Life expectancy is increasing, as is quality of life for many people. So, how old are we, really?

The youthful glimmer in Betty White’s eyes speaks volumes. Although the 90-year-old’s body may be winding itself down, she’s still highly active and engaged in living. There’s no question that age is better measured as a state of mind than what shape the body’s in. Still, we are bound to these bodies, which are highly influenced by our diet and lifestyle choices. When taken care of, they can be more resilient to illness and disease, maintaining a youthful appearance and vigor up until the very end. Modern science, for all its chemical “cures,” has significantly helped to thwart diseases and preventable deaths with valuable advancements in internal medicine, surgery and early disease detection.

We can—and are—living longer. Still, stigmas exist about benchmark ages. Many people still aim to retire at 65 when they may have 30 or 40 good years left. Will this change? Are Ms. White and other youthful seniors examples of aging redefined?

Jodi Sawyer, RN says, at least for women, 40 really is the new 30 (phew!). “Women in their 40s are looking and feeling better than ever! Life no longer starts going downhill the second we hit that magic number.” While women may be more susceptible to aging stereotypes, we do also seem to be aging slower. Many women in their 40s, 50s and 60s are still the epitome of glamor, sexiness and health, even if they still dye their hair and wear push-up bras…after all, there are lots of ladies in their 20s who do this anyway.

Boomer and aging expert Dr. Ken Dychtwald calls this the “Longevity Revolution,” which, he says, may have a greater influence on humanity than both the industrial and technological revolutions combined. That’s a pretty big statement, but it also feels really right. Never before in recorded history have we lived this long. While 100 years ago, women weren’t expected to live much past age 40, now many are just beginning to start families at that age. We’ve got marathon runners gleefully sprinting across the finish line in their 80s and 90s. Dustin Hoffman just made his directorial debut at age 75. Mick Jagger and Bruce Springsteen perform stage antics in their 60s that many limber 20-year-olds aren’t likely to try anytime soon. While industry and technology have given us great tools for life–longer, more fulfilling lives are dictating what we do with them.

Take a stroll into decades past (I do this regularly by watching Turner Classic Movies until my boyfriend finally hides the remote) and you’ll notice that many of the actresses and actors look decades older than their actual age—at least, by our standards. A 40-year-old Humphrey Bogart could pass for 60, or even 70 today. Granted, there was a lot more cigarette smoking (particularly for Bogey) and quite a few other less-than-healthy habits back then; but it’s not just today’s health food freaks who look and feel younger.

If 40 really is the new 30, what does 70 or 100 look like? With longer lifetimes becoming the new normal, have you asked yourself what you might do with all that “extra” time? How old do you really feel? These are important questions to ask ourselves so that we’re not only prepared for the likelihood of longer lives, but so that we may live them to the fullest.

According to Dychtwald, our longer life spans will provide “time to chart a new course.” These are comforting and inspiring words as we can begin to reshape how we look at our “golden years”—no longer is it the beginning of the end, but, perhaps it’s just another beginning altogether. He adds, “We’ll have the time and resources to reverse past failures or build on past victories, perhaps changing careers, taking a sabbatical, or returning to school. With longer life spans, there will also be sufficient time to take a more active and contributing role in the lives of our children, grandchildren and community life.”

If we are indeed at the beginning of a longevity revolution, we’re all at a unique advantage. Unlike revolutions past, where the majority of the work was left to the few experts in the field, we all play a role in how we embrace aging and reshaping a world where “old” is no longer a measure of age.

Keep in touch with Jill on Twitter @jillettinger

Image: Off Their Rockers via Facebook

The post The Longevity Revolution: How Old Are We, Really? appeared first on EcoSalon.

A collection of famous sayings that doesn’t include “thirty and flirty.”

Thirty was so strange for me. I’ve really had to come to terms with the fact that I am now a walking and talking adult. -C.S. Lewis

When you turn thirty, a whole new thing happens: you see yourself acting like your parents. -Blair Sabol

The excess of our youth are checks written against our age and they are payable with interest thirty years later. -Charles Caleb Colton

30 is the new 20, unless you’re 20, then it’s the new 40. -Dane Peddigrew

Thirty – the promise of a decade of loneliness, a thinning list of single men to know, a thinning briefcase of enthusiasm, thinning hair. -F. Scott Fitzgerald

The only time you really live fully is from thirty to sixty. The young are slaves to dreams; the old servants of regrets. Only the middle-aged have all their five senses in the keeping of their wits. -Hervey Allen

In my thirties, I felt I had hold of one of the reins some of the time. -Chaka Khan 

A poet more than thirty years old is simply an overgrown child. -Henry Louis Mencken

