Via Yo Mama: No one eats the first half of an Oreo, looks down and sees the creamy middle, and thinks, Screw this—it’s old.  I’m gonna throw it out and go watch me some MacGyver.  No one reads the first half of a book and abandons it, not for lack of time or interest in the plot or characters, but simply because the middle is already old news.  No one, anywhere, decides that the middle is an inch or two shy of the end.  Unless they’re discussing age.

If you read in a book or a story that a character is middle-aged, don’t you just see the slump in his shoulders, the frown on her face?  The baggy clothes and general air of despair at the middleness of it all?  No one wants to admit to being middle-aged, and I don’t blame us—the way our culture sees it, you might as well be saying you’re old.  And the way we see “old” in our culture?  Don’t even get me started.  Because I’m not gonna want to be old when I’m old.  Oh, I’m not planning to wear short shorts at eighty.  But I refuse to have slumpy shoulders and baggy clothes and an air of despair, even when I’m old.  I’m sure as hell not going to have those things today.

Today, you see, this subject matters to me quite a bit.  Because today I am turning forty.  Not twenty-nine for the eleventh year in a row, but really and truly, right in the thick of the plot, staring at the middle of the Oreo forty.

Via Zenhabits.com by Leo Babauta

I don’t have health insurance, so I have a big investment in staying healthy.

And so I did a little research today — I found the top causes of death, then created a spreadsheet for the controllable risk factors for each.

Some things can’t be controlled (your age, family history of diseases, gender). But others can. And those things aren’t a huge surprise — you already know not to smoke, drink too much, or eat crappily.

via The Top 7

Today is a special day. Today is the day that my brother Jeff turns 40.

Now I reached that inevitable milestone a few years ago so, as any big brother would do, I need to pass out some advice on turning 40.

———————–

Less than 4 weeks away for me and I have an almost zen-like calm. I felt 30 when I was 20 and 20 when I was 15 . . . now at 40 I mostly feel age appropriate. There is a twinge of vanity when someone takes me for 32 and not 39, but perhaps that never goes away.

This last year I chose to change careers a bit and decided quality of life was more important than an absolute dollar amount or someone else’s notion of prestige . . . I doubt I would have been as comfortable with these new priorities when I graduated college.

I don’t quite feel 10 years shy of 50 . . . but I guess I have a few years to gear up for that one

Well, I’m 40! (With an exclamation point no less!) Yes, I turned 40 a few months ago. I have to say until my dr. appt. yesterday I really embraced 40, last night I didn’t and today.. even worse.

Let me start at the beginning.

For my 40th birthday, I had a birthday party. I have family and friends around. My husband, son and 2 step daughters (kids are 7, 15, & 17 respectively) were also with me. I had a great time and really found myself embracing the 40 year old syndrome. I am reasonably active after work, but during the day, I have a day job and sit at a desk all day.

So, after my birthday, I continue with my life, but a funny thing started to happen, I started to feel more confident. It was like a revelation one day. I felt like I gave off an aura of confidence and I felt sexy!! I felt more sexy at 40 than I did in my 30′s. Maybe because I could flirt with younger men and know I could get away with it. (no sexual innuendo’s just flirt). Maybe I was embracing the cougar in me. I felt more comfortable in my skin. So, life is good…

Well then I started noticing little things, my size 8 shorts didn’t fit.. uh-oh I went to a size 10…o.k. I wanted to get back into the gym more often. I started doing the workout that I did at 37 and –oh my the size 10 shorts are getting..umm snug..I also added modifying my food intake–diet for all of the non-dieters–which is something i didn’t do before.

Recently my sweet friend Shannon blogged about how she is soon going to turn 40. As I read her post, I also started thinking about myself turning 40. I have just under a year and a half and I will hit that milestone.

Wow, the Big 4-0.

I am more than likely about half-way through my time on this side of Heaven.

Age is something that haunts me. I remember being terrified of turning 15. 15 can you imagine? I have no idea what was so scary about it now, but I was really scared. I am not talking about being a little nervous about it; I had full blown depression over it.

I look back at 15 now and think – Wow that was the beginning of a great couple of years for me.

Hi I turned 40 1st July, I am thankful I went thru the big aging dilemma when I was about 36- it took me bout 18 months to get over. It ended with the inevitable, hey nothing can stop it so why worry? Why freak out about it? NOTHING gonna stop it : ) !! Crazy how long it took for me to really feel it but I did. And I’m glad that I did b4 now as I think going thru it when I turned 40 would’ve been worse. I’m still annoyed, to say the least, that the cruel irony of aging is that the only ones who know that it doesn’t mean anything- its only the outside that ages- ur still exactly the same person- are the ones who ARE getting older. The ones still in their 20′s & 30′s don’t know it yet… I am glad I have a life partner to share it all with I think turning 40 would’ve been a bit harder had he not been here.

You know, this whole idea of turning 40 years old is really getting to me. In 19 days I will have lived four decades, nearly half a century, that’s halfway to 100 years! To some people it’s “just a number.” To me, though, it’s a major step in my life that I really don’t want to take.

