Rather than believing our worth and self-esteem flew the coop along with our children, our empty nests provide us with both the time and the opportunity to pursue long neglected interests and passions. And, as older women, this isn’t all we’ve got going—we also have the internal drive to explore unchartered and unfulfilled territory. “If not now, when?” becomes an insistent call that sets our course on turbocharge.

In addition to this age-related calling, we older gals have released ourselves from much of the self-doubt that plagued so many of us in our younger years. As one dear friend recently put it: “I made a decision that 2010 was going to be the year of ‘I can do’ and step out of my chains and prisons of fear and self-doubt.” My friend has recently turned fifty and this birthday seems to signal a watershed marker for women to flex their muscles and burst free from the social and self-imposed roadblocks to success.

Yes, we will experience setbacks and self-doubt but, at our age, we’ve got the wisdom, the strength, and the inner resources to keep on track and persevere. So, here’s to counting our blessings, following our bliss, and making our own mark on the world as we choose it to be.

In my introduction on Feisty Side of Fifty Radio, I proudly proclaim there are “no invisible shrinking violets here” and I mean it! If any generation of women can retire that musty, old shroud of invisibility that has been used for centuries to demean older women… it is the boomers! After all, we’re the proud, the willful, the revolutionary, and the trailblazing generation that burst through the gender barrier. So this age thing is just a drop in the bucket for us!

And, while you’re trailblazing, drop on over to Hot Flashbacks, Cool Insights and The Perimenopause Blog. Two of my very favorite boomer bloggers have honored me with posts about my work. Please do stop by and leave a comment!

If you or a boomer friend is unemployed and looking for work, please check out Land the Job You Love: 10 Surefire Strategies for Jobseekers Over 50. It’s the only book around that provides midlife jobseekers with an easy-to-follow, step-by-step guide to successfully navigating today’s competitive job market. Don’t be left in the dust—set yourself apart with an up-to-date resume that rocks, learn how to build critical and strategic alliances within your targeted companies, and ace the interview with skill and style. Packed with insider tips and techniques, this book is guaranteed to put your search on overdrive and turn you into the candidate of choice!

As the author of Husbands May Come and Go but Friends are Forever, she writes with skill and wit of the deep and lasting bonds of female friendship. And, true to her theme, on her website Judith encourages her fellow writers by sharing her tips on: honing your craft, marketing your work, and networking with fellow writers and authors. Be certain to check out her informative and helpful site and take a look at her remarkable book—it’s a great read for any mature woman who treasures her friends.

As a young woman, Judith lived the life that many of us dreamed of: she was a model! So, again true to her belief in supporting her fellow females, Judith is sharing her make-up tips for those of us who celebrated our half-century birthday a while back. Just because we now find ourselves inhaling huge quantities of air to blow out all of those candles, doesn’t mean we shouldn’t look great doing it!

So here are some of Judith’s must-try make-up techniques in her own words:

“Has your look expired?  Are you still following the same make-up regime you did when you where 35?  Or 40?  Wake-up, girlfriend.  The Big Five-Oh decade and beyond means it’s time for a make-up makeover.  So put down your black eye liner and pay attention.

As we age, we have to be more specific about the colors and textures of make-up we use.  So let’s start from the beginning…

Face: Don’t use a heavy foundation and beware of mineral make-up (it can settle in cracks and creases and make you look drier than the Mojave).  Try liquid foundation mixed with moisturizer.  Apply it with a flat foundation brush and then pat it in with a sponge (don’t rub or you’ll wipe it off.)  If you have dark circles or puffiness under your eyes, dab on a tiny (and I mean tiny) amount of concealer with your ring finger after you’ve applied your foundation. I like Effacernes Waterproof Undereye Concealer by Lancome, but any lightweight product will do.  If you use powder to set your make-up, do so sparingly and use a translucent powder.  A little bronzer can be nice in the summer, but again, use sparingly only on forehead, cheeks, and chin.

Blush: Although they can give you a more dewy look, I find cream blushes hard to control.  I prefer powder in a peachy or pink tone.  I like Orgasm by Nars. The key is where to apply it.  Here’s the trick. Smile and apply blush on the apples of your cheeks, then sweep your brush up and out toward your temple, as if drawing the number 6.

