Thoughts on Aging

It's no secret that I'm turning 40 this year.  I remember I had a hard time when I turned 30.  I didn't want to turn 30.  I didn't want to get old.  But once the birthday happened & was gone & over with I was able to let go of feeling that way & just move forward.  And that's what life is, just time marching forward & no one being able to stop it or slow it down. 

I can remember as a teenager being concerned with how I might look when I got older.  I was hopeful that I wouldn't age badly, so to speak.  And while I am far less concerned with those sort of things these days, I would be lying if I said I didn't think about it at all.

When I was younger I was very knowledgable in regards to plastic surgery.  And I can remember thinking that I was not opposed to doing a simple face lift when I got old.  I've never cared about wrinkles, but when stuff starts getting saggy it does bother me.  A simple face lift, where you simply remove the excess baggy, saggy skin, seems like a good compromise to me. 

But the world of plastic surgery has changed drastically since I was young.  I don't think there are doctors out there that are even willing to do a simple old fashioned face lift.  There are all these injectable options now, most notably botox.  There are so many now that I can't even keep track anymore.

And for some reason most people like the injectable stuff.  Me, personally, I'm ok with cutting off excess baggy skin, but I am NOT ok with injecting stuff into myself.  Stuff that may have serious side effects & long term consequences.  But I know LOTS of people that will say "I'm ok with injectables, but not with being cut on". 

And nowadays there are celebrities who are starting the injectables while still in their TWENTIES!!  What are they gonna look like at 40???  I have come to realize that once you start doing plastic surgery on your face you'd better be prepared to keep it up or else you're gonna look REALLY bad. 

As I'm sure I've said many times before, I started working out at age 19.  My first workout video was by Cindy Crawford.  I LOVED the workout & ended up buying her next 2 workouts when they came out as well.  And I STILL use her workout DVDs in my current rotations.  At the same time she was the big name in modeling & was all over magazine covers.  She is 6 years older than me & I have tried to keep an eye on her over the years to see what she is doing fitness-wise & how she is looking, etc.  I really liked her philosophy of just eating right, working out, & taking good care of herself.  I like how she did all her modeling stuff in her 20s & then got married & had kids in her 30s (once she was too old to model anyways).  And she has certainly set up other avenues of income along the way, not just relying on modeling.  I admire her business smarts, as it were, as well as her fitness smarts. 

But then a year or two ago I heard she admitted to doing botox.  I thought it was funny that she admitted to botox, but not to collagen.  There must be some difference there that I am not aware of.  I was sad to hear that she would do that.  Then I stopped & looked at some current photos of her (she's not in the news as often these days, so I really don't see her very often) & I can clearly see that she's had a tummy tuck & now has breast implants (probably from doing a breast lift--when you lift you lose part of your breast tissue, so most women choose to put an implant to either keep their original size or some choose to go to a larger size at that time).  Although I must say that after having 2 kids (especially having them later in life, your body just doesn't bounce back the same as someone in their 20s) I can't blame her for doing those surgeries.  But the face stuff made me sad.  What happened to her original philosophy of just plain old hard work at taking care of yourself? 

And again, I stop to consider that she is only 6 years older than me, she is my brother's age.  And then I found this video of her (link is below, skip the beginning of her posing for pics, just look at her talking) & I honestly feel sorry for her.  Her face is soooo different now & just plain looks bad to me.  There's something really wrong with her mouth & the lower part of her face, although I suppose the upper part of her face is maybe paralyzed with botox.  Maybe that's what seems so off to me.  I would say she looks much, much older than my brother here (just comparing because they are the same age). 

http://youtu.be/qFXvG_oUVB8

And so, while I feel sad for Cindy (& lots of other celebrities), I can say that this really reinforces my feelings of not wanting to inject stuff into my face.  It also takes me a step further to being able to say that I don't even want a face lift if my face ends up saggy.  Because after looking at a lot of celebrities & how bad they end up looking I would have to say that the saggy look would actually look better than the bad, worn out, too much plastic surgery look. 

I am always reminded by a saying of my mother's while I was a kid.  She would often say (mostly to my older sister) "all you can do is the best you can with what you have to work with".  And it's sooo true.  When I was younger I wasted a lot of time wishing I could look different or look prettier, etc.  And how pointless was that?  None of that wishing accomplished anything except reinforcing low self esteem.  All I can do is try to be the very best me that I can be, & do the best I can with what I have to work with.  And so that is my personal philosophy for aging.  I plan to continue with what I've been doing all along.  To continue working out, eating right, taking good care of myself.  And yes, aging is inevitable.  It will happen.  But while it's happening I can know that I have taken the best care of myself as I knew how along the way.  And I will be waiting for my perfect heavenly body, oh what a glorious day that will be, to be free of all the aches & pains & other health issues my current body is so afflicted with.

When I was younger, people always said that I looked very young for my age.  Occasionally people will still tell me I look young for my age, but I don't see it. When I look in the mirror I think I look my age.  But thankfully I don't think I look bad, or older than I actually am.   And in the grand scheme of life it doesn't really matter anyways.  I'm done rambling for now...........