by Matuschka Lindo

Looking back at skincare at midlife... The local drugstore may be a thing of the past! Let's revisit the blog. How long can a middle age woman continue to shop at discount superstores or drug stores for beauty products. Well, the answer is complicated after speaking to several specialist in the field of dermatology and a midlife make-up artist. Drug store brands and salon products can have the same ingredients but the amounts of those ingredients are different. Here in lies the problem and where it gets complicated. Over the counter brands may have the same effective ingredients in a product, but in lower quantities. Meaning they probably don't have the amount of the ingredient needed to be effective,  especially as you get older.

I have always been a Neutrogena/Oil of Olay, basic no fuss kind of girl. So you could say I haven't changed my beauty habits since I was in high school. Let's see, does that make sense? Do I wear the same type of clothes I wore in high school? Nope. Do I have the same hairstyle I had in high school? Nope. (I will also throw out there that I got rid of the blue eyeshadow thank heavens.) Then why the hell am I still using the same skin care? No wonder when I hit 40 my face looked like an acne ridden teenager. That's how I was treating it! Time to accept my age and rethink my routine.

Let's start with skin care... at 40-something I need to be using a non foaming cleanser, SPF (and don't think because you have skin of color you don't need SPF. That's a myth, you need it sista!), Retinoid & Peptide Rich Serum and lastly Moisturizer with Glycerin. There is truly Skin Care for Every Age and if you don't adjust as you age you are in for a rude awakening. The good news is that no matter what age you are it's still usually just 4 basic products when it comes to skin care. The bad news is the more active ingredient help you need (aka the older you get) the pricier it may be.

So even though you may want to go down kicking screaming and fighting father time, embrace your age and accentuate what makes you beautiful. Even when it comes to make-up you need to make it age appropriate in reverse. Less is More... Lighten up on the thick eyeliner, instead of Black Noir by day do Brown or a thinner lighter line. Put more mascara on your outside lashes to make eyes look brighter and lift them upward. Focus on your brows, not make-up that targets crows feet.  Lighten up on your foundation maybe a light bronzer to dash out by day. Save dark colors, shimmer, glitter and heavier foundation for special occasions or evening events where hard bright lights don't hit you directly. The word of the day is Change! Your smiles, lines, bags and coloring are changing. Your skin is getting thinner and drier. Change your products and your skin will keep up with your beautiful changes. Its time to say... Bye Bye Drug Store, I'm a big girl now.

Keep looking forward so you don't miss what God puts in front of ya!

Matuschka's Midlife... Telling it like it is...above picture by www.cent-ir.com

by Matuschka Lindo

Taking some weeks off for the summer. Please enjoy a few favorites:

WHAT IS OLD 50, 60, 70?

Whatever it is I'm not there yet! My father travels the country playing softball for a 70 and over team. I don't even look at him and think old. My mother never ever lets that word cross her lips. Maybe that's why I scratch my head when people in their 40'as and 50's are always saying they are OLD? I bring this up because I had another birthday recently and I inched ever closer to 50. What does that mean exactly? Some people feel once they hit 50 they are 'Old'. That's a scary thought to me... why? I still feel 21 inside most days. It varies really, are we talking physically or mentally. HA!  Yes, I have aches and pains but I've had fewer broken bones than when I was in my 30's. In my late 20's when I had kids my hair fell out. I have healthier hair now even though there is more gray. Who says when you are old? And when do you go from 'Old' to 'Elderly'. Elderly sounds awful to me… it will take a lot of chutzpah to call me elderly! We need a new word for older than old. Senior? Advanced Age?  What do you think? I'm in better shape than I've been in years? Will I really feel 'Old' just because I hit 50? Thankfully in most recent survey's people believe  'Old Age' begins at 69! Wooohoooo! "Push it back, Push it back  Wayyyyyy Back!"

