This is the inevitable thread for ILxors in their forties

What wonders do I have to look forward to??

your friends start dying off more frequently

Between 40 and 42 I aged approximately 25 years.

:(

I'm in shape and a vegetarian now, just need the old spine to not get too much worse. And I should stop eating so much (I don't gain weight, just trying not to stress my digestive system). It would be nice if I could continue drinking 5 - 7 beers a week too.

Jeff....did I last see you irl at 39? I'm scared

your friends start dying off more frequently

Oof, while I don't have any (permanently) ex friends, I will say that I have more than a few friends that had horrible stuff happen just on the other side of the age-50 horizon. A good friend of mine was just diagnosed last week with colon cancer at 53. Pretty treatable at her stage (1-2), thank goodness, but you never know. Another friend of mine recently had a stroke at 50 (!). She has pretty bad aphasia and can't use her right arm or right leg that much, but she/they think she's making progress.

Anyway, make sure you get your annual physicals!

Jeff....did I last see you irl at 39? I'm scared

Considering the beginning of my 40s coincided with Covid, yeah it feels like I’ve aged 25 years

The eyesight thing is relatively minor, but damn it is fucking annoying to get used to!

still playing the "is it the pandemic or perimenopause" game

Ha I am right there with you. The memory thing is fucking annoying, too

Here’s something that might instantly make you feel younger upon watching:
https://www.instagram.com/p/CY6i4PQqtEs/

Forgot to make my entrance into this thread. I joined last summer. Spent the last year getting fitter and feel better for it. Wish I could eat like I did in my 20s. The lines around my eyes are deepening too....

I posted a few months ago that at 48 I hadn't noticed any eyesight problems. Well all of a sudden I can't focus as close as I used to - 30cm is my limit now - or so well in dim light. I was trying to read my daughter a Dr Seuss book with small black text on a dark green ground at bedtime and I absolutely couldn't make it out. I think WFH might be a factor, my desk is against a wall so I have nowhere distant to rest my eyes on.

baldness otoh finally suits me

My eye doctor told me that once you hit your early 40s, reading glasses become far more appealing

most paper books have seriously ableist tiny letters even with reading glasses, thank fuck for kindles.

I thought that I might have some grey by now along with the dwindling follicles, not that it would bother me either way and would wear that look rather than reaching for the dye. Looking forward to adding the elder abuse card to my armoury/survival plan!

I lost thirty pounds between 41 and 42 and haven't looked back -- my appetite hasn't readjusted, including for spirits. One of advancing age's disadvantages -- the body's resistance to change -- I used to my advantage.

Alfred, that is inspiring. I was able to take my metabolism for granted until about 38 but over these past 2 pandemic years I've gained about 20 pounds, and I was already 10 over a weight that would feel healthy. Now at 40 I need to get my shit together and actually lose this weight that makes me feel gross way too much of the time.

i got through periods of being better at it but i just scarfed two handfuls of candy

― i cannot help if you made yourself not funny (forksclovetofu), Wednesday, February 9, 2022 5:25 PM (yesterday) bookmarkflaglink

What was the country of origin?

I can't focus as close as I used to - 30cm is my limit now - or so well in dim light.

i think the reading in dim light/night vision issue is definitely a product of age ... for over a decade i have complained about those insanely bright LED headlights that newer cars have ... and now i'm thinking ... i would really benefit from having brighter headlights on my car so I can read residential neighborhood street signs at night.

xp Sweden!

I feel like I've aged 10 years in the last two years (just turned 47). It's partly covid, but I'm just generally slower: metabolically, mentally, physically. My left knee is now fucked enough that I can't entertain the idea of anything beyond swimming and walking and my eyes have gone from pretty much A1 to needing a double varifocal change in two years.

My "boy" is 16 this year and is nearly the same height as me and is lithe and supple. I've also noticed in recent photos that I'm essentially turning into my old man. I'm being existentially squeezed from both ends, ffs.

No question my metabolism slowed when I hit my mid thirties; I was once thin as a reed, then, without changing my diet much, watched myself bloat. I wasn't overweight but felt so.

Sometime in 2016-2017 I reduced portion sizes, cut carbs and starches, etc., and, well, it worked. When the pandemic began, I started walking. At my peak in 2020 I walked six miles -- too intense, too time-consuming. I hover at just below five miles daily now and am content.

