aging
Aging with grace and beauty. Embrace age with aging advice, tips, and tricks.
Holy Crap I'm 40: Gym Edition
When you turn 40, you become many things-fabulous, fantastic, fearless (or fearful, depending on your anxiety level), but you only become fat at 40 if you were fat before 40. Now fat is a relative term. Even the skinniest people sometimes think they are fat (and I usually want to force feed them cake), but, for some of us, weight has always been an issue. We can still fit into clothes, for the most part, we can still exercise, but we will never be walking down the street in jeans and a tank top for fear of scaring people or getting approached by a plastic surgeon who might say, "I think I can help you with those bat wings." So, it is really all relative.
By Banji Ganchrow7 years ago in Longevity
Holy Crap I'm 40: Young and Hip Edition
As part of my never ending 40th birthday celebration, my sister and I went to Vegas for a few days. This was the perfect vacation. She and I have a lot more in common than husband #1 and I do (husband #1 still being my only husband, for better or worse or just for the moment). We both love shows and spending money. As soon as we got to the hotel, we upgraded to a nicer room that came with a daily newspaper, free wifi and cocktail hour. Husband #1 does not drink, even after having been married to me for all of these years, go figure.
By Banji Ganchrow7 years ago in Longevity
Holy Crap I'm 40: Chanukah Presents Edition
Things start to change at 40. Your boobs aren't where they used to be, your knees start to make noises they didn't before. You want to sleep late, but you can't because you need to pee. All really fun stuff. But as I have started to physically decline, my role as a mom remains the same. So I still need the same energy, the same enthusiasm and the same zest for parenting. Nope, not so much. I am happy that they still are alive at the end of the day. Truth be told, the reality is somewhere in the middle of those two scenarios, but I do try almost the best that I can.
By Banji Ganchrow8 years ago in Longevity
Holy Crap I'm 40: I Just Can't Win Edition
The one thing that you do learn at 40, is that life is short. Is my life more than halfway over? Would I want to know the answer to that question? Would you? In any event, in the spirit of life being short, I want to do things that will make my kids happy. This is the reason why they have been driven to 22 out of 30 major league baseball stadiums. Happy kids, happy mom. Happy kids, perhaps a mom that doesn't end up drooling in a nursing home with no one coming to visit her. I will do whatever it takes, no matter how extreme. But even if we have the best intentions, it doesn't mean the outcome will be the one we want. A mom can still dream though!
By Banji Ganchrow8 years ago in Longevity
How to Know...and Slow...How Fast You’re Aging
Wе all have a personal aging pattern that has little to do with the calendar and everything to do with how well we cope with stress, how successful we are at relationships, and whether we approach life with an optimistic or defeatist attitude. In fact, the single most effective age-retarder is definitely within your control. It's you and what you do.
By David McCleary8 years ago in Longevity
Holy Crap I'm 40: Mother-in-Law Edition
As little girls, some of us dream of getting married. Fairy tales don't help the situation. In fact, the girl who kissed the frog and turned him into a prince really should have done the opposite because it would have been more realistic. Sometimes, the prince that you marry ends up being a frog. Maybe not in the beginning and maybe not always, but at some point in your marriage, the man who you thought was perfect, is really just a frog. And he usually has a mother who is one step worse than a frog.
By Banji Ganchrow8 years ago in Longevity
Holy Crap I'm 40: Baseball Edition
Turning 40 involves incorporating new mantras in order to survive the day. "Don't sweat the small stuff." That is a really good one and it probably applies to all ages. "Don't cry over spilled milk," turns into, "Don't cry over spilled vodka," so it's easier just not to sweat any of the small stuff. Before I even turned 40, my family of boys and I, and their father, would hop in the car for a few days every summer, and drive to Major League Baseball stadiums. Imagine family bonding on steroids, and we didn't get the steroids from any of the baseball players. As my family would scout out for players autographs, I would scout out the stadiums for cocktails and free swag. To each their own.
By Banji Ganchrow8 years ago in Longevity
Yoga to Stay Young
Yoga makes you feel and look more youthful. It literally slows the aging process by stretching the body. Muscles can be developed two ways: by building them up into hard little knots of power, which is what you get when you lift weights, or by making them flexible and elastic, which is what you get when you practice yoga. Kinesiologists learn toward the latter method of body development, evenly distributing lean tissue, rather than tightly packed muscle bulges. The younger you are when you begin a yoga practice, the probability increases for extended life and better health.
By Mackenzie Lu8 years ago in Longevity
Holy Crap I'm 40: Bar Mitzvah Edition
Turning 40 is a milestone. Granted, it isn't as exciting as turning 100, but if you still haven't entered menopause and men still look at you when you pass them on the street, you are in pretty good shape. Or course I am not speaking of myself..men only look at me on the street after I have bumped into them because I take up too much room, but enough of the self-deprecating humor. I am proud to be 40. With age is supposed to come maturity. Kids, that is crap. If you were immature in your 30s, there is little hope for you in your 40s. Dealing with people never gets easier, especially when they are related to you. And that is where in laws come in. If you don't have them yet, try to marry an orphan. Morbid, but good advice. Trust me. I am 40.
By Banji Ganchrow8 years ago in Longevity
How to Stay Young
To navigate past the biblical three score and ten (that's 70 years), we humans pore over a great many charts. On course, with Ponce de Leon and James Barrie, we've searched for extended youth in monkey glands and meditation, embryos and electromagnetic fields, yoga and yogurt. None has gotten us to Methuselah's 96.9 years or even to 150, although the record now stands at 113 years. 113-Year-Old holocaust survivor, Israel Kristal, had his bar mitzvah 100 years later.
By Alicia Springer8 years ago in Longevity