Far 2 Fabulous

Stop Mentally Retiring Before Your Body Needs To

• Julie Clark & Catherine Chapman • Episode 105

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Episode 105 

What if the real “midlife crisis” is just a crisis of beliefs? We take aim at the quiet script that says decline is inevitable and show how your words, your training, and your mindset can add power to every decade you live. This is a lively, honest conversation about healthspan, not just lifespan—how to build strength, mobility, energy, and confidence now so your later years feel expansive, not compressed.

We start by naming the trap: blaming age for every ache, foggy thought, or tired day. Then we flip it. With candid stories and real examples—from a seventysomething gymnast throwing flips to communities of women setting parkrun PBs—we show what’s possible when you train smarter and speak to yourself with intention. Neuroplasticity, progressive strength, mobility, and sleep all play starring roles. You can become stronger in your sixties than you were in your thirties if you align consistent practice with smart recovery and honest lifestyle checks.

Along the way, we unpack the cultural forces that devalue experience and worship youth, and we offer a better path: choose an anchor word like strong, run your daily decisions through it, and watch your body follow your mind’s lead. We talk practical reframes, playful movement that feels like joy rather than duty, and the late-bloomer advantage—how a focused decade can make you world-class at almost anything, no matter when you start. Ageing, framed well, becomes a gift and a platform for bold reinvention.

If you’re ready to challenge the script, find role models who light you up, and become one for someone else, this conversation will give you momentum. Subscribe, share with a friend who needs a nudge, and leave a review to help more people rewrite their next chapter.

Got a question or comment? Send us a text message here!

Thank you for listening.

You can continue the conversation with us in the Far 2 Fabulous Facebook group. Come and connect with other women on a journey to empowered health.

For more information about Julie Clark Nutrition, click HERE
For more information about Catherine Chapman, click HERE

We look forward to you joining us on the next episode.

SPEAKER_01:

Welcome to Far Too Fabulous. Judy and Catherine. Join us on a mission to embrace your fabulousness and really find outness. Get ready for some fightiness, inspiration, and chat, and humour as we journey together towards empowered wellbeing. Let's dive in. Hello, hello, and welcome to this week's episode of the Far Too Fabulous Podcast. Very nice, very nice. A nice one. I do, I think we need to jingle. I really do think that we need one. With and the video has to have like one of those old-fashioned microphones, and there has to be some bum bum bum bum somewhere in it. Some bum bums. Maybe some bum bums in there. Love it. Right then.

SPEAKER_02:

So what we're talking about this week, then, Julie. Well, I want to talk about not mentally retiring before our body needs to. Interesting. Yeah, I was feeling a bit like you know, I like to have a bit of a rant. No, no, do you? And you know I was ranting to you about this whole situation with oh, it's because of my age, oh, I'm getting old, oh, you know, and and I was getting annoyed about it because I just don't buy into it. Yeah. And then I thought, right, we need to do something around mindset. Mindset and age in people. Yes. You are not too old.

SPEAKER_01:

You are not too old. I think it's a again, it's a societal thing, isn't it? There's definitely less value placed on the older person. And so because it's seen as invaluable, we don't want to move towards it. Like there's there's like a stigma to it. Yeah. There's no there's no reward for like in business, there's no reward for somebody being in a company for a long time anymore. People jump from company to company, from job to job. And when, and you hear this often that some an older person will go for a job and they will they'll not be valued for their experience and their and their wisdom. Yeah, and their life lessons. Yeah.

SPEAKER_02:

So important.

SPEAKER_01:

They'll be, yeah, they'll just see that they're old and and I don't know, maybe they're they're vulnerable or a liability. I don't know what it is, but it's not it's not valued anymore.

SPEAKER_02:

Well, I also think that because we're in such a health crisis, yeah, and we've spoken about prevention and mobility, and because we're not doing any of those things, generally, the vast majority of people are not doing those things. Not us or you listeners, of course, but the vast majority. Everybody else, we're but we are surrounded by examples of being old is really crap.

