Staying active as an older parent, not only allows me to have fun with my youngest child, it helps strengthen my bones.
While many of my high school friends are becoming grandparents, I am chasing after my very active 7-year-old son. There is not a rocking chair in my foreseeable future!
Our oldest kids were teenagers when we found out I was expecting our last child. Someone responded to our situation by saying, “That’s like finishing a marathon and being told you have to go back to the starting line and run the race again”. I’m not going to lie, that’s exactly what it’s like.
Parenting over 40 can be exhausting, but there are definite benefits. Like skipping. Nobody thinks it is weird when you skip down the sidewalk if you are holding a small child’s hand. Try doing that alone when you are over 40!
As over 40 parents, my husband and I have learned to parent smarter. We joke about being able to play hide and seek without ever leaving the couch, but in reality, we are striving to stay healthy and active for our son. This means we are trying to eat healthy meals, we take turns watching my son while the other goes to the gym, and we remind each other to take our supplements.
My son has turned into a good little hiker and can now hike on his own for several miles. He has decided that he wants to hike to the top of some of the extinct volcanoes in our area. My goal for 2015 is to climb extinct volcanoes with my son.
However, I don’t want to just keep up with him this summer on his hikes, I want to be able to keep up with him for many more years.
Osteoporosis runs on my mom’s side of the family, so I am very contentious about my calcium intake and getting bone-strengthening exercise. This is another area where having a young child is helpful because I get bone-strengthening exercise by playing tag, hopscotch, and jumping rope with him.
Despite eating a healthy diet, my doctor discovered that I had low calcium and Vitamin D levels at my annual physical. If your body isn’t getting enough calcium it begins to take it from the bones, decreasing bone mineral density which can eventually lead to osteopenia and osteoporosis. Calcium isn’t manufactured in the body, so it must be consumed from an outside source. Like many others, I wasn’t receiving the amount of calcium needed based on my diet alone. Wondering if you’re getting enough calcium? You can go here to see your calcium needs by age and stage.
Viactiv is part of the three keys to healthy bones:
- Obtaining an adequate daily dose of calcium from your diet.
- Regular bone-strengthening exercises.
- Supplementing when diet is not enough.
One Viactiv Calcium Soft Chew taken twice daily provides 100% of the daily value of calcium for most women plus vitamins D & K. They are intended to help achieve recommended daily dietary levels of these nutrients as a supplement to food sources.
Viactiv Calcium Soft Chews are available in milk chocolate, caramel, and sugar-free milk chocolate flavors. While I like all of the soft chews, I especially enjoy the Viactiv Gummies, which are available only at Walgreens. They come in assorted tropical fruit flavors and are gluten-free and dairy-free.
This is a product-provided, sponsored conversation written by me on behalf of Viactiv. The opinions and text are all mine.
