Welcome to the Reinvention Tour — Getting My Vitality Back at 60
By Alli · Simply Simpatica · 7 min read
The woman looking back at me was exhausted. The youthful me was fading, and in place of her, I was starting to look — dare I say old! This terrified me. My skin is great — as you know from previous posts, I take great care of it. But my vitality was fading fast. What I was looking at was cortisol face.
Her energy had quietly packed its bags and left without a forwarding address. And somewhere between the demands of work and life and just getting through each week, she had stopped being a priority in her own life.
I was 60 years old. And I was done with it.
Not done in a dramatic, throw-everything-in-the-air way. Done in a quiet, certain, non-negotiable way. The kind of done that doesn't need to announce itself. It just starts making different decisions.
This is not a before-and-after story. I don't have the answers yet. I am right at the beginning of this — I have my first appointment with an integrated GP on the 20th of May, and I genuinely do not know what she will find. What I do know is that I am done waiting to feel better and done accepting exhaustion, unexplained weight gain and a face that looks like it's been running on cortisol and good intentions.
This is the start. And I want to know — who is with me?
What Was Actually Happening
Let me be honest about where I was, because I think many women reading this will recognise it immediately.
I was exhausted. Not tired — exhausted. The kind of bone-deep fatigue that makes you wonder if this is just what 60 feels like, and whether you're supposed to just accept it. My sleep was broken. My weight had shifted in ways that diet and exercise weren't explaining. And underneath all of it was this feeling — quiet but persistent — of being tired. Tired of the world moving at full speed while I was running on empty.
The medical term for a lot of what I was experiencing is probably hormonal. I'll find out on the 20th.
Enough.
Not enough of life — enough of putting myself last. Enough of accepting exhaustion as normal. Enough of watching my energy and my sense of self quietly deteriorate while I attended to everything and everyone else. Enough of being tired — especially of myself.
This Is Where the Journey Starts — Come With Me
I don't have the answers yet. I have made the decision. I have the appointment. I have the absolute certainty that feeling this way is not something I am prepared to accept as the new normal.
Over the coming weeks and months, I am going to share everything — the GP appointment, what she finds, what we do about it, what works and what doesn't. The exhaustion, the hormones, the weight, the sleep, all of it. Honestly, and without the filter of someone who needs to look like they have it all together.
Because I think there are a lot of us out there who have had enough. Who are done being tired. Who are ready to get their vitality back — maybe for the first time in years.
If that is you, you are in exactly the right place.
Come with me. It is only just getting interesting. 💛
Have you had enough moments? Are you right in the middle of it right now? Tell me in the comments — I genuinely want to know I'm not alone in this. 💛