40 and body slowly coming apart at the seams

[Reluctantadult]

Just here to complain and see if anyone else is in the same boat! I am 40 and I feel like my body is starting to fall apart in many small ways! I am lucky I don't have major health concerns, but will I slowly come apart at the seams?! I'm going for slightly lighthearted but also serious 😆

I've got prolapsed discs that are currently giving me bad knee pain. Getting my shoes on is a personal challenge.

The insides of my ears have swollen up for some reason, it's really quite painful!

I've had athletes foot for over a year. Will I be using cream forever?!

Same with piles!

And now I've got a sty in my eye.

I used to be fairly fit, run every week, did sprint triathlons, at the moment I can't even walk the dog! Honestly wondering what I'll be like at 60...

How We Feel Project
That’s the high quality, glossy, free mood tracker with stuff to help with mood if your head is getting between you and doing things to improve your physical and mental well-being. I got it on the app store, but if it’s a project I doubt it’ll be apple only. Maybe don’t have it prompt you to check in four times a day like I did. I overdosed on it and then got all overthinking about my mood. I’ll start using it again when I can trust myself to control my “well if a little is good, loads will be even better !” impulses. I really liked it until I went overboard on it.

@99victoria Also makes a really good point about balance. Whatever floats your boat in order to achieve it, but I wish I had made it a priority before I lost it. Covid induced TIA literally knocked me off my feet. If I hadn’t taken my (deteriorating) balance for granted it probably wouldn’t have taken me so long to get back on my feet. Unexpected wobbles are not just bad for your body if you bang yourself up. I found it so distressing. Because I could end up in a kind of helpless infant like state from out of nowhere with no practice to at least avoid the triggers. I only rarely get a wobble now. In part it was time, but a lot of the benefit came from not being in the state I was in pre-Covid. At some point in the ongoing tsunami of shit I have to do due to motherhood, marriage, working, house, life etc, I put myself last on the list of my priorities. I don’t now, and working on balance is not an insignificant part of that.

Haha I think I deleted the Fabulous app off my phone a couple of weeks ago having trued it last January and come to same 'hippy bollocks' conclusion you did initially.

Will have to take another look.

I have the Calm app which I pay £35 a year for and use every day which I find really helpful.

Started HRT last year which is beneficial but also take a meno supplement, vit D, and a probiotic. Planning to add something for the joints soon but was too expensive to do it all in one go.

I really need to exercise more but I just find it so boring. I love swimming but the cost, plus the 8 mile round schlep to the pool and back and having to go at sparrowfart or in the evening to avoid crowds/kids is off-putting.

😂 It was only after I dumped Fabulous as too California for my tastes, went and did a deep dive into stoicism, came back again with a headache, that I realised the app is basically stoicism, CBT etc. hidden under a layer of soft, kind, pretty voices and images.

I can’t do the Daily Stoic way. I like the site, reading the stoicism of the day is in my afternoon routine, but on it’s own I feel overwhelmed with how much to know, when + how to introduce it and then go too hard too fast. Fabulous basically take all the planning and knowing away from my “big pile of shit to do” and does it for me. But says it non judgmentally, which matters, cos I spent so many years being mean to myself to get stuff done that I forgot how to self talk without a big stick in my hand.

Plus I have a bit of a crush on British guy’s voice. He’s so soothing I just unclench before he even has a chance to mention relaxation. Less keen on the American woman. But for all the soft tones she has an authority to her voice that I need to get to the ADHD to submit to meditation.

My family would go into shock if they discovered I not only manage to meditate for a whole ten minutes, I look forward to it. Pretty sure you aren’t supposed to dribble due to unexpected encounters with complete relaxation though. So must work on that part.

@User4775433 I haven't heard of cherry extract I will look into that, thank you.

@AlienatedChildGrown I like using oils but have never tried Wheatgerm so will try that.

Op I'm in my 30s and noticing that injuries take longer to heal. I do feel the same energy levels I had in my 20s, but only if I've slept well. If I haven't slept well I'm useless and shattered, when I was younger sleepless nights wouldn't have even affected me.

Menopause and B12 is crippling me this week.

i cry a lot, cba to eat, im not hungry, im tired, pushing loved ones away, im disliking the person i am.
the only place I am ok-ish is at work where i can forget about the way i feel as i have to concentrate.