Eyebrows: As we age, eyebrows become sparse.  You sometimes loose the tails completely.  Use a pencil rather than powder, which can be too harsh.  Make sure the pencil is sharpened to a point and use short, feather strokes to fill in your brows.

Eyes: Even if your eyelids have more folds than an Origami swan, covering your lids with a pale peach or pink shadow opens the eye. (Rule:  light bring out, dark takes away.)  Forget about a deeper color in the crease (if you can even find the crease).  Those days are gone.  Next comes eyeliner.  Yes, you can still wear it.  But choose a softer color — brown or charcoal.  My new favorite is navy.  It looks good with any eye color and makes the whites of your eyes pop.  Use a powder or pencil, liquid is too hard to control.  Keep the line close to your upper lashes, and extend it a smidge (no Cleopatra eyes, please) beyond-and-up from the outer lid to create an uplift.  Smudge it with a Q-tip, curl your lashes, and apply mascara.

Lips: By age 50+, your lips tend to be dry and perhaps flaky.  Prep them with a lip balm or primer, then before applying lipstick, line them with a nude lip pencil or one that matches your selected shade.  Avoid anything darker – the 80s are gone. If you have a problem with feathering, there are lots of lipsticks and stains targeted for this. Remember, darker shades exaggerate little lines and flakes and can make your mouth look smaller.

One last tip: Don’t spend a lot of money on color.  Save it for your skin care or perhaps even a facelift!”

Thank you, Judith!

(However, I do wonder if this might actually be true for my favorite friend food—corn chips! If I could list these delectable treats under the healthy food category, I’d crunch my way through the day and be one very happy camper, indeed!)

Yet, it’s mea culpa time so, for my second confession of the day, I wouldn’t even consider the doctor’s contention that, because pigs dine mostly on vegetables and grains, “eating pork chops can give you 100% of the recommended daily allowance of vegetable product.” In truth, I’ve been a vegetarian for over 20 years.

Now, admitting my dining preferences isn’t a call to anyone to forgo meat in your diets. However, there are several benefits to eating more vegetables on a daily basis. My friend, Magnolia Miller, over at The Perimenopause Blog, shares some great recipes aimed at diminishing the belly fat that plagues so many of us older gals. Her recommendations are delicious, packed with veggies, and you can find them under the “recipe section” on her blog.

One of my favorite blogs, Midlife with a Vengeance, is constantly providing us midlife gals with cutting edge information on health and wellbeing. A researcher at heart, Gregory Anne Cox shares her tips for eating right, taking supplements to ward off disease, the right kinds of exercise, etc. Wander on over to her site and take a look—you won’t be disappointed and I guarantee you’ll learn a lot.

And last, but definitely not least, is a wonderful website aimed at vegans and vegetarians, In a Vegetarian Kitchen. Even if you’re an omnivore, you’ll love these recipes. Nava Atlas is the author of a number of cookbooks filled with nutritious and satisfying treats. (No worries that your family will complain of eating rabbit food and leave the table hungry .) One of my all-time favorite cookbooks is Nava’s Vegan Soups and Hearty Stews for All Seasons. I had a few friends over for lunch this week, served up her “Moroccan Lentil and Chickpea Soup” and gratefully accepted the rave reviews. Believe me, Nava’s recipes are stick-to-the ribs delicious!

You can also check out my interviews on Feisty Side of Fifty Radio with Magnolia, Greogory Anne, and Nava as they share their insight and information on aging with health and wellness.

So, even though the “doctor” in my earlier post proclaimed: “What does a cow eat? Hay and corn. And what are these? Vegetables and grains. So steak is nothing more than an efficient mechanism of delivering vegetables to your system,” I’d advise you to check out these sites, try their recipes, eat your veggies as they come from the earth (not from a cow), and see how you feel. Forget the doctor and do what granny said. You’ll lose weight, recharge your energy, and kiss your muffin-top good-bye!

