples, bananas, pineapple, citrus, whole grain bread and rolls, unprocessed almonds, walnuts, and other nuts (peanuts are not nuts). Keep a record in your journal for future reference.

Start today. Look at what you are eating and decide whether you need to pick something else.

After age fifty, we cannot afford to neglect our diet. We need all of the natural nutritious foods we can get.

We need to eliminate a lot of salt, sugar, fat and preservatives so our bodies will not have to spend energy to process these things.

Nutrition is the most important consideration when we are trying to live a healthy, good life and enjoy the things we have worked so long to get.

The bottom line is that giving up foods we should not eat is not hard, the hard part is giving them up permanently, which is what we have to do.

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