You should exactly how I was. Go see your dr regarding help for the menopause x

*sound 🙄

I've had the disc issue for 5yrs now, it has good periods and bad periods. I've booked to see my physio on Thursday and found some naproxen at the back of the cupboard. I normally keep it on the straight and narrow doimg weekly pilates, normally run once a week but not been able to, and walk the dog 5 days of the week. Swimming is good for it but it's such a blummin faff. Been and got a spray for my ears. Dug out some multivitamins with iron, which I've suffered with before. The fightback...

I’ve noticed a difference with vitamin B complex.

Is there anything that you LOVE that you can combine with the swimming ?

I did not going for my daily walk when I started, Old Girl Dog went on strike by week three of lockdown back in March 2020, so I was all by myself. New Hund arrived after Old Girl died. Changed everything. I walked just for the joy of his absolute floofy silliness.Now I walk for him and the feeling I get from walking.

Doesn’t have to be as extreme as taking in a massive daft doggie with debatable personal hygiene. Even a great soundtrack that lifts your spirits, or takes you back to a great time in your life, that you save only for the journey there and back to the pool. A shop not too far from pool you get to window shop in when you go.

I thought the combining good habit with loved activity was a bit twee and self improvement bullshit to work. That got added to the long list of things I’ve ever been wrong about.

Start a “The Fightback” thread (or let this be one in disguise) and I’ll happily join in. I’m nowhere near done with making the rest of my life being better than anything that came before it. 🎉

I’m nowhere near done with making the rest of my life being better than anything that came before it.

Oh I absolutely love this. ❤️

I think it can get better (no idea about the discs) but takes more active effort. Mid life health issues seem common, perhaps due to changing hormones. Consider if you have developed mid life allergies (ears) (everyone seems to). Watch out for signs of perimenopause over the next 12 years (average age of meno 52 I believe, but with changes for years before - joints can ache with menopausal arthritis for example). Otherwise I would say to give yourself a fighting chance - manage stress, lift weights, eat no or minimal sugar, drink no or minimal alcohol, eat unprocessed food and fewer starchy carbs, supplement iron, B12, vit D. Its often just the time of life with the most stress though. At 42 I was starting to take poles on our walks because I was so unsteady. At 49 I ran a marathon. Things can improve.

I turned 50 last year, I’m waiting to get a hearing aid fitted and like reading saga books. I feel old!

I found my dodgy back improved when I got a job as a supermarket online picker. I was only part time, couldn't physically have done more. My blood pressure also improved quite a bit.

It was only a temp job so I need to start exercising now. Just find it so hard to get motivated.

Ive been. 12 months ago I was given patches (instead of the minipill i was on to stop my 3 weekly periods which lasted a week ) which gave the such rages do I stopped after 5 months.
now on the combined pill with a break every 3 months for a period.

im having my B12 tomorrow and no doubt ill break down when she asks me how i am

Best wishes tomorrow @CeriB82

Oh and i think it would be worth you getting your iron levels checked...

@Reluctantadult
How’s the fightback going ? < cheering you on from the other side of the alps >

@AlienatedChildGrown did you shift/ reduced your dowager's hump?

I was gazelle-like up and until 47, I looked at least 10yrs younger. At 48, wallop peri-meno kicked in quite strongly. Went up 2 stone in a year when I've spent my whole life as a size 10 eat anything. My energy went and though all my joints are fine, all my ligaments became very tight. Moving to do anything hurts. At 52 I'm now trying to claw my fitness back.

Following for this because I'm getting one too.

I too have suffered with disc problems flaring up several times over the last ten years in my 40s. The worst period was 18mths with a walking stick and I could barely walk. I clawed that back by mainly working out what I Could Do and moved my focus away from what I Couldn’t do. I could barely walk but I could cycle on a well set up bike.

Getting fresh air everyday come rain or shine for a min of 30 minute exercise walk/jog/cycle/cold water swim. Pilates or yoga, blasts of Naproxen when I can’t move just for 1-2wks so I don’t get stuck on them. Recently I realised low progesterone (also been on HRT since mid-40s) was causing me to feel exhausted so increasing that has helped plus I’m taking a dissolvable vit-B-12 under my tongue daily. Which I swear is helping.

Mid forties I have a bulging disc in my back, headaches, anxiety, sinus pain, lethargy. Feel like I'm 80 😞