Quote Originally Posted by shootingstar View Post
I think there are books about 40+ women who get over their insecurities about their bodies...and they end up going on worldwind bike tour or kayak trip whatever.

And write a book about it! That's the whole point, such books are about their adventures, not about them venting on grey hair, weight, etc.
I'm looking more for a primer on what to expect with the 40+ year old body, what's normal, how/what parts change, stuff like that, with pictures, ideas for maintaining health, knowing what the inevitable changes are, what are environmental impacts, and genetic ones. I was honestly not expecting my eyes to change so rapidly. Changes to the waistline seem to be inevitable from what I've seen from people around me, but is that really true? I have a lot of questions like that, and probably I have a lot of changes coming that I don't even know about, and that's what I'm looking to avoid. Being caught off guard, like I was with this vision business.

Pam, you're lucky your mother was so open with you. My mother was raised to not talk about anything, to the point where she thought she was dying when she got her first period, because no one told her it was coming. She was very uncomfortable talking about any bodily functions and sex. In high school, my best friend gave me a copy of "Our Bodies Ourselves" which I can't remember if my mother knew I had. In hindsight, I should have given her a copy! I also remember her thinking she was pregnant at the start of menopause, so she obviously still didn't have a good network of women she could talk to.