Hitting 50 can be a revelation in more ways than one, and I've certainly felt the seismic shifts—in my self-image, the way younger generations perceive me, and in the relentless march of technology that has left my encyclopedias gathering dust. Walking you through this milestone, I peel back the layers of my personal experience, from the startling reflection in the mirror to the workplace dynamics that subtly remind me of my tenure. And yes, there's a whole chapter on Botox—no needles spared—in this candid conversation about the allure and the apprehension of cosmetic procedures. The tension between aging naturally and the cultural obsession with youth has never been more palpable, and I'm laying it all out, inviting you to weigh in with your own stories of navigating this delicate dance.
Now let's talk about the rollercoaster that is menopause, where hot flashes are just the tip of the iceberg. It's more than just a biological shift; it's an emotional and societal tug-of-war that comes with its own set of rules. The decision to embrace gray hair, the secret society of frozen shoulder sufferers—it's all under the microscope as we dissect the lesser-known side effects of growing older. We're stripping away the taboos, getting real about weight management, and acknowledging how our moods swing with the hormonal tides. Feeling fabulous at any age isn't just a catchphrase—it's a crusade. And as your host, I'm here to rally the troops and champion the cause. Join me for a frank, fearless, and sometimes funny exploration of what it means to age on your own terms.
Hitting 50 can be a revelation in more ways than one, and I've certainly felt the seismic shifts—in my self-image, the way younger generations perceive me, and in the relentless march of technology that has left my encyclopedias gathering dust. Walking you through this milestone, I peel back the layers of my personal experience, from the startling reflection in the mirror to the workplace dynamics that subtly remind me of my tenure. And yes, there's a whole chapter on Botox—no needles spared—in this candid conversation about the allure and the apprehension of cosmetic procedures. The tension between aging naturally and the cultural obsession with youth has never been more palpable, and I'm laying it all out, inviting you to weigh in with your own stories of navigating this delicate dance.
Now let's talk about the rollercoaster that is menopause, where hot flashes are just the tip of the iceberg. It's more than just a biological shift; it's an emotional and societal tug-of-war that comes with its own set of rules. The decision to embrace gray hair, the secret society of frozen shoulder sufferers—it's all under the microscope as we dissect the lesser-known side effects of growing older. We're stripping away the taboos, getting real about weight management, and acknowledging how our moods swing with the hormonal tides. Feeling fabulous at any age isn't just a catchphrase—it's a crusade. And as your host, I'm here to rally the troops and champion the cause. Join me for a frank, fearless, and sometimes funny exploration of what it means to age on your own terms.
The Lovey Mushi by Podcast. Let's inspire each other. I don't think I really started feeling 50 until this year. I just didn't. And I'm not saying my body feels 50. I'm not even saying my mind feels 50. I'm saying that the perception of me feels 50. And what I mean by that is not only am I a Gen Xer, my life is so significantly different than the 20 year olds and the 30 year olds. It's like they don't even know half the stuff that happened in my lifetime Talking to people and realizing that somebody may not know who a journey is or that Madonna was cool. They didn't get those things. They're growing up in the times. Now they're growing up with social media and being able to learn everything they can and it's right at their fingertips.
Speaker 1:
I grew up with like a Britannica which is like a bunch of encyclopedias. You know the A through Z. Do you look things up? It was in black and white. There was no keyboard. There was no. Well, let me just ask Alexa, you know there was none of that. You know this when you have a conversation. I've seen the things on TikTok where they're like show us what you look like when you answer the phone. And you know all of us have like a banana in our hand and the other people have. They're holding basically their palm to their ear. It's quite different. Even with that, that started happening probably 35, when I started noticing those types of differences. Like, you work with different age groups and so it's not so obvious that the age range is so different, because you become really good friends, it doesn't matter how old you are, but then you'll have a joke or you'll hear, you'll talk about your night or something, and you can see how totally different your days and nights are because of the age.
Speaker 1:
I started to really feel for the first time that I'm older this year. I don't know if it's looking in the mirror and seeing different things with my face, my face changing, if it's the obvious people that are coming into the company. You know you're just like you're the older one. Now You're the older one. It's just a mind fuck. Excuse my language, but that's exactly what it is. I feel confused by it because I don't feel 50, yet people perceive me to be 50. And that's weird, like for the first time, like I've thought about Botox before, but for the first time I might actually do it and I have this debate in my head. Should I do it? I don't want to be the girl that fights getting older. It's not a fight. It just want the best version of me, at whatever age that is to be presented.
Speaker 1:
I do this. I'm on podcasts, I have social media. I have to feel good in order to be able to send good energy out there. If I don't feel good about myself, I will not be able to do this. It's impossible.
Speaker 1:
So I have that debate where I'm like do I want to spend the money? First of all, I live paycheck to paycheck, so that kind of money I think it's expensive. It's like $200 or something. I don't know because I haven't studied that hard into it. But it's something that once you start, you're stuck doing the maintenance on it. It's like every six months, I'm not sure. So I've never started it.