SPEAKER_01:

Yeah, yeah. Yeah, because we are we are living longer, but we are not living healthier. Those quality of love. Those last like what extra 30 odd years that we've added on in the last kind of 150 years, more than 30 years, are not quality years, they're just quantity, aren't they? We're being held together with medication and a pr and a and a failing health system or uh on its knees health system, and yes, those last like 30 years are hard.

SPEAKER_02:

And on top of that, we've got celebrity after celebrity going through plastic surgery and all these things that are put in our face all the time. I actually think they look worse to be honest, but it's not like it's not like you're allowed to age normally anymore.

SPEAKER_01:

There's no, there's definitely not that allowance. I was looking because the golden globes have have just gone, haven't they? And I was I was looking at all of the all of the actress, actors and actresses all the way through that, and like looking at um like Julia Roberts looks virtually the same as she did when she was in Pretty Woman. Yeah, it's absolutely incredible. That said, maybe because I don't I mean I don't know what Julia Roberts does, but I'm assuming she looks after herself because she wouldn't look like that if she didn't, and I don't know what sort of surgeries and what have you that she has had, but actually maybe she is what we're gonna be talking about later as an example.

SPEAKER_02:

I think she might be because nothing looks false on her, and of course, we've got to remember when we're watching the Golden Globes that these people have amazing makeup artists, right? We've got to remember that. But she does look really good. I like Emma Thompson for an example of someone who is aging really nicely. Yeah, Helen Mirren is another one, yeah. Yeah, these people, you they're not going, they're not having all that work done on their face. You can see that, but you can see that they're putting the effort in to look after their health.

SPEAKER_01:

Yeah, I was looking at a picture of Jennifer Aniston the other day, and again, I know it's not necessarily realistic for you and me because she's probably got a personal trailer, she's probably I was gonna say she's probably got a gym in her house, but I've got a gym in her house. Um, she's probably got someone that you know does the cooking for her. She's probably got a lot of help and access to exactly the information that she needs for her. So I'm not gonna hold these up as like we should all look like this, however, they are an example of it is possible.

SPEAKER_02:

Yeah, and I I was saying to you about a lady that's in the the Japanese master's team for the gymnastics, she's in her 70s, and in her floor routine, she does a backflip, she does a vault, a handspring over the vault in her 70s, and I just look at that and I think that is fantastic, that's what I'm gonna be doing. Yeah, and I have every intention, yeah. There's no doubt in my mind that I couldn't do that if I when I'm 70. Yeah, yeah, yeah, absolutely. I mean, that is incredible, yeah. But there are examples, but we do have to search them out a bit. Yeah, there are examples of people older who have got this nailed.

SPEAKER_01:

Yeah, they're not the norm, they're not the norm at all. It's again, we like are we talking about uh societal cultural beliefs, isn't it? That that this decline is inevitable. How rude. No, it isn't. It's only inevitable. I wish we need we need to start doing these podcasts on YouTube because I wish that I could show you how offended Julie's face was at that point.

SPEAKER_02:

I just think no, it isn't. Unless you decide it is, yeah, you know, and that's and I'm not indecision, it is a decision and I'm not in denial of aging. No, you're not in in denial at all, but I'm just no, decline is not inevitable. I'm not no, no, no, I'm not available for it. Yeah, other things, pain is pain is normal, like writing, I'm gonna blow the glasses now, pain is normal, yeah. But it like you said, it is a it it's a society thing, isn't it?

SPEAKER_01:

Yeah, that you're like, oh, I'm getting old, I expect to be in pain, or I expect to be tired. Oh god.

SPEAKER_02:

Can you imagine if we actually think about this, right? So what we're saying is that we expect to be in decline, we expect to be in pain, we expect to be tired. Honestly, what is the point in getting up? No.