My theory is that we feel old for two reasons. One, a generational gap between the millennium generation (or any generation younger than you). Secondly, the constant changes in our body as we age that we don't like so much. For me, the things that differ between us are awesome!  I love to go to the basement and throw an 8 track at my teenagers and say "Hey what's this?" I usually do things like that when I can't figure out how to do something on the computer and they demonstrate to me as if I am a two year old! It's called equalizing in the Briggs house. They catch on real quick too! Both my kids believe music from our reel to reel is better than from a cd! Also they are both appreciating vinyl after I show them how good you have to be to replay a song over and over. It's all in the wrist, the way you drop that needle baby. They'll thank me later vinyl is making a come back. I just want them to know, there is a lot I know too… that they don't! Making me wiser not old in their eyes! The best revenge is listening to music with them in the car and the new 'IN' band introduces their latest hit and my young adults are singing their hearts out. Then I break into song KNOWING EVERY WORD! You guessed it remake! Love it when that happens, they have this dumbfounded look like… Wait you know this song? Ya punk I do! I knew it before you were born! Here are 50 things only people around 50 or over understand! 

Where was I? Lost my train of thought. I am older now heee heee. Oh yes, the second reason we tend to feel old, the ever changing and aging body. You know… your birth age and your biological age don't always coincide. Another reason not to fall into the I'm old trap. You could be younger than you think! Take a Biological Age Quiz by Clicking HERE. No wonder I don't feel old, my biological age is 28! SWEAR! It's an interesting quiz and takes only 2 minutes but goes through what you eat, how you sleep and how stressed you are etc. Which makes me a firm believer that 50 is nowhere close to old. Now if you don't take care of yourself, old may very well be in your near future. Either make a change or feel old. It's up to you. Besides if 69 is the new old, do you really want to go through 20 years of your life saying, "I'm old" as early as 50?  What the hell are you going to say when you're 69 and you really are entering old age? Everything I read throws middle age between 45-65 so drop the 'Old' and enjoy the blessings of a likely life expectancy beyond 80. Plato is now wrong in his definition of Advanced Age.

The Official Definition of Old Age:
Old age comprises "the later part of life; the period of life after youth and middle age . . . , usually with reference to deterioration" In the 4th century BC, Plato divided the human lifespan into six phases, the last two constituting "Old Age" (the ages of 62-79) and "Advanced Age" (80-). The last phase, he noted, "is one that, fortunately, few attain."

*Above Photo by Acid Cow

Keep looking forward so you don't miss what God puts in front of ya!

Matuschka's Midlife... Telling it like it is...

by Matuschka Lindo

Starting to get fed up with parts of my body and thinking of going under the knife. Not for cosmetic reasons, although I don't have a problem with cosmetic surgery. I have been going back and forth on several surgeries. The one on the top of the list deals with my feet. I want to get rid of my bunions before they get bad. I mean, why do I want to wait until there is pain and my feet look like they came from the twilight zone. Besides almost every woman in my family has had them. By Gosh it's destiny and I want them gone before I have a multitude of problems that can follow bunions. For those of you that don't know a bunion is a bony bump that forms on the joint at the base of the big toe. It starts to contort the foot the longer you wait to address the issue. Studies say that 75% of all people will have some type of foot pain or problem at some time in their lives. Maybe because the foot is so complicated filled with so much to injure. This is what you are dealing with when it comes to your foot. Twenty Six bones and 33 joints, layered with an intertwining web of more than 120 muscles, ligaments, and nerves. So, here I sit looking at the beginning of a bunion wondering if it's worth going under the knife?

