Maintaining a healthy weight may help your senior to manage other health issues she’s experiencing, but it can be difficult for her to do. That’s especially true if your senior has had trouble with her weight for a long time. There may still be some things that you can try together.
Get an Idea Where She Stands, According to Her Doctor
Make the first stop on this issue a conversation with your senior’s doctor. This is going to help you and your elderly family member to understand where she is right now. Her overall health affects your senior’s ability to do anything about her weight, including changing her diet or starting an exercise plan. So, start out by figuring out where she is now.
Look More Closely at Your Senior’s Diet
If dietary changes are something that your senior can do, that’s your first set of changes. Start tracking what your senior is eating now and just observe. There’s no need to change anything right away. Look at when she’s eating and what she’s eating. Then you can start to swap out processed foods for whole foods, for instance. Start with little changes and you can keep seeing big results.
Include Exercise, if She’s Cleared for It
Assuming your senior’s doctor has cleared her for exercise, it’s time to find something that she enjoys doing. That might be walking or swimming, or even something else that’s active, like gardening. The idea is to start gradually increasing your senior’s activity level over time. That’s going to help her to move more and to fire up her energy a bit.
Don’t Stress about it if This Takes a While
The last thing you want to do is to stress your senior out about her weight. If she’s spending a lot of time worrying about her weight, that’s not going to help at all. Take some of that strain off of her and don’t focus solely on her weight. Focus on how she’s feeling and whether there’s anything that you can do to help her, like bringing in elder care providers to handle tasks that have become a little more difficult for her.
Maintaining a healthy weight is important, but it’s not worth your senior’s mental health, either. It’s far more important overall to help your elderly family member to make healthy food and exercise choices, and the weight will take care of itself.
IF YOU OR AN AGING LOVED ONE IS CONSIDERING ELDER CARE IN HENDERSON, NV, PLEASE CONTACT THE CARING STAFF AT GOLDEN HEART SENIOR CARE OF SUMMERLIN. 702-800-4616.
