Like many women my age, “aging/age” is the conversation we don’t want to broach. We are bombarded with messages on billboards, magazine ads claiming to rid us of wrinkles, crows-feet, and double chin just to look younger. There is nothing wrong with that. If you have the dough and there’s a temporary solution then I say by all means go for it. But aging does not have to affect us constantly – especially us women. I overheard some women chatting about their upcoming birthday. The words went something like “I am getting old.” “I don’t want to celebrate because it’s depressing.” That’s what Cameron Diaz describes in her book. Aging is a beautiful thing and we should accept and be more comfortable with it. “We are better mothers, we’re better sisters, we’re better daughters, we’re better wives and we’re better friends. We’re better as we get older. We have more to offer. On top of that, you can only be better at something as you get older”, Diaz said. As Cameron Diaz puts it “the external signs of getting older are one part of the conversation, but they are not the whole conversation.”
I totally agree. I am in my 40s, and I’ve never felt more confident. I’m in a better place with my career in marketing doing social media, a passion of mine, and I have a blog that I truly enjoy. I’m living my teen-age dream. In Cameron Diaz’s “The Longevity Book, the science of aging, the biology of strength and the privilege of time” she mentioned that “Forty used to be the end of the line. Nowadays, it’s more the springboard of professional advancement, family building, and new learning and personal development. Today, people in their 40s are working hard, building their careers and starting families while training for marathons, and learning how to grow their own herbs.”
Cameron Diaz fans waiting for the Q&A
I was stoked when I heard Cameron Diaz was doing a book launching and a Q&A event at Barnes and Noble, Huntington Beach on April 14th. Not only because I wanted to see her in person, but I truly wanted to learn about aging beautifully. Dressed in blue jeans, a cream blazer and a gray oversize tank top, she looked amazing. Her skin is flawless and bright and exudes confidence.
The value of us getting older is very valuable. It’s not less than being young. It’s more valuable than being young cause we have so much more to offer and I’d like to focus on those things. – Cameron Diaz
Cameron Diaz at Barnes and Noble Huntington Beach
After the press photo-op, she was introduced and went to the podium and started with this “When you hear those things, that you are no longer valuable, that you are disposable, and you should be afraid. I thought that was really unfair and I thought that was really cruel. And I just realized that was our perspective as a society towards aging. And I really think that , that is not a very good conversation for us to have especially us women. There are over 30 million women between the ages of 35 and 50. That’s a lot of voices. That’s a lot of opinions. That’s a lot of power. We have a very very large voice. We have a lot to say. And right now we’re saying when we look in the mirror a certain age we’re saying ‘you’re not valuable, you should be scared, try to be younger so that people like you’. I don’t think that’s the right thing to be saying. We’re also whispering behind other women’s back saying, ‘oh my God, look at her, she better watch out, she’s lookin’ all old!’ which is I don’t think is a very nice thing to say either. I would really like to start a different conversation with women where we say the value of us getting older is very valuable. It’s not less than being young. It’s more valuable than being young cause we have so much more to offer and I’d like to focus on those things.”
Cameron Diaz promoting her book “The Longevity Book, the science of aging, the biology of strength, and the privilege of time”
Diaz mentioned that aging on the physiological level is what really inspired her to write this book. A big part of her Q&A was capitalizing on different cells of our body. “Here we are this big mass of bone, meat and muscle, fat, heart and blood and all these things …. and we don’t really know what they are. Well what they are, they are a bunch of cells …all different kinds of cells. Some of them are specialized like our heart cells, our skin cells, our muscle cells and bone cells. Every part of our body is a specialized cell. All of them are very specific but they all make us up and they require exactly the same thing to do what they need to do. And that is good nutrition, good physical activity, good rest, stress relief, and a loving meaningful connected personal relationships. So that being said, this book concentrates on us, what happens to us on a cellular level across all of our systems, and all the specialized cells that we have. We can understand what aging is as we older so that we can do the best we can.
What makes a women age well
Diaz noted that the things that make one age well are the following which she also referred as five Pillars of well-being
- Good Nutrition
- Good Physical Activity
- Sleep
- Stress Release
- Meaningful connected relationships
“Those five things basically to me… just living. That’s what I do everyday. You walk to your car, you exercise, you go to the gym, you meet with your friends and the people that you love. Basically aging well is living well. And so, you can’t really live well if you don’t know what well is or what good is. So we get a lot of information all over the place what good is but really that is a very general thing. Some things are very good for some people and not good for other people. We rely a lot on other people telling us what’s good for us. The only way you gonna know what’s good for you is to know your body, know how it functions and that takes consciousness, that takes you knowing yourself, it takes you knowing what it takes you to get through the day.
“Every single cell on your body will change over and over throughout your life. It replicates itself. Your DNA is in every single cell of your body. Your DNA holds all the information about you. It is all human right there. You can make one out of one cell. Because in one cell there’s six feet of DNA information. If you were to take out that DNA information and spread it out, it will be six feet long every single cell of your body which is crazy. But it’s there. It has to constantly replicate itself exactly the same every single time or it starts to mutate or senescence which means it turns off, or apoptosis which means it dies. All those happen as we age. So the important thing to do is to know how to feed your cells properly, what they need so that they can keep replicating themselves the best that they can for as long as they can so that you can age well. It’s all science people. I’m telling you. It’s just science. It just happens. So that’s what this book is… it’s a science book. It has all the information and it’s really fun to read. It’s not like your science book from school. It’s a conversation.
Cameron Diaz Book Signing event at Barnes and Noble Huntington Beach Bella Terra
Routine for aging well
We all have our routines. We wake up, brush our teeth, rush to drop off our kids to school, go home, cook and assist our kids with homework. But Diaz mentioned that part of her routine is doing transcendental meditation, workin’ out, and getting a lot of sleep.
“Like what I said I’m a five-pillars person. I find it very important to start my day with a routine that sets me forward into the day so that I can achieve all the things I want to achieve…be powered up and ready to go. So I wake up brush my teeth..good dental hygiene is very important. Bad dental hygiene leads to heart disease. I drink down a liter of water straight down in the morning on an empty stomach to wake up my digestive tract. I meditate because that’s a stress relief…..in particular transcendental meditation. The easiest thing you’ll ever learn in your life because your body wants to do it. It’s natural. It’s reparative to your body it’s physiological reparative practice. I work out. I connect to the people I love. I do my work.
A routine at night is very important. Shutting down your body for the night so you can actually get the sleep you need . The reason why you need to sleep because it’s the only time your body can do specific kinds of repairs to itself is during REM sleep. And you can only get through REM sleep though certain hormones being released into your body and one of them is you all heard a lot about is melatonin. And melatonin is created inside your body to help you go through REM sleep.
The Longevity Book by Cameron Diaz not only explains the science of aging, but it is an inspiration to live and age well and not be ashamed of your age.
I asked Ed Knighton from Long Beach who I met in the line about what he thought of the Q&A. Knighton said, “It details some of the science behind health and wellness and she made it funny. Hopefully more people will help raise awareness of what can we done to stay healthy through longevity.”
I will conclude with words Diaz wrote in the last part of her book “Happy Midlife To You. Longevity is a gift we should all be celebrating.”
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