I forgot to post here and bookmark when I joined the club four months ago. So... hello all! Not sure how much longer I'll be even a semi-regular poster on ILX. But I do hope to be one of those 40-somethings who remains an occasional lurker, and a still-present voice to those who keep up with a handful of beloved threads.

welcome!

ILX gets better in your '40s.

Doc Casino, your posts were a gateway into ilx for me, hope you stick around! And welcome, I joined the 40s club last month

Heh, I also thought about posting to this thread four months ago, which means our birthdays must be very very close Doc!

i welcome the new Sagittarians to this thread

thanks, y'all!

We had our goddamm company retreat last week, and this 25-year-old sales guy and I were bitching about the rigged trivia contest (a dragonfly only lives 24 hours? Ppppht. More like one to eight weeks.)

I said something like how this never happened during bar trivia, where everything's up on the screen. He asked "what do you mean, 'up on the screen?'" I said, oh come on. They've got those little black-and-white monitors spread out around the room and the waitress gives you this little rubber beer-resistant keyboard with a four-inch anten––

And then I just stopped in mid-sentence. "You know," I said. "They probably have an app for this now."

loling at the final realization, but also what trivia writer confuses dragonflies and mayflies

Same trivia contest that had the music category featuring

OLDIES
1980s
1990s
2000s
2010s

And would you like to know what the golden oldie song was?

Aw, that's a shame they don't have the little tabletop trivia boxes anymore. I used to love going to TGI Fridays for NTN trivia *checks watch* 25 years ago.

xp The same ones who think that quacks don't echo and that goldfish have 13 second memories?

lol, wondering now if one of the questions was

"What percent of our brain do human beings use?"

Same trivia contest that had the music category featuring

OLDIES
1980s
1990s
2000s
2010s

And would you like to know what the golden oldie song🕸 was?

little tabletop trivia boxes

crosspost to “American things” thread

OLDIES
1980s
1990s
2000s
2010s

Lol. Exactly.

Well I hate that these threads are largely people complaining about their health issues, but I only made it ~6 months into my 40s before my first major health scare. Turns out it's not c@ncer thankfully, just another auto-immune disorder resulting in low platelets. Should hopefully be fine, just one more thing to keep an eye on for the rest of my life.

i turned 40 in july. my close-range eyesight has noticeably deteriorated over the past six months to a year, to the point where it's getting hard to read my phone. i can make do with readers somewhat but it's probably time to make an appointment with an eye doctor. contemplating wearing glasses or contacts long-term. i mean it's pretty fucking anodyne lol.

i also feel generally ... dumber than i used to haha. missing details. not remembering as much as i used to. maybe it's the daily 420 idk. ah well.

The eye thing is super annoying! It just impacts every aspect of day-to-day. My gradual dumbing took a sharp spill downward when I started tamoxifen. Seriously having to weigh what's more important to me: maximizing cognitive functioning or minimize chance of Stage 4 cancer recurrence. Thanks, aging!

I’d pick being a little dumb over cancer any day, but it’s not a choice I have to make right now. I think it’s bad in that it’s not the good dumb that you’re talking about

I basically feel like I was bumbling along on my own during the last few years and it had some fun bits, just in my own sphere and not worry about social interaction. I also went from a dozen gray hairs to a lot, did well with fitness for a bit and now have broadened torso-ally, and I can still read relatively closely but my eye doc said that if I get new glasses, he wouldn’t want me to feel ripped off in six months from not having bought bifocals.

Anybody else planning to try to get a colonoscopy? Just had a friend die of colon cancer - he had a family history, and tried to get a colonoscopy, and they told him "come back when you're 45."

that seems like complete horseshit that is way the system works. as far as I can tell, getting a PCP who advocates well is the trick

My dad just had a tumor removed from his colon; so far it looks like it was benign and hadn’t spread. The experience made him remember that one of his brothers died of colon cancer. I’m 45, gotta make the call and set it up.

I didn't have a family history when I got my first colonoscopy at 33. If they hem-haw about age, just tell them, fine, I guess the blood will dry out eventually.

I have cataracts already. Small ones but they're now creating noticeable minor blur to my vision. Surgery prob in my future