To me, the alleged compliment, “aging gracefully,” sounds so woefully outdated that I cringe every time I hear it – it’s like saying, “forget about your dreams, your purpose here on Earth is now positively correlated to your night cream’s effectiveness. Hope in a Jar, I always hated that name. It’s such an old-fashioned and sexist concept, this idea of a woman living out her middle age years and beyond with some sort of passive resignation – hanging up her goals while trying to hang onto her looks. I realize that most of the time, the term “aging gracefully” is bestowed to women who are embracing their natural beauty over a plastic surgery-enhanced appearance. Well, how wonderful (insert sarcasm); however, isn’t the focus still on the exterior image and recapturing youth?
We love our ages — we’re fit, fabulous and all over 40!
Before any guy who reads this blog gets his boxers in a bunch, the sexism around “aging gracefully” is almost exclusively self-inflicted and further perpetuated by women. You don’t hear of some middle aged man deciding he’s too old to wear his bathing suit to the beach or arm wrestle with his juniors. I’ve never overheard two old guys gossiping about “how good” another man looks for his advancing age – they’re just one upping each other with the profit of deals inked, the size of fish caught, golf handicaps dropped or some other measure of manliness. For the most part, the men I know have audacious goals and are always moving forward despite beer bellies, balding heads and furry ears.
I think it’s time we women start focusing less on aging gracefully and instead just live all our years left to the best of our abilities – and let passion trump polish! You are never too old to keep pursing a life dream or set the bar higher on what drives you now — women like Dara Torres and Julia Child stand out in my mind. Dara Torres for sticking with her passion as a world class swimmer long after colleagues had turned in their goggles – extra Olympic gold in the process!
And, Julia Child for finding her passion later in life – she didn’t even enter culinary school until age 36 and then later wrote the iconic Mastering the Art of French Cooking which ended up as a syndicated television show she hosted well into her later years.
“Find something you are passionate about and stay tremendously interested in it.” – Julia Child
So, I’m off my soap box now and want to let everyone know about Prevention magazine’s Love Your Age Day on October 1st. Like me, the folks here want you to actually start living life rather than worrying about how many candles are on the cake. Prevention magazine has a lot of great content on this topic in the October issue and is kicking it off with a #LoveYourAge celebration on Instagram or Twitter . Please join me in posting a picture that shows how you love your age – don’t forget to hashtag it #LoveYourAge and also #TheFitFork if you have room so I can find the awesomeness of my readers!
I have so many reasons to love my age, but today I’ll share the fitness reasons that (surprise) have nothing to do with running. First, a biggie for me this year was finally getting my muscle up in CrossFit. It took me TWO YEARS of practicing but I was not going to give up! Also, I haven’t been able to do a backbend in TWO DECADES and recently got it back this year (ha- a pun), so this will be the #LoveMyAge pic I’m going to post:
Prevention will also be hosting a Love Your Age panel featuring the amazing Andie MacDowell at the R3 Summit in Austin, Texas on October 16th and 17th. The entire R3 Summit is about how you can refresh, revive and reinvent yourself at any age – other topics and the health and wellness conference include beauty, happiness, health, healthy epicurean, mind and body, and peak performance (the founder of barre3, along with others, will be on site leading workouts).
If you are interested in attending (I went last year and it was AWESOME), Prevention has a special offer for my readers! Enter code R3VIB at checkout for $20 off your R3Summit ticket. Also keep up with announcements and other happenings on social media with #R3Summit. Wear your workout gear and I will see you there!
What accomplishment are you most proud of this year? How do you #LoveYourAge ?
This post is sponsored by Prevention magazine, I received passes to the conference and other goods in exchange for promotion. However, all opinions and commentary are my own.
I actually see the term aging gracefully much differently than you do. I doesn’t say anything about looks or behavior, but just about appreciating your abilities, taking care of yourself, still trying new things, and enjoying the gifts that life brings you. I even wrote a post about it, because I learned all of this from my older dog :-).
I totally agree with the #loveyourage concept, and I believe all should be living our lives to the fullest regardless of how old we are.
I get what you’re saying too, actually it kept entering my mind when I was writing it! I hope from this point of view that I’m not just aging gracefully NOW, but have been since a kid!
You definitely are the perfect example of #loveyourage! Get it girl!
Aww thanks Angela!
Love this! I love my age by being proud of MY accomplishments and loving myself [at any age].
You’re perfect for #loveyourage! Simply amazing my friend!
Yes, I like how you stressed the “MY” — no living vicariously!
LOVELOVELOVETHIS!!!
I love my age as REALLY what other choice do we have!? 🙂
Yeah, but not like “ugh” what other choice to we have . . . but embracing it, making the most of it! YOU are such a great example of #LoveYourAge
Love that picture. Great way to embrace your age. I’m 44 and just ran my first Ragnar. Definitely agree with #loveyourage.
How awesome that you just ran a Ragnar! I was 45 when I ran Hood to Coast for the first time (then ran it again the next year)
. . . . so glad I decided to take on those experiences!
Way to go on the backbend. And great post. Unfortunately women do seem to have a much harder time loving their age than men. My husband is SO excited to turn 30 this year. All the girls I know who are around that age are dreading it.
It’s weird, somehow I’ve always been more excited about the decade landmark birthdays than the “5s” (25,35,45) — 45 wasn’t bad at all, but I remember 25 being tough — like, “wow, I’m totally an adult now, there’s no going back”
My body is changing as it’s getting older but that isn’t a bad thing. I think I’m in a much better place than I was a 29. And yes we do a lot of it to ourselves…
Great post and I love the Julia Childs quote 🙂 I turned 25 the end of August and I had a “holy moly I’m really close to 30” moment! I have also found myself saying “oh I JUST turned 26” when people ask my age ahhaa Why?! You’re right! We do it to ourselves. It is exciting to mature and progress and we should embrace it! 🙂
Julia Child had so many great quotes, what a hoot some of them are others are inspiration like this one! You already have such a great perspective on aging . . . and yes it is exciting and better to get older in many ways!
My greatest accomplishment, physically, will be finishing two marathons. I love my age because I am everything I always wanted to be: a successful woman, wife, mother, and I’ve found my happy place in running. I have never had an issue with getting older. You just get better with age and experience!
I agree Ashley! Congrats on the marathons, mom-ing and more — we sound a lot alike!
I do hate the name “Hope in a Jar” too! I will admit being frustrated with my “aging” body but I’ve come to appreciate it for all that it’s seen me through over the year. Love the sentiment that we should focus on living our lives to the best of our abilities! You are rocking your backbend too. Love it!
Thanks Christine — some day hope to have my feet flat on ground in back bend rather than tippy toes 🙂
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