OUR HOSTS: 

Corinne Foxx - @corinnefoxx

Natalie McMillan - @nataliemcm and @shopnataliemcmillan 

What we're drinking: 2018 Nga Waka "Three Canoes" Riesling 



TOPIC: 

Today, we’re talking all about how to age joyfully, embrace getting older, and address some of the fear that comes up when we think about aging. We discuss reasons why so many of us dread our birthdays in today’s youth-obsessed culture and share a few clinically proven ways to feel your best as you age. We redefine what it means to age ‘gracefully’ and also highlight some later-in-life successful figures who serve as major inspiration to us as we approach our 30s. 

In this episode, we discuss:

• Why getting older doesn’t have to be scary 
• The role that the billion-dollar beauty industry plays in our approach to aging 
• Letting go of the pressure that we put on ourselves to achieve things on a certain timeline 
• Celebs like Julia Child, Vera Wang, and Laverne Cox who prove that you can achieve your dreams after the age of 40 
• The importance of staying social and connected to community as you age 
• How embracing what’s important to you can help you feel more youthful 
• Surprising health benefits of getting older 
• The connection between regular exercise and brain function 

END OF THE SHOW: 

Corinne and Natalie introduce Hottie of the Week: Jane Fonda 

WINE RATING:

2018 Nga Waka "Three Canoes" Riesling  = 8.4 / Jane Fonda 

WRAP UP:

To wrap up the episode,  we play the BFF Quiz. Corinne asks Nat what she expects they’ll be doing when they’re 85 years old, and we both agree that there will be lots of traveling and conjuring. Nat asks Corinne what she would do if she won the lottery, and Corinne says that buying her mom a new house is at the top of the list. 

We have a brand new newsletter for our Am I community. You can sign up for the newsletter on our website: amidoingthisrightpod.com

You can email us for episode ideas or Random Advice: amidoingthisrightpod@gmail.com

Follow us on Instagram: @amidoingthisrightpod 

Don't forget to rate and review the podcast! It really helps us grow!

[00:00:08] Natalie McMillan: And I'm Natalie McMillan.

[00:00:19] Natalie McMillan: And each week we cover a new topic and we drink a new bottle of wine.

And why getting older doesn't have to be scary. You all,

He could only see the

[00:01:14] Natalie McMillan: head. And we said, if you're a diehard, Miu, we'll know who this is and the first person to say it, we'll get a shout out. So Kate bull at Kate Bush. She guessed it, it was G-Eazy, you're

[00:01:29] Natalie McMillan: one. She is a real

And even I was like, okay, not it's either G-Eazy or Chris

[00:01:39] Corinne Foxx: Evans picture? Because, you know, we, we saw Chris Evans one

[00:01:45] Corinne Foxx: that? And so I thought I kind of even thought maybe it was Chris

We love her. We

[00:01:53] Natalie McMillan: couple of people. There were also very good guesses. They were the man that you want me to be with from my street. I just want

[00:02:02] Natalie McMillan: that person. The guy from glee that, oh,

Yeah. I always see that guy. It has been a wild though. He's

[00:02:21] Corinne Foxx: but not what are we doing, making this epi? Oh

We love a reasoning. This is the three canoes dry reasoning from 2018. And it's from New Zealand. Oh, interesting. Very interesting. Could you hear that little,

[00:02:48] Natalie McMillan: top. We love the twist tops. Oh, thank

you.

Okay. So now I wanted to bring to her Amies because I really trust them with my life. I really trust them with my life. So you, so you guys know, well, you guys,

[00:03:10] Corinne Foxx: my boyfriend. And he's moving in soon. And you know, I'm just kind of debating things right now because there's a bit of a red flag in our relationship.

And I just, I want to come to the Amies and I want you guys, please message us and tell me, is this a red flag? And Joe, if you're listening. You know what I'm going to say, Joe, and Joe's going to correct me, but I, I I'm very certain on this. Joe has never seen SpongeBob and he doesn't like

Well that changes everything.

