Self-care after 50: non-negotiable
When you think about changing eating habits in your 50’s and 60’s one thing is different now:
it’s no longer just about weight.
You want to feel good in your body, you want to feel strong, at ease, and proud of how you care for yourself.
And for many, it’s also about health, prevention, and often, managing chronic conditions.
When you sit with the decision of what to do next, you may feel a deeper determination than before. Now or never.
You may feel stronger in your decision and self-care becomes non-negotiable.
And this determination is no longer coming from fear, or not being enough, or from comparison. It comes from choosing yourself.
Change something
I feel like at the beginning of every decade, or maybe even every few years, there is an inner need to shed the old habits, “shed the borrowed clothes”, look in the mirror with fresh eyes, and offer ourselves “new life.” Reinvention from within.
It’s needed because it’s easy to get stuck in daily habits and routines, some of them boring, some accidental, and some simply no longer needed.
If you feel like one day rolls into another and rarely anything changes, self-care and self-trust may become your new purpose and a breath of fresh air. A return to yourself.
This brings something many of us crave: a sense of authority over our lives.
If it’s a good time to write, I want to offer some journaling questions to explore:
- What habits are you ready to leave behind?
- What boundaries are you ready to set?
- What is missing now?
- What rituals inspire you now?
- If you were to create a refreshing, doable self-care plan now, what would be on it?
- How do you see yourself in the future, a year from now, as a result of those boundaries and self-care habits?
And often, the way we eat reflects all of this — our habits, our boundaries, and how we care for ourselves.