This is the inevitable thread for ILxors in their forties

OK, "Fascination Street" it is then.

i like to listen to a song i like with a long intro and then trying to plank for as long as possible (i've only made it maybe 3 min max)

humblebrag.

(i rarely can go beyond 90 secs these days)

for a while before my 40s i was running, and it turns out that it's just too hard on me (and i don't really like it that much apart from listening to music while i do it), so i had to switch up exercise routines to something more placid/indoors
i don't really pay much attention to the time -- once i estimated i was planking for 4 min and it was like 2.5, lol. i briefly tried to increase my time (hence my record) but stopped caring and went back to just planking for as long as possible...and then a little more. eventually the time increases but i try not to pay attention to that.

i do the same.
put on something loud, and try and stay distracted.
no outdoors crap/gear required, and so far has deterred my back issues.
that and my exercise bike (which i have just rediscovered after years of neglect), will have to suffice cos i refuse to leave the house to do any of this shit.

Holy shit I just tried planking and boy is it hard.

planks (done correctly) are about core strength

Certainly feels like it.
I work in an office where half the people are gym gym gym and the other half don't take any exercise whatsoever. I'd like to be the middle ground.

Although having said that I do walk 3 miles a day.

Holy shit I just tried planking and boy is it hard.

hence my reaction re the 3 min max.
looks and sounds easy, but ..
that said, a few days/weeks in and you can feel the difference in your lower back (my initial reason)

XP not even going for the cheap laughs when I tell you I had to read that twice

In my region, planking is method of cooking fish.

after you plank how much more are you supposed to plank after your attempt at planking gives way

i.e. how many 'reps'

I'm 40 on Sunday, and spending it with my partner in a quiet Suffolk hotel, hopefully reading a PG Wodehouse novel and having our energetic walking plans rained off.

That’s a good birthday.

My bf was complaining about how much his joints and muscles were always hurting and he does moderately physical labor for a living so I wasn't really listening, and then he started taking a basic multivitamin and now he's a new human being. So fwiw.

thanks! I still don't know the difference between yoga and pilates, so clearly I am not up on my 20th century fitness activities.

― sarahell

Pilates has more cool gear and less spirituality

We've all heard a lot of aging-related jokes about the Nirvana Nevermind baby, but for real, 2018 is the year that baby outlives Kurt Cobain

Just gotta get past April first.

Old metal dudes are the best. I kinda wish I was among them but I'm pretty damn borderline.

That’s a good birthday.

Whether or not it rains.

friend on FB (Carrol O'Connor was 44 years old and Jean Stapleton was 45 when All in the Family first came on TV) pic.twitter.com/pJnvAECzPs

— joe janecek (@joejanecek) January 26, 2018

maybe we're okay

holy shit

Those were the daaaaaays

they look like they live on cottage cheese and applesauce

Cottage cheeese- and apple blintz-fueled epidemic of chinlessness.

That's not quite true about the AiTF leads; O'Connor was 46 and Stapleton was 48. (They seem to be referring to the first pilot from a couple years earlier, which never got a regulkar broadcast). Still yeah, people generally looked older then.

James Gandolfini didn't turn 40 until 2001. In this pic, he's 39:

https://i.imgur.com/gM5XAY2.png

is it just me or are we aging better as a generation? i mean i know _I_ look good but it seems like most of my fortysomething friends look like they're in their thirties. these boomer/greatest gen guys in their forties look like they're in their fifties

i wouldn't say it extends to everyone in my generation but many people whose lifestyle permits seem to be holding up better than their elders (self included)
life can make a person look haggard in any number of ways; age is but one of them

having a kid pretty much destroys you is how i break it down to an extent

having a kid pretty much destroys you is how i break it down to an extent

ABSOLUTELY. Though I never say this out loud around people I know who have kids.

(active) dads and moms alike ime; pretty clearly the lack of sleep and massive stress that does it

^ This. Obv it's a generalization and not true of everyone but in general the ppl I know who look the youngest out of my peers are the ones who don't have kids.

also these days we're less likely to have been smoking for 30 years

and probably eat more fresh vegetables

I smoked for 20 years but I've also been using eye cream and anti-aging moisturizer since I was 18 and a very wise esthetician told me it was never too early to start and to always always wear sunscreen. I would tongue kiss that lady if I could find her today. Also, I do think genetics plays a role in this stuff too.

I got made fun of for leaving my eye cream at a friend's apartment after a sleepover for a bachelorette party when I was in my mid-twenties. An email was sent around asking who the old lady was her forgot her cream and they all laughed. Guess who's laughing now, ladies? I read something the other day which said that 20 somethings are now getting botox as a preventive anti-aging thing which seems bonkers to me.

I had a meeting with a client yesterday who is two years older than me and has two kids, and she looks pretty great. Like the people I know who are my age that have kids don't look any older than those who don't -- maybe the women are slightly heavier, which culturally connotes "older" -- however, fat generally makes your skin look younger.

Like, all else being equal, the heavier people I know in their 40s have younger looking skin than the thin ones, so it kinda evens out in the "what age do you look" department, outside of wardrobe choices and balding/graying issues.

but honestly (xp way up thread), if I had the time (and fuck I wish I did), I would photoshop Archie and Edith wearing contemporary "hip" 40-something clothes and see whether they still look "old" for their ages.

the way people treat agedness as repellent disappoints me
youth will always be fleeting -- even for the genetically fortunate, the diligent moisturizers, the health freaks. even if i look younger than i am right now, some day i won't and i want to be able to feel alright about myself when that happens.

yeah! especially at our age(s) -- it's one thing when your a teen/20-something, but now, it's like self-loathing. Why do it? ... Funny enough, earlier today my neighbor (who I think is about 80) was using her new walker and getting on the senior bus, and I envisioned myself at that age doing the same thing -- what it would be like, how I would feel about my fellow infirm senior citizens -- would it be like when I was 8 and switched schools and had to take the bus, with a bunch of other children, an age where we're fragile and dependent as well.

I'm fine with aging and actually looking quite forward to it but I agree that the way people treat it is really upsetting. I know that it's inevitable but I'm still going to take small measures like using moisturizers and sunscreen to look the best I can as I get older and I don't think there's anything wrong with that. I don't want to look like I'm 25 but I'm quite happy to look good for forty if that makes any sense.

Tbh I'm going full on kaftan, crazy glasses, and turbans when I hit 70 and I'm very much looking forward to my Mrs. Roper chic stage of life.

I'm pretty much full-on Mrs. Roper chic in the summer when it gets over 90.

And although I would like to see Carol O'C in the outfits you're proposing, S, I think he'd sill look pretty damn old for 44. I honestly would have guessed he was about 60 in that picture.

x-post - yessssssssssssss :)

the kaftan thing is great -- you get air circulation, don't worry about shaving your legs, getting sunburned ...and potentially importantly, it signals to the men who seem to develop into super solicitous creeps in the hot months, that you do not give a fuck, and they should leave you the fuck alone.

xxp - I just think about how we perceive age -- as in "how old is this person" -- and what forms those perceptions, what cues do we look for. Some of it is biological/genetic, but I think there's cultural influence in that as well, idk.

Yeah think about Cary Grant or Humphrey Bogart as romantic leads. In the mid-20th century straight white guys did not necessarily want or need to look young.

x-post - No, I think you're definitely right about that. Also, the air circulation factor is key. I pretty much only wear dresses in the summer for that reason. When it's hot and humid out I can't stand clothes that are clingy.

xp - honestly think about the fact that Harrison Ford and Clint Eastwood were romantic leads up until ...

which brings us to the contentious territory of aging men vs. women