[00:03:57] Natalie McMillan: then in my head, I wouldn't have Nickelodeon on their TV. Well, it looks like channel 33 or something.

[00:04:05] Natalie McMillan: 33 34 thirty-five or like the Disney cartoon network.

Nicholas. Exactly.

And I thought that's. SpongeBob is iconic it's icon. We once got an, a very heated argument because I said SpongeBob is one of the greatest cartoons of all time. And he was a trillion

[00:04:44] Corinne Foxx: I knew you were going to say about rocket power.

I said, does rocket power have a major. Thanksgiving day parade balloon every year.

[00:04:56] Corinne Foxx: The backpack they still have. SpongeBob is still on the air.

the old lady that's like, she's just like

[00:05:18] Natalie McMillan: That's like, I guarantee you there's no parent that was like, oh, I can't wait to watch rocket power with my kid. It was like, my dad loved watching SpongeBob with me and I always just thought it was kind of weird it's because it was like extremely adult.

Yes. And now that I'm an adult and I see it again. Oh, my God, this shit's whole areas.

[00:05:44] Natalie McMillan: don't know about the sponge box

We'll have to do a poll SpongeBob verse, rocket power, which, I mean, there's just

no

Yeah. If anybody votes on it and sees that there's like a 100. That was Joe.

[00:06:19] Natalie McMillan: that I'm like, we're not compatible. This is real concerning. And it's concerning. It's also just so quotable, you know, I'm trying to think of another quote.

There's so many, I mean, I'm just thinking of like may as Manet's an instrument, like there was like a Tik

[00:06:35] Natalie McMillan: SpongeBob, which is like, Do you didn't forget my diet, soda

and plankton. Oh my God. The fund's song. Oh yeah. Your view is for uranium bomb me. It's like a, nine-year-old like, yeah,

[00:07:03] Natalie McMillan: Yeah, Presby and scary. I

[00:07:10] Natalie McMillan: watch, like, I would watch it as an adult. Oh, it's 100%. Yes. I'm like, can we get a kid on board so that we can just be like, oh, just watching SpongeBob when my kids, oh my God.

[00:07:27] Natalie McMillan: So we actually, we put out a little thing on our Instagram asking for some episodes suggestions. And so this was a am I requested episodes? You may

[00:07:38] Natalie McMillan: on the Instagram.

There's a whole

[00:07:41] Natalie McMillan: over on the Instagram for what are you doing? So we got that little suggestion and we thought it was a good one to dive into, since there's a lot of misconceptions about what it is to get older. And we've noticed that as we approach, you know, the big 30, there were about 20, about 28 that people are making a big deal out of it.

Like we're about to like disintegrate into sin air or something like, oh my God, sir. But, I mean, I think I can speak for us both and say like, we're both looking forward to our

Oh, hold on. Wait, hold on. Yeah,

[00:08:25] Corinne Foxx: Yeah. It's more like that. But I think I really need this episode too. Yeah. We,

[00:08:36] Corinne Foxx: So let's get into some facts about getting older.

Yes. Okay. Well,

[00:08:45] Corinne Foxx: Well, according to a New York times article, most people wouldn't say that a 38 year old qualifies as being. Actually once you pass the median age of 37.8, you may statistically be considered. Oh, that is from Tom Ludwig, who is a Emiratis professor of psychology at hope college in Holland, Michigan, but do not panic because that same article also mentioned that studies have shown that people start feeling old.

[00:09:48] Natalie McMillan: but you've still got a good 30 years

Feel it. Yeah. That did trip me out because about 10 years away from that,

[00:09:59] Corinne Foxx: interesting. A little interesting. Okay. So now why do we even dread aging in the first place?

