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Middle-Aged Men’s Health: How to Get in Shape and Boost Energy

middle-aged men's health

As many men reach their middle-aged years during their 40s and 50s, they also realize that their “middles” begin to swell up a bit.

Whether it’s from a few too many beers, a lack of exercise, or just simply a slowing metabolism, these pounds and inches can creep in faster than many of us would like to admit.

And, there is no pleasant way to find out that you have begun to top the scales: Your pants don’t fit, the belt doesn’t buckle like it used to, or you go in for your annual physical and discover the numbers on the scale have crept up yet a few more pounds.

The good news, however, is there are ways to prevent the pounds from increasing and get yourself in the best shape of your life! This is all while boosting your energy and stamina.

In fact, the following are five great tips that will get you started on your road to the health and fitness you desire.

5 Tips to Improve Middle-Aged Men’s Health

Get A Physical

The first and most important part of any new physical regime is to get cleared by your doctor to ensure there are no underlying health issues that could put you at risk.

After your check up, you’ll have the confidence to move forward and start putting in the work!

Determine The Plan – Including Both Nutrition & Workouts 

As they say, weight loss is 80% in the kitchen and 20% in the gym.

That’s absolutely true.

While cutting calories is a solution, going to the gym and eating a diet you can reasonably stick with long-term is an even better one. Actually, there are many great programs that can offer guidance and support. Beachbody is recently rising to the top as one of the best.

Why?

Because it’s a reasonable plan that the average person can live with while also including support for both nutrition and workouts. The makers of this program realize that those elements go hand-in-hand to losing weight and being healthy.

Choose A Program That Fits Your Goals 

Select a program that aligns with your lifestyle and goals. Are you looking to lose 10 pounds or 100-200 pounds? Tone up? Lose fat?

It’s important to identify a workout program and, subsequently, a diet style that meets your specific needs and will help you reach your desired goals.

Beachbody has approved over 20+ workout programs at all different fitness levels. This assures that you’ll find something that works for you regardless of your current fitness level.

As your body gets stronger and in shape, you can simply advance to a more challenging level to continue pushing yourself to greater heights!

Make Your Expectations Reasonable

Aim to keep your expectations reasonable to stay the course.

For example, saying that you will go to the gym for 2 hours a day is unrealistic, especially if it’s been a while. You have work, family, and other life commitments to balance.

So, setting yourself up with something so unreasonable will set you up for failure, frustration, and discouragement.

Instead, select a Beachbody approved program, all of which have workouts lasting from 20 – 60 minutes and are usually done 3-6 times per week. This includes days for rest and recovery.

Many of these programs are doable in terms of effort and time. Have at it!

Learn to Control Your Portions

Many programs emphasize great, fancy workouts or extreme eating plans. Although this may work short-term, it’s not a sustainable way to live.

In other words, it’s not a good lifestyle change.

Counting calories is often a grey area for many dieters as every source says that people need a different amount of calories. Some say 1,800 for the average male, some say, 2,000 – 2,500 for an active male.

Others say 2,000 is standard for an adult male or female.

The conflicting information can be confusing.

Rather than counting calories, simply control your portions. Pour your food into premeasured containers till the food is even at the top, dump it onto your plate and eat.

In fact, measure long enough and you will be able to simply eyeball your food and know what a “portion” is.

It’s Never too Late to Start the Path towards Better Health

These are just a few tips for middle-aged men’s health that will help start you on your path to great fitness, even in your 40s and 50s!

Remember to stick with it. Results will not come overnight, but they will be worth the effort!

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5 Health Tips for an Enjoyable Retirement

health tips for retirement

Retirement is one of those things most people start dreaming about somewhere in their mid to late career.

Whether your ideal retirement looks like a reclining chair on a sunny deck, finally traveling the world, or a cozy corner with all the books you can read, actually enjoying your retirement requires you to get there in relatively good health.

If you don’t want to spend your senior years in and out of the hospital and worrying about when it’s time to move to an assisted living facility, the time is now to prepare for a healthy body while you still have time to make a few changes to your course.

Most people want to be mobile, active, and fairly energetic for at least the first decade or so of retirement. Your health is worth a lot more than just what it can offer you today. The better you take care of yourself now, the less you’ll have to worry when you finally have the free time to start working on your bucket list.

