What do caregivers do everyday to keep themselves healthy and strong?

I know it can be easy to overlook taking care of yourself when taking care of the needs of a loved one. What do you do for you?

To be healthy I take supplements:
NAC N-Acetyl Cysteine
Vitamin C
Iron - I’m low but not anemic
B12
B50 Complex
Omega 3
Multi-vitamin and mineral

For menopause symptoms I take:
Tinctures of Black Cohash, Dong Quai, Chastetree, Motherwort and Ginger among others and Bilberry for eye sight.
ESTROsmart to balance my hormones

Drink a glass of V8 fusion (strawberry & banana flavor) and have an Activia yogurt

Drink more herbal tea to cut down on caffeine and help with my insomnia

Trying to do stretches/yoga/exercise at least a couple of times a week for 10 minutes

8 hrs of sleep each night. Now that I’m retired, I try to do this. Was never able to do it when I was working.

Exercise – go to the gym 3-4 times per week - I enjoy the various classes offered and I always feel better afterwards. If I don’t go to the gym, I will run/walk about 3 miles in my subdivision.

Love on my boxers. When I am feeling particularly stressed, I give my boxers a big, long hug and I can feel my stress level coming down. They seem to instinctively know when I’m having a hard time. I also walk my dogs every evening. It’s our ritual, they enjoy it and I do too.

Take “Mature” Multivitamin, Omega 3, Calcium, 5-HTP. I’m also on Bio-Identical Hormone Replacement Therapy.

I think it’s so important for me to take good care of myself so I can be of the most help to my loved ones.

I keep forgetting to take my calcium :frowning: Doctor says I’m not at risk or low in it but that’s how I want to keep it. Prevention works so much better. 5-HTP and Theanine is in with our Melatonin.

Good on you for going to the gym. :thumbsup:

I think this is something I need to learn. I guess to be a better care giver I should learn how to care for myself as well.

I find I have also slipped into that danger zone of forgetting how not to talk about my brother. I’ve been told I have a limited topic of conversation. Swimming, work and my brother. I have to broaden my interest and net work I guess. Maybe I have to learn how to get away from SZ for a day or two.

I want to say, you have swimming, work and your brother to talk about, in addition to school and friends. You are already a very competant person with a lot in life to work on.

You have my full support to explore your new interest and talents. I used to develop hobbies, partly for I like that, partly because it helps with social interactions. It is much better to have some good knowledge you can talk about when you meet people, and it is both meaningful and relaxing to keep learning something, equipping yourself with new skills. It can keep you happy and walk out from the roles of your life for a while.

@goggles

Goggles,
I’m sorry it took so long to reply. How are you?
Thank you for your kind post. I do like your idea of developing more hobbies and just doing something different. You’re right, learning new things can be a great adventure. I have been thinking about this a lot right now.

Great! I learn that you are meeting with a lot of change and you are leaving your support group. I would be happy to be part of your support. Do talk to me or pm me any time you want to. :smiley:

I Swim, teach swimming and lead a water exercise class. I also run and surf. But I really love quiet walks.

I strongly recommend to everybody old country dances.
I live in Scotland and we have Scottish Country Dancing here - I am in the beginners’ group now.

To be honest I used to hate PE lessons and I am in general clumsy, perhaps I suffer from dyspraxia, who knows and who cares now when I am 60 and happy in general.

Scottish Country Dancing is all about being friendly and having a good laugh together, the footwork isn’t that important, anyway even I can manage it to some extent. All those hopping to the very uplifting Scottish music is just a great fun!

The other thing is according to some studies Scottish Country Dancing keeps you fit supposedly better than brisk walking ( I do it), yoga ( never tried) and swimming ( can’t swim and don’t want to learn).
And, Ladies, think about all those dancing kilted gentlemen :slight_smile:

My friend who is a cardiologist told me that Swedish country dancing kept his stepdad in great shape in his late old age so I think ANY country dancing may be very helpful for carers and maybe for diagnosed too as long as they enjoy it.

About 3 weeks ago I bought a stepper for exercising. Taking it slow by trying to up it one minute a week. Doing 12 minutes. Not a lot but eventually I want to get up to 20-30 minutes. I have noticed that I am sleeping better. I have only taken my sleeping pills once in the last week or so when I usually take them twice a week. Feeling good about it :smiley:

Got up too late today to catch the 8:30 class at the gym. The roads still have a few icy patches on them so decided against doing my 3 mi walk/run, can’t risk an injury. So I will do some housecleaning - that’s a form of exercise right? :slight_smile: