For the older Gals

[V M]

As I get older, I can't help but notice various changes taking place... Physical changes - Aging skin, arthritis, other aches and pains, diminishing hearing and vision, shifts in various interests

I realize that none of us can stay young forever... But how do you deal with it and age gracefully?

[Ms.Behavin]

Well I started to divide my age by 2 after 50!.  Me, I'm going kicking and screaming, alas not so gracefully.  Oh I turned 55 last week and did a 22 mile bicycle ride yesterday.  For me staying active is the key, or as active as I can be anyway

[Janet_Girl]

What is this getting older?  I  am only 39.  and holding.  And come March I will have been holding for 18 years.

Age is but a number.  It depends on how you approach life.  If you think you are just getting older, that is what you get.  Older.

But if you think that it is another day to live to the fullest, then you will live to the fullest.



Oh and if you haven't done the math yet.  I will be 57 come March.

[rejennyrated]

I don't know the answer to this one. 

Seriously, I don't. Aging is one of the most scary parts of life.

All through childhood you struggle to become this cute young girl. In your early twenties you finally manage it for an all too brief moment, and then slowly watch in the mirror as some cruel sod slowly erases her and replaces her, first with your mother and then your grandmother.

It's not a good effect. I want more time, and I want to go back and be a cute, slim, irresponsible teenager again, with all the extra possibilities that our current world allows.

Meanwhile I am taking lots of excercise to stay active and mentally pushing myself hard to stay current and not become one of the complaining out of touch old dears that I see daily.

I want to live till I am at least 120, but for God's sake somebody shoot me if they ever find me carping on about how it all used to be so much better when I was young, and how modern youth have no morals, because it's a lie.

The world has changed a lot, but much of it is hugely for the better.

[Northern Jane]

Growing old is mandatory .... growing up is NOT!

I grew up once, tried it for awhile, and decided it wasn't for me. Now I have been perfecting the juvenile delinquency that I missed!    I am now of an age where there is no one with the authority to tell me "No" and I am making the best use of it.

I try to stay physically active, mentally involved, take care of my body, and live every day to the fullest with lots of laughter. It must be working because nobody can believe I am as old as the calender says and most guess me to be at least 20 years younger (physically).

Sure I miss being young and having abundant energy, slim, curvy, and pretty but "perky" boobs have been replaced by D's and I am still called cute so what the heck!

[Colleen Ireland]

Well, as for me, at the age of 55 (come April), I am looking forward to a repeat of puberty.  But better this time.  So, for all intents and purposes, I am but a mere 13 year old girl.  And the people in my family do age well and live long, so I guess I'm lucky on that score.  Take a look at my avatar photo.  Do I look my age?  On the thread "A photo sharing thread" in the "Just for us" section, somewhere there's a page where I posted a picture of Tim vs. Colleen.  Tim is old.  Colleen is much younger.  I'll be younger still when I go on HRT.

Oh, but I know what you mean.  The thing is, the flower of youth really is fleeting, but there is much beauty also in older women.  Just look at the Dove commercials.  Beauty is where you find it, and it's mostly a reflection of personality.  The same person can be either beautiful or ugly depending on whether they spread beauty around them or distress.  How they treat people.  Whether they are self-centered or gregarious.  I may never get wolf-whistles or draw envious glances based on my appearance alone, but from what I've seen so far, I will draw enough wonderful people around me to create a world of happiness for myself (and others), and that's really all I want.

[annette]

Hi Virginia Marie

In my country there is a saying: everyone wants to get old but nobody wants to be.
We just have to live our lives with as much pleasure as you can have.
And remember, you are not gonna be a year older, only a day, so live that day in the way you like.

Ther are still ( I hope) a lot of days to enjoy.

hugs
annette

[tekla]

For me staying active is the key, or as active as I can be anyway

^^^^^ THIS^^^^^

[Simone Louise]

My wife is your age (with a big birthday coming in ten days). I am seventy, and don't lie about my age (as an aunt used to say: I've earned every one of those years). But I don't age gracefully, at least not so far. Some friend moved into a "mature" community; I need to have friends of all ages, including children and twenty somethings. I still like to skip, do the twenty-mile Walk for Hunger annually, and hike in mountains or along the shore (as far and as fast as my wife can manage). Good genes and luck help. As others have said, keeping active, mentally and physically, seems to be a key. I love my work: heavy physical labor, moving packages in a warehouse for UPS. And the health benefits are great (including three pair of glasses every two years and hearing aids, when I need them). Apropos of nothing, moisturizer helps with the skin. I love to cook and eat, and enjoy my eight hours sleep. There's an inexhaustible list of things to do to make the world a better place in which to live. I want to allow more time for knitting and sewing. But all in all, I'm very happy with my life.

I know most of you are years ahead in exploring the realms of gender, but I intend to play catch up (wherever that leads me). I understand, someday I will die, but until then, I intend to live as fully as I can. Weee!

S

[Glenn]

I myself am 43 years old and I admit I am an age-aholic.

If anyone could please refer me to a good 12 step program a Aging anonymous, I would appreciate it.

Until then.  I am trying to just be the woman I want to be.  Use the age appropriate clothing and to lose weight and get into good health. But the woman in my family are strong and live long so I'll do fine! 
Here ma momma at 80 and daddy at almost 90!



Mom maintains that a glass of wine with dinner keeps you healthy and dad promises to be a beer taste tester anywhere anytime just ask!

hugs
Simone.

[Janet_Girl]

Yeah I would say those are your folks, Simone.  You definitely take after Mom, but you have your Fathers eyes.

[Glenn]

Aww thank you Janet.

I take that as a compliment of the highest order. Hugs

Point is aging is something we all do and if my folks can keep going to by day living loving and laughing, we all can.
You're only as old as you feel.

Okay Janet come here please I need a hug and that way I can tell you how old you feel! 

[Janet_Girl]

Mondo Hugs

[Cindy]

Fish Oil tablets for the joints.
Vitamin tablets for the body
Hormones for the brain and body
Booze for the rest


Cindy

[Colleen Ireland]

Wow, Simone... your dad doesn't look a day over 70!  Quite the feat!  I think he will like my beer (everyone does)...

[V M]

Thank you my dear sisters and friends for you insightful and sometimes humorous replies

I love all of you 

*HUGS*

- Virginia

[juliemac]

I am 35! Thank god for dyslexia  I am my mother except for a few things.....

Since I transitioned, I have built a car. A 1981 VW Scirocco with a 2L 16v that is ported and polished with a T3/T4 turbo. It peaks at 250 BHP. I took it to a track with some friends (that dont know about me) and beat V8 Mustangs and high end Jap cars. Hehehe.
Boy a couple of them were really ticked 
I also teach fuel management and wiring systems for the cars. Not bad for an old lady 

Now I am learning autonomous flight systems. Again, I just that whacked lady, not afraid of laughing at herself or attempting something she's never done before.

I honestly feel free for the first time in my life to laugh and live. Damn it took a long time....

Talk about a late bloomer!

[tekla]

I think ageing - both physical as well as mental - are just an exercise in Newtonian Motion.  Bodies at rest tend to stay at rest, bodies in motion tend to stay in motion.  Minds at rest tend to stay at rest, minds in motion tend to stay in motion.

You need 3 things to make/keep your body healthy:
a) food
b) fresh air
c) exercise
I moved away from full on sparing in my late 30s, and focused my martial arts training (which was my way of keeping fit) on just doing the katas I was taught and work on perfecting the forms in the mind as well as the body - really moving all of it much closer to Tai Chi than martial arts.  I still ski, and I still ski hard slopes, but I quit doing the moguls in my 30s, quit racing by my 40s, and now I just kick back and get into the zen of it.  Being one with the mountain and not having to be the first one down, or King of the Hill and all that.  But it's about the physicalness of it as much as being out in the snow and sun and fresh mountain air and the most mind-blowing beauty of being over Lake Tahoe  If you do nothing, take up Tai Chi, its the best exercise program for old people ever.  Really, billions of old folks in China and the US can't be wrong.

Bikes are good if you do it all the time, and hiking, particularly over terrain like up the side of Mount Hood a little bit or something.  You do live in just about the greatest hiking area of the world there Virgina Marie.  Get some good shoes (I think there is a company right there in Portland makes shoes just for that) and start walking.  A lot of the people on this board, who've lived in one place most of their life, have a hard time imagining how beautiful it is to hike in the area you live in, how lush and deep the forests are, how rugged the coast line is, how the mountains dominate the horizon.  Hell, I think its beautiful and I spend my life in SF and Sonoma and Marin counties, that's how awesome it is up there.  You can hike around one of the most recent volcanoes in the world, how cool is that?

For your mind or my case what's left of it, puzzles/thought games, reading/writing and conversation seem to make all the difference.  Playing cards is great because it's a puzzle thinking deal, and its conversational as all get out.  Do crosswords or Sudoku.  Talk to people.

[Cruelladeville]

*But how do you deal with it and age gracefully*

You don't if honest.... and baby-boomer in nature like myself....

Inside still a young-at-heart optimist...with an outer shell that is increasingly high maintenance...lol

I'm 53 in April....(bugger).... but have been able over the last 9 months to opt for some interventions/tweaks... so on Tues I have a MACS face-lift to help limit the future damage in my 60s....

As I was advised to do by a talented surgeon mate some decades back, do it only once, do it best you can, and ideally betwixt 50-55 years of age... but not so you look odd, weird or different... which can happen if you pick a less talented Dr....

I also take supplements, limit alcohol and have never, ever smoked ciggies... which damages skin long-term for sure...

At the mo i'm 100% fit and healthy with only occasional rheumatoid aches, usually post skiing or sailing if I allow myself to get too wet/cold...

But I take tons of glucosamine, which is one supplement that does really work!

Also maintain the best diet food quality I can... and date a toy-boy!

(you are what you eat)....defo!!

Happy ageing kids...

[Colleen Ireland]

I'm 53 in April....(bugger).... but have been able over the last 9 months to opt for some interventions/tweaks... so on Tues I have a MACS face-lift to help limit the future damage in my 60s....

You're young yet.  I'm 55 in April...