10 signs that your (adult) kid is dating someone new

If only our kid would kindly clue us in when he brings a new special someone into his life.

But alas, we’re usually among the last to officially know. Luckily, we’ve still got our psychic skills, which we’ve been honing ever since our “baby” developed his first crush.

Herewith, FabOverFifty presents the collective wisdom of some of our best supernatural moms. Once you spot your offspring exhibiting any of these signs, you can bet your sweet bippy she’s into someone new. (Of course, this applies to your daughter, too!)

She buys a new comforter and/or sheets

He loses weight and signs up for a gym membership

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She starts to have secretive phone conversations

She texts even more than usual (and smiles while she is doing it)

She often wears new clothes

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Is the internet making you sick?

If you’re like me, and most every woman I know, you race to Google every ache, pain or unusual physical symptom that pops up.

BIG BIG MISTAKE!

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Why I love my estrogen patch

More than six months ago–Wednesday, April 20th, to be precise–I put on my first Estradiol patch, which dispenses 1 mg of estrogen a day through my skin.

I started taking estrogen again after bidding it adieu seven years earlier, because I could no longer stand what was happening to my body without it. Weight gain.  Thinning hair. Lipid levels out of whack. Skin sagging on my face, not to mention elsewhere. Bones weakening.

It was especially disturbing when the cardiologist I was seeing started pushing statins to lower my cholesterol, and I mean pushing. My good and bad cholesterol numbers had always been impressive (a doctor once joked that I could get infusions of bad cholesterol and still have great numbers!) but they started creeping up, post estrogen, and it took me years to connect the two. The cardiologist, a woman in her fifties, didn’t have a clue about the benefits of estrogen for our lipid levels, or heart health, but she sure sounded like she was a lobbyist for the pharmaceutical companies that sell statins, one of the most prescribed drugs in the US.

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I recently had a full blood workup and a fasting 24-hour urine test and, lo and behold, my cholesterol numbers markedly improved. Here’s how they look.

Although my overall cholesterol, at 206,  is still a bit high, the numbers that are far more significant are the 20 percent  improvement in LDL (bad) cholesterol and a 19 percent improvement in non-HDL cholesterol.  

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How mother-daughter relationships evolve

As a high school freshman, I’d sneak out of the house to make out with my 11th grade boyfriend in Manhattan’s Central Park. Now, as a recent college graduate, my boyfriend (a different guy) is a frequent topic of discussion and a regular visitor. I let my mom know when I’m planning to spend the night at his apartment, and find myself confiding in her more than I do in my friends, something my high school self never would have imagined. 

What’s changed in these last eight years to make stealthy getaways and off-limit topics things of the past?

I went straight to the source, my mom, to find out. “I now consider our times together as shared experiences vs. teachable moments, when I could give you perspective and values,” she told me. “At this point, I think you’ve demonstrated that you know them, so I don’t need to sit around ‘teaching’ you now, which is kind of liberating for me. You also have become my go-to person for advice on everything from sample sale shopping to book recommendations and the college application process for your younger brothers.”


Like me, mom revealed she’s been giving our relationship a great deal of thought.

Her friends have told her they’re committed to cultivating ‘best friend’ relationships with their daughters, but, previously, that didn’t feel quite right to her. I decided to find out for myself if other mothers had indeed made the transition from policewoman to pal. (more…)

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Why you must update your wardrobe…now!

Is your closet filled with clothes you seldom, if ever, wear?

Do you try to keep your wardrobe au courant with the trends, but wind up looking silly?

Are you wearing the same style of clothes you wore 20 years ago, maybe even the exact same clothes?

Have you stopped caring about looking really good, and prefer to stick with sweats and tees because they’re comfortable, and besides who do you need to impress?

Does shopping intimidate, frustrate or depress you?

If you’ve answered yes to even one of these questions, you might want to give Terry Gibralter a call and learn how to choose clothes that make you look–and feel–absolutely terrific.

I was enchanted by Terry’s style the moment I first laid eyes on her–in the elevator of the building where we both lived. She’s what my grandmother used to call a stylish woman: “Put together!” And, if you go shopping with Terry, she’ll help put you together, and she “promises” that the experience will be“more creative, inspiring, quicker and more fun than you can possibly imagine.”

A former stylist for Elle Magazine, and then an advertising executive for many years, Terry realized how much she missed working in the fashion business when she recently helped a friend, who is a “remarkable jewelry designer,” to style models for a couple of video and print shoots. You can learn more about Terry here, and take a “stroll” through her fab online boutique. But first, read about her philosophy of dressing for FOFs and about why her
H*O*T* new shopping service might be the answer to your dressing doldrums.