Men reach their sexual peak at eighteen. Women reach theirs at thirty-five. Do you get the feeling that God is playing a practical joke? -Rita Rudner

When you’re a teenager, all you want to do is buy beer. But once you hit 30 all you want to do is to get carded. -Sarah Jessica Parker as Carrie Bradshaw in Sex and the City

Time and tide wait for no man, but time always stands still for a woman of thirty. -Robert Frost

After 30, a body has a mind of its own. -Bette Midler

I think anybody over 30 plays parents because it happens in your thirties and so that’s kind of a natural progression. But I’m definitely drawn to it. It’s probably the most intense, passionate thing that happens to you as you get older. -Jodie Foster 

The boy gathers materials for a temple, and then when he is thirty, concludes to build a woodshed. -Henry David Thoreau

I’m turning thirty this year. And you know the saying, a woman over thirty is more likely to get hit by a bomb than find a man. -Fanny Fink

I remember the day I turned thirty. I was getting out of the shower and I stood in front of the mirror and stared at myself for a long time. I examined every inch of my body and appreciated the fact that I finally looked like a grown woman. I also assumed that this was how I was going to look for the rest of my life. The way I saw it, I was never going to age; I’d just look up one day and be old. -Terry MacMillan

Everything I know I learned after I was thirty. -Georges Clemenceau

At age 30, one receives strength. -Talmud (Pirkei Avot 5:26)

A man thirty years old, I said to myself, should have his field of life all ploughed, and his planting well done; for after that it is summer time. -Lew Wallace

To my eye, women get sexier around 35. They know a thing or two, and knowledge is always alluring. -Pierce Brosnan

The body is at its best between the ages of thirty and thirty-five. -Aristotle

Thirty five is a very attractive age; London society is full of women who have of their own free choice remained thirty-five for years. – Oscar Wilde

If at age 20 you are not a Communist then you have no heart. If at age 30 you are not a Capitalist then you have no brains. -George Bernard Shaw

Don’t trust anyone over thirty. -Jerry Rubin

There are no available men in their thirties in New York. Giuliani had them removed along with the homeless. -Cynthia Nixon as Miranda Hobbes in Sex and the City

Thirty-five is when you finally get your head together and your body starts falling apart. -Caryn Leschen

It is in the thirties that we want friends. In the forties we know they won’t save us any more than love did. -F. Scott Fitzgerald

My time has been passed viciously and agreeably; at thirty-one so few years, months, days, hours, or minutes remain that Carpe Diem ‘is not enough. I have been obliged to crop even the seconds-for who can trust to tomorrow? -Lord Byron

Life is islands of ecstasy in an ocean of ennui, and after the age of thirty land is seldom seen. -Luke Rhinehart

No one over thirty-five is worth meeting who has not something to teach us – something more than we could learn by ourselves, from a book. -Cyril Connolly

ALSO CHECK OUT:

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Want to see more quotes? Go here.

Images: mylittlepinkbook, HBO, sasoc

The post 30 Famous Quotes About Being in Your Thirties appeared first on EcoSalon.

Rather than raise our voices, we girls at EcoSalon prefer to write about it, because if you need to scream, my guess is you aren’t so certain what you have to say is worth hearing.

And really, who wants to hear a grown woman roar?

In the past few months at EcoSalon, women have taken center stage with subjects ranging from brazen to, well, more brazen. If only we could change the world with our steadfast, unwavering commitment to talking about what matters.

Oh yeah, we are.

So what have we been discussing lately with regards to women? The question should be, what haven’t we?

We talked about getting older – why welcoming 30 and reaching for 40 with gusto is a reason to celebrate. Although with age comes the need to decide short versus long…hair, that is.

Is there ever a good time to talk about infertility? But we did. Then we tossed around the wild proposition that we don’t need a baby to feel happy and fulfilled. The horror! Which brings us to contraception and the dirty, sexy pill.

While we’re on the subject of sex, we want our cake, and to eat it too. I mean, why should we have to choose?

Speaking of choices, why are being pretty and smart mutually exclusive? We can have it all! Right?

Wrong. It’s time to face the cold, hard truth. Our fantasy lover is not showing up to sweep us off our feet, because he doesn’t exist. Reality checks can be so annoying.

And so is the office flirt who makes her way to the top using her sexy. But it seems she’ll pay the price once she gets there.

Sticks and stones – but names can be controversial. Gal, chick, girl, lady or ma’m? You decide.

And finally, it’s a relief to know that there are at least nine things we don’t need in order to be happy, and that after all this talk, a little silence and a good book can be a girl’s best friend.

