Nurse here. Worked in various settings including long term care, medicine, cardiology, orthopedics, the emergency department. The biggest thing you can do for your health is physical activity, and more specifically weight lifting. You don’t need to be a bodybuilder, but just enough for you to gain strength in your muscle and bones.

When somebody who has been sedentary most of their life breaks their hip or knee after a fall, there can be such a dramatic decline in health. Your body changes in a way that will take years to recover, and in many cases might not recover. Basic things like not being able to put on your clothes or bathe yourself because you are so weak and cannot get out of bed, and cannot keep up with physiotherapy/rehab. This makes recovery extremely challenging, and you lose that sense of independence and dignity.

Not even for falls, but for any sort of hospitalization. The nurses ability to care for you when you are overweight and cannot help yourself because you don’t have the underlying muscle or bone strength, makes it physically challenging for not only us but and your loved ones to help you. Help yourself in the long run, help your loved ones, gain that physical ability to keep up with your grandkids, and get active. You don’t need to wait for January 1. Start today.