The more I searched surgeries and bunions the more google kept showing me surgeries you want to avoid as you get older. I found this intriguing and helpful. Check out the AARP article with the 4 surgeries you want to avoid as you age. Thank heavens bunions were not on the list. Funny story, so about ten years ago when I use to run, my feet were hurting a lot. I went to get them checked. I had x-rays taken, then was asked to sit in the waiting room. About 30 minutes later my daughter and I are walking through the halls to our assigned room following the nurse and there are one of those x-ray films hanging and lighted up with an image of a foot. I look at my daughter and I say, "Wowza look at that foot. Poor thing, that foot is JACKED!" We go on to sit in the room and wait for the doctor. Within 3 minutes I hear him grab the x-ray off the light, and damn it to hell if he didn't walk into my room with that same JACKED up x-ray I was just talking about. Apparently x-rays can be used to help diagnose a variety of foot-related ailments that will soon come into view on the outside. I could see the bunion, the twisted toes that were coming, dear lord it was too much information. I just started crying. It's like the inside aging before the outside. On the outside my feet looked absolutely normal. But the x-ray was showing what was to come. Obviously the outlook wasn't good, I would never have guessed that x-ray was mine in a million years. Which brings me back to the bunion surgery... I have seen the foreshadowing of what my foot is to look like if I wait. It ain't pretty so why wait?

If cosmetic surgery is your fancy know that there are better ages than others to have some of the procedures available done. If you are already in midlife I have bad news for you... you missed a lot of the prime time for the best benefits of a whopping variety of plastic surgeries according to the U.K.'s Daily Mail. I mean there isn't much left. The optimum age for Breast Uplift is 45... notice I didn't say implant. Shoot we missed that by decades! LOL! Laser skin resurfacing is good at age 50, and age spots are recommended at 50+. Go ahead and read the Daily Mail article. Yes, it will piss you off, but it's good to know. For example, you can still get the rhinoplasty but if the optimum age is 20... ahhh maybe hold off and invest in that bunion surgery. I have just begun exploring treatment for bunions and possible surgery. I'm pretty serious about nipping the bunion in the bud before it becomes a problem. Studies have found that 85 to 90 percent of patients who undergo bunion surgery are satisfied with the results. I consider those to be pretty darn good numbers. I'm still researching. I'll let you know what I decide.

Keep looking forward so you don't miss what God puts in front of ya!

Matuschka's Midlife... Telling it like it is...
Above image by bunionsurgery.com

by Matuschka Lindo

I have a very high pain tolerance. I am not one who quickly runs to the doctor. I believe I can work through anything or that Tylenol and a little ice can make it all better. Well though love may be the way to go in your early twenty's, but I have found out the hard way, that as you get older ignoring pain can be very dangerous and more often than not more damaging! Recently I was moving some boxes, ohhhh maybe not so recently... let's say the last week in May. I rolled my ankle in a not so lady like manner. It hurt so bad all the Monks at the St. Louis Priory Abbey would have been appalled at what came out of my mouth. Later that day my ankle was the size of a tennis ball and it hurt like hell. I iced it, slathered on some Aspercreme, took some Tylenol, and continued this ritual for about 4 weeks. (I'm allergic to Advil.) I know, I know, STUPID! Fast forward to mid June. I am swaying during a speaking presentation and I see stars as the pain rips through me. I race to the doctor only to find out I have torn my ATF in my ankle and two other ligaments. By not going in earlier I most likely made it worse. At midlife healing is a challenge and ignoring pain is just ignorant! Hence, the above picture. I was forced to spend 4th of July in a cast and am forced to stay in this cast until the end of July, in hopes of avoiding surgery! What's the take away? If it hurts during midlife get it checked immediately! Here are seven pains you should NEVER ignore.

This is the catch twenty-two of aging in so many ways. We need to stay active and fit. Fitness is an important part of aging and living longer. We tell ourselves it is the passage to growing old well and living a good long life. What we forget is that the damn age process needs to be taken into account much more seriously... meaning we need to link the intensity of what we are doing at the age of 40+ to the probability of getting injured! One article I read on age and injury stated this: The age-related response to injury must be considered in two ways: how age affects the physical ability of the body to recover from a particular injury, and the impact age has on the mental and psychological capability of an athlete to deal with the stresses of rehabilitation and recovery. Being in a cast this long has drained me and stressed me out. I am terrified that I will have to have surgery, then be put back in a cast, followed by physical therapy, and then a boot. You see it's a much longer process especially after age 45. As the body ages muscle mass will decrease... as a result the muscle protein rebuilding and repair processes become slower and less effective, resulting in decreased physical strength. All that jargon means Matuschka is in a bitchy mood getting no sleep and gimping all over town! It's A FACT: Recovery does take longer as we age. An article in Outside Magazine reports scientists are still figuring out the exact mechanisms behind the slowdown. 