Speaker 1:
Because of that, I'm like I don't want to be hooked on like I already get my nails done. That's an expense. I already get my eyebrows waxed that's an expense. I didn't. And my hair done. I didn't want to add another expense to the list.
Speaker 1:
But recently I look in the mirror and I'm like it would be nice to feel like I look refreshed and they say I don't really have wrinkles per se. I don't have them, but I do have my skin's changing and I can see the skin changing and they say you should get Botox before the wrinkles start so that it's preventative and they don't happen. I'm on a time clock now. Now I'm like, okay, holy shit, I have to get my face injected before the wrinkles happen. And these things can just pop. One day you look refreshed, the next you look scary as hell.
Speaker 1:
So, not knowing what my timeline is for my skin, I'm thinking I need to probably make the move this year. And then, of course, you see these people that they are paralyzed on the face and like they can't move the right side of their face. And I'm like, oh my God, like I hate needles. I hate needles. That's why I don't have tattoos. I love tattoos, trust, I love it. It's art. I can't do it because I hate needles, but now that means I will be getting needles in my face. Oh my God, that freaks me out.
Speaker 1:
Like I saw a video of somebody getting lip filler, which I do not plan to do. Not, that's definitely not. I may do the Botox to the lip to get a natural lip flip, which I think might be cute, but I am not the one to do the filler. I don't think I should do filler at all, actually, because I don't want to look my face to look bloated. I want all natural, just a little bit of here, a little bit there. Oh my God. What I can do is promise you that I am going to take you with me when I do it. I'm going to do it this year, I think, unless I get freaked out by a video or something. I plan on doing it this year. Have you done it? Are you thinking about doing it Like? I really would like to hear your stories. This will help me make my decision, I think.
Speaker 1:
If you can tell me where you're at on this stage and if you feel like, if you're in my age range and you're looking in the mirror and you feel you can see changes happening, how do you feel about it? Like, does it freak you out? Does it make you sad? I don't know that I get sad. I think I'm just trying to understand it. I've always been a very optimistic, positive person and I don't want to look in the mirror and think, well, that's just what I am, that's just I'm old now.
Speaker 1:
Just that sentence alone freaks me out. I'm old now, and what goes along with that sentence? It freely comes out of my mouth. It's not a negative thing, but it is. Saying it like that is like somebody will say oh my God, well, I'm old now, you know. So gotta no like. Oh my God, I need to get rid of that line. We all need to not say I'm old now. No, what is a better line that we could use? Well preserved, nah, that's kind of like embalming fluid near death. We need to come up with a word that represents us. You know, we're the type that doesn't sweat, we glisten. That is our generation. And I do have to say, man, everybody that I see from my generation at least 75% look so good and they're very inspirational. I want to be inspirational and I want to be inspired.
Speaker 1:
I've also thought about letting my hair grow gray. It's gray, I have some gray. No, I don't have like. No, I do have a lot. I can't even lie, I have a lot, but not like in certain areas, like so the front air, holy. Even mentioning the word gray made me choke up. Yeah, so I have gray.
Speaker 1:
I was the type of person when I was younger I wouldn't get a haircut or my hair died professionally, like if I was to get my hair dyed professionally. It was something I saved up for. I wasn't high maintenance. It's like I'm the type that takes a shower, gets out of the shower, brushes my hair, kind of scrunches up my hair a little bit, shakes it all out and then I go. So it was real easy and I had wavy hair, so it was easy. I'll show a picture. Now I have gray hair.
Speaker 1:
I don't want to age myself out of what I'm doing, but I do see these girls and they're growing their hair out and they're it's like partially gray right by their temple and they're letting it grow out and it's like three months old and it's you know. And then I see full gray hair where it's long and it's gray and it's like so beautiful. I don't think I'm brave enough to do that, though not yet, but I so admire the people that do. And why is it? Men always look damn good with gray like in their hair. Salt and pepper hair is so hot. I think it's so sexy. We should be making this sexy right. We should be making our salt and pepper hair sexy.
Speaker 1:
And let me tell you some are some women are. I just don't. I don't think that would be me, I don't know. It's a mindset, right. It's owning whatever you do and knowing and feeling confident in whatever you put out to the world. So there's a lot of things that I probably need to overcome when it comes to that, visually it's just when you're younger you don't really have to pay attention to them.
Speaker 1:
I didn't. I really didn't pay attention to it much. I was always the kid that was chubby but had a pretty face. So everybody would always say if she just lost some weight, she would be so pretty. That was the common line that was used with me and I always thought that way my whole life. I'm like well, I have control of my weight, you know, so it should be not a problem. And then that became my struggle. My entire life was my weight. I'm actually to a point right now that I feel good. I don't ever want to be super thin. I don't know that I could even be super thin, but I never want to be fully.
