Senior Fitness With Meredith

If you love walking as a cardio exercise (as mush as we do!) and are looking to add variety to your walks, consider adding walking sticks or poles to your regular hikes. The addition of walking sticks or “trekking poles” is a great way to maximize your bodies capabilities during a walk and provides many health benefits that may not seem obvious. In This Episode You Will Learn: 1). Some of Meredith’s personal experiences in learning about the benefits of using walking sticks through a class she took previously. 2). How getting started with walking sticks or poles comes with a learning curve which is important in order to maximize benefits and avoid injury. 3). Some of the different varieties of walking sticks that are available which are designed for various walking surfaces and gripping textures. 4). Some of the cardiovascular and strength training benefits that using walking sticks provides towards your whole body; upper, lower and core. 5). How using walking sticks or poles can make your feel more independent especially as we age by not only providing physical health benefits but the emotional and mental as well. /// We hope you enjoy this week’s episode and that you get a chance to look into adding walking sticks or poles to your next hike, especially if you love low impact walking as regular exercise. Walking alone is great for your overall health and adding this assistive device is an easy way to add variety and challenge to an already fun activity. Team MeredithSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

“Even if you are on the right track, you will get run over if you just sit there.”-Will Rogers This motivation is a reminder to get going, pursuing forward momentum, do not get complacent…or you will get run over. MeredithSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Anxiety is a common problem for many people of all ages. Dealing with the effects of a traumatic event or loss can trigger feelings of panic, worry and fear,  sometimes in a moments notice. Problems like this can lead to feelings of being alone and anti-social. It can also affect your physical health as the motivation to stay healthy can be affected greatly. The good news is that there are ways to handle feelings of anxiety and anxiousness so you don’t have to feel like a prisoner within your own emotions. In This Episode You Will Learn: 1). Why we thought this was an important topic to shed light on especially to bring awareness to anxiety in seniors and the aging population. 2). Some of the things that can cause anxiety in older age groups that doesn’t get much attention because of the false idea that older people are more relaxed and have less to worry about. 3). How regular low impact exercises like walking can help with feelings of anxiety and the overall health benefits it can have not just for the body but the mind as well. 4). How regular entries in a journal can also help ease the feelings of anxiousness by helping you “download” stressful thoughts and feelings from your mind and onto paper to help manage your mental health. 5). The importance of staying hydrated on a regular basis and how it can help protect your mind and body from stressful thoughts that can seem to overwhelm, especially when you are dehydrated. /// Anxiety affects everyone at some point in time and in different ways. Knowing that there are things you can do to help minimize these feelings when they occur can be very helpful. We hope the  tips in this episode helps you or someone you know that may be struggling with anxiety. Having the right tools to help deal with this condition can make all the difference in keeping you on the path to a long, healthy life. Team MeredithSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

“A single day is enough to make us a little larger or, another  time, a little smaller.”-Paul Klee This motivation is about how we view ourselves and what we choose to work on each day. MeredithSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

The amount that one should exercise is a common question we receive. Knowing how much you should exercise during a week or month can be the difference between a healthy lifestyle or one that effects other areas of your life like mood, motivation and overall wellness. However, the answer to this question is different for everyone and knowing how to find your “sweet spot” for exercising is the key to unlocking a long lasting healthy lifestyle. In This Episode You Will Learn: 1). Some of Meredith’s personal experiences in working with clients and their take on how much exercise they think they need on a regular basis. 2). How we usually like to keep our exercising and workouts very regimented in time and in routines and how that can be effective as you age. 3). The official exercise recommendation from the CDC (Centers For Disease Control) 4). The importance of taking rest days in your workout schedule. 5). How staying active and doing things like gardening, wood working or golfing can also count as exercise and how that plays an important part in an active lifestyle. /// We hope this episode provides a good framework as you think about what is the best schedule for you and how much you should be exercising per week or month. Over exercising can lead to exhaustion and injury. In the same light, under exercising can lead to health issues down the road and a lack of motivation. Making sure you find the right balance will help you live a healthy life and keep you motivated to stay on track. Team MeredithSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

“No great thing is created suddenly.”-Epictetus This motivation is about remembering great things, and change, take time! MeredithSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Regular doctor visits or checkups can be stressful for some, especially if we feel like we aren’t being heard or are feeling ignored when communicating. Unfortunately this is an all too common problem for many people and feeling unheard can lead to depression or feelings of “giving up” when it comes to communicating with your doctor. Fortunately there are things you can do to make sure you are being valued when it comes time to discuss your situation with your doctor or physician. In This Episode You Will Learn: 1). Why we felt it was important to discuss this topic which gets overlooked in today’s healthcare system and to hopefully shed more light on how this affects us as patients. 2). How we can easily fall into the pattern of making excuses to ourselves when addressing our medical issues with our doctor or even skip an appointments because of neglecting feelings. 3). Why we sometimes feel “stuck” or that it’s hard to leave your physician because you may have history there but no longer feel valued and moreover, what you can do about it. 4). How there is a correlation between a higher number prescriptions being filled due to limited time that doctors have with patients and how this can cause negative side effects both mentally and physically within patients. 5). Some of our best tips to making sure you are being heard and properly tended to as a patient during your next doctor visit. /// Making sure you get the right attention and value from your doctor visit is very important especially when it seems as though doctors are much busier with more and more patients being tended to. It can be challenging but it doesn’t have to stay that way. We hope our suggestions in this episode help you or someone you know who may be having these problems with their doctor or primary care physician. Team MeredithSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

“As a well-spent day brings happy sleep, so life well used brings happy death.”-Leonardo Da Vinci This motivation is about living a good life, that at the end of each day and the end of it all we can look back and be satisfied with what we did each day! MeredithSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

You may have heard of the idea that in order to live and maintain a healthy lifestyle, one should try to attain 10,000 steps in a day. The origins of this are traced back to Japan in the 1960’s when Dr. Yoshiro Hatano, a Japanese researcher invented the first pedometer, known as the “manopo-key” which translates to “10,000 steps meter”. His research suggested that walking 10,000 steps every day helps maintain a healthy lifestyle and prevents various health issues. But is this realistic? For this podcast, we wanted to unpack this notion that 10,000 steps daily is a benchmark and discuss whether this should be our standard of measurement a healthy life or should we consider a more “adjusted” idea of this concept. In This Episode You Will Learn: 1). How the idea of getting in 10,000 steps a day came about and how it became widely accepted as the “standard” amount of steps one should try to achieve in a day. 2). Why using a pedometer to track your steps is a great idea no matter what your step goal is because it can help motivate and empower us to track our fitness progress daily. 3). Meredith’s personal experiences in experimenting with daily step counting and if she was able to reach 10,000 steps a day on a regular basis. 4). How wearing proper footwear can affect your step activity level throughout the day. 5). How trying to achieve a fitness goal like 10,000 steps a day can affect you not just physically, but mentally as well especially if it’s a goal that is not meant for everyone at all times. /// As we travel down our own fitness journey it’s important to remember the things that keep us healthy, active, and that apply to our level of fitness. The idea of 10,000 steps a day may be attainable for some, but certainly not for everyone. We’d also like to stress that just because this is a “popular” concept, it shouldn’t be looked at as the “go-to” standard measurement of active health. Making sure you are comfortable with your own exercise routine and sticking to it is the most important measurement of dedication to a healthy lifestyle. Team MeredithSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

“Things do not change; we change.”- Henry David Thoreau This motivation is a reminder that we change each moment, and yes the world constantly changes, but how we look at it will forever change and evolve…and that is a great thing! MeredithSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.