I recently received an email from a dear friend who’d had it with all the dire warnings from the medical profession. At last, she found a doctor who thought as she did and advised a lifestyle she could live with. Since I know she is not alone in her frustration, I thought I’d share this physician’s advice. Here are a couple of the doctor’s pronouncements for living a full and joyful life after fifty—

About exercise:

“Your heart is only good for so many beats, and that’s it—so don’t waste them on exercise. Everything wears out eventually. Speeding up your heart rate won’t make you live longer; it’s like saying you extend the life of your car by driving it faster. Do you want to live longer?  Take nap.

About cutting back on meat and eating more vegetables and grains:

“You must grasp the concept of logistical efficiency. What does a cow eat? Hay and corn. And what are these? Vegetables and grains. So steak is nothing more than an efficient mechanism of delivering vegetables to your system. Need more grain? Eat chicken. Beef is also a good source of field grass (a green leafy vegetable). And pork chops can give you 100% of the recommended daily allowance of vegetable product.”

About restricting fried foods:

Foods are fried these days in vegetable oil. In fact, they are permeated by it. How could getting more vegetables be bad for you?!?

Concerns about too much chocolate consumption:

“Are you crazy?!? HEL-LO-O!! Cocoa beans! That’s a fruit! In fact, chocolate is the best feel-good food around. You can never eat too much of this nutritious delicacy!

How to calculate your body-fat ratio:

Well, if you have a body and you have fat, your ratio is one to one. If you have two bodies, your ratio would be two to one, etc.

So there you have it—straight from the doctor’s mouth. Of course, we do need to honor our bodies, those amazing vessels that have kept us boomers feeling groovy all these years. But, as far as I’m concerned, a few less tests and a few more laughs would certainly help make life a lot more fun!

And a gentle reminder—if you or a boomer friend are unemployed and looking for work, don’t forget to check out Land the Job You Love: 10 Surefire Strategies for Jobseekers Over 50. It’s gotten great reviews from professionals in the job search business and is guaranteed to help you turn your age into an advantage!

As we grew into our teen years, we anxiously awaited the several minutes of the Ed Sullivan show dedicated to the mop-top soldiers of the British Invasion. Herman’s Hermits, Jerry and the Pacemakers, The Rolling Stones and, of course, the Beatles made us scream, grow weak at the knees, and writhe about the couch with our Clearasil creamed faces red with emotion. Our love and devotion were passionate beyond measure and, had we ever run across a mod or a rocker with a Liverpudlian accent, we could not have been held responsible for our actions!

No doubt about it—entertainment was a big part of our formative years. But even I was surprised at how the hours I spent viewing the tube have returned full force in my menopausal years. Maybe it’s a sign my brain is shrinking or maybe it’s a yearning for simpler times but I find myself thinking a lot about Popeye these days. Yes, I do like spinach and know that antioxidants and the other valuable nutrients it provides are important nourishment for older bodies. But it isn’t spinach I connect to him. I gave up smoking long ago so it isn’t his corncob pipe that intrigues me. Actually, I relate mostly to something he said: “I yam what I yam.” That is coming back to me big time these days!

As a woman over fifty, I think I represent how most of us feel when I say Popeye knew what he was talking about. It took me a while but I’m feeling more and more that “I yam what I yam” with all my glorious foibles and faults, strengths and achievements. And, although my sense of self is at an all time high, I also heed the words of the Fab Four—we can each use and often need “a little help from our friends.”

So, many thanks go out to my friends for being there and supporting me and my work. My book for jobseekers over 50 has been featured on Midlife With a Vengeance and WOOF: Women Only Over Fifty and will be hitting other blogs soon. Please take a moment to head over to these fabulous sites dedicated to making us boomer gals even groovier as we age.

Also, for my writer friends, there’s a contest I wanted to share: WriterAdvice seeks flash fiction, memoir, and creative non-fiction that mesmerizes the reader in 750 words or less for their Fifth Annual Flash Prose Contest. DEADLINE: April 15, 2010. Entry fee: $10 per submission. First prize: $150. Former prizewinners are the judges. Complete guidelines, mailing address, and prizes at http://www.writeradvice.com.

And, borrowing another quote from the sailor man: “Blow me down—I has got an idea!” A tip o’ the cap to all my boomer sisters—at long last “we is what we is!”

