Would you believe me if I told you that you could enjoy even greater wellness in your 40s than in your 30s? Fit In Your 40s? You might be laughing this off, you may even think I’m kidding – but the reality is that wellness is a choice not limited by our birthday.
Most of the time, I’m met with lots of laughter and “really, Adrien?” when I promise we can be the fittest versions of ourselves during perimenopause and menopause.
Our capacity for improvement doesn’t end at midlife. While our reproductive cycles may be changing, that capability has no bearing on the fitness and wellness we have yet to achieve. We are working with a new rulebook and have bodies that need a different toolbox, but midlife is the beginning of a new wellness paradigm.
I’ve worked with enough women in midlife to know that when we age, we are entering our prime. I’ve seen it countless times in my Concierge Wellness sessions. We’re wiser, we’re clearer on our goals, and we realize our capabilities. We are more confident than in our 20s and 30s. Feeling fit is more about embracing midlife with strength and confidence than anything else. It’s about giving ourselves the tools we need to achieve holistic, lasting wellness in a new phase of life.
As we embrace a new year, why not embrace a new decade of our lives with some of that same excitement? If you’re ready to achieve enhanced wellness in your 40s and beyond, here are my most-proven tips:
How to be Fit in your 40s
Put YOU first on your calendar (yes, that includes your workouts)
Fit people put boundaries on their time – particularly for their fitness.
When we put our wellness and fitness first, the rest of our wellness will fall into place.
When we choose to care for ourselves first, we invest in our well-being and success.
When we prioritize our needs, we tell the most important person (yourself) that you are worth the time, effort, and investment because your health is everything. Everything.
We also create a solid foundation for everything else in our lives. I’ve said it many times. If your wellness is not scheduled, it won’t happen. When we are running all day long, it’s easy to get to the end of the day and realize you “forgot” or “didn’t have time” to take care of yourself. Scheduling your wellness also offers accountability. If a workout is scheduled, it’s much more likely that it will happen.
Prioritize your sleep
It took me years to discover the importance of sleep for my fitness. I was in my 40s when I realized that all-nighters completing work, scrolling before bed, and pushing back sleep to make time to finish my to-do list were actually hurting my wellness goals.
I finally understood that working through exhaustion didn’t do anything positive for my fitness. Now, I focus less on the “work hard” mentality and more on the “work smart” method, decreasing my stress and improving how I feel. And how do I “work smart” you ask? I get 7 to 7.5 hours of peacefully uninterrupted sleep each night.
A lot is happening while we sleep. It is the first time our brain goes inward to repair, heal, and prepare us for the next day. During sleep, our bodies perform maintenance on our most vital functions. We reset the immune system. We restore hormonal balance. We clear away waste and neurotoxins. And—we strengthen our bodies and boost our fitness.
Leave behind that “cardio-only” mindset to embrace a variety of movement
During midlife, the cortisol (stress hormone) released during high-intensity workouts will only make us gain or hold onto unwanted weight.
Leave behind those difficult and overwhelming workouts and opt for movements that are fun and celebrate all your strength.
During midlife, our bodies are different, and the way we move has to change as well. Our hormones are different, our metabolism is different, and the way we respond to movement is different.
We need to reframe our fitness goals to center on preventing injury, boosting mobility, and helping us feel GREAT in our midlife bodies.
We need to honor our bodies for all they are instead of treating them as we did in our 20s and 30s.
