It is now two months until my birthday so I’m on the countdown to turning 40. The first of my school friends to turn 40 does so this month. It’s all getting a bit real. We were messaging the other day and she seemed very sanguine about it. But then, she’s also pregnant with her third child so she has bigger things to think about.
I had a proper freak out about it all around November last year. I felt like I was just on a downhill slide from then on in. I felt grey and tired, I felt old and I felt frumpy. So I decided to try and do something to at least halt the decline, if not reverse it.
I decided to throw money at the problem. I bought a red light mask and a whole load of skincare in the Black Friday sales. At some point early on I took photos and I haven’t gone back to those to see if there is a marked difference between then and now, but I do think that I can see a difference in my skin. I feel brighter, I feel more glow-y and I feel less grey. There’s definitely a way to go yet in terms of being happy with my face, for example, I’d love to smooth out some of the texture on my face and, as I work my way up in terms of retinal strength, I hope to see more of an improvement in the fine lines on my forehead.
At the start of the year I decided that this was the year to finally get back in shape post-Covid. What that’s meant is getting myself back into a proper routine of exercising three times a week – two Bodyattack classes a week and a run – plus walking when I can around that. In addition I’ve been trying to eat better. So far, I’m down about 10lbs from the start of the year. Ideally I’d lose about another two stone to get down to near my wedding weight, but I’m just trying to take it steady and make it sustainable. The downside of all of that is that while I’m losing weight I don’t want to spend too much money on clothes that won’t fit me properly. So, I’m holding off on working on my personal style for my forties for a little while. We’ll see where we are as we go into summer, but I am enjoying gradually feeling more me again.
Lots of changes to come, but I am going into 40 fighting.
