Eyesight. Loss of skin elasticity. Inopportune urine dribbles. Knees and shoulders… basically any joint. The need to sleep 8 hours a night when I used to get away with much less. No more all-nighters.
More medicine bottle, the instructions for which I can no longer read.
Absolutely, positively can’t drink anywhere near to excess, otherwise the next day feels like agressive chemotherapy.
Getting out of bed in the morning is like exiting a car wreck.
Let’s see… did that happen yesterday or was it back in April?
I’m 71
Hands hurt constantly
Lower back pain
Can’t walk very far without a cane
Can’t see very well—time for new glasses.
Can’t eat----eating bores me.
No interest in sex
Can’t hear very well
Hair is thinning
Gotta have comfortable shoes
Can’t spell anymore
Memory is going
Other than those few complaints, things look pretty good.
Oh hell, the warranty ran out years ago; now I’m just trying to keep the wheels from coming off.
Turning 50 this year. The thinning hair, the weight gain, the vision loss. Still, I’m grateful some things are still holding up. Sex is the best of my life. Quality and quantity. And I’ve never had to pee in the middle of the night. I’m beginning to notice some hearing loss, that’s not cool.
Yes, at 50 it was all good. Wait ten years. It’s sorta like a chemical reaction: once a process starts, it accelerates with alarming speed.
The following will no doubt depress me. I suppose it’s appropriate on a rainy Monday morning in NY, with rain expected for the next 6 days here.
Looks:
I’m 41, but often get mistaken for 31. I do, however, have greying hair. This actually has been a positive. Apparently, many women really like the salt/pepper look, so I’ve decided to not color my hair. My balding spot on my crown doesn’t seem to be getting better with Rogaine.
Health:
I have an enlarging prostate which has me a on a daily pill. As far as sex goes, I used to be permanently horny. Now it seems to come in cycles. Also, working out used to get my libido going. Now I need recovery time. The good news is I can bench and squat as much weight as I ever did in my life. But, as others have mentioned, this is all a facade. I can’t seem to sleep past 6am. My eyes are still 20/20, but not 20/12 as they once measured. It’s only a matter of time before I’ll need glasses.
Sports:
I’m currently useless on a basketball, tennis or volleyball court. For the latter two, I’ve lost the arm swing that I was known for. With that, I can’t serve or hit nearly as well as before. I can still run fast, but the muscles used for stopping and cutting seem to have disappeared. I’m 5’ 10", and used to be able to grab and hang from a 10-foot rim. Now I can’t touch the rim at all.
My hair is quite gray and my beard is white. The other day I found a photo taken around -96, -97 and noticed that both hair and beard were black.
Nightly trips to the toilet (but that is mostly a result of beer consumption).
I have developed asthma from running around in cold weather and nowadays I can hardly walk outdoors when it’s cold without coughing my lungs out (I know there are remedies, but growing up at a sanatorium has made me take as little medicine as possible. I, somehow, just don’t trust doctors).
My vote for most appropriate username in a thread this week.
Oooh, that’s the truth. My body is bringing up old injuries like a tribesman remembering ancient insults. “I’m sorry I broke you, Mr. Ankle, but that was twenty years ago. Goddam get over it!”
My immune system is another annoyance. It use to murder neighborhood dogs just to stay in practice. Now the CDC could use me as a sentinel chicken. If it’s out there, pretty good chance I’ll catch it.
I’m not whining, mind you. I’m actually happy with my health. I just feel like I’m turning from Conan the Barbarian into Don Quixote.
My hairline continues to move back and go gray, while I am simulataneously growing hair on my back, in my ears, and other places I never had it.
Arthritis went from being annoying aches and stiffness to genuinely hindering me.
Bifocals. Those, more than anything, conviced me I was no longer in the first flush of youth.
Count me in as another 32-year-old who is noticing sleep pattern changes. I hope to get into bed by 9 PM and am often asleep by 11. Even on weekends.
I sometimes have to get up in the middle of the night to pee, but more often I get awoken about an hour before the alarm goes off (by the dog or whatever) and I cannot sleep anymore unless I pee. Like, the second I am awakened I must pee whether it’s been 8 hours since I last went or 4.
