simply standing and walking – improves your overall fitness. Try to keep your daytime nap to a maximum 45 minutes, your screen time to 3-4 hours maximum and sleep time to 7-8 hours. There are at least five components to your physical activities including your muscular strength, endurance, cardiorespiratory fitness, flexibility and body composition. Improvements in these components leads to better balance, power, agility, speed, co-ordination and reaction time. This allows for improved ability to perform the activities of daily living, including household chores, certain sports activities, shopping and driving. Keeping fit does not mean merely physical fitness, but mental fitness as well. Persons who have retired, those with an empty nest, those with a new or existing medical condition and especially those living alone are especially vulnerable to periods of depression, loneliness, anxiety or insomnia. Seniors who have had a busy life with work and family must now adapt to a different situation and should still maintain an active social life, develop new interests and social connections, participate in group activities, keep abreast of local and international news, re-establish interaction with relatives and start or rekindle a hobby. Many hobbies not only stimulate physical and mental aptitudes, they can also lead to interaction with others sharing the same interests. When not going south in the winter, regular curling keeps me in better physical condition, as well as facilitating regular social interaction with my friends. Snowbirds have an opportunity to rejoin their winter friends with all of the social interaction and activities that are available, enhancing their physical and emotional health. Just as physical activity improves muscle strength, keeping active socially maintains and improves your acuity and mental health. Physical and emotional health are closely connected, and loneliness, isolation and depression are associated with increased risk of heart disease, stroke and diabetes. Those who develop emotional and psychological issues and experience social withdrawal have little desire to maintain an active healthy physical plan, thereby accentuating their physical decline. Family members who identify these changes should assist in getting professional care for the individual. Family members who move to retirement facilities should be encouraged to actively participate in social, as well as physical activities to enhance body and mind. Now, looking out my window, I realize it’s time to mow my lawn again… which I will do after my lunch and nap! Health CSANews | SUMMER 2026 | 33
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