Health & LTC insurance
When it comes to long-term care insurance, being in ideal health conditions can make a noticable difference. This difference can be felt greatly in your ability to be approved for coverage. Additionally, you will find that lower premiums are also extended to those with good health profiles. There are many other areas of your life where, good health can not only earn you discounts but also improve your day to day.
Aging can be a tumultuous process for many, especially those with deteriorating health. Deteriorating health can lead to increased illness, loss of mobility, and issues with being approved for coverage. This combination can lead to stress and a decreased quality of life. This is why it is important to continue to prioritize your health as you age. In fact, it is even more important to focus on your health the older you get.
Prioritizing your health
If you are like a large percentage of the population, prioritizing your health can be a tall task. Many have formed habits which are counterproductive to their health while other have genetics working against them. From busy schedules to lack of knowledge, there are many ways to go wrong when it comes to our health. But what about the way to go right?
Learning how to lead and keep a healthy lifestyle can certainly be accomplished. This take the right amount of knowledge, discipline, and ease of access. This means that all strides you take towards your health, should be feasible to maintain.
Consider the long-term
Most failed health goals can be accredited to lack of maintenance. If a health goals is not easy to maintain it is usually short lived. Perhaps this why, most new year’s resolutions last only a couple months before fading out.
The key is to set goals that can last long-term. A good way to benchmark whether your goals are maintainable is to ask yourself the following:
- Does my schedule allow for this time commitment?
- Do I enjoy these kinds of activities?
- Have I ever succeeded at something similar?
- Do I have the resources I need?
How to get started
Before determining whether or not your goals are realistic you will need to have some idea what your overall goal is. Is your goal to feel good, look better, qualify for long-term care insurance, or all of the above? After determining your large scale goal you will want to conduct some research on some effectively proven methods. You may also conduct your doctor for options.
Once you have conducted thorough research the goal is to pivot where you can in order to accommodate to our own abilities. In other words, attempting to follow a protocol word by word because it worked for someone else will not always produce the same results. This may lead you down the road of another failed health goal. You must take into account your own lifestyle, skillset, and abilities. After doing so you can build a plan more suitable for you and less likely to fail. This is the key to maintaining a goal.
Accomplishing your goal
Accomplishing our goals can sometimes be quick and easy whereas other goals may be long lasting. In terms of achieving good health, this is usually a long-term goal. In other words, most individuals do not aim to be healthy for only a week or limited period of time. Instead, most wish to build a healthy way of living to carry on throughout their lifetime.
This will require a little more intentional and long-term planning. Here are some techniques you can apply when embarking on a long-term goal.
Start gradually
If your end goal is broad and has many moving parts, you will want to dissect each one, one at a time. For example, if you have a goal to be healthy, this may entail eating, healthy, working out, and starting yoga. Taking on all of these goals at one can lead to a quick burn out. Instead, try taking on one of the tasks one at a time and successfully completing it for two week before adding on another .
This may look like, incorporating a 30 minute walk to your daily routine for two weeks. Once you have successfully completed this, keep it up and add on another goal such as eating healthy. Continue both of these behaviors for two more weeks before incorporating another new habit. By the end of it you should have a incorporated all of your health goals in a gradual manner that allowed you time to adjust. This can help you stick to this new routine longer and better.
Tackling all of these new goals at once can be overwhelming and difficult to maintain. This can lead to easily falling off track many days and a overwhelming feeling of failure which is often the culprit behind abandoned goals.
Accept the hiccups
When enforcing a new habit or lifestyle it can be difficult to stay on task. This is understandable when you consider how long you have not been enforcing this behavior. Therefore you cannot expect to never miss a beat when adding it in
All this is to say you will likely fail some of the time. You may not get your 30 mins of cardio in some days and you may eat cake at your family outing the next. The key here is to accept small failures and continue on anyways.
If you become fixated on doing things “perfectly”, which is almost always impossible, you will likely quit when you fall off track. If you accept that you will “fail” some days you will be able to start fresh the next day.
Change your mindset
If you choose to approach your new health journey from a critical mindset this may not produce the best results. Someone who chooses to embark on a health journey because they feel disgusted with how they’ve let themselves go may not have the best experience. The reason is that this individual may associate the whole experience with a negative outlook. He/she may feel they have failed, need to be punished, and/or are incapable of achieving good health.