When I was a child, I thought 30 seemed old. That age came and went without any issues at all. Turning 40, though, seems like jumping into a bottomless abyss or something. Once I take that step off the edge, I”ll have no control over what happens to me and no way to stop the fall.

At 40, my life is more than half over, statistically speaking. This first half of my life flew by! Will I be 80 just as quickly?

When I was 30 I dreaded the thought of turning 40 – it was going to be terrible…I just knew it. Well 40 is here and quite frankly…it was no big deal.  In fact my life is better than ever – I’ve recently had my first baby and I feel and look great…other than some of that baby fat that is hard to get rid of around the midsection. I’m secretly afraid that someone will ask me someday if I’m her grandma but thankfully people always just ask me if she’s my “first.”

I keep reading all the time in beauty mags and even on the bulletin boards that 40 is some type of major threshold – you shouldn’t wear sparkly or shiny makeup, you should cut your hair, not wear short skirts or shorts and on and on. I love to sparkle, I love my long hair and I would wear shorts every day if I could.

So is 40 really a big deal? I don’t think so. What about you?

For many, turning forty is a dreaded day. Somehow a stigma has been associated with it that has resulted in some individuals spending days in mourning. Thousands of men and women each year allow the marketing industry to impress a depressing anticipation into their attitudes and actions. That being, that turning forty is a dreaded moment that influences all the days to follow in a negative manner. It has even been reported that on occasions, depressed individuals have resorted to alarming measures.

This book is about life, and a part of life is accepting the fact of aging to be ingrained within the process of living. The time that is spent in living is an investment. We can choose to make this investment with growling and complaints or we can choose to make it with grins and compliments. Regardless of which path we choose to travel, of this we can be certain – Time Is Never Regained.

In Facing Forty (or any age) Forthrightly, author Dan Jarrard presents 5 areas that will greatly assist in making the life-journey more successful.

Turning 40 has so many expectations!!! What about a woman who turns 40 and is married with no kids? That sure does raise more eyebrows than just the age itself. Even at 39 people thought “poor you, but there is hope”. Hey- ever think some people just don’t want to have children? hmm Hopefully at 40 the questions about why no kids will finally cease. Ahh.. a good thing about the new decade in life!

Have you heard? 40 is the new 30. That is if at 30 you were starting to show those fine lines, your underarms were beginning to sag and yet your inner self was starting to be twice as strong as it was at 20. For most of us, turning 40 will be a dramatic difference from the past two decades of our lives.

Turning 40 carries the weight of “oh my God, I’m getting old.” We realize we are not, after all, invincible. The three glasses of wine we used to be able to drink now dwindles down to one. The eyesight we had so sharply now becomes dimmer (yikes…trying on those reading glasses in the drugstore is an exercise in humble). The body needs more work. The skin needs more powerful products (and possibly procedures?). The spirit starts to clamor for past passions and dreams. We realize this is our life. We better really start doing something about it.

Of course you’ve heard the stories “Once I turned 40, my rear headed south and didn’t stop.” “After 40, my energy just dropped.” “Getting old sucks.” All true. It happens. It doesn’t skip anyone. Some are more affected than others, but we all are affected. There is some solace in that fact. We are united in the aging process. It’s what we do about it that separates us.

NationalGeographic.com
September 14, 2007

Your familly is growing. Work is stressful. And it gets harder and harder to hit the gym. Its when we hit the age of forty is when we really begin to see our bodies begin to change, again. Above the surface it may seem that there is no significant change, but underneath there are some dramatic changes. Below are some facts from Inside The Living Body that illustrates some of the changes we all encounter.

• By our mid- to late 40s, our skin begins to lose elasticity, becoming saggy and wrinkled. Years of exposure to the ultraviolet rays of the sun have worn down the collagen that binds our skin cells together. We do not regenerate the cells as quickly anymore.

• Our eyesight is also not the same. The inner lens cells — the same ones we were born with — stiffen and don’t focus light as well. The lens cells, heart cells and some brain cells are the only ones our body never replaces.

USATODAY.COM

They love the game, they love the camaraderie, they love the money. So why stop?

Major League Baseball has more 40-somethings on rosters than at any time in the last half-century, and that’s even without 44-year-old right-hander Roger Clemens, who is deciding whether to play this season.

While every franchise searches for the next young box-office hero, it’s the sport’s senior citizens such as John Smoltz, Jamie Moyer, David Wells and Moises Alou who still play for postseason glory.

Some of the biggest names in the game are on the far side of 40, such as Barry Bonds, Randy Johnson, Curt Schilling, Greg Maddux and Tom Glavine. They remain well-conditioned and well-compensated. Together, those five have more than 55 million reasons for continuing their careers in 2007.

“The carrot that dangles before them is bigger, shinier, more valuable and richer,” Atlanta Braves general manager John Schuerholz says about why more 40-somethings commit to stay in top physical condition and continue sacrificing family time. “The next year they play might mean another $10 million or more.”

According to the Elias Sports Bureau, 24 players 40 or older played in the majors in 2006. This season, 25 players who will be at least 40 during the season were on opening-day rosters or teams’ disabled lists. From 1962 until 1980, there were never as many as 10 major leaguers 40 or older.