But I beg to differ: In fact, what we midlife folk need to remember is who we are and from whence we came! Baby boomers are not a generation prone to giving up and limiting ourselves to the status quo. We’re revolutionary, spirited, trailblazers who’ve achieved far-reaching, positive social change that has bettered countless lives in countries around the world. Our vast numbers have allowed us to drive these successes on a grand scale—so why should we roll over and give up just because we have a few grey hairs?

Who says that older, more experienced workers are at a disadvantage? What rules suggest that a mature work ethic and career knowhow are out of style? How can having a large network of coworkers, clients, and customers built up over many years be a drawback to success?

Workers over fifty make up a huge percentage of the workforce and our ranks are one of the fastest growing segments in the marketplace. So rather than allowing ourselves to be pushed aside and shoved out of the labor force—we need to remind folks that we fit right in and boomers still command the stage! Regular readers of my blog are aware that I’ve just published my first book, Land the Job You Love: 10 Surefire Strategies for Jobseekers Over 50, and I’ve been overwhelmed by the outpouring of interest and enthusiasm for these very sentiments.

And, if you heed our generation’s mandate to change the world for the better and your focus is on finding a position in the non-profit arena, I urge you to attend a free telebriefing presented by Encore.org. The mission of this wonderful organization is to “engage millions of experienced individuals in becoming a force for social change” and to “create pathways to encore careers that provide continued income doing work that is personally fulfilling and helps address some of society’s biggest challenges.”

Save the date: Wednesday, March 3rd at 12-12:45 p.m. Pacific Time, 3-3:45 p.m. Eastern. Click here to sign up. Also, be sure and check out their Purpose Prize. These substantial cash awards go to people over age 60 who are inventing new ways to solve social problems—a win/win all the way around. Friday, March 5th is the deadline for nominations.

So, whether you’re looking for work in the government, the private sector, or the non-profit world, and want insider strategies and techniques guaranteed to save you time and frustration, please take a moment to check out Land the Job You Love. You may just find yourself hired and happily working in no time!

In response to the happy childhood our parents gave us, we rebelled and we rebelled hard. Eschewing their adherence to authority, we questioned it in as many ways as we could: mounting multiple movements and protests, and even questioning society’s code for dress and hygiene. Hippy chic was de rigueur and the longer the hair the better—including the thatch that grew under our arms!

And now, these wonderful folk who never wavered in their love for us (although they certainly must have experienced their moments of distress) are growing old. Many of us over fifty have lost our parents—others are caring for those that are sick and dying.

I have a friend, Debbie Zipp, who’s also a filmmaker and manages the marvelous site, In the Trenches Productions, where she shares fabulous and funny short films aimed at women over forty. You’ll enjoy every single one of her films, but Debbie has made a very special video that we should all take time to view. In it, she asks her eighty-something-year-old parents (who are lovely people by the way) their advice on love and marriage. In their common sense approach, they share the wisdom of their years and the content of their hearts. Their words may be deceptively simple, but their thoughts are deep and profound.

So take a couple of minutes, check out “Mother and Daddy Know Best,” and hear the voices of the Greatest Generation as they share their thoughts on life. Their words will warm your heart and feed your soul in ways that only a parent can.

And be sure and stop over at WOOF: Women Only Over Fifty where my dear friends have devoted their post to yours truly. I’d be ever so grateful if you’d stop by, make a comment, and spread the love!

But, wait! Real help is on the way! Staness Jonekos and Wendy Klein, M.D., have joined forces to create The Menopause Makeover: The Ultimate Guide to Taking Control of Your Health and Beauty During Menopause. This remarkable book outlines a 12-week program that walks you through all the steps you’ll need to reclaim your figure (belly fat be gone!), reenergize and motivate yourself to actually celebrate the change, and rekindle your zest for life. A tall order, I realize, and yet they’ve done it!

After all, Staness knows whereof she speaks. At 47, she was preparing for her upcoming nuptials to her very own Prince Charming when she ran smack-dab up against all the less than charming aspects of the change. Being one of those blessed creatures who’d never before really worried about her weight, she gained 25 pounds in less than 6 months. She also suffered from hot flashes, moodiness, and all the rest—not exactly the stereotype princess destined to share the matrimonial throne with her prince.