Images: squacco, sleepishly, Vivian Chen, quinn.anya, Samdogs

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Recently, the New York Times examined one of the most pressing issues of the 21st century – climate change. And then – wait for it – they looked at long hair on middle aged women. Writer Dominique Browning, aged 55, possesses a long, graying veil of hair that she likes to wear loose around her shoulders. She defends her choice of hairstyle to a world of cynics who claim she’s “acting out” and “stuck in the 1970s.” Her response? She’s letting all her gray hair hang out and screw the naysayers.

To which we say to Ms. Browning: you go ahead and rock your bad long-haired self. To each her own – you want long, gray hair, you flaunt it. But society seems to dictate that women chop off their long locks at the first sight of crow’s feet. Long hair is relegated to glossy youths who shake their locks with abandon and turn their dewy faces to the sun without concern. And why is this?

(And sure, many might sigh “Who cares?” We support you. For the rest who want jump through this veil of controversy, gather around. Because veils are like hair? Right? Sorta?)

We get the appeal of long hair. I chopped my hair in the 1990s in an attempt to mimic Winona Ryder’s “Reality Bites” hairstyle. A few years later I was caught up in Tolkien frenzy (long live Eowyn!) and decided to grow my hair as long as possible. It traveled to my elbows. I was able to play with as many Middle Earth hairstyles as I wanted, as I am a nerd. I had braids, bangs, and bangs with braids. Now, as I’m staring down 40, it resides somewhere in between. Am I supposed to keep it short now?

If you look at the more synthetic representations of modern womanhood, as evidence of reality shows and troubled starlets, you don’t see a lot of pixie cuts among them. The “Real Housewives” franchise all showcase largely middle-aged women with long hair, usually wigs or extensions. A walk around Beverly Hills confirms that women of all ages are sporting long hair – along with Botox and enough lip filler that could raise the Titanic from the ocean floor. Long hair is a societal marker of youth, and many women want it.

And yet, we cut it as we get older. Some women cut their hair when they have kids. I have more than one friend, (well, almost all of my friends) who chopped their hair after giving birth because they couldn’t be bothered with it. But others seem to cut it from societal pressure that they are “too old” for long hair. And while it might be unfair and wrong to think so, would anyone expect Hillary Clinton to carry curls past her shoulders while engaged in diplomacy? Someone besides Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi.

And by judging from the comments on Ms. Browning’s New York Times piece, there’s a lot of emotion on the matter. Some pointed out that your hair loses thickness as you age, and that long hair simply isn’t an option for some women afflicted with patterned baldness.

Others worried over the stagnant state of femininity in the world. Kellie from Shanghai wrote: “Reading this article and the comments, all I am left with is the saddening realization that no matter how old or ‘mature’ we get, we women seemingly will never be able to get over judging each other for how we look. I can’t believe that anyone feels the need to justify the length of their hair to anyone else, and worse, to insult (be it blatantly or covertly) those who would make a different choice.”

Suzanne from Denver took a different approach. As she commented, “Good for you if you can pull it off (no pun intended), but many older women who wear gray hair long look a bit witchy or worse, a bit pathetic, as if they’re trying to regain their lost youth. There’s a great expression for this: mutton in lamb’s clothing”.

But Blondtitude, 58, from San Francisco, perhaps summed it up the best. As she wrote in response to Ms. Browning’s article, “Oh yes, middle-aged should wear their hair short, bobbed and tamed? Dear God, you may as well put us into Eileen Fisher outfits where all the pieces were created to be worn together, homogenized like milk.” We raise a fist of support to you, Blonditude!

Tell us, do you think middle-aged women should forgo long locks? (And if you have a decent exit strategy for Afghanistan, we’re all ears on that too.)

Images: evil erin, nrbelex

The post Women Over 40. Long Hair. Welcome to the New Beauty Controversy. appeared first on EcoSalon.

Age is relative, and you’re only as old as you feel. Right? Certainly, but society sure has a way of making you question it all. Yes, we’re not supposed to worry so much about aging. But there comes a time – usually at the exact same moment you see a teenager ironically wearing something you wore in high school – you realize that the years have ticked on and you are staring at your 40th birthday.

The good news is that the view from the fifth decade is looking pretty good. We’ve already brought you 10 Best Reasons to Turn 30. Now, we invite you to throw some Nirvana onto the CD player, sit back, and check out why it is great to be 40.

You’re more likely to be flush with cash.
You might even have flush retirement funds. Which means, of course, you’re that much closer to retirement and play time.

You already know your body is beautiful.
Maybe you’ve had kids. Maybe you’re a triathlete. Maybe you’re Martina Navratilova who won tennis titles well into her 40s. Many report that 40 was the first time they shed their smaller body insecurities and embraced the whole package, stretch marks and all.

