Health, Wealth and Time = Happiness?

Chan Beng An

It has been said that the combination of health, wealth and time produces happiness. However, it is ironical that it is so difficult to have all three elements come together in each phase of a person's life.

During childhood, one usually has lots of time and good health but not much money. During adulthood, one tends to have sound financial standing and good health but has very little time. During retirement, one has lots of time and wealth but may be plagued with questionable health!

Don't get it wrong, wealth is relative. People who have basic needs can get by comfortably with a few hundred dollars a month while some international celebrities cannot live within a seven-figure budget a month.

Following this logic, time and wealth would be available to most seniors, leaving the element “health” to complete the equation of happiness. Unfortunately, due to a lifetime of wear and tear and much abuse, the body is no longer what it used to be. Those who have looked after themselves well all through their lives can now look forward to good health while those who have neglected their bodies will now suffer for their negligence.

But all is not lost. For the human body is remarkably resilient and forgiving of your past excesses when given a chance of restoration. As the owner of your body, it is your responsibility to give it a chance to be restored, not to the condition of one's prime, but substantially better than the decrepit state it would be if left unchecked.

I have some suggestions for seniors who desire to be on the road to better health:

Quit Smoking
When you give up smoking – you stop polluting your airways and lungs and your teeth and fingers will be free from cigarette stains. The immediate improvement you will experience is that you smell better and your teeth are whiter. Over time, your general health improves as your lungs are cleared of cigarette tar.

Lose Weight
It would appear foolish for one to carry a five or ten kg bag of rice from the time one wakes up every morning until one retires to bed at night. Yet that is what your body is doing every single day if you are overweight by five to ten kg. For some, this extra weight could be even more!

So, losing that extra weight means less work for your heart and less strain on your joints. Your overall health also starts to improve. Imagine if you were to walk around without those bags of rice, you would definitely move around easier and be more nimble of foot!

Plan to lose 10% of your body weight over half a year. The money you save on foodstuff and suppers can buy you a new wardrobe for a healthier, leaner body.

Exercise. Exercise. Exercise.
When any part of our body is not regularly used, it starts to deteriorate. This is easily evident from a broken leg which has been placed in a cast for healing. Upon removal of the cast, the leg would have withered in size from one fifth to one quarter of its original size.

So too will the muscles of people shrink from a sedentary life style. To make matters worse, fat accumulation may have increased too.

You need to get up and do moderate to vigorous exercise regularly to prime your body and prevent the slow and steady deterioration that comes with age. It does not matter what sort of activity you engage in – be it brisk walking, slow jogging or swimming. The idea is to start moving your body.

A word of caution is in order: Do not rush into a vigorous exercise regiment overnight. Be realistic – if your body has been inactive for the past few decades, it needs time to re-learn how to exercise. So begin at a slow pace for the first three months and if you can do it without going breathless, then increase the pace gradually and keep at it for most days of the week until it becomes second nature.

Eat Right
Singapore is a food haven. All those delicious foods you have taken throughout your life are laden with fats, salts, preservatives and additives. When the taste and aroma is heavenly, it means exactly that – it sends you heavenwards much quicker than those who eat simple and wholesome foods!

A very simple guideline to eating well is to eat naturally, just like the animals in the wild. Have you heard of tigers, elephants or monkeys (carnivores, herbivores and omnivores respectively) dying of hypertension, diabetes, cancer or other human diseases? No. This is because they do not take cooked or processed foods. One famous health guru of the sixties said: If it is man-made, do not eat it. Instead, eat more natural and unprocessed foods.

For example, one could eat whole oranges instead of orange juice; peanuts instead of peanut butter; fish instead of fish balls. Uncooked salad and fruits are also more nutritious than stir-fried vegetables. Drinking unprocessed plain water is better than drinking beverages, whether alcoholic or not. If you must imbibe man-made concoctions such as chilli sauce, ice-cream, cakes and fast foods, it should be done sparingly. The important rule is to eat well at least 80% of the time.

Mr Chan Beng An is a typical Singaporean. He was overweight, led a sedentary lifestyle and is a food lover. Today, after suffering a life-changing heart attack in 2006 followed by a triple by-pass operation, he is a fit 67kg (from 90kg), no longer needs medication for hypertension and can complete a 3 km run under 20 minutes.

The views expressed by the author represent the opinions of the author and not those of the staff and management of the Centre For Seniors.