I also can’t stay in bed all day anymore. Just a few years ago I could totally do that. Now all of a sudden I am up by 10 or so on a Saturday and then I go out and DO things, and stay awake. It’s insane.
I’m not “old,” but now that I’m 35, I notice extra weight a lot more than I used to. For example, in my 20s, I could gain an extra 5 or 10 pounds and it wouldn’t slow me down. Now when I gain any extra weight, I can actually feel the difference in how I move - how quickly I move, how nimble I am, everything. It sucks. I still remember being able to haul myself across the monkey bars, even at 28. Now that I’m 7 years older, it’s like my ass has 10 times the gravity it used to, even though it’s not that much heavier. It’s maddening.
Even more irritating is how much more vigilant I have to be in order to rectify the problem. Losing weight takes a lot more effort and planning, mostly because there are kids to contend with, a house to take care of, an actual career to manage and - dammit - sometimes I just want to sit down. But if I want to manage my health and my weight, I can’t. I used to be able to just veg in front of the tv all night with a burger and fries and not worry about gaining weight.
Ah, yes, and the varicose veins. Thank you, pregnancies, for forcing those beautiful blue veins to the surface. Currently I only have two, both higher on up my inner thighs. Not surprisingly, their appearance corresponded with my decision to wear shorts this summer, for the first time in about five years. I also have a lovely mini-starburst spider vein on the inside of my ankle. I hate it.
Almost 40 here…
not doing too bad - mild arthritis in my lower back, but I do yoga frequently which helps tremendously. Lots of stretching and walking too.
I can’t get up stairs as quickly as I used to.
I’ll get winded easier (Need to bump up the cardio).
I get more irritated with noises/crowds/distractions.
Early to bed and early to rise.
Can’t drink like I used to at all.
Few fine lines around the eyes…
Not doing too bad otherwise.
I fall asleep much earlier than I used to.
I can nap during the day, on the weekends. I used to be unable to do that, then for a while I wasn’t able to do it unless I was totally exhausted.
I wake up around the time I wake up for work, on the weekends. This did NOT used to happen.
I get dry skin on my legs, especially during the winter. My face and hair still produce enough oil to solve the energy crisis. I thought I’d go through “just right”, at least for a little while :mad:
Late 20’s for me. The up side is that I’m generally warmer in cold weather than I was.
Other age-related oddities:
[ul]
[li]Starting to feel everywhere I injured myself playing sports as a kid. Left ankle, left knee, right wrist, shoulders all occasionally hurt, and they didn’t in the past.[/li][li]Much more tired than I used to be.[/li][li]Mild hangovers after as few as 4 beers in an evening.[/li][li]Some gray hairs.[/li][li]Starting to get Mentat eyebrows, but only on my right side[/li][li]Vision is starting to get a little worse after about 18 years of it being the same.[/li][/ul]
Used to have superior reflexes, now just interior refluxes.
Used to hit the two-pointer shot at the trashcan 99% of the time. Now I have to pick up rebounds off the floor about 75% of the time.
Used to have terrific manual dexterity; now I hit the wrong keys and have to retype things, or lose things altogether.
My spelling is apparently going to shit.
At least the immune system is still stalwart; I rarely get colds or other nasties. And my teeth are “rocks”, according to my dentist.
Yeah, my eyebrows have been growing bushier for several years now. I have no idea how bad they’d be if left unchecked now; my hair stylist gives them a quick trim every month, when I’m in for my haircut.
So the age range of those posting in this thread appears to be 20s to 70s, if I have that right, but most are in the 35 to 55 range.
Yep, that’s about right.
I’m 45. How did that happen?
I just got bifocals…although my distance vision improved, my near-up vision went downhill. Just as my doctor predicted, it started at 35, but I was able to manage until this past spring.
My hip aches constantly, and one shoulder kicks up a lot too. (I think they’re related.)
My hands are starting to look like my mom’s…a little wrinkly, a little veinier than they used to be. I kind of like that, though.
I bruised more easily than ever, which is saying a lot.
I feel great overall, so I’m not complaining. I’m happier now than ever in my life.
Even if my breasts are not quite what they used to be. 