SPEAKER_01:

I kind of thought that this morning, but I mean that's no, you're absolutely right. Yeah, what is the point? Um but that's the thing about the way that we are living at the moment, that we are living longer, but that last bit of life is not quality. It's it is making it very, very miserable.

SPEAKER_02:

Yeah, and then what is the point of that? Yeah, you may as well check out 20 years earlier, yeah.

SPEAKER_01:

No, absolutely 100%, a hundred percent. And we were talking about this um I either we talked about it on an episode a couple of weeks ago, or it was just you and me chatting. Was that there is a lot of talk about hormones, and I don't know whether it if the younger generations hear it, or it's just that that's the stage of life that we're in, but there is definitely more talk about hormones than ever before. But it's the acceptance that that there is going to be chaos, it's the acceptance that menopause will bring misery, yeah. Um, and that well, one that that really that doesn't have to be the case, like you you've said before, isn't it in Japan or something that there isn't even a there's not even a word for it. So it doesn't just because our our hormones are changing, it doesn't necessarily mean it's a bad thing.

SPEAKER_02:

No, and I think with hormones, we're not again, we're not in denial of the fact that they are changing, yeah, and they can cause havoc, which we've spoken about, but a lot of the time it's due to the way we live our lives that is feeding into that havoc because the body is actually set up very well to deal with this change. Yeah, yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_01:

This is it's not new. No, I mean we you know, I don't think, quite honestly, that we were all designed to live as many years as we're planning to. I don't probably beings were designed to live until they're 100, and I plan to be here at 100, still fit, healthy, wiping my own bottom. And doing this podcast with me. Doing this podcast with me.

SPEAKER_02:

Hang a minute. If you're 100, how old will I be? You're gonna be how much older am I than you? Is it eight years? How old are you now? 47. 46? 40. I think I'm 46. I don't think I've been 47. 46. So there's nine, is there nine years difference between us then? Right, so I'll be 109. Okay, I can deal with that. No, we'll do this. We can't even work. I don't even know how old I am.

SPEAKER_01:

I know how unimportant it is to be. It doesn't matter, does it? It's genuinely unimportant. It really doesn't matter, but it is people attach things to age. So that said, it wasn't say people attach things to age, but there is very much a stage for women around 40, 45 that things do change, not necessarily just with the hormones, just with our entire beings, and being aware of that and making sure that you are as fit and as strong as healthy as you possibly can be, is is is one thing. So there is something just in specific ages, but like somebody says, you know, oh, you know, 50, oh I'm over the hill, or those sorts of things. Oh, or it's because you're 50. Oh, yeah, this happened that happened to me when I was 50. Yeah, you hear this all of the time. People excusing, oh my god, oh my god, give me a soapbox. People excusing the the pain, the the tiredness, the aching, the inflexibility, the immobility, the the fact that the brain is giving up, excusing those things when actually they've got nothing to do with it, they're just that you haven't done other things to work at it.

SPEAKER_02:

Yeah, because they've done that winding down thing, because I'm in midlife. I've got to slow down now. Do not do that.

SPEAKER_00:

I'm I haven't got to midlife yet because I want to live till I'm a hundred. Yeah, so you're not gonna go there.

SPEAKER_02:

Oh, whereas I am actually there, aren't I? Because I'm 54. Yeah, I'm in midlife, yeah.

SPEAKER_01:

But also, so not not thinking that you're now at the top of the mountain and away you go back down again, like that everything's downhill from now on.

SPEAKER_02:

And I'm just halfway through.

SPEAKER_01:

This is amazing.

SPEAKER_02:

This is what I think, halfway through. I've got a lot to do. I've already done a lot, so I've got a lot to do. I like this. Yeah, I think it's quite exciting.

SPEAKER_01:

Yeah, so I'm not even I talk about midlife quite a lot, but I am I'm not accepting that I am that I'm there. But it's much about the language, isn't it? Around around everything that that society that society uses.