Sex is better than ever.
Know what you’re not going to put up with in your 40s? Bad sex. You have the confidence, wisdom, and experience to shed subpar sex. Some people might try to call this being a cougar – to which we say, bring on the cat nip.

Hair color gets kick ass.
Going a little gray? You can start to tell people that covering your gray hair is just a way to look more striking. Or you can ditch the dye altogether and embrace the new with the old. Anne Hilton is a 46-year-old attorney in Arizona who recently put pink streaks in her hair and rocks the look from her minivan.

Motherhood is in motion.
Some of us might be first-time mothers while others might be first-time grandmothers. But even if you’re in the middle of your motherhood marathon or just starting the race, experience makes you most likely one of the most competent mother on the block.

You know how to get things done.
Susan Katz is a 44-year old stay-at-home mom in North Carolina. She can wrangle three kids, maintain a household, work a part-time job, and get organic meals on the dinner table – all in one day. “I’m more organized and efficient than I ever was in my 20s or 30s,” she told me before hanging up the phone to shuttle someone off to ballet.

Michelle Obama, and Tina Fey, and Halle Berry, oh my!
Behold, the three sisters of inspiration for turning 40. Obama’s intelligence, Fey’s wit, and Berry’s body are three pinnacles of impressiveness. Sure, you can argue that these are all characteristics attainable at any age, but a woman in her 40s has experience and self-assuredness to enhance all inner and outer beauty.

You know what you want to be when you grow up.
Some share that the 40s are the first time you take the time to really think about what you want from your career, not what your career wants from you. Sprinkles Cupcakes founder Candace Nelson was an investment banker who decided to try her hand in the cupcake business. Today this forty-something has a nationwide business on her hands and the best cupcakes this side of the Mississippi.

You know how to take care of your body.
If you take an interest in healthy eating, you have your menus down by your forties. You know what exercises you can handle, how hard to push yourself, and that push-ups will never become your idea of “fun.” And this can mean health and heartiness in our 40s we never thought possible in our 20s.

40 is inspiring.
Amy DuFault is a recently turned 40-year-old Ecosalonista who lives in Massachusetts. As she told me, “I just am and I say bring on the next decade. I’m ready to kick some ass!”

Images: Egan Snow, amagill, blmurch , davidberkowitz

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Recently, an issue so-powerful-it-could-only-be-emailed was batted around the hallowed halls of EcoSalon. The issue was complex, kind of like asking 24-to-39-year-old women to name their favorite Jonas Brother. Sure, the middle one seems a bit cute, but is it really okay to have an opinion on the matter? And while we’re on the subject, could our own Stiv Wilson be dreamier while reporting on insanely important issues around the globe? Probably not, and let’s get back on target. (Seriously, people!)

Rather, the EcoSalonistas were debating another topic – and that was men having children past 50. As some of us saw it, people will go all monster judgey on women having kids over 40, but no one bats a fake eyelash over men doing the same. NBC’s 30 Rock is gravely exploring this topic as 50-year old Jack Donaghy has a baby with his younger girlfriend. He tells Liz Lemon, “50 is the new 40 for men. 50 is still 60 for women.” To quote the great Tina Fey via the great Liz Lemon, “Whatever, Tony Randall.”

Men often remarry or have children late. Aforementioned actor Tony Randall has his last child at age 78, while Charlie Chaplin had his last at age 73. Yet bring up a woman having children into her 40s and you’re going to hear some hooting and hollering on the matter. Recently, the bloggers over at Babble raised a spectacle on the web when they mocked a group of 30s-to-early-40s actresses who dared to risk aging out of their barren wombs. (The original article has since been taken down, but luckily our friends at Jezebel still have it cached.)

We responded by looking at the issue of fertility drugs for the plus 35 crowd o’ women. But what about the boys and men? Do men worry about older paternity? Or do they fantasize about changing dirty diapers alongside young girlfriends who look like Elizabeth Banks? We polled a few, prodded some others, and found the following.

PROS OF OLDER DADHOOD

“Derek” (names all changed for privacy aka “How many people are going to read this now?”) thinks older fatherhood enables more financial security and a better life for his kids. Stephanie’s husband is 16 years older, and she tells me that he’s very attentive, calmer and nurturing with their kids. And research backs this up, as “older dads are three times more willing and more likely to share in the daily child rearing tasks, including diaper changes, feeding the toddler, and putting the kids to bed.” Steve said he’s not ready to settle down anytime soon (Steve is 42) so it’s either older fatherhood or nothing. Probably nothing. Thank you, Steve.