Speaker 1:
I like curves. I think curves are sexy, I think curves are womanly and beautiful and I don't know. I just I just like them. But anyway, I was always that girl, but that was really my only worry was my weight. Now it's not really my weight anymore and it's shifted to my age and how people perceive me, not necessarily what I wear. Like I'm gonna wear whatever I want to wear. I don't really care what people have to say about that. I just don't want to be called old. I will move past this. I always thought the surgery that I would do would be lipo, always. If I had money, that's the first thing I'm gonna do. I'm gonna do that. Is there any surgeries that you want or you just like screw it all. I don't care what people think. I am who I am and I am fabulous. I think I'm fabulous too. Don't get me wrong. I'm just trying to learn how to think like an older person.
Speaker 1:
Like this menopause thing I had frozen shoulder three years ago. Nobody said it was menopause. I googled that. I was told it could be related to my neck surgery or diabetes, and I did. I was diagnosed with diabetes in July 2021. It didn't know that it could be menopause. I didn't know. 2021. My hair started to fall out. I've always had really thick hair and I thought it was because I got the COVID shot or that I had COVID. It was perimenopause. Frozen shoulder was perimenopause. I didn't know that. Then I went to my doctor and we talked. She ran some tests. She said my numbers weren't too far out of whack, so maybe nothing's going on. If you don't have your period for a year, you're in menopause. My year was in October 2023. So I'm in menopause right now.
Speaker 1:
Anytime I'm in a bad mood, I question is it because I'm in menopause or am I really just in a bad mood? I mean, I may have night sweats. I don't. I don't know. If I do, it doesn't affect me. I don't wake up from it. It's not hurting me.
Speaker 1:
I think the typical things get me mad. I don't feel like I'm more short tempered than I was. My kids may say different yeah, I feel like I'm doing pretty well. I think it always terrified me. I was just like I got my period. Okay, I'm not in menopause, I'm still young, can still have a baby. And then the thought that I no longer have a period. I can no longer have a baby. I don't want any, but I can't, even if I wanted one.
Speaker 1:
That's also a mind fuck. It's like I'm so happy I don't have a period, but I'm also sad. It stands for youth and I no longer am youthful. I need to accept these things that are changing in my body, to my body, in my life, and I need to move with it. I need my mind to move with it and I'm trying to figure out how to do that. I think by talking about it it definitely helps, because I know other people are also trying to move with it, trying to understand what that means for us.
Speaker 1:
What's next? You know I follow social media. Okay, I study, I do all that kind of stuff. So I was listening to this TikToker and he said go to the search bar, search up things in your niche. So mine would be women, 40 to 60, aging, empty nesters, career aging, all that stuff. Okay, that's me. That's what I want to talk about Inspirational stories, overcoming obstacles, sharing your wisdom.
Speaker 1:
So I look up women in their fifties, I look up aging. Do you know? There wasn't that many. It freaked me out, because then I went to YouTube and did the same thing and there wasn't that many and I'm like why? Why can't I pull up a lot of stuff that isn't the same person over and over again? You know what I mean. Like it should be multiple women. It should be multiple topics, it should be multiple communities, and maybe I'm just using the wrong SEO, which is search engine optimization. Maybe I'm just using the wrong words to search it up, but I'm just using what I would search up right Over 50. Over 50, it made me think. Like you know, the actresses are like yeah, well, we don't. There's not a lot of work for actresses over 40. And so they take what they can get. Nobody wants to see a woman over 40. I do, don't you. But that's why the actresses now are making their own film companies and production companies and producing their own film for women, and I toast them because they're aging with us. Angelina Jolie is aging with me, and if her Lopez is aging with me, reese Witherspoon, nicole Kidman, julia Roberts, pamela Anderson and damn, she's doing a good job. She doesn't even wear makeup. That is some cool people to look up to, just as far as aging goes.
Speaker 1:
I know this is a short episode today, but I just I was in Phoenix so I didn't have a lot of topics. I figured I'd make a few short, like short lovemuff drops this week. I know what I wanted to tell you. I remember I did want to tell you something I have a very big interview next week. I'm interviewing somebody that I'm not friends with, that I don't know personally, that has almost 29,000 followers on YouTube. She has a book out right now. She used to be out on the beat doing news reporting, so I'm like nervous. We'll be filming next Saturday and then the episode will release April 1st. I'm just looking at this as a growth opportunity, a learning opportunity and everything opportunity. Wish me luck. We are growing, we are evolving. We are getting uncomfortable.
Speaker 1:
All right, this was Lovey Mischie Bye. I'm Christy Chanel. Please hit the like button right now before you get off this episode, and, if you can throw a rating in there. I appreciate you so much and I will talk to you next Monday. Lovey Mischie Bye. Lovey Mischie Bye L-U-M-U-B podcast. Lovey Mischie Bye has been brought to you by Christy Chanel LLC, but if you're looking for more information or wanna follow us on social media, go check out ChristyChanelcom. All the podcasts are streamed there and the YouTube episodes are there, so why not? You can also listen. We're all podcasts are streamed. This includes Apple Podcasts and Spotify. And, lastly, thank you to you. You, yeah, you the one that's listening or watching. I appreciate you so much, lovey Mischie Bye.