Midlife Makeover. Reverse Aging with These Tips

Hey, beautiful brave hearts. Happy New Year! It's still the new year. We can still say that it's January. And I hope that you're having an amazing beginning to your year so far.

But you know, I wanted just to hop on here real quick and I want to offer you some tips. We're going to do three, maybe time allows we'll get to four, about how you can reverse some of the signs of aging and we're all about that. We want to stay vibrant. We want to stay relevant. All those things. I'm not trying to prove anything to anyone. I'm not comparing myself. I don't need to scroll and feel sad about my age and where I'm at in life, but I do want to take really good care of the one body that God has given me. This body is the carrier of my vision, my dreams, my spirit, my soul. And I want to make sure that I do a good job at presenting it well, I want some curb appeal to my structure if you know what I mean.

So I'm going to give you a few of my personal and powerful tips to reverse those signs of aging, and you know what, not even the signs of aging, but aging itself and how rapidly it can sometimes happen to us so that we can reclaim a youthful and vibrant glow. I think the first thing that I want to say before I even get into these tips is let's just embrace the fact that we are mature midlife women and beyond. That's just a given. And the most beautiful thing about a mature midlife woman is for her to feel confident.

Confidence is sexy. It's beautiful to embrace who you are. I'm not trying to be 30. I'm not trying to be 40. I'm 63. I'm okay with that. I love my age. I love the season of life that I'm in. I still have a hunk a hunk of burning love, husband. We're enjoying life. That being said, I want to continue to enjoy life.

When I get to my 80s, God willing, 90, I'm still going to be vibrant in my mind and my body as much as I can because I didn't allow it to deteriorate. I took good care of it. I was a good steward and a manager of the dwelling that God had given me. So let me give you a few of my tips.

Number one is to prioritize some collagen-boosting nutrition. I don't know if you use collagen. I use a powder of collagen that I put into my drink every morning, shake it up, and drink it down because our skin is losing its elasticity because we're losing our collagen production. So you can support your skin from the inside out with collagen-rich foods and supplements. So I drink a bone broth. I love it. In fact, you can even get it on Amazon and they'll ship the whole cart right to you.

Wild-caught salmon is a great source of collagen and leafy vegetables. We know leafy greens are spinach and then add in some vitamin C for extra support. Vitamin C can get through your citrus or you can get it through berries. You can get it through bell peppers and you can take supplements. Of course, I live in Michigan where we don't get a lot of sunshine. And so I always take vitamin D. I think any woman in midlife needs to be taking lots of vitamin D three. So consider those supplements and consider those foods to help you produce collagen or support your collagen. And get some hydration back into your skin and some firmness. Okay. So check it out, look it up, and I'm going to link you to some of my Amazon favorites. You can click on the link and you can purchase these for yourself. I've tried many of them, and these are the ones that I think are excellent.

The number two thing that I want to share with you for aging is that we want to embrace training, strength training, weightlifting, and movement. Whether you're thin, whether you're a little fluffy, the loss of muscle is not beautiful and it's not healthy. So we know that as we age, we do lose muscle tone. Maybe our metabolism starts to slow down. That's common with aging, but strength training can reduce and reverse both of those things from happening.

So lifting weights three to four times a week, and you might say, well, you know what, Dawn, I don't have time to do that. I don't know what you're doing with your time. But maybe you have more time than you think if you're watching TV or you're listening to hopefully this podcast. Don't just sit there and do nothing. Have some dumbbells next to your couch or your chair or by your bedside and just make it your habit. That as you get up in the morning, you're gonna do some reps. But if you really want to get serious about it get to the gym or create a little space in your home where you can do some strength training women say, I don't want to bulk up.

Trust me, you are not going to bulk up. I lift weights three to four times a week. I've been doing it for four years and it's really challenging to get those muscles to pop. You would really have to be super intentional about getting that kind of definition. So you're just gonna tone. You're gonna look beautiful shoulders. It's the last thing to go for a woman. They're beautiful. They're sexy. This collarbone little biceps say goodbye to the wings.