It's because once we reach a certain point in our lives, we start to dread getting older. We fear it, we load that and we do everything we can do to stop it. And the billion dollar beauty industry banks on it. So are you freaked out about waking up one day and not recognizing yourself in the mirror in today's youth obsessed culture, more and more people associate aging with losing beauty and even love and

And I would say for women, oh yes, it's really it's women too. I mean like men, you know, silver foxes, I feel like as men get older, it's like, Ooh, the age, like a fine wine, but then it's like women get older. You suddenly have no value.

Yeah. Yeah. So it can trigger a lot of anxieties also about becoming sick or even dying. Fearing death is very normal. So aging, you know, it, it makes sense. Sense. Another piece of this dread puzzle is expectations. So many people put expectations on a number of. By the age 30, I will have achieved this by 35.

I'll be married 40, you know, the list goes on and on and many times we don't want to meet these ages because we've put pressure on ourselves to have achieved some big landmark success by then. Yeah. Which is also when I think back. Do you ever think back to like your college years or when I was like 18 and I was like, when I'm graduated at 23 or however old, I was 22, I'm going to be married.

I'm going to have a house.

[00:12:01] Natalie McMillan: No, I fully, yeah. 27 felt like that's a great age to like settle down and have a baby I'm like, but it's like, I truly could never imagine.

I know,

[00:12:24] Natalie McMillan: from?

I don't have any

[00:12:32] Natalie McMillan: Oh my God. Oh my God. I know that was like the common thing she does. Well, just all of them. I think my grandma had six by the time she was like 35 or so. That's insane, crazy,

There are, you can achieve success at any age. And there are a lot of celebrities who have, Ooh, let's dig into that. So number one is Julia child, Julia public. First cookbook at 50 years old today. And then she turned into a celebrity chef with her own TV show. She also became the first woman to be inducted into the culinary Institute of America's hall of fame.

They're also making a show about her. I

[00:13:23] Corinne Foxx: it. Yeah. That's one veer, Wang who actually did not know this. She is one of the most famous designers today, and it's really hard to imagine VR weighing doing anything but building her fashion empire. But before she was creating runway clothing and wedding dresses, she was a figure skater.

What in a journal? And Vera did not enter the fashion industry until she was 40 years old. And it just goes to show that it's never too late to change careers or change a passion. Like she was not studying this her whole life. It wasn't her. It was something she did later in life. I believe she was a

That's crazy. I saw a picture of her the other day and I was like, this woman looks incredible. And I'm like, maybe it's all that figure skating. Maybe she like, you know, her muscles or something. I don't know. Yeah,

Wow. I know, I really want to write a book in my life, like a, like a non-fiction book. Yeah. It's going to have to be later because I don't have time, right? Oh yeah. I don't know how you know how to be like yeah. Yeah.

[00:14:42] Corinne Foxx: good for her. Yeah. And then the last celebrity we have on here who actually did not know was this age because she looks so great.

Yeah. Is Laverne

[00:15:12] Corinne Foxx: fabulous.

I had no idea. It

[00:15:27] Corinne Foxx: Right. She's like my parents' age. Yeah. My mom is 53, 52 53. My dad's 54. Wow. Wow. You would never know. No, but you know, that goes to the term that we always hear all the time that she's like aging gracefully.

This is kind of where we're talking here. Should we be aging gracefully or should that be what we're striving for?

So this generally involves. Least three to five years younger than you actually are. Well, not appearing to do anything to

[00:16:22] Natalie McMillan: nothing. She's never

Yeah. And it's like, what are you thinking? Like, right. Just send light. Ingrained Burien juice

I'm having age appropriate hair, doing age. Titties, but maybe doing one or two surprisingly useful things like surfing or tap dancing. That don't seem like you're trying too hard yet. Let people know you're still,

She's done nothing. And she like really carries herself well, but then she still does fun, young things, but not too much. And it's like this. W w w what would we do in yellow? Yeah. It's literally a calculation. That to be perfectly. Gray stuff. Right? Right.