SPEAKER_02:

Yeah, I think we need to reframe it completely because we we spend too much time looking backwards, don't we? Yeah. Looking going, oh, I used to be able to do this, oh I used to, I used to be this size and that, you know, rather than embracing the fact that it's little things like you know, we've both had children, have body changes, yeah, and that's just a fact. But we could look at it like, oh, you know, I've had children, it's wrecked my body, or we could go, that was amazing what I've done. I produced these children, and I might have a little bit of a belly because I had a C-section and there's a little ridge there now, yeah.

SPEAKER_01:

And I could embrace that, yeah, or I can be down on myself and be like, oh, before I had kids, you know, no, just no, and it is just because everybody, or not everybody, but lots and lots of people have children, does not make it any less miraculous. No, it's an absolutely incredible thing, yeah.

SPEAKER_02:

So I think we need to reframe it, and instead of kind of looking back and thinking, oh, I was this size, or I could do this when I was 20, we got to look forward and decide on what we want to be able to do. And we have got all this wisdom and life experience and knowledge, and we should fully utilize it, I think, and not get into this. I mean, cat catch yourself now that you're aware, because we've just planted this little thing into your mind. Catch yourself when you say, Oh, it's because I'm getting old.

SPEAKER_00:

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02:

See how many times you do it. Yeah, even as a joke, you might surprise yourself, yeah. And then think, hang a minute, is this actually helping me? What have I just referred to? I'm getting old. What have I just what have I linked that to? Is it am I tired because actually I've been running around like an idiot doing everything for everyone? I haven't had a good night's sleep, I haven't fuelled myself properly. Maybe that's why I'm tired. It's nothing to do with my age.

SPEAKER_01:

Yeah, yeah, 100%. And it's it plays into your confidence as well, doesn't it? It like it, you're almost knocking your own confidence along with the whole story that society has with you and your age. If you start to play into that and start, you know, I don't know, like with the brain fog and the I don't function as well and I don't move as well, and I can't do this because of my age, or you can't do gymnastics because of your age, or that sort of thing, you really it really knocks your confidence.

SPEAKER_02:

Yeah, it it does. And then that's why I think that we need to look for the role models that are doing it because there are people that have started sports in their 50s, in their 60s, or something new. I mean, there are people that have started a new business in their 60s and become very successful, yeah. But it's a complete different mindset when you look at it from that perspective.

SPEAKER_01:

They those people really excite me. People like uh was it Morgan Freeman that didn't start acting until he was in his 50s or 60s in um Robin Hood Prince of Thieves. He was like he was uh some people will consider old already, and he starts his brand new career and is you know at the top of his game. It's just really exciting.

SPEAKER_02:

I think the human body and the human brain is really incredible, and we've got the ability to shape things if we put the intention and the work in.

SPEAKER_00:

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02:

So you can learn new things, you can change your brain, you can really change how your brain, the neuroplasticity side of things, means that we can change our brain and shape it. Yeah, there's nothing to say that we can't be stronger in our 60s than we were in our 30s. Say in our 30s, we weren't doing any exercise, and because we were maybe raising kids and we got busy and things like that, it's not too late. No, you know, we've seen people take up sports later in life and then actually smash it out of the park.

SPEAKER_01:

Yeah. I I'm experiencing that. I talked about park run the other week, and there is a community of women that are mid-age plus that, yeah, they've they've retired or they've semi-retired, and this is the point in their lives where they get to spend this time and maybe this money on themselves, and it's oh, it's absolutely phenomenal, it's really empowering, and it's just it's very exciting to watch, yeah.

SPEAKER_02:

And I think with that, the you know, the wisdom as well that we get as we get older, we're not just throwing ourselves into these things and not doing it properly or mindfully, like we know that we gotta be careful of things like injuries, yeah, but then we just do things smarter, don't we? We're not just throwing ourselves around like we're 20 years old anymore. We're being so we we know what we're doing, yeah, and we do it in the right way for where we're at, and then we can achieve exactly the same thing as someone in their 20s who is throwing themselves around.

