Welcome to Aging Fiercely!

This is Your Aging Reboot—Let the Rebellion Begin!

From a fitness perspective, when you hear that you’re “aging”—and we all are so no vampires 🧛‍♀️ here—where does your mind go? 

Do you think of butterflies flittering their delicate wings around a rainbow as you don your young Elton John-inspired rose-colored glasses, getting ready for a friendly game of tennis?

Or do you and the Crypt Keeper sit at a picnic table under a Weeping Willow, sipping on a cold cuppa death, comparing joint pain?

In my experience, most of us hover somewhere in the middle, residing between rose-colored and cuppa death. We face our ongoing aging with little enthusiasm and oodles of trepidation.

But what if we didn’t have to? What if we said, “Nope, I’m not milling around waiting for death to pull my saggy ass underground”, and then we got up and went for a run? Slipped into some ugly brown gardening boots and got knee-deep in compost? Signed up for that cardio-boxing-pilates-yoga class even though we’re not mentally ready to mammogram our way into a sports bra?

What if we finally accepted that aging isn’t a slow march toward death—but a call to take charge, right now, of how we live tomorrow?

How radical would that be?

What if we decided to do aging differently than “they” did it?  “They” being the many who have gone before us—the grandparents, great aunts and uncles, and even our own parents. Life was different for them. And aging was vastly different. 

Fitness wasn’t a priority or much of an option. My mom had a Jane Fonda Workout book. (A book!) She didn’t play sports growing up, and she most definitely drank martinis during her pregnancies because THAT’S WHAT YOU DID BACK THEN—they didn’t know any better (and I feel like I could have thrived as a mom in the 60s?)

How freeing would it be to feel in control again?

No matter our age, we’re only getting older—if we’re LUCKY! How great is that? If we’re L-U-C-K-Y we’re going to be playing pickleball till we’re dead. (Now isn’t that a better way to see aging—“Lucky” as in something we get to do, and “pickleball” as in something we get to PLAY? Even though I have never played, but holy flying banana pants it sounds fun!)

But it doesn’t happen without a little work on our end. Staying on the playing field requires grit, discomfort, and discipline. But also, it kinda doesn’t. Not if you find an activity you enjoy because I believe getting and staying fit doesn’t have to be a chore. Just look at my step-mother-in-law’s mother (my husband’s family tree has many branches!) who played tennis until she was 94! With her husband! Who's only four years younger! 🤯 She’s 101 now and they’re still living in their own home. LUCKY!

Fitness doesn’t have to be a total drag. It can be inspiring. It can make you feel good, accomplished, and strong—and add years to your life! When’s the last time anything you did give you all that… at the same time?!? Certainly not when you were playing Candy Crush, binge-buying, or one-upping on social media. While those things can be great in the moment—because they are!—they fail miserably at creating a prosperous and healthy life.

This aging fiercely idea has been gnawing at me because I KNOW we can feel better about who we are when we push ourselves beyond what we think is possible.

I know that when you hit 10 perfect push-ups, when you get up at 5:30 am to workout, when you get your body doing things it hasn’t done before and it feels good, you’re not stopping there. The good vibes will ripple into other parts of your life. A new sense of power, confidence, and 'Hell yeah, I’m up for that' will bubble up, and suddenly, you’ll want to learn more, get more, and be more. You’ll want to be different. Do different things.

Aging fiercely isn’t just about aging with a fire in your belly—although doesn’t that sound incredible!? It’s also refusing to be defined by your age. It’s asking “What’s possible today?” instead of “What’s probable?”.

It’s changing the whole backpack of narratives you’ve got strapped on.

It’s giving the middle finger to midlife! 

It’s saying “I love being toned at 65” and don’t you want to be able to say that—whether that day is 40 years away, or five? 

It’s a whole new set of rules you get to create because no one can do it like you can do it. And isn’t that the best part?

Aging fiercely is an updated mindset, a new commitment, a spectacular way of life—and I’ve got plenty of ideas on how we can make it happen. 🫶