I’m Awake…$!&% Hurts!

Staying active during the day was never really a big deal for me. As long as I was groovin’ and movin’ nothing about my older self bothered me.

Getting up in the morning is another matter. That’s when I tend to notice the twinges, pinches, pulls and pains that accompany a life lived running, swimming, cycling, having incidents and accidents and just not getting a rest day now and then.

I have a pain relief collection that rivals anything at your local drugstore. Shelves in my closet, not to mention a medicine cabinet separate from The Husband, with pills, salves, patches, gels, swabs, wraps, and lotions. Plus the high-tech heating pad tucked into the living room couch (trust me, I never put that away) and a small TENS device that I actually bought for the better half, but he hated and I wound up using with some success.

I’ve added prescription steroid cream to the collection recently, thanks to a cranky elbow. My personal favorite is the super-effective, super-stinky known as Biofreeze.™ I met up with this product when it was a freebie sample packet in a race goodie bag, and I’ve been hooked from first squeeze. The odor is enough to make your honey hunker down in another room for the night, but the stuff is magic. And you need this kind of magic to make it to a (mostly) pain-free morning sometimes.

Age should never stop activity, though it may alter its course, speed and frequency. Age may necessitate the intervention of a good masseuse, chiropractor or sports medicine practitioner. Invest in the help of experts. Have a “go for the glam squad” on your side to keep you moving. We’ll all get older. But we want to do it while we reset our PRs and make the kids look tired and exhausted doing it. I can tell you there’s nothing more satisfying than being the oldest person in the office and the only one who can climb three flights of stairs every morning to get there.

It Takes A Village To Look This Good, People!

Decades ago, I could wake up, roll out of bed, use my fingers to comb my hair, dash on a little makeup, throw on some clothes and head out the door in about a half-hour. OK, 45 minutes if I allowed time for a shower.

Now, not so much. Not that it takes more time, just that the time must be used better to hide more flaws and play up what’s left of my charms.

There’s all kinds of products out there for the mature set. Specialized cosmetics, creams, potions, skin lotions, treatments. All of it to give you a healthy and youthful glow. And don’t get me started on the hair thing. From conditioners and coloring to straighteners and relaxers, you could try something new on any given part of your body every day and die still trying to get to them all.

Then toss in the pharmaceutical treatments, including injections, and outright plastic surgery, and it’s no longer a youth movement. More like a shove over the cliff.

I’m not against looking your best, whether you’re all in turning back the clock or taking a sledgehammer to Mother Time. It’s something we can all strive for every day. And I’m guilty of maintaining my own medicine cabinet full of products, plus the spares on the “beauty shelf” in the walk in closet (hey, they were on sale!). The Husband long ago figured out he needed a medicine cabinet of his own; sharing is out of the question. And as for our bathroom shower…I’ve pretty much taken over the window ledge and the shower caddy with my products.

The short version of this: it takes a lot to look like you’re doing nothing at all as you age. Think of yourself like a fine and expensive automobile. You don’t use cheap filters, fluids and cleaning products for maintenance. You wind up using too much too often. Go for the best, use less and look fabulous. It’s an investment, not an expenditure.

Introduce Yourself (Example Post)

This is an example post, originally published as part of Blogging University. Enroll in one of our ten programs, and start your blog right.

You’re going to publish a post today. Don’t worry about how your blog looks. Don’t worry if you haven’t given it a name yet, or you’re feeling overwhelmed. Just click the “New Post” button, and tell us why you’re here.

Why do this?

  • Because it gives new readers context. What are you about? Why should they read your blog?
  • Because it will help you focus you own ideas about your blog and what you’d like to do with it.

The post can be short or long, a personal intro to your life or a bloggy mission statement, a manifesto for the future or a simple outline of your the types of things you hope to publish.

To help you get started, here are a few questions:

  • Why are you blogging publicly, rather than keeping a personal journal?
  • What topics do you think you’ll write about?
  • Who would you love to connect with via your blog?
  • If you blog successfully throughout the next year, what would you hope to have accomplished?

You’re not locked into any of this; one of the wonderful things about blogs is how they constantly evolve as we learn, grow, and interact with one another — but it’s good to know where and why you started, and articulating your goals may just give you a few other post ideas.

Can’t think how to get started? Just write the first thing that pops into your head. Anne Lamott, author of a book on writing we love, says that you need to give yourself permission to write a “crappy first draft”. Anne makes a great point — just start writing, and worry about editing it later.

When you’re ready to publish, give your post three to five tags that describe your blog’s focus — writing, photography, fiction, parenting, food, cars, movies, sports, whatever. These tags will help others who care about your topics find you in the Reader. Make sure one of the tags is “zerotohero,” so other new bloggers can find you, too.