Fifty is not the new 40!

On my 40th birthday, my girlfriends took me to Roger Brown's Restaurant and Sports Bar in Portsmouth, Va. I danced, drank Kentucky and Moscow Mules, ate good food, drank some more, laughed, and danced even more. I was elated to be blessed to reach this golden age. I felt I was living my best life with an amazing husband, exceptional children, a blessed family, friends, a rewarding teaching career, and a fabulous, aspiring non-profit. Life was exhilarating, and I was not complaining.

Looking back on it all, people were amazed that I was turning forty, but even more were astonished to see that I embraced it so. Why not? Every year God grants me, I am grateful.

Life is short, and some say they feel no pressure to keep up with their numerical age. Yet, for others, age is all about how they feel. Well, Miller (2016) shares that age is just a number. It's only a year and a day that separates twenty-nine from forty. "But yet what it means to be in your twenties is so much different from what it means to be in your forties. They say that fifty is the new forty. But nobody ever says that fifty is the new twenty."

Yesss, I'm saying it. I'm addressing the elephant in the room.

Fittingly, fifty is not the new twenty. According to those who've reached this sacred and exquisite milestone, fifty is about growing older, getting wiser, and being bolder. Those wearing the 50 and older hats are members of an elite and exhilarating movement redefining our life's second half and proving that success has no age limit, especially for those of us who are women and experiencing perimenopause or menopause. Yesss, I'm saying it. Yeah, I'm talking about that elephant in the room. Most of us only speak about our personal summers caused by the hot flashes, and if we dare to go there, we share our inhibitions about our intimate limitations. However, we rarely discuss how these changes affect and interfere with our overall health - vision, skin, hair, heart, joints, and my recently discovered weight dilemma.

According to The Menopause Center at Maze (2022), perimenopause is the transition phase between the onset of those first changes or symptoms of menopause and the date that a woman is officially in menopause. The perimenopause phase lasts about 5-7 years on average and can exist for 10-12 years. According to the Mayo Clinic (2020), menopause is the time that marks the end of one's menstrual cycles. It's diagnosed after a woman has gone 12 months without a menstrual period. Menopause can happen in one's 40s or 50s, but the average age is 51 in the United States. Once menopause begins, whether the symptoms are slightly noticeable or overwhelmingly unbearable, a woman will be menopausal for the rest of her life. It's also important to remember that perimenopausal and menopausal symptoms can differ dramatically from one woman to the next and from one stage of menopause to another.

Menopause can be a time of significant changes, physical, psychological, and emotional (The Menopause Center at Maze, 2022). With varying symptoms, I realized something was preventing me from losing weight. After partaking in weekly intermittent fasting, working out four times a week in the gym, and drinking more than 74 oz of water a day, there was no significant decrease in weight - only a teeter-totter effect of losing three pounds, gaining two, or vice versa. An appointment with my primary care physician enlightened me to the contributing factors: hormones caused by perimenopausal. What we discussed next was engaging and proved to be life-changing for me.

What we discussed next was engaging and proved to be life-changing for me.

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References

Crumb, T. L. (2022, February 15). 15 best mule drinks. The Littlest Crumb. https://thelittlestcrumb.com/mule-drinks/?

Menopause - symptoms and causes. (2020, October 14).

Mayo Clinic. https://www.mayoclinic.org/diseases-conditions/menopause/symptoms-causes/syc-20353397?

Menopause center: Maze | symptoms, treatments, HRT | (NY

CT, PA, NJ). (2022, May 26). Treating Vaginismus, Low Sex Drive,

Hormone Imbalances | Sexual Health Experts. https://www.mazewomenshealth.com/hormone-treatment/menopause/?

Miller, G. (2016, July 9). 40 is the new 20. [Blog]. HuffPost. https://www.huffpost.com/entry/forty-is-the-new-twenty_b_7754310?

Roger Brown’s Restaurant

& Sports Bar | Portsmouth, Virginia. (2022). Roger Brown’s.

https://www.rogerbrowns.com/