So Staness got busy. Borrowing from the organizational skills of her wedding planner, she researched, organized, and wrote (along with her medical expert, Dr. Klein) the definitive source on managing all aspects of the change. Using check-lists, charts, and planners, the book guides you to understand the necessary steps and changes you’ll need to accomplish, monitor your progress, and celebrate your ultimate success.

Staness tells us all about her program in our 15-minute interview on Feisty Side of Fifty Radio. If you’re suffering from unwanted, age-related changes to your body and mood, be sure and check it out and don’t forget to visit her site for even more information. Your time will be well spent, I promise!

The Menopause Makeover may just prove the answer to your midlife dreams. Whether you’re perimenopausal or post menopausal, this program will help you shed pounds and inches, raise your energy level, help you from feeling cranky, boost your libido, provide you with some great beauty tips, and much more. No doubt about it—this makeover will make you feel even more fabulous on the feisty side of fifty!

As Valentine’s Day draws near, I’ve been thinking a lot about those old commercials and the message they conveyed. And, no, it wasn’t about making a long distance call back when those things were expensive. I’m thinking more about the way people have touched my life and how I hope I am able to touch the lives of others as well.

As a girl reared in the fifties and taught the socially acceptable role of women at that time, I’ve often wrestled with the push/pull of doing for others. There’ve been many instances in my life when I felt like a doormat—too afraid to say “no” and, although outwardly saying “yes,” simmering with resentment inside. Believe me, this is an awful feeling. And it is self-perpetuating. The more you say “yes” to things you don’t want to do, the more people feel free to ask.

Now that I’m well past fifty, the doormat syndrome is, thankfully, long gone. As Suzanne Braun Levine writes in her rich and informative book, 50 is the New Fifty, it is by learning to say “no” that we can truly say “yes” and mean it. So, now when I’m asked to do something I have a choice: I can either decline without guilt (mostly, that is) or accept with a full and joyous heart. Another amazing gift of age!

So with my full and joyous heart, I would like to reach out and touch all of you. Over the two plus years I’ve been blogging, I’ve connected with extraordinary women; women from across the country and even around the world; women who have lifted me up when I felt down and women who have encouraged me when I needed it. I wish each of you a Happy Valentine’s Day, the love of family and friends, and the gift of touching lives. What a wonderful way to celebrate Valentine’s Day and thrive in all our fullness on the Feisty Side of Fifty!

However, on a personal basis, how many times did each of us pass on something we really wanted to do because we were either fearful of the outcome or didn’t want to disappoint those around us? Maybe it was something big, like quitting a difficult relationship or finding another job. Perhaps it was something as seemingly simple as taking a class or going to a gathering where we didn’t know anyone.

Speaking from my own experience, I’ve stopped myself from doing something I wanted many times. And, although I now chalk these missed opportunities up to valuable learning experiences, I wish I could take a “do-over” on many occasions.

Mary Ann Bailey coaches women in midlife and explores just these types of issues. In her latest book, Gentile Warrior: Awakening the Courage to Live a Bold and Brilliant Life, she challenges us to step away from our comfort zone, connect with our inner courage, and move forward with our dreams. It’s a wonderfully inspiring book and one that can change your life. AND Mary Ann is offering a special discount to readers of Feisty Side of Fifty. When you order the book, just type in C4C as your promo code.

As Mary Ann puts it: “Your responsibility is to live your life in such a way as to bring you the success, joy, and fulfillment you need to be a compassionate, caring, and contributing human being.” You can hear these sentiments and more by taking a quick 15 minutes to listen to my interview with Mary Ann on Feisty Side of Fifty Radio.

I’ll leave you with more of Mary Ann’s inspiring words: “This is a journey that is yours alone to make, because you are the only one who can hear the music playing in your head. You are the only one who can sing that song, dance that dance, or write that story, and you owe it to yourself and to the world not to falter in your pursuit of those dreams.”

Now how’s that for thriving on the feisty side of fifty?!