3 Key Habits My Parents Are Practicing to Stay Healthy In Their 70s: Their Daily Breakfast, Strength Training, and More with Kaya Purohit

Dhru Purohit (0:00)

Hi, everyone, Dhru Purohit here, and I am joined by my younger sister and partner in crime when it comes to my weekly newsletter amongst other things. Try This is a weekly newsletter that I put out every Friday where I highlight different things that I'm doing, that my family's doing, to take our health to the next level. And we break it down step-by-step, and one series that we've been doing has been really popular. So I asked my sister to join us on the podcast today, Kaya Purohit, she's gonna be chiming in here and saying hello in a second to talk about that series and a few other things. Kaya, welcome to the podcast.

Kaya Purohit (0:38)

Thank you so much for having me. I'm excited to be here.

Dhru Purohit (0:41)

Quick little background and intro on yourself if you could before we jump in and talk about what this series is that has been capturing the attention of a lot of our readers.

Kaya Purohit (0:51)

Yes, as Dhru mentioned, I am his younger sister, or his little sister as he puts it, but I'm not so little, I'm turning 40 this year, and Dhru and I have been working together for a very long time, like almost 20 years, which is amazing. I'm a nutritionist, I have a background in filmmaking and writing, and I'm very passionate about women's health specifically.

Dhru Purohit (1:11)

The series that I've been teasing about is a series where we regularly talk about what we've been doing to help our parents stay healthy, especially as they get into their 70s and mid 70s in the case of our dad. And like a lot of people who are listening, if you're into health and you've worked on your own health, not that that's something that ever is done, but if you've made good progress and you've seen the benefits, you now start to think about your family as well. And one of those areas that shows up as we all get older, our parents are getting older. And a lot of our friends, a lot of our listeners, and a lot of our readers for the Try This Newsletter find themselves in this position where they're trying to think about, how do I help my parents be healthier without making them feel pressured, psychologically supporting them and meeting with them where they're at, but also what to focus on that makes the biggest difference or can actually move the needle forward.

Before we get into some of the things that we've been doing, just big picture, Kaya, you've had a lot of friends that have also reached out to you that they're in that similar position, that they're trying to help their parents get healthy, especially as they get older. What do you see are some of the biggest challenges that people have been having in implementing that and actually being successful in it?

Kaya Purohit (2:33)

Yeah, it's a great question. And I will say that I do hear from a lot of folks that come from a South Asian background. That's Dhru and I's background as well.

And one of the biggest roadblocks is when it comes to food, because there are cultural differences in how we eat. And so when you ask somebody to kind of change up their diet, they almost feel like they're having this loss of identity. The same foods that I've been eating my whole life, you're telling me I can't eat them anymore. You're telling me that I have to live completely differently. I can't go to these parties. And we're definitely not saying that. It's just about these simple shifts while also considering the cultural differences and respecting that our parents have different lifestyles than we do.

Dhru Purohit (3:13)

And I think even if somebody's not coming from an immigrant family, I once had a friend or a mentor that said, it's harder to get people to change their diet than it is their religion, because food is so personal to so many people. And our parents all grew up eating a particular way and having a particular relationship with food. And if all of a sudden their kids are telling them, you got to do this, you got to do that, you got to do this. I remember being a kid and I remember adults in my life. My parents didn't do it too much, but there might be other people, aunts, uncles, a caretaker, whatever it might be, who are telling you what to do and are saying, do this, don't do that. We all know how itchy that felt when somebody is telling you, you should, should, should, should do this, shouldn't do that, should do this. They're shoulding all over you.