The worst of it all for women is that everything I read says that many injuries especially fractures experienced by women at midlife and beyond place them at an increased risk of future fractures and may be early indicators of low bone density. Tendons become stiffer and easier to tear if subjected to major stress. It seems there are so many changes in our bodies after 40 that our human machine is flailing when it comes to healing. I can feel it with every step I take. It makes me mad and it is very frustrating. Something to step back and consider even as a male in a society that showcases extreme sports as sexy! Men and women over 40 beware! Extreme sports leads to extreme injuries sometimes even death... Injuries after 40 are not only inevitable they are more chronic! I am exhausted and achy. Listen to me when I tell you at this age, we need to save all our energy for rehabilitation. Medical reports all over the internet say we have to work twice as hard to recover! The following statement I read over and over again: Injured muscles heal, but to regain strength, the older person really has to work on rehabilitation. Tendons suffer acute and chronic injuries, and even a slightly decreased blood (oxygen) supply can contribute to a slower recovery. Lesson learned! If it hurts go get it checked immediately! 

Keep looking forward so you don't miss what God puts in front of ya!

Matuschka's Midlife... Telling it like it is...

by Matuschka Lindo

Last week I did an unusual blog where I just wrote random midlife thoughts. They were things that run through my head that I often want to talk about but it's really not a sufficient enough topic for a full blog. As I got to the end of my thoughts and blog I had looked over at my husband while he was sleeping and I wondered what do midlife men think about? What troubles them, what haunts them, and what nags at them during midlife. Well there was only one way to find out. I reached out to several midlife men that I know (my husband opted out which I respected) and I asked them to share their thoughts with us 40 something women. Lucky for us they were very forthcoming.

~ I thought I would be in a different place spiritually and financially so I feel like I let my kids down. I let them down as THE MAN they should have in their lives as a role model.

~Trying to stay focused on today as tomorrow has so many questions regarding health, making it to my daughters next birthday, graduation, wedding and grandchildren.

~Something is wrong at this stage in life, I have anxiety and things just feel off. Everyone pisses me off. I think with age I have lost the ability to cope and have patience. I'm searching for answers that I can only do on my own. That means NO I don't want to talk about it.

~I love where I am in life with my family and friends. Life is good at midlife and I'm optimistic that the nearest next phase is going to be a great ride before the sunset chapter begins.

~I'm realizing all these new models and singers and actors are young enough to be my daughters. I feel like a dirty old man when I watch television now. When the hell did this happen? To make matters worse I am no longer a 'catch' with extra weight and a balding head. You ladies aren't the only ones losing your sex appeal.

~Figuring out how to manage the financial life of college, private high schools and another looming college education.

~I don't know why when people think of midlife men they think only fast sports cars and young women. For me it was depression and I don't think I am alone. I have everything I could ever want; 
a beautiful family, home, and I am financially sound. But I still feel like I need some type of change to stay alive. Can't really explain it.

Thank you to all the men who let their guards down and shared their random thoughts. Many of the men  I reached out to never responded. They may not be ready to share their midlife thoughts and I completely respect that, so no worries. Ladies as you can see midlife men have fears too. I was reading just in general how men handle midlife crisis'. It says they usually need someone to talk it through with them an that it usually takes two years to concur. Just something to think about... Men tend to keep more of their thoughts and feelings hidden. Know that their midlife thoughts are running away to frightening places as they age... just like ours.

Keep looking forward so you don't miss what God puts in front of ya!

Matuschka's Midlife... Telling it like it is...
Above photo by  Photo: Monalyn Gracia/Corbis