While we all eventually wind down, a healthy body means you can “live it up” in retirement in a way that simply isn’t possible for the sickly and frail.

So, here are five useful health tips for retirement that will help you maintain an enjoyable lifestyle for years to come.

1) Don’t Let Your Muscles Atrophy

First things first, your muscles are how you interact with the world by moving yourself and objects in your environment around.

There’s no independence in old age without muscle mass and, unfortunately, decades at a desk job aren’t exactly great for building up the muscle you’ll need to take care of yourself in retirement.

To ensure both your independence and ability to rearrange your own furniture at will, it’s vital that you build up and maintain a healthy collection of muscles now.

Go for a Full-Body Workout

Because you’re preparing to build up a stockpile of muscles, your best bet is to go for the full-body workout. Walking and running are a great place to start but the gym’s workout equipment is a great resource to help you focus on muscles that are more difficult to work out safely on your own.

Remember that your arms and legs are not the only muscles. The muscles in your back and core have a lot to do with lifting and moving power and a combination of leg and back muscles control your stability.

2) Keep Brushing and Flossing

Some people think about the food they’ll eat in retirement…other’s don’t.

No matter which category you fall into, no doubt you’re still expecting to enjoy a few delicious steaks, hamburgers, cakes and ice cream over your final few decades. Of course, that’s going to be a problem if your teeth start to fail you. Who wants to have dentures before they’re 80, or at all if it can be avoided?

If you want to be able to chew anything you desire, eat sweets, and deal with various food temperatures in your old age, it’s best to kick up the oral hygiene routine right now. Brushing your teeth is something most adults do but not everyone does it on a regular basis. Also, you might be surprised how few people bother to floss.

To keep your teeth in top condition for the next several decades, make sure to brush every day at bedtime and consider brushing during the day as well. As for flossing, if you hate the string, try a water pick or a bag of handy flossers.

3) Build a Balanced Diet

Speaking of what you eat, the other thing that can get in the way of an enjoyable retirement is a bad diet today.

If you wreck your gut by overindulging in pizza, fast food, greasy takeout, and frozen/packet meals, you probably won’t be in good condition to comfortably digest the rich foods most people enjoy after their working life is over.

Every person over the age of 40 must begin to think seriously about their personal health concerns, the needs of their digestive system, and adjust their diet accordingly. If you have to cut the sodium, look into more flavorful spices to make up the deficit. Garlic thins the blood, blueberries are an antioxidant, and salmon has Omega 3 which is great for almost everything.

Whether you need to watch your cholesterol, consume more fiber, or cut the red meat for a while, make sure to take care of your nutrition and intestinal health.

4) Work on Balance and Flexibility

One of the biggest risks for retirees is falling. While osteoporosis is more common in women, everyone is at risk and should be screened for early signs around the age of 60. Until, before, and after that point, you should be working on your balance and flexibility.

Most people lose a certain amount of muscle mass as they age, reducing their ability to stay stable and regain balance if it’s temporarily lost. The more you work on your stabilizing leg, core muscles and the ability to stretch and catch yourself in the event of a stumble, the less likely you are to really hurt yourself.

While it may not seem vital now, starting your balance workouts early and maintaining them is a great way to prevent falls later on.

5) Stretching Your Eyes

Finally, let’s talk about your eyes. The eye is a truly amazing organ with an organic lens that thickens and thins, allowing us to focus on objects that are closer or further away.

As we age, like all voluntary physical reactions, this response slows down. Many people start to form cataracts after the age of 50 – something that can be prevented if caught well in advance –  and most begin to lose range both close-up and far-away.

The best way to take care of your eyes is to get an annual checkup and remember to stretch them out. Spend at least half an hour each day looking at things, alternating between near and far. If you wear glasses, take them off for this exercise.

By keeping your eyes limber, you can slow down the deterioration caused by age.

These Health Tips for Retirement Are Well within Your Grasp

Aging is a challenge but it doesn’t have to spoil your fun. If you’re looking forward to an active and enjoyable retirement, getting there is a matter of taking care of yourself on the journey.

Keep your muscles strong, your teeth clean, your eyes active, and your digestive system in check. As a result, you’ll be able to eat steak and go on adventures well into your retirement years.

Enjoy!