<p>Exercise isn’t all about looks either. IMO, aging with health and vitality is pretty much incompatible with the word “sedentary.”</p>
<p>I just turned 59, and am shocked at how saggy and crepe-like my skin has gotten everywhere in the last year. I lost a lot of weight 10 years ago and have kept it off, but I can’t help thinking that all that saggy skin would look better with some more weight. My D gave me a webcam for my birthday last week and I was shocked how old I looked around the eyes on the computer screen, much older than in a mirror. What is that all about? My worst is my neck. I had no warning I would get a neck like that. Most of the time I don’t think about looks. I have never been into it, nor into fashion. I guess I will just avoid the camera and go on my merry way to 60.</p>
<p>So here’s the thing… I think I’ve been “losing it” since I was five. Seriously. I was so cute back then. Adorable smile. Cute-as-could-be. After that, I started to go downhill. I looked homely, with my mix-matched second hand clothes and unbrushed hair. As if I lived in the Appalachian mountains (sorry if any of you folks do live there. I could be your poster child.) In fact, when I was in middle school, I was told I could be a poster child for some poor, 3rd world country. (Was I supposed to forget those comments?)</p>
<p>Just now I saw these hunks running, about 6 of them, outdoing each other. They must be on our high school’s CC team. Man, they looked good! But what happened to me? I got older and more wrinkly. When did that happen?</p>
<p>I envy those with longevity genes. Both my parents died relatively young, and I seem to have at least as many health issues as my mother did at my age even though I try to take better care of myself.
It really is quite terrifying.</p>
<p>I got botox and filler for those puppet lines…doing it again for summer rather that then new clothes and such</p>
<p>I used to think exercise was boring, too, until I started running. Runners are very social (ask MoWC, lol!). Races are great - everyone is in a great mood and it doesn’t matter if you are as slow as I am! A bunch of us online running buddies (all women) met out in Las Vegas in December, 2010 to run a half or full marathon. “Boring” is the last word I would use. :)</p>
<p>Emerald, my mom is 95 years old and she did all the right things: exercised regularly (mostly swim), ate very little meat but lots of vegies, enjoyed studying foreign languages, remarried her high school sweetheart at age 65 and moved out to CA. (He died at age 96 in 2008) She has been incredibly healthy overall, yet still needs to go to the ER at times. (Stopped smoking 50 years ago, so has some COPD). Life is good, right?</p>
<p>Well, she can’t live at an assisted living facility because she’s not truly independent, but she’s too “with-it” to go to a nursing home. She could stay at home and get an aide, but where is “home”? She lives with her children and when it’s ‘your turn’, she zaps every bit of attention away from children, pets, and spouses so she can be showered in love and assistance. All her friends and spouses have died. She’s always cold and not interested in many outings that take her away from a bathroom for very long. Doctors say she could live another 6-8 years, but I worry that she pre-decease my DH. He warns me about that too.</p>
<p>After some long days of “entertaining” mom (caring for, worrying about, etc.), I go out for a McBurger and fries. Heck, I don’t really want to live that long.</p>
<p>Yes different strokes. But I too have the frame of,mind that I. Never want to look grandmotherly. It’s just not my frame of,mind. I have always felt younger than many around me, I can’t settle for clothes that are frumpy - I am not overly fashionable but I want that look that doesn’t scream cougar or grandmother. That doesn’t mean I don’t want to be a grandmother someday, but I don’t want to look like one or feel like one. I look. At people around me at work throwing on the same black or brown monotone stretchy clothes everyday, let their health/ bodies go without exercise and decent eating and that is enough to keep me motivated to not be over the top but to take care of myself - which in turn, makes me feel much, much better on a daily basis.</p>
<p>I’m hoping that Sunnyholiday wasn’t kidding…since I could have written just about the same thing. I can appreciate why others disagree, and enjoy seeing the results of their efforts, but for many reasons I just don’t feel drawn to do the same. </p>
<p>If you’ve ever watched the “Barefoot Contessa” then you’ll have some idea of how I look. If you don’t know her, she appears very down to earth and casual but she’s not thin. My grandmother looked rather like “Aunt Bea” from Andy Griffith’s show, with her silver hair piled on top of her head; I won’t mind if I take after her one day, although I’ll be more inclined to jeans & tunics than dresses and pearls.</p>
<p>My grandmother lived to be 99 1/2 and was totally with it and lived on her own in her home up until 3 months before she passed away. Her husband, my grandfather was 85 when he passed. Recently discovered on other side of family my 6x great grandfather passed away at age 80 in 1836. Hope I inherited those genes.</p>
<p>
It is tough when you peaked at five.</p>
<p>This thread got me investigating what to do about my neck and chin…have an appointment Friday to see what can be done.</p>
<p>dragonmom-
please ask about eyes and smile lines (nasoabial folds). Pretty please 
Oops wait-- I am smiling. Bad for the facial wrinkles!</p>
<p>Jym- I think the fillers like restylane are for those lines. I think it’s supposed to hurt more than Botox!</p>
<p>Whoa!!! Well thats the end of that plan!!</p>
<p>You would use Botox around your eyes, but you would use fillers around your mouth. You have a lot more nerves around your mouth, so any shots around your mouth would hurt a lot more than around your eyes. It is not what is injected which causes pain.</p>
<p>No I want my eyelids done and the bags removed from underneath. the smile lines are between my nose and mouth. But it all sounds like a very bad idea, based on what you are telling me!</p>
<p>No pain, no gain. Nothing could be worse than child birth, just think about that.</p>
<p>I for sure could lose more than a few pounds and wouldn’t mind being prettier, but I don’t dwell on my 53-year-old looks. I still have plenty of and enjoy sex, am considered fun by and invited to parties by people decades younger than I am, still enjoy modern entertainment and, in short, am enjoying life as much as I ever did. What more could I want?</p>
<p>Well, I was about to respond to oldfort, by reminding her of my post above, where I mentioned that my friend had her nasolabial folds done and is now talking out of the side of her mouth with a puffed cheek like Marlon Brando (its been 2 mos). I was going to say that at least after childbirth no one had to look at … ummm… like we look at my friend’s face, but in light of absweetmarie’s above post, it seems … well… a strange topic of conversation to be having!!!</p>