PLEASE EXPLAIN HOW YOUR SHOPPING SERVICE WORKS AND WHAT MOTIVATED YOU TO CREATE IT

“It was sort of a no-brainer because it’s something I’ve done before. The service takes into account every aspect of shopping. We start with your closet and understand what you need, what you don’t need, then you go from there and shop. You shouldn’t go shopping with without a mission. I’ll help you figure out who you are, style wise, and how to build a wardrobe based on that. The process will make it easier to dress in the morning.

“I recently helped a woman in her early fifties. who is the head of account management at an ad agency. She’s always dressed up for work, and is now feeling ‘dated’ in an office where young women dress in pieces like jeans, tees and sweatshirts all the time. She wanted help around her ‘casual’ wardrobe so she could look ‘effortlessly casual.’

“We spent a couple of hours together where I asked her 10 questions about how she sees her style and her life, how she shops, and her budget. I then created style mood boards showing her what to wear with what, and how she could incorporate updated, casual pieces into her wardrobe.

“For another client I spent from 9 to 5 helping her redo her closets because she wanted them to look like mine. OMG, did I throw out stuff. That was easy because I had no emotional attachment to her things.”

CAN AN OLDER WOMAN DRESS YOUNGER?

“No matter how important a young woman’s job is today, she often just throws on jeans and tees and can still look good. When you’re young, you think you’re pretty damn perfect. Things are more forgiving when you’re in your 20s. Young people don’t even realize it when they don’t look good, but because they’re young, they get a pass. When you’re older, dressing becomes more challenging. You might have put on weight, for example, and you can look crazy if you throw on the same type of clothing that young women are wearing.

“Not everyone knows how to make new styles work and how to successfully update their wardrobes. That’s where I can help.”

DO YOU THINK WOMEN IN THEIR MID FORTIES, AND UP, SHOULD MAKE THE EFFORT TO CHANGE THEIR STYLES WITH THE TIMES, EVEN IF THEY’VE STOPPED WORKING?

“You won’t look good if you’re wearing the same clothing and hairstyle that you wore 20 years ago, and don’t update your style.  Styles change. I see women in their eighties all the time who still care. It’s life affirming. One woman had nicely cropped white hair, and was wearing a simple white, crisp shirt, a beautiful big necklace,  narrow trousers, great sandals and a great little bag in her hand. She looked like she stepped out of a fashion shoot. I understand it’s harder to change your style  if you don’t live in an urban environment, and you spend a lot of time in your car and aren’t seen as much as women in big cities.

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“I see older women either stop caring about the way they look, or just keep doing what they’ve done for years.  Their lives may be difficult and they don’t have the spare time to devote to fashion. I think fashion is very important. It’s how we face the world. It’s what people see before we open own mouths. We’re being judged by how we look.  It does matter, even if we say it doesn’t.”

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This Lady Sure Knows How To Toot Her Own Horn!

Louise Baranger first put her hands on a trumpet in the fourth grade.

“Someone came to the school so we could learn to play band instruments. My best friend’s brother had a trumpet in their attic, so she had to play the trumpet. Of course, I said ‘I’ll play the trumpet.’ I immediately realized this was me. The trumpet was really cool,” Louise told me.

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My Husband Was Addicted To Sex!

Charlotte is as pretty as her name. She’s in her early fifties, and was born abroad, although her slight accent doesn’t give away where. She married a man from another continent, decades her senior, and they raised their son in the United States, where they launched a successful business together. Charlotte was his third wife.

Anyone meeting them would swear she was the love of this man’s life. And, were it not for his sexual addiction, she might very well have been.

Even after Charlotte found out about her husband’s wandering ways, and he vowed they were over, he continued to betray her trust. She had enough when he claimed he was on yet another business trip, but she heard him greet his lover in the hotel room (he accidentally left his cell phone on after he and Charlotte talked.) She was sad, but she wasn’t surprised. (more…)

Have You Experienced Adult Acne?

How women over 50 dress ‘for their age’

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Did smoking ‘blind’ her?

unnamedMarlene Klein sensed something was wrong with her vision, about 20 years ago, after her bathroom was renovated.

“When my husband came home, I told him we weren’t going to pay the guy who put down the tiles because they all zigzagged. ‘No,’ he answered. ‘They’re perfectly straight.’” Marlene remembered.  When John and I went into Manhattan, the right side of all the billboards looked like wisps of clouds.  I couldn’t make out the whole billboard.”
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