We all know about the bat wings, but you'll also improve your bone density and you're going to keep your skin looking taunt. So whatever size you are tone, you can see muscle tone, even beneath a little of the layers of fat. But skinny fat isn't pretty. You've got to be toned, ladies, and I want to let you know that one of the reasons why so many women struggle in midlife is because they lose that muscle tone, and they get off balance. Then they'll trip at something very little that if you had the muscle tone, you would catch yourself. But when that's gone, then you're liable to trip, fall down, sprain an ankle, lose your knee.

So if you will pair daily movement, you know, stretching, walking, Pilates, toning that to keep your circulation strong and your balance strong. And also you will support natural detoxification because when you work those muscles and you kind of wring them out, you're going to lose that lactic acid, you're going to flush yourself out and you're going to remain radiant and youthful looking. So that's my second tip.

The third tip that I'd like to offer you is to make sure that you're getting sleep and you're keeping stress at bay, so poor sleep and chronic stress. We hear so much about it, but you know, we do know that chronic stress does accelerate the aging process because it increases our cortisone levels and cortisone is really not great for us. It produces fat or traps our fat. It does break down the collagen that we were referring to. Earlier, it contributes to wrinkles and sagging. It contributes to the circles under the eyes and the fatigue, which I do have some hacks.

By the way, some beauty hacks that I'll share with you about circles under the eyes, see them, and click the links there, but poor sleep if you're not sleeping well, do something about it. Aim to learn how to improve your sleep. Whether you need melatonin, you need to wind down for an hour before you fall asleep. Eliminate the scrolling on the computer and the blue light, which messes our circadian rhythms. Try to get seven to nine hours of sleep.

I'm going to share this. I know a lot of women who struggle with snoring at night. Don't want to admit it. Don't want to confess to it. But if you're snoring, it's possible that you're getting interrupted sleep. You may even have a mild form of sleep apnea. If you wake up and you don't feel refreshed and you're still tired. Hint, you might be struggling with sleep apnea or grinding your teeth at night or snoring in such a way that you're waking yourself up and you're not going into that deep REM sleep. Consider talking to your dentist for a mouth appliance, a sleep apparatus, or a CPAP, but check that out. Ask your spouse or your partner if you have one or ask your cat, you know, am I keeping you up at night or record yourself because many people will deny snoring only to find out, hmm, yeah, no, you do snore at night. So, and then during your wake hours, do calm yourself with meditative breathing. I love mindfulness and meditation. I do that often, breathing diaphragmatically to really bring down the stress in my brain, the parasympathetic is where I want to be, not the sympathetic, which is an anxious overdrive of my nervous system. I want to bring that down and support my relaxation and hormonal balance before I go to sleep. If you want more in-depth strategies on anything that I've shared with you today, contact me. I'd love to talk to you more about it.

Now, I'm going to give you one last, maybe two quick beauty tips, and this is self-care and self-love. Do a massage on your face, a professional massage, but a daily massage. Do you have one of those jade rollers, a little extra massage of circular motions, moving up gently massaging your face for 5 to 10 minutes? Once again, reduces circulation, stimulates collagen growth, reduces puffiness, and helps sculpt and define your face. And check out face yoga, where you can do some exercises and get a natural facelift by the exercises that you do with your face. Yes, it's a real thing. Yes, I do it. And I do love it. So I want you to try that.

And what could be more beautiful than a dazzling smile? Whiten your teeth. Midlife, beautiful, braveheart woman. Crest strips are amazing. Super smile. Toothpaste is another product you can use. But anything else that you do, a dazzling smile, a brilliant white smile in your teeth will reverse the signs of aging and all of a sudden brighten your face and give you a sculpted lifted look. And if you are a single woman, I will add this, your beautiful smile could be the most attractive thing ever about you.

All right, everybody. That's what I have for you. I do have a free gift for you. I want to give you this link. My book is on sale on Amazon for $17.99. I am now making it available to you for $3. Yes, you heard that right, but you can only get it if you're in my sneaky little link that I'm offering you by listening to this podcast or my YouTube channel. I can't wait for you to get The Making of a BraveHearted Woman: Courage, Confidence, and Vision in Midlife. You read this book and it will change your life. Click the link below. I love you. I'll be here next week. Dawn Damon, your Braveheart mentor, reminds you, to find your brave and live your dreams!