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Sooner or later, age will inevitably have an effect on your body...and your mind. When it comes to keeping fit and losing weight in your forties and fifties are you still motivated by the same forces? The general thinking is that in your twenties the main impetus to looking after yourself is often the desire to increase sexual attractiveness. We workout to attract a mate and aim to achieve peak health in order, perhaps subconsciously, to appear supremely fertile. Whereas, it has been suggested, later on in life we embark on fitness programmes in an attempt to hang on to our health, to continue to enjoy the same life to the best of our physical ability. To maintain the status quo. Pure rot. The mature ladies that I meet every day do not even pretend towards a desire to exercise to counter dwindling abilities. No. Deep down they want to look good, to be the envy of other women and to be attractive to the opposite sex. At 40, 50, 60 and beyond. Yes, the desire to lose weight is there but more as a vehicle to hell raise rather than as part of a health phase. This is backed up by recent reports suggesting that underneath the calm, collected exterior of todays 50 plus woman lies a simmering turmoil of dissatisfaction and a yearning for change. Apparently, the seismic hormonal shifts around this age render women less maternal, less accepting and much more likely to embark on adulterous affairs and similar illicit liaisons. The motivation is excitement, fun and danger. "A seasoned woman is spicy," writes Gail Sheehy, the over-50-and-proud author of 'Passage's and founder of the Seasoned Women's Network online. "She has been marinated in life experience. She is at the peak of her influence and power. She is committed to living fully and passionately in the second half of life, despite failures and false starts." This is a great time to be a woman over forty. We are no longer obliged to be...anything. We are who we are with no questions asked. For a long time women who didn't marry were considered spinsters after a certain age. How often do you hear that word now? There is no longer a stigma about being single and it won't raise any eyebrows if you are 'dating' in your forties and beyond. A world of opportunities opens up when you turn 40. Today, there are entire web sites, companies, and services devoted to the over-40 demographic. Look back at photographs of your grandmothers when they were around fifty years old. You'll be in for a shock. They appear to be so much older than their years. Yes, it's down to a combination of the accepted hairstyles, clothing and image of the day. But you just can't help wondering what suppressed longing, desires and yearning lay behind those stiffly composed faces in the photographs. They look so...resigned. Today – women over 40 are just getting started. |
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