[00:17:22] Corinne Foxx: Felly, which

We can also work to amplify these joys while mitigating the losses of youth. We can also redefine aging gracefully to mean, and this is according to health. Aging gracefully. Isn't about trying to look like a 20 something it's about living our best life and having the physical and mental health to enjoy it.

Like a bottle of wine. You can get better with age with the right

[00:18:01] Natalie McMillan: right care you

Definition of what aging gracefully.

[00:18:29] Corinne Foxx: Yeah. Well, there's some fun things that we can start doing. We can go on these things called awe walks in a study of older adults, according to Ingrid Lee from the.

Aging, joyfully revelation. Researchers found that taking an all walk, a walk specifically focused on attending to vast or inspiring things in the environment, increased joy and pro-social emotions, feelings like generosity and kindness, more than simply taking a stroll in nature. And this is so funny.

Cause my mom, the other day out of nowhere, she sent me this picture. I think parents do this though of a tree and it was like, I have to look at this tree. It was just like, oh, here it is. Here. It is pretty tree in my parking lot. Just a reminder to her. Appreciate the beauty all around you. Oh no, it's not.

Natalie. Look at the tree. It has little flowers

[00:19:33] Corinne Foxx: have like a toaster strudel.

[00:19:39] Corinne Foxx: my adult easy bake oven on turbo ConvaTec. Those are corn dogs and they are heading towards.

[00:20:00] Corinne Foxx: They are enjoying the beauty around them. And if it's corn dogs or

[00:20:10] Corinne Foxx: Again, another thing that we can do to embrace getting older and age joyfully is to have social groups, a vast of studies, a good summary of them actually have affirmed that people who participate in social activities, such as attending church, going to the movies, playing cards, or being go, or going to restaurants or sporting events is linked with decreased mortality among older adults.

Okay. Next thing is. You're as old as you think research has confirmed the long held belief that you're only as old as you feel. Yeah. Studies have shown that as people age, they identify less and less with their actual ages. Feeling more youthful can have protective effects against depression, dementia, and more.

I have to sing praises to my dad here. My dad and I, I, you know, I rag on him cause I'm like, oh God, he's like, oh, he's acting like he's younger than he is. He dresses younger than, you know, most 54 year olds do. But he exercises like he's younger than he. Is, he looks way so much younger. He listens to young music.

He surrounds himself by young, young

[00:21:24] Corinne Foxx: has so much energy, but, and he always tells me, so it's Korean. I do this because I can't think that I'm old. Cause I will

Yeah.

[00:21:43] Natalie McMillan: Young. Well, it's crazy too. Cause if you think about it, like how old is he now? 54, 54. There are some 54 year olds that look like older than 54. And there, you know, like grandparents. Yeah. Wow. This is a stark diff like J LO's like 50 something too.

I don't know how that's probably better than me. It's insane. Well, you know, and that's also her saying that that was all from olive oil. Me, miss me with that. J-Lo another thing you can do to aid joy Philly is to find your passion. So whether you enjoy gardening, swimming, or spending time with your grandkids embracing what's important to you can help you feel more youthful.

Noel Nelson. She's the author of happy, healthy. Dead. Why, what you think you know about aging is wrong and how to get it right. We'll have that title. She says don't so much focus on your years. Put more focus on what you love to do. Find something that really, really turns you on and go for it with every ounce of your being.

Passion. I love that God find that passion also let go of outdated notions. So don't identify with outdated stereotypes about older adults, just because you've hit a milestone birthday doesn't mean you shouldn't be active or involved anymore today. People stay in the workforce longer and take better care of themselves than previous generations

Like, I love my grandparents to death and like, you know, but I will say they're from a generation in which. They're in their seventies and they think they're in their nineties. I call my grandma and I'm just like, you never know any day now we're out of here. I'm like grandma, you're in a literal perfect

Right. Cause she's young. She

[00:23:34] Natalie McMillan: I'm like, they turned 50. I'm going to hang it up.