SPEAKER_01:

Yeah, absolutely. And it they say it only takes it only, it takes what about 10 years if you uh really dedicate yourself to one thing to become an expert at it. Now I'm thinking, I'm trying to think, it was somebody in someone's book or someone's programme, and they'd met a lady who was the like was world-renowned in I think it was like archaeology or something. Is this ringing any bells to you or do you think that's not to me? Carry on. Um, and so she was well past retirement in her 70s or 80s, and she had uh started getting interested in something. It was something really very very specific, and uh so she'd done nothing but studied this thing for 10 years, and so then she had become a world expert in this subject. I wish I could remember who it was. If I do, I'll put it into the far too fabulous Facebook group who it was and what it was that she had become like well known for. And she'd only she'd been 10-15 years, I think she'd been studying it, and this was well past her retirement, and so she was world class, world renowned at sort of like 75-80 on this subject, whereas society expects us at that point to kind of lay down and die. And I just I was like, that is just that is so exciting to be in within that field world famous and have all the knowledge about this because you get you get the time to apply yourself. Yeah, I like that. Isn't that exciting? Yeah, it's so exciting. I love that. I mean, I I mean I have every intention to not grow old gracefully in any way, shape, or form. I think also being childlike, you talk about uh gymnastics, how much it feels like playing. And we we move away from that, don't we, as we as we get grown up. And in the middle of our lives, things do get really serious, don't they? There is a lot going on, there is bringing up of children, there is perhaps towards the more middle of our lives, looking after parents, maybe if they're older, people around us start dying. And it does, it gets serious and it gets really, really hard. And and I think it probably knocks us down a peg or two, doesn't it? And and so not buying into that whole narrative that we're that we're over the hill and that we're you know on the other side of it or going downhill is really important.

SPEAKER_02:

Yeah, I I think just saying positive things to ourselves as well when we catch ourselves, say, Oh, I'm too old, I think if you really think about it, aging is a gift. Not everybody gets to age, do they? Absolutely, you know. So when we are in our, well, me in my 50s, anybody younger or or even older, it is a gift to be where we are now, right? Yeah. Because not everybody has that gift. So instead of looking at it like, oh, you know, getting older, it's uh grim, isn't it? You've got to embrace the fact that how lucky am I to be at this age, and then just think about the positives around, you know, I can still get up and go for a dog walk. That's fantastic. Yeah, I can go and do a backflip, that's incredible. You know, those type of things.

SPEAKER_01:

Yeah, yeah. And the joy and the life and the energy from being able to go and do things that people tell you you can't do or you shouldn't do is oh, it's worth every moment of training to do those things, isn't it? It is, it really is. It's a big up yours to anybody that says, Oh, I'm I'm too old. Yeah, to just look out for that and let's yeah, flip it on its head and let's get the positive language around aging out there. And when you notice yourself say something negative, immediately correct it, or if you notice that somebody else says that, immediately counter it and don't because I think we just we just agree, don't we?

SPEAKER_02:

We do. I think we need to not accept this script that we're fed about aging, it really, really winds me up.

SPEAKER_01:

Yeah, I think I with women as well. I think it it all plays into this power thing, and if I was being um sceptical or uh what's the word I'm looking for? I can't think what the word is I'm looking for. Because they've got brain fog because I'm old. Yeah, yeah, Catherine. Um I would think that it was part of keeping us small. I think it would be part of really keeping women quiet and frail and with as little power as possible. You might well be onto something there, and I um and I am not down for that. I'm down for us being strong and loud and confident in whatever shape or form that takes for you. Uh just not going down without a fight, definitely not going quietly.