CONS OF OLDER DADHOOD

Mike thinks older fatherhood means “more cash, less ass.” Quippy, and as Captain Obvious might point out, indicative of the fact that some people believe children cost money and can hinder your ability to sleep with women, sexually or otherwise. David says “having less energy” and “uh, DYING” as a con of being an older father. And Mitchell told me that he doesn’t want to be mistaken for his kid’s granddad.

Image: Courtesy of NBC

The post When Are Men Too Old for a Baby? appeared first on EcoSalon.

They chow down the same foods we healthy middle-aged women eat: Quinoa, lean proteins, fresh organic produce, water from chic reusable Sigg bottles. They drive hybrids and raise funds for good causes, shun the direct sun, and sometimes even wear secondhand fashion (couture, of course).

But tinsel town celebrities my age, like Demi Moore, who is featured on the cover of W Magazine this month, are not like me or any of my healthy, naturally beautiful women friends. No, unlike the mere mortal soccer moms I rub shoulders with at book club gatherings and parties, Demi shows no signs of age or wear and tear. Where is the emerging turkey neck Nora Ephron wrote about? Where are the sagging eyes? Where are the cottage cheese thighs?

“Her body of work has been notable in no small part because of her notable body,” writes Moore cover story author, Kevin West, adding that, “hers is an undeniably striking version of midlife.” He assures us the striking former brat packer has changed at 47, evidenced by tiny lines when she smiles, but she has not gone under the knife.

“It’s their job to look amazing,” observes my astute 13-year-old daughter, Sydney. She tells me if it were her full time job, she would be flawless, too. Methinks my teenager looks pretty flawless now, but she would be happier with perfect hair and no blemishes, stuff that completes you when you are 13.

It comes down to the perception of perfection, and in achieving it, stars are spoonfed support from trainers and personal chefs. Most turn to plastic surgery, even prematurely, like America’s sweetheart Meg Ryan and highly respected eco goddess Daryl Hannah. In both cases, the surgery changed the lovely features we knew, while their bodies maintain the taut physiques of teens. In all cases, the goal is achieved. Defy age. Look young.

One looming exception is Meryl, but even the consummate thespian had to shape up to play a mature hippie in Mama Mia and Alec Baldwin’s ex and Steve Martin’s lover in It’s Complicated.

Still, Streep, now in her 60’s, is probably aging more naturally than any other major star. She doesn’t succumb to surgery and I haven’t noticed her photographs being altered through Photoshop, the favorite weapon in the arsenal of Hollywood anti-aging defenses. Streep doesn’t maintain a public persona outside of her appearances, stays out of the sun and avoids alcohol. Those are pretty good defenses, too. Bon Apetit, Meryl!

While I’m certain Demi stays gaunt for her industry, the W cover shot is not the body of a 47-year-old mother unaltered. My 47-year-old friends look amazing, but none of them have bodies like that. It’s the body of her daughter Rumer, perhaps.

The cover was as surprising as the Self Magazine issue featuring American Idol Kelly Clarkson, who didn’t actually slim down the way the magazine suggests on the cover, but erased those pounds thorough digital post-production. And how ’bout that ad featuring Ralph Lauren model Filippa Hamilton, who was deemed too fat at 5’10” and 120 pounds and had to be drastically Shopped to cut the mustard?

While the option of doing digital makeovers is the choice of each publication, the star still pays a price in terms of credibility.

I feel compassion when I realize society demands its idols be, well, objects to idolize. Air brushing and retouching are just a few of the finishing tools employed in the land of make believe, the land the media fully endorse because we fully buy into it. But at the end of the day, it just makes us feel sad. We can’t possibly live up to these images of perfection, and frankly, neither can the stars.

The alternative: finding a way to accept ourselves as natural beauties who do the best we can to stay healthy and fit and happy and productive – and admire how we are able to thrive in a world with so much adversity, sickness, hunger and negativity.

The Demoiselles website did a recent feature profiling celebs moving in the direction of self-acceptance, even unlikely candidates such as Kim Karshashian, who posed for the cover of Life & Style Weekly completely unretouched.

When asked by the magazine why she is so open about her body (i.e. showing herself receiving a cellulite treatment on her reality show), Kardashian said she was tired of people pretending they’re perfect and covering up things when in reality we are who we are.

“You can try to improve that, but the reality is, nobody’s perfect.” she declared.

But maybe we are perfect, Kim. Maybe we are perfectly flawed.

This is the latest installment in Luanne’s column, Life in the Green Lane.

Images: W Magazine, Plastic Sergeant, Sony pictures, ABC News, Life & Style Magazine, Luanne Bradley

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