[00:23:39] Natalie McMillan: since you was 50, which is absolutely, but

she

It's you know, like all, you know, her Grant's parents probably died at 60, 70 years

[00:23:53] Corinne Foxx: like, yeah, I really am one foot out, you know, in the grave. And I'm like, grandma,

When I was a baby and in the picture, he's like, this was like 50 something. And in my head, I mean, he has fully white hair and in my head, I'm like, my dad right now is 65. 20 years younger than my granddad did in that picture. I know it's so

[00:24:23] Natalie McMillan: we're going to look, we're going.

Wouldn't be, gosh, darn immortal. Seriously. Lastly, exercise is your friend. It's often touted as a way to stay healthy and vibrant at any age, but one finding that makes it particularly relevant as we get older is that movement has been. Studies to increase the size of the hippocampus, which is a part of the brain that plays a vital role in learning and memory.

This is important because the hippocampus shrinks as we age, which can lead to memory deficits and increased risk of dementia. In one study of older adults, exercise increased hippocampus size by 2%, which is equivalent to reversing one to two years of age related

Like I just. It will never not be in my life. Yeah. Which makes me, I'm worried because, you know, I have a weird memory. My memory is a little shaky,

Like open your leg one way, but then you're going to bring the weight in the opposite way. And she's like, cause I w I want you to like, work your brain and your body. And I was like, oh,

[00:25:54] Natalie McMillan: side of your brain.

Yeah. It's a real Fang. So let's talk about. Upsides of getting

She says also as we age. Often simplifies and fewer demands on our attention can mean that we feel less stressed and scattered. Some studies have found that people are happiest in their sixties and seventies. Grandma, grandma, exactly. Another upside of getting older is that your emotion stabilize and life feels more manageable.

Debra Carr, who has a PhD, a professor of sociology at Rutgers university. She says that as people grow older, they develop a greater capacity to regulate their feelings, which means the highs aren't quite as euphoric as the giddy teen days. But for many's the lows aren't super bleak either. So that goes back to being happier.

You know, it's

[00:27:15] Corinne Foxx: Another thing is that you care less about what people think. So according to Dr. Carr and studies done by the American psychology association, our desire to fit in with others, begins to plummet after young adulthood, doing what you think is right, is much more of a driver than doing what you believe will make you fit in more with other people's expectations.

As people get older, they get a little bit more, you know, give a fuck. Well, sometimes a lot of people like say she. Yeah. Yeah. It's like, okay,

[00:27:45] Corinne Foxx: do not say that dressing a little bit more eccentric. Sometimes

And I can't wait. There's actually some health benefits of getting older. So a big fear when it comes to aging is what can happen with our health. But did you know there are actually some upsides, for example, as we age, sweat glands, start to shrink and become less sensitive. So for those of you who are prone to major sweating, you can look forward to relief when you're on.

Even migraines appear to drop off with age. Once you're past menopause, they may be gone for good. Which researchers say is because migraines may come from hormonal changes, you know, and then another thing you can look forward to is catching fewer cold and having less tooth sensitivity,

Oh my God. Me too. I am

very

[00:28:45] Corinne Foxx: like old people, but actually they're not really actually sick all the time. You just don't want to get them sick. Exactly,

I don't think it's had a cold and I don't even know how. Another benefit as you may even feel younger than you did when you were actually young, the older people get the younger, they feel relatively speaking among 18 to 29 year olds about half say they feel their age while about a quarter, say. Older than their age and another quarter say they feel younger by contrast among adults 65 and older, 60% say they feel younger than their age compared to 32, who say they feel their age and only 3% say they feel older than their age.

Fair. That's really interesting. And a lot

[00:29:43] Natalie McMillan: And maybe also. Maybe when you're younger and you have kids or something, it's just like, I am fucking tired.

[00:29:57] Natalie McMillan: a list of things for aging, but honestly, these are good guidelines to follow. Every age, plus if you make sure to incorporate all these things, now you'll be doing a lot of the preventative or which is, you know, we got to prevent some things.

