Years ago a friend of mine would say "I'm older than you, I can't do it!" when I used to challenge them to do better, especially in terms of fitness. I found their comments amusing as our age difference wasn't that big. "What could be so different?", I thought.
But when I complained (for the 1000th time) to a colleague about my somewhat inexplicable weight gain of late and she said that as I was getting older my body was changing something hit home. So I wondered - how is it that there is such a huge between your teens and your 20s?
1. Body shape/composition changes
I have always been fairly slim, and even now I can't really say that I am fat, but I am at my heaviest ever. I also find it difficult to shed the extra pounds of flab. Why? It used to be so easy to take control of my weight when I was in my teens. "Your body shape changes as you age, partly as women put on weight in different places," says personal stylist Michaela Jedinak. Such weight gains are mainly due to lifestyle changes - gone are the days of school PE classes and university teams. Many 20-year-olds tend to spend more time in the pub than on the treadmills, and the early career rat race means more and more people are glued to their desks for long periods of time. This means a fall in muscle mass and with that a slow down of metabolism which leads to further weight gain. It is a vicious cycle.
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| Image courtesy of Ambro / FreeDigitalPhotos.net |
2. You consider becoming a health freak
If point 1 didn't scare you enough, a look in the mirror can sometimes send even the most confident 20-something into a panic attack. The bombardment of super skinny or super fit human beings on all media channels has driven many into a health awareness frenzy. As fellow blogger Gina Vaynshteyn says: "Before you merged into your 20s, your body could take anything – an entire box of mac ‘n cheese, a triple cheeseburger and whipped cream that you used to spray into your mouth straight from the can. Now, you’re starting to notice what the nurse scribbles down after you stand on the scale." We become more aware of how we look and how we want to look. We sign up for the gym and read more closely the labels on our foods. All in the name of avoiding botox and liposuction in our 40s.
3. You realise everything is expensive
Without student loans and family helping hands, you realise that everything costs a lot. Rent, bills, transport, food all have to be paid from that measly salary from your first job. But you also want to buy nice clothes, go out with friends and travel abroad. You also realise that your friends are making more money than you - taking that low paid/unpaid job to boost your CV suddenly doesn't seem like the most wise of ideas. Money suddenly becomes your biggest ambition and you start to wonder how invented the phrase "Monday doesn't buy happiness", as clearly you need money to survive (and have fun) in this world.
If you have been nodding along whilst reading this, you, my friend, have hit some of the milestones of life in your twenties. Who thought your twenties are not going to be the time you run free and wild? I say roll on the thirties - after having succeed in our careers, we can hopefully put up our feet and fly off to the Bahamas (at least once a year!).
But for now I will keep on powering through points 1 to 3 and hiding the scales behind the bin. Enough said!