Aging Gracefully

Or Not. Aging Gracefully... Aging Disgracefully. Whatever.

Aging gracefully.

Means different things to different people, doesn't it?

After all they say 60 is the new 40. With advances in medicine, nutrition and standards of living, we don’t look or act like our grandparents did at 40, 50 or 60.

As the youngest Baby Boomers move into their mid-forties and the eldest hit 60, we’re all going to have to re-assess what being “middle-aged” and “senior” means.

Because the Baby Boomer generation is used to ruling the world, and such a diverse and vital group is going to resist being labelled. Or aging gracefully.

After we hit 40 we’re officially grown up, but just barely (in our own minds, anyway). Some of us have only just begun to THINK about aging, let alone aging gracefully.

• We still have the energy to party, but start looking at our watches if we’re out after 1am, and think wistfully of bed.

• We still get the occasional zit, but have also started getting our first wrinkles. So we're mixing our expensive anti aging skin care with occasional dabs of Clearasil.

• We might have a toddler racing around the house, but are simultaneously discovering grey hairs. In odd places. Places that have never SEEN a hair before, let alone a grey one. Sheesh.

• We appreciate a good Pinot Grigio with dinner, but still buy our favourite childhood candy when we think no-one's looking. And then feel slightly ill. But still feel it's worth it. What ever became of Popeye Cigarettes, anyway?

And now, despite these juvenile tendencies, we’re being labelled as senior daters by some marketing suit with no appreciation for what that might do to our delicate egos.

Photo © Melodi T

But we have the means to fight back. We look fab, we’re fit, we have a killer dress sense, we have money to buy ruinously expensive anti aging skin care products, and we still rule the world.

Plus, we have access to technology and nutritional supplements that our grandparents never dreamt of: Botox, HRT, Rogaine and a multitude of other products.

They say you need to choose between your body and your face at some stage. Some of us just choose earlier than others. Anti aging skin care, any one?

Anti Aging Skin Care

Anti aging skin care can either cost you a fortune (and if you have fun spending it, then wahay!), or you can go the frugal, but effective route. Good skin after 40 doesn't have to cost you a fortune.

Click here to visit our Anti Aging Skin Care page

Anti Aging Supplements

Anti Aging Supplements make up another multi-billion dollar industry (or possibly trillion dollar industry by now).

Just pop some shark gelatin capsules, more Q-10, vitamins C, and E, a bit of powdered shitake and presto, you’re immortal and immune to all that could possibly ail you.

Anti Aging Exercise

Anti Aging Exercise – this is Pilates and yoga and Tai Chi and all that sort of thing. We know we should do it, if we want to stay bendy and able to stand up straight when we’re 100.

Sometimes we do it, sometimes we just lie on the couch, pinching our flabby bits and fretting that we’re not doing it.

Anti Aging Foods

Anti Aging Foods – of course some people prefer to get their anti aging antioxidant fix naturally. There are dozens of super foods the nutritionists nag us to eat.

And occasionally, we do.

Which makes us feel virtuous for a few minutes, so to reward ourselves we reach for the jumbo bag of cheesy poofs. After this act of gluttony we feel guilty, of course, so we pop a few anti oxidant supplements, which in a just and ideal world, would cancel out the junk food.

This is the Chocolate Cake and Diet Coke theory of diet and nutrition. If you’re female you’ll probably recognise this one. Always order a Diet Coke with your chocolate cake, as some miracle property in the Coke instantly nullifies the chocolate cake calories you’ve just taken in.

This also works with other basic food groups, like ice cream, potato chips, and pie.

Haven't eaten a green vegetable in six months? Just take some more anti oxidant supplements. You can buy powdered green tea, broccoli, and ginger now. No need to eat real food if you don’t feel like it.

Anti Aging Serum

Anti aging serum and magic potions - cosmetic pharmaceuticals like Restylane and Botox ensure that if you ignore the anti aging skin care, anti aging supplements and anti aging foods, and just live on a diet of cheesy poofs, you’ll probably get away with it.

Just stick a needle in your face every six months and you’ll erase a multitude of sins. Hurrah!

So maybe we should rethink the aging gracefully thing, and decide not to age at all. Hmm, maybe we need some posh anti aging skin care after all.