Healthy Living
September is Healthy Aging Month. What Does That Really Mean?
Healthy aging isn’t about turning back the clock—it’s about becoming the healthiest, strongest, and most capable version of the age you actually are. Dr. Jen shares her personal perspective on aging well, from strength and mobility to emotional resilience, curiosity, and having a clear vision for the years ahead.
September is Healthy Aging Month, and I have to say, I think we need to rescue the idea of healthy aging from the anti-aging industry.
Social media and Hollywood have done us a real disservice by making aging sound like something we’re supposed to defeat. Turn back the clock. Reverse aging. Fight Father Time. I am actually tapping out of all of that hype. I don’t want to be 40 again. I’m happy with 57-year-old Jen. (Note: this is NOT to say that I’m happy with the crepey skin and the thin hair that came with menopause because I’m not. At all. I just try not to dwell on it!)
In fact, I really like this stage of life. I’m thrilled with what my body can do. I’m fitter than I was years ago, I’m stronger, and, for the first time in my life, I feel like I’m truly in a self-care phase where I’m putting myself first. Not selfishly, just intentionally. It took me long enough.
To me, healthy aging doesn’t mean never getting sick, never getting injured, or somehow avoiding every health problem. That is not realistic. It means building enough physical and emotional reserve that when something does happen, you can handle it with as little disruption as possible and get back to your life. I want to be active, pain-free, and nimble. And I mean mentally as well as physically. I want strength, balance, mobility, curiosity, adaptability, and a brain that is still very much engaged with the world.
I also think we should have an aging strategy in the same way we have a financial strategy. I actually picture myself at 80.
I’m with my old girlfriends, and hopefully plenty of younger friends too. I’m playing golf and mahjong. I’m reading a lot. I’m volunteering. Maybe I’m teaching OB-GYN residents and driving them crazy with stories about how we used to do things. And there will absolutely, unquestionably be a small cute dog that I will likely take almost everywhere.
I even know what I’m wearing. White button-down shirts. Great jeans or leather leggings. Very cool sunglasses. And whatever sneakers, loafers, or flat boots are the ones I decide I need that season.
That picture matters to me because it gives today’s choices a destination. Healthy aging, in my mind, isn’t about trying to look younger. It’s about becoming the healthiest, strongest, most capable version of the age you actually are. And I consider getting the chance to do that a privilege.
LEARN HOW TO LIVE LONGER
(AND BETTER)
