It all started leading up to Christmas 2024 and New Year’s Eve 2024/25. I was feeling tres negative about my aging body. I needed to cling to the hope of finding a solution to the ‘Weight Creep’ I was experiencing. Apparently, once you get to the ripe old age of 40, it is not uncommon for both women and men to gain 0.5kg per year, like what the actual!!! And I, in my 50’s, feel like I’m fighting a losing battle with my ever-rising waistline. This must be a Midlife Crisis.
For those of us without the extraordinary genes and nutrition of Pamela Anderson or Elle Macpherson, this is not a great outlook. With this in mind, along with my expanding waistline, I joined the gym again, hoping to wear my traditional Christmas outfits. I already had the gear, so I needed to find a decent gym. I attended YMCA and bigger franchise gyms in Australia; these were not as easy to find in France. The closest gym is a 40-minute drive away in the Ville de Tulle, Elancia. I still can’t believe I have this opportunity to live for a few precious years in the French countryside. It is a franchise gym with great equipment, and although the drive is long, the scenery is fantastic. As I wind through the French villages and dense forests, I listen to ‘Learn French in the Car’ on Spotify. I am not sure it helps with my aging brain and atrocious Aussie twang-affected French, but it is worth a shot.
I wouldn’t have fitted my NYE dress without embracing my gym journey. I still have quite a way to go before I’m happy, but I’m trying.
I am so ready for a new ‘style’ that suits my age and hides that granny shape, the one I thought would never happen to me, you know what I mean. The days of throwing anything on and walking out the door with an air of confidence are long gone, unless it’s a walk down stairs into the garden. I have resigned myself to the fact that it is primarily inevitable after bearing children and on the higher side of 55, and that ‘Weight Creep’ shenanigans. So now I have to re-design my wardrobe and go through my clothing to create something I can wear easily and comfortably without looking like a mismatched mess. I have read the posts on social media, you know, ‘The Capsule Wardrobe’, ‘How French Women Dress’, ‘Dress for You Colour’, and ‘Fashion over 50’. I see you, those amazingly colourful, arty-looking older women who are so elegantly, but still edgy, put together, with bright red lipstick and colourful glasses. I filled in all the questionnaires only to arrive at the end and decide I didn’t want to sign up for a year and pay for the service of looking like every other woman in my age group who is going through the same thing. The information is endless, but I can’t find the answer
So, there you go— my wardrobe dilemma, my fitness journey, and now my midlife weight-loss struggles. It’s a new year, and resolutions are flying about everywhere: no sugar, no carbs, and, the big one, no drinking! How on earth does one attain this by living the French ‘cheese and wine’ lifestyle?
Maybe after being in France so long, the holiday is over. If I do achieve my goals, will I enjoy the new me in 2025? Will the people I know still like a new me? Is this a delayed midlife crisis? More questions than answers here.
Good luck for 2025, lovely people, see you on the flipside.
