In future posts, there will be inspiring interviews with women who have made major lifestyle and vitality changes and details on how they did it. There will be interviews with personal stylists sharing tips that will help you fine-tune your personal style so that you feel your best you. There will be suggestions from nutritionists on beating hunger while dieting as well as the latest research in nutrition. I’ll be interviewing fitness coaches on how to find the right exercise program for you, and much more.
My background
My background is over 30 years of helping tell stories as a television and video producer. I graduated college with a psychology degree. I love research and interviewing people and trying to see life through other people’s eyes. I also believe that our collective knowledge is more useful than any one expert’s advice. I hope to crowdsource weight loss, fitness and style inspiration from my readers as well.
My philosophy
I believe that the baby boomer generation is breaking new ground in what healthy aging looks like. Our lifespan is now 20 years longer on average than the last generation but people are still expecting aging after fifty to be an unchangeable downhill trajectory of ill health, energy decline, and death.
Through my transformative journey of weight loss, vitality and health revitalization, I know for a fact that a rejuvenation effort started early enough in midlife (and with a good bit of luck avoiding the onset of illness} we can ride a U-curve upward of energy and vitality. On most days, I feel 20 years younger. On some days, I’m almost embarrassed to say, that I even feel 30 years younger than my chronological age. Revitalization works.
Who knew that taking back control of weight and fitness could turn back the clock on age-related mental and physical decline in such a dramatic fashion. There are not enough role models for women either in our friends’ lives or the media to convey the fact that change is possible at any age. I hope to change that.
More about my weight loss and style transformation journey (here)
Due to recent advances in medicine and exercise research, we know now that we are not doomed to follow our parents’ trajectory of aging. We know now that, had our parents had the benefit of medical treatment that we have today, they would probably have lived healthier, longer lives.
Too much data has accumulated in the intervening years for us to dismiss the data that shows the positive effects of exercise and good nutrition on longevity.
The good news is that scientists are finding that exercise activates and changes genes in our DNA that potentially extend longevity and slow mental decline. We are learning that we can slow and possibly reverse some aspects of aging that many assume are inevitable.
The bad news (for some) is that it does take work and commitment. However, my experience and that of others have discovered that the lifestyle changes do become easier over time. I have found that once I got a few changes dialed in, the rewards are way more frequent than the downsides. That helps to keep you going.
The problem is:
So many midlife women I see still look and act as if they ARE old. It is as if they are unaware that 60 is no longer old by today’s standards. They will not BE old for at least another 10 years but they have bought into the ageist stereotype that diminishes their zest and quality of life. I want to help women thrive in midlife.
The question we SHOULD be asking is how to optimize the additional years we have been given? The answer: work out to re-build lost muscle and enjoy the benefits of increased vitality and health for another 10 years.
I am never turning back
I also know that I never want to feel the lack of energy, depression, self-hate, dread, and powerlessness I felt for 50 years battling constant weight gain that I couldn’t seem to control. While the benefits of better health numbers are nice, the real joy for me is not getting out of bed every day and dreading putting on jeans that will be even tighter than the previous day. For me, it is a daily joy playing the game of what to wear that will best broadcast another aspect of my colorful personality to the world.
Weight maintenance for me is a constant battle, unfortunately. For others, it is not as much of a struggle. It is so individual. Apparently, my metabolism is particularly sluggish. I will be approaching my weight maintenance with the attitude that I have a metabolic disease, like Diabetes, that I must manage day in and day out.
However, please know that I’d rather fight that battle with all its’ rewards than the soul-deadening weight-gain battle with its attendant sense of defeat and powerlessness that killed my aliveness for so many years.
In future posts:
During my transformational journey, I utilized some coping tools, mental and physical distraction techniques, relaxation exercises, and techniques often used in chronic pain management to help me handle hunger and cravings – and they helped a lot. I believe that the medical community needs to do more in providing coping techniques like the ones I developed so that dieters can help themselves stay on track until they have met their fitness and weight loss goals. The medical community tells you what to eat but not how to cope in the moment when you want to eat your own hand off with hunger or a need for self-soothing (exaggeration).
In future posts, I will share some of those coping skills with you.
Now, to confuse the issue:
I do want to say that there is some data to show that weight loss does not necessarily make a person healthier despite what the medical community espouses. I am not a fat shamer. There have been some research studies in recent years that go counter to the prevailing medical advice to lose weight for better health. These studies indicated that people who are overweight actually live longer than people who are of lighter weight.
Who knows what the truth really is about the effects of moderate overweight on health?
More research will come in over the next few years that make this issue clearer. We just don’t know with certainty right now what impact weight has on health.
Having said that, I’m not so sure that normalizing obesity is the only alternative. We do know that extra weight and inflammation from sugar and poor nutrition contributes to joint degradation and skeletal issues that can be debilitating, at the very least. Another fact that might give us cause for worry on this issue is that in the natural world, (of which we humans are a part), we don’t see overweight as a general condition in thriving populations; nature selects for normal weight. That fact makes me think that obesity and overweight are not to be desired if it can be avoided for health and longevity reasons. However, I believe that the range of what is considered healthy weight by the medical community in the future will get larger. The range of healthy will be expanded and re-defined, encompassing people who now are classified as overweight. Healthy can look different for every person.
To recap: getting physically strong, or regaining lost muscle mass at midlife is hugely important to feel energetic in midlife. Building muscle seems to be one of the magic bullets for vitality, mental health, and longevity. While I recommend you listen to your doctors’ recommendations regarding weight loss, also make sure to double down on muscle building.
Final thought: don’t overlook booking the services of a personal stylist, whether you have lost weight loss or not. It will boost your spirits and self-esteem in ways you can hardly imagine. It is so fun to be more of who you are at any stage of life and to broadcast that to the world.