When it comes to taking care of our bodies, we like to think we’re pretty well-versed – we have known them for our entire lives after, all! And yet every day, we come into contact with some new, intriguing way to cure an ailment, build up strength, find happiness, or just make ourselves more well than we were yesterday.
Cameron Diaz wrote The Body Book
to do just that: merge information with action, so that we can all know how to maintain these machines we know as our bodies. Ever our ultimate girl crush, Cameron breaks down what it takes to lead your healthiest life imaginable, from nutrition and fitness to science and beauty, all in a relatable fashion with no topics off limits. A Chalkboard chica if we ever met one!
As if her best-selling book wasn’t enough, the launch of its sister website Our Body Book brings all of Cameron’s body brilliance into a beautiful blog that gives you all-access to the wisdom and insight needed for your healthiest self. Here, she and other experts and tastemakers dive deep into the subjects of nutrition, exercise, relationships, eating disorders, even those questions you’re too afraid to ask your fellow female friends. In this thoughtful piece on aging gracefully, Cameron challenges the idea that getting older is a bad thing, and what we can do to shift towards a positive mindset. Here’s Cameron…
When I was a child, I loved being with my elders. My Abeulos, my father’s parents, and my Grandma, my mother’s mother, were endlessly fascinating. They knew how to do things effortlessly that seemed impossible to me. My grandma, until she was about 75, raised all of her own livestock and grew all her own vegetables in her backyard in the valley just above North Hollywood. She would carry 50 pounds of feed for her chickens, rabbits, and goats, 2 miles in the middle of the summer heat. And I swear, my Abuelo could fix anything with just a paper clip, some duct tape and a couple of feet of rope.
They were my superheroes, and I wanted to know everything that they knew.
I also loved the way that they looked. Their skin was beautiful to me: the wrinkles told the story of their lives, the joy and the sorrow, the hard work that their bodies had done for them their whole lives. The strength in their muscles that they still possessed at an age when their bodies could have become weaker, but instead were utilized with skill and purpose.
These were my role models for aging, for growing older with strength and ability. It never occurred to me that it was a bad thing to grow older, and now that I live in a world and work in a business that is bent on telling people–especially women–that they are no longer vital once they start to show signs of “aging.” It makes me sick to my stomach! I am horrified by how deeply these ideas have permeated in our culture, and I worry about the young women who are being influenced by this nonsense…
Read the rest of Cameron’s tips for aging with strength and grace by clicking through to Our Body Book here!