SPEAKER_02:

Absolutely not. Do you know what? I was um I had a client this morning who I'd been working with for about three months, and when I first so we were getting towards the end of our package, we've got one appointment left, and she said to me today, I am not the same person that you spoke to at the beginning of our package. It was so lovely, and I said to her, Oh my god, this is badass, and then the lady's name, yeah, and she said, Yeah, I'm really enjoying it, I'm putting myself first. My confidence is completely different now. I was so lost before, yeah, and that is just amazing. But I what I brought the reason why I brought that up is that yeah, we need to be more badass.

SPEAKER_01:

Yeah, yeah, that's so so exciting. That I why did I use the word? I used the word badass in them in something I wrote the other day because I looked, I had to look up how to spell it. I was like, is that how it because I I was I was mum was writing bad asses. Oh there was more of us. There was many of us. There was many of us. Many asses that were bad. It was it's just absolutely absolutely, and so we yeah, we won't go down without the fight. We are not gonna lose our confidence, we're not gonna listen to that narrative anymore that we are at at certain an age, we're not allowed to do things or we shouldn't be doing things. We shouldn't be. It's there's a poem, isn't there, of something about when we're old, we're gonna wear purple and do all the yeah. I'm just gonna continue to or do the opposite, I think, really, then to what everybody else tells me I should or shouldn't do.

SPEAKER_02:

Yeah, challenge the narrative always. And then, of course, then what we ideally want to be is role models for other people, don't we?

SPEAKER_00:

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02:

So we're looking for our role models that are ahead of us in that, you know, in this life journey. And then hopefully we got people looking at us going, Well, you know, Julie's doing gymnastics in her 50s. Yeah, what could I do?

SPEAKER_00:

Yeah, absolutely.

SPEAKER_02:

Kevin's running marathons and he's gonna trek the Sahara.

SPEAKER_01:

Sahara, I've definitely got another triathlon, at least one. Yeah, you've said that. Um, half-iron. I don't think I can be bothered with a fool, but I've definitely got a half-iron. And that's what was interesting is you said that lady said I'm I'm not the same person as I was before. And that we get to do that, we get to evolve. Like I'm not the same person that I was sort of six or seven years ago. I'm not the same person as I was when I had really young children. I'm not the same person as I was when I was in my twenties and I first met Mark, those sorts of things. We are like different versions of ourselves every single time, and I think that again that's a gift, isn't it? That we get to kind of reinvent ourselves every single time, and we and we yeah, we get to model ourselves on on somebody else. We don't have to just sort of tow the line or do what's expected of us. We yeah, we get to create whatever the next iteration of us is, and if the word badass is at the top of that, as the title of that iteration, then I quite like that.

SPEAKER_02:

I do like that, yeah. And I think remember that the body follows the mind, which is why I started with don't mentally retire before your body needs to. Yeah, if your mental side is strong and you're not accepting this narrative and you are using words like my word, you know, I do a word for the year, so my word for this year is strong. Nice, yeah. So everything I'm doing, I have this little just moment in the back of my mind. Is this bringing me strength? Am I being strong? Yeah. It I think if you can just use words like that, think about how your mind is working, your body will follow that. Yeah.

SPEAKER_01:

I think we should do an entire podcast on the word strong. Because there are so many, so many. I'm just I'm thinking about that word, and there's so much I have to say that and I know that I can't say it right now, so can we do that?

SPEAKER_02:

Yeah, we can do a we can do an episode on being strong. Yeah, because we're not talking about physical strength, although there is an element of that for me this year. Yeah, it's way more. That word means way more than that. Yeah, no, it really does.

SPEAKER_01:

It really does. So get out there and be badass. You can be an old badass if you want, which is absolutely fine as well.

SPEAKER_02:

Yeah, be badass. I like that. And then come and tell us in a Facebook group that you're being badass. Yes.

SPEAKER_01:

Until next week. Until next week. See you then. Thank you so much for joining us today. We love creating this for you. We'll be back next week with another great episode.

SPEAKER_02:

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SPEAKER_01:

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