New Year's Resolutions for Seniors

You’re never too old to set goals or resolutions; January is always a great month to review your life and take stock of what you’d like to change or focus on! Making New Year’s resolutions builds bonds with your family, friends, and communities. Here are some fun and easy ways to think about life in 2017.

Age Gracefully

Health is often the number one resolution people focus on (for good reason!) and it’s never too late to decide to pursue a healthy lifestyle. Growing old has advantages – accept them with grace! Changes to your body can be both physical and mental, and a natural part of aging. Now’s the time to accept what you can’t change and celebrate what you can. Simple changes you can make are vowing to move your body for 30 minutes a day – this can mean walking, even indoors as you’re able. Have you heard the silly phrase abs are made in the kitchen? 

Eating a healthy diet is so incredibly important, and at every age. The food we put in our bodies for fuel affects everything from our sleep to our likelihood of being diagnosed with diseases, to our emotional moods. Eating a relatively clean and well-balanced diet can be achieved in smaller steps – here are some great blogs to get you started and inspired!

Food for the Brain + Body: Nutrition Tips for Disease Prevention

Six Simple Snack Ideas and Healthy Foods for Older Adults

Be Social

Habits can be hard to form – that’s true for resolutions as well. But, habits can be hard to break too. Isolation and loneliness are often common for older adults, and after the happy blur of the holidays, the silence and solitude can be too much to bear. Perhaps that’s an easy habit for you to fall into … to hibernate during the cold dark months. Make a resolution to be more social. While this can mean physically being social – attending events, visiting friends, going to church, or simply running errands – there are other ways to increase interaction with others.

If your family and friends are long distance that can be hard, but consider bridging the gap with correspondence … that is almost considered a long lost art form! Write letters or send notes, pick up a funny or sentimental postcard, and send some good, old-fashioned mail. Or, be like 71 percent of people aged 65 and older and use technology to connect with your loved ones using Facebook, email, FaceTime, and other social platforms. Nearly everything is considered “recordable” these days, so you might be surprised at what special moments in life you can witness or participate in from afar.

Are you wondering how else you can increase your socialness in 2017? Here are some additional ideas for you:

What You Should Know About Senior Isolation

Stay Connected with These Tech Savvy Tips

Value Your Time

Perhaps one of the greatest gifts you could give to yourself in the New Year is appreciation. Appreciating the life you live and being aware of how blessed you are for your health, your community, and the people in your life you love. Spending time each day focused only on you is great for your soul and outlook. Consider what you love – pastimes, traditions, favorites – and pledge to do more of whatever it is that brings you happiness. Life is too short.

Walker Methodist hopes 2017 is a great year for you … you deserve it. Happy New Year!