A healthy lifestyle is a key to happiness. One major obstacle in maintaining a healthy lifestyle is the typical claim that there isn’t enough time.
Yes, most professions are pretty demanding, but taking time for one’s health should be a top priority. War veterans are among some of the busiest professionals, with barely any spare time on their hands.
Unfortunately, this profession also damages your personal health and hygiene. Exposure to gunpowder, asbestos, challenging weather conditions, physical injury, and much more is a part of the lifestyle of a war veteran.
This makes it all the more important for veterans to make a conscious effort to ensure a healthy lifestyle for themselves.
5 Tips to Ensure Wellness
Together with such risk factors also comes a threat to your mental health; depression and anxiety are common problems veterans report. Following are some handy tips veterans should keep in mind to ensure wellness:
1. Make regular medical check-ups a routine
The busy routine and seemingly break-less schedules can make you forgetful regarding medical appointments.
However, do not forget that your personal health comes first. Fortunately, free medical check-ups, accommodation, and many other benefits are provided to veterans, so medical exams would not cost you.
You shouldn’t compromise on your health even after you retire. Why? Because sometimes, asbestos exposure on specific missions can lead to more severe problems than usual, like cancer.
Veterans who are victims of long-term asbestos exposure can refer to Mesothelioma Veterans Center for support, treatment, and relevant legal claims.
Regular medical check-ups can help you catch such problems in time for treatment and prevent them from getting out of hand.
Also Read: How Much Does Air Duct Cleaning Improve Indoor Air Quality
2. Eat healthily
You are what you eat; your dietary choices significantly impact your overall health and well-being, so monitor your nutrient intake and don’t miss out on essential nutritional components.
Especially in a physically demanding profession like yours, a nutrient-rich diet is crucial to maintaining the best physical health.
However, even after retirement, you must monitor your dietary intake. Ensure your daily consumption includes the right amount of vitamins, minerals, carbohydrates, protein, and healthy fat.
As tempting as it might sound, avoid fast food and bakery items; instead, consume a healthy amount of meat and vegetables to get the necessary amount of macronutrients.
Occasional treats are okay, but avoid making it a habit. It sounds easier to grab a snack from the store, but it is much healthier to prepare your own meal. Also, cut down on alcohol and sugar consumption.
If you experience rapid weight gain, it could be a warning sign of underlying health issues, including issues related to heart failure weight gain. Pay attention to your overall well-being to maintain a healthy lifestyle.
3. Consume plenty of water
It is easy to neglect water intake when on a critical mission but remember not to compromise on this.
Keep easily accessible bottles of water in the trunk of your car so that you never run out of fresh and clean water to drink.
This is especially true when you are required to stay physically active, and insufficient water intake can cause dehydration.
Although water has no nutritional value, plenty of other benefits make it a crucial diet component.
Water helps regulate body temperature, removes waste via urine, sweat, and defecation, protects joints and tissues, prevents constipation, kidney stones, and hypertension, aids digestion, and much more.
The recommended daily intake for men is 15.5 cups, and for women, 11.5 cups.
4. Stay active
An active lifestyle is the key to happiness. By staying active, you will feel energized, can avoid illness, and receive many other physical health benefits.
Regular exercise can include anything from walking, jogging, or running to more serious gym time, swimming, or playing sports.
Following retirement, veterans tend to neglect the need for physical activity and gain weight. Including exercise in your daily routine will help make it a habit and continue it even after you retire. For war veterans, such regular activity can also help to recover from stress and PTSD.
5. Include yoga and meditation in your daily schedule
Your mental health is equally important, if not more, than your physical health; a healthy mind is a healthy body.
You need to prepare and exercise your mind to deal with everyday situations and overcome hurdles. Some helpful exercises for the brain are yoga and meditation.
Yoga is known to enhance both mental and physical health, while meditation helps with maintaining peace of mind.
Yoga combines mind and body activity into a series of physical postures accompanied by breathing exercises.
Yoga is known to make you more self-aware, remain calm and relaxed, counter stress responses with the relaxation response, and enhance sleep.
On the other hand, mindfulness meditation is a great way to relax your mind, reduce stress, enhance attention, and live in the moment.
If you are meditating for the first time, try to start small but be consistent and seek the assistance of an app.
Gradually, you can increase the time you spend meditating and practicing it on your own.
Final words
Adopt healthy lifestyle choices to ensure good physical and mental health even after you retire. As a veteran, you are likely to have hectic schedules; it is common to neglect personal health and well-being but avoid falling into this trap.
It would help if you opted for frequent medical check-ups, ate healthily, consumed sufficient water, remained active, and exercised your mind. In the long run, these practices are the key to a happy life.
