One of the easiest changes your senior can make if she wants to feel better is to look more closely at her diet. Eating a healthier diet can go a long way toward helping to improve your senior’s overall outlook on life, especially if she’s facing some big health issues. Here’s what you and your In-Home Care providers can do to help your elderly family member in her quest to eat better.
Look at What She’s Currently Eating
What is your elderly family member already eating on a regular basis? She might be eating healthier than she thinks she is, so it’s a good idea to start keeping a food log for a few days at least. Lots of people eat healthy foods, but maybe have difficulty with portion sizing. Just adjusting portion sizes is a really easy change for your elderly family member to make.
Define What Eating Better Looks Like to Her
If your elderly family member is expressing a desire to eat better, take some time to get a picture of what that means to her. That could mean adding more fruits and vegetables to her diet or eliminating certain foods that she no longer wants to be eating, like processed foods. Once you know her goals, you have a better understanding of what to do next.
Talk to Her Doctor about What Changes to Make
It’s also possible that your elderly family member’s doctor can give you both some big insight into what foods she should be incorporating into her diet. Health issues and medications can have an impact on which foods are considered healthy for your senior. Your senior’s doctor can also help her to avoid foods that might interfere with her medications.
Start Out with Smaller Changes at First
Lots of people decide to overhaul their diets in a big way, but that’s a recipe for overwhelm. Once you and your senior have a plan for what foods to include in her diet, pick a small change that she can start out trying. That might be increasing her fruit and vegetable intake by one serving per day. It’s an easy change that your senior can start out with and add on down the line. She’s more likely to stick with a small change.
Consider In-home Care Help
Having help from home care providers to deal with meal preparation may also be an option to consider. In-home care providers are able to make meal preparation easier, and they can also make sure that your senior is sticking to a meal schedule. That’s especially important if your elderly family member has had a tough time remembering to eat regularly throughout the day. Once meals are easier to eat, your senior may find that it’s easier to make those changes to her diet, too.
Your elderly family member’s diet significantly affects her health and well-being. Eating infrequently or eating foods that are nutritionally bereft can cause her to feel terrible and to have an awful quality of life. When your senior is eating healthy foods, she’s going to be more likely to get the nutrition that she needs.