What a Drag it is Getting Old!
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I'm 43 next week. Christ. How the hell did THAT happen?
The main thing that's happened to me re: ageing is my eyesight getting worse. It was always near-perfect until last year when I suddenly began to have major issues reading small print close-up. I was having issues with my eyes related to my rosacea (dry eye syndrome, now thankfully sorted for now) and thought it had to be something awful to do with that - you can get ocular rosacea and I feared the worst. Seriously, I was imagining everything bad. So I went to the optician and got a proper eyetest, after which he informed me that my eyes were very healthy and that I was simply suffering from the usual lessening of eye muscle strength that starts in your early forties. Quote, "It's your age, love." YES THANK YOU. So I got reading glasses. First pair ever. EXCITING. Actually, I spent some decent money and picked a really nice pair of frames and I rather enjoy wearing them. Sometimes I wear them when I don't really need to, because they're actually quite flattering and I keep getting comments at work about how nice I look in them. So apart from not being able to read small print on packages and things when out if I don't take them with me, it's not really a giant negative.
I have no cycle issues at all - my periods are much lighter than they were but they're still super-regular. Grey hair - yep, it's crap, but well, that's what hair dye's for. I also recommend serious make-up. I now use a much lighter foundation than I used to (with titanium dioxide, a UVA-blocking sunscreen) and some Givenchy (SMMY will be so proud of me!) highlighting prisme powder highlighting type things that I swear take a few years off me. I'm a total convert - they make me glow and I look better than ten years ago, I swear. Having my rosacea finally well under control and having had a few laser treatments over the past few years to get rid of some of the broken capillaries and general damage it caused over the years it was untreated helps immensely with that as well. I also do dry-skin body brushing with a soft bristle brush and use a Salux cloth in the shower and again, my body skin looks better than ten years ago. Much smoother and brighter. On the plus side too, I don't seem to suffer with eczema anymore, except for a tiny bit that will flare up on one hand occasionally and is easy quelled with some cortisone cream. OK, I've exchanged it for more exciting and insufferable skin auto-immune-based complaints, but it's nice to see the back of something that has plagued me since childhood. My mum says my first doctor said I'd grow out of it. Well, it's taken 30 years or so, but I guess I have, for the most part.
What I've found is that as you get older, maintaining a regular exercise pattern - nothing super-strenuous or stupidly punishing, but regular, weight-bearing and that works your whole body - is of immense benefit. My knees are the part of my body that's faring the worst in terms of wear and tear. They're creaky as hell - I'm sure I inherited this from my mum's side of the family - but daily low-impact exercise means it's easy to kneel down and get up and run up the stairs and do all those things that I find I can't do half as well when I slack off and lose muscle mass. It's really important to keep the muscle on and try to keep the fat off to keep from putting stress on the joints. I've lost weight and am thankfully thinner than in my mid-thirties now, which is good. I have exercise-induced angioedema and have to drug myself to exercise, but it's worth it. I eat a lot better too - lots more vegetables and fruit, organic yoghurt and foods to maintain gut health and as little junk as possible, although I'm certainly not perfect in that department and need to cut down on sugar more.
So, you know, it's not too bad, this ageing thing, for me, so far. It's just I can't get away with bad habits anymore re: diet and exercise. I'm really a lot more aware of my mortality than I was and it's affected how I treat myself. It really affects me when I don't eat properly or make an effort to move daily.
Originally Posted by Kari