If you choose to focus on the positive outcomes that may come from this new shift you will likely fair better results. Someone who is eager to change their lifestyle because they are excited to have more energy, mental clarity, and feel good about themselves may enjoy the process more. It is the key between doing something for yourself instead of to yourself.
If you believe you are healthy because you have made the decision to do so, your attitude and behaviors will likely follow this. If you believe you are an unhealthy person punishing themselves into health, this attitude will likely carry.
Ask for help
If you feel you don’t have the resources you need to succeed you likely won’t. Feeling under qualified or ill prepared gives us all the more reasons to quit. So if you’re feeling like you don’t know how to achieve your goals don’t be afraid to ask for help.
Talk to your doctor. Ask a friend who has succeeded at your goal or even hire help! Investing in a coach, dietician, or nutritionist, can sometimes be the added accountability you may require. In other words if your spending the money on it, you might as well use it.
Celebrate small successes
If your goal is a long term goal it may constantly seem ongoing. This can create a false sense of failure as you may feel you can never quite reach the end of your goal. I challenge you to approach this differently. The best way I can advise on how to do so is by celebrating each and every small successes along your journey. When you have reached a week with healthier habits than the last, celebrate. When can now walk a full mile before tiring celebrate.
If you closely examine your behavior over time you will find notable differences. If you differences are not physical or linked to your appearances you may find your mood has been better or perhaps your energy level are higher.
You may be similar to countless other individuals and you may have a hard time observing physical changes, and that is okay. What you can try instead is to note the differences in your ability to follow your goals in the beginning to now. Perhaps at the beginning your your journey meal prepping was confusing and getting enough sleep seemed impossible. It is likely that after doing so for a while, you now have no problem easily preparing healthy meals you enjoy, and squeezing in a quick walk. Celebrate this too.
Remember why you are doing this
Motivation can wane over time and we may even wonder why we started in the first place. This is why it can be especially helpful to write down you reasons for starting a goal. Write down what you hope your goals will accomplish for you and place them somewhere visible. Take it a step further and even a attach a feeling or visual to it. This may look like writing down how accomplishing your goal will make you feel and what feeling that way may look like.
Here’s an example:
- I think accomplishing my goal will make me feel capable
- Feeling capable to me looks like waking up every morning before the sun rises and enjoying a cup of coffee before a nice walk
Do the same for your other options. Write down how not accomplishing your goal will make you feel and what that feeling looks like to you. Examining both and realizing you have the option to choose either one daily, can serve as a great reminder for your daily why.
The benefits to a healthy you
Living a healthier lifestyle has been linked to numerous positive outcomes. From physical outcomes to, emotional, and cognitive wellness, prioritizing your health can boost all of these areas. Here are just a few of the noted positive outcome to developing a healthier lifestyle as noted by NHS.UK:
- up to a 35% lower risk of coronary heart disease and stroke
- up to a 50% lower risk of type 2 diabetes
- up to a 50% lower risk of colon cancer
- up to a 20% lower risk of breast cancer
- a 30% lower risk of early death
- up to an 83% lower risk of osteoarthritis
- up to a 68% lower risk of hip fracture
- a 30% lower risk of falls (among older adults)
- up to a 30% lower risk of depression
- up to a 30% lower risk of dementia
Some additional benefits include:
- Increased energy
- Longer lifespan
- Better mobility
- Better mental health
- Stronger self image
- Better sleep patterns
- Stronger immune system
Aging with deteriorating health
Aging with declining health can lead to a multitude of issues for you and your entire family. These problems can present themselves and create an onset of emotional stress, financial problems, as well as physical pain for you. Many of these problems can be avoided by enacting a healthier lifestyle and continuing to prioritize your health through the ages. This can also help decrease your long-term care costs and improve your approval rate for long-term care insurance.
Some common issues those over 65 may run into after years of neglected health are:
- Mobility issues
- Fractures
- Chronic disease
- Recurrent illnesses
- Countless medications
- Steep medical bills
- The need for 24/7 care
Keep in mind that these issue are not always completely preventable by enacting a healthier lifestyle. Some individuals are more predisposed to these types of issues than others. However incorporating healthier daily actions may help reduce your risk or even minimize side effects.
Your resources
There are many free resources available to senior to help them lead healthier lives. From classes, apps, meal services and much if you are a senior looking to learn more click here. You can take advantage of many of these free resources to help kickstart your health journey.
If you or someone you love is interested in Long Term Care or Long Term Care Insurance be sure to visit: LTC TREE for more information.
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