How This Total Slacker Is Approaching 50
Apparently, we're supposed to leave our forties behind with a major glow-up...guess I missed that memo!
This is it. Just a handful of months until my 50th birthday.
Obviously, I’m not the only one at this particular point in life. There are so many people in my circle who are pushing themselves to leave their 40s behind with a bang. Even influencers, like Kim Holderness, who posted her goal to meet certain daily fitness goals, including walking 10,000 steps every day and working up to being able to do a pull-up by the time she turns 50.
I hadn’t really thought much about how I’d spend this last year of my forties, honestly. It’s been a rough couple of years and I’m just starting to get my head above water.
I’ll admit, there was about a week there in which I started feeling like a bit of a loser. I probably should have big plans for this year, right? I should be pushing myself to bigger and better health goals as I head toward 50, right?
Yet somehow, I just couldn’t seem to commit.
I feel lucky to be turning 50 in a generation wherein 50 isn’t considered that old. My poor boomer mother had to put up with receiving black balloons on her 40th birthday and jokes about the Grim Reaper arriving soon.
But Gen Xers have been working out with kettlebells and going to therapy, and thus, we are thriving as we hurtle into middle age. No black balloons for us. I mean, just look at Kim. That woman could still pass for 35.
Admittedly, when I say Gen Xers, I might be the exception to those statements. Yes, I have been doing the kettlebell workouts and going to therapy, and I do feel that I’m thriving…but I’m also tired as hell. And I definitely cannot pass for 35.
Sadly, it’s become clear to me that I can’t even pass for 55. This is the unfortunate reality of growing up in southern California in the 80s and being a stubborn little brat who refused to get out of the pool in order to let my mother reapply my sunscreen.
So I not only don’t look my age (and not in a good way), but this last year of my forties has brought me a level of exhaustion that has shocked me.