So take good care of your skin and always wear a sunscreen. That's a big one. Oh my God. You know, all the, like my grandma had a huge piece of her face taken out, basically because it was skin cancer. They have to keep digging out until they like get it two and a half hours of exercise a week. And this can even

[00:30:34] Natalie McMillan: to do is walk truly.

That's actually really all you have to do, be mindful of your diet. So fresh fruits and veggies will take you a very long. Literally, literally keep stress at bay by focusing on your mental health and wellbeing, quit smoking and drink no more than eight drinks per week. I thought that was kind of a. But that's like a recommended like eight drinks a week.

That seems like a lot. That seems like,

[00:31:03] Natalie McMillan: that would be seven. Okay. Cause I'm, I guess I don't drink during the week. I don't drink like, wow. Eight on a Saturday. That's crazy. Getting enough, sleep drinking.

Plenty of water going to the doctor regularly have

[00:31:17] Natalie McMillan: episode on. Yes we do. So, you know, scroll down, find that one and take good care of your oral hygiene. Hmm, those are all seems interesting. That's the last one naturally, listen, you know, I take great care of my oral hygiene. I just don't like the dentist

You cannot say you have great oral hygiene. If you're not getting signed up by a doctor. Okay.

[00:31:54] Corinne Foxx: that know it's really odd to me.

I had this like weird thing in my head where, you know, every time you, well, not you, but every can we go to the dentist? They're always like, oh, you know, you could work on this a little bit more. I was like, I'm going to go to the dentist and they're going to say, wow, You are flossing amazingly. So every year, every like every other six months, you'd be like, I'm gonna go ahead.

She's going to say it this time. And she was like, she wouldn't say anything. She said it. She was like, wow.

[00:32:18] Corinne Foxx: flossing amazingly. I was like,

[00:32:25] Corinne Foxx: it's like,

[00:32:33] Corinne Foxx: Well, we hoped you learn more about aging, how to age gracefully and joyfully, but more importantly, joyfully and how to take care of yourself now.

For the future. Yes. We love you guys. And we want you to be here if we're

[00:32:50] Corinne Foxx: around absolutely forever. So now, should we circle back on the one that we've been drinking this epi? Yes. It's the

[00:33:03] Corinne Foxx: Zealand, the land and our Hottie of the week who I'm six cited about.

She in one of my fears of these was her ever monster in law.

[00:33:23] Corinne Foxx: Well, she's like an activist and she's working. Yeah. She's very sharp. And she's a nice woman.

Yes. We love her. We love her. And she always, she was exercising a lot, a lot of her life. Yeah. She had her little videos and she's thriving. The old issue.

[00:33:50] Corinne Foxx: she's 84, 84. She's 84 and she's working and twerking.

Wow. I really want to see that movie. She was in Barbarossa. Have you ever seen it? No Barbarella. That's what she's famous for Barbera. Wow. This is. This is looking at her who ended up the galaxy. Oh yeah. This was like, it's like her iconic, um, thing that like put her on the map. She didn't find Barbarella.

Okay. Good old Jane. Okay. One to Jane Fonda. What do we think of the three canoes Riesling?

[00:34:34] Corinne Foxx: Hmm. It's really hot today. And if I was like, by pools by a pool, I would love that.

Yeah.

[00:34:43] Corinne Foxx: I can give it a seven and a half seven to make it really hard. It's going to be an 8.25.

[00:34:51] Corinne Foxx: math or something like that. Somewhere in the eight. It's an it's an eight somewhere in the eighth, somewhere around

[00:35:02] Corinne Foxx: They 8.4 and a Jane Fonda.

all right. This is the part of the episode where we play a little wrap-up game. And this week we're doing the BFF quiz, B F F.

Oh, fun. You know? Okay. So you go forth and, you know, we always choose the same numbers that we've always

[00:35:46] Natalie McMillan: 17, 17, 17. Is there a smell that reminds me. We have, okay. It's from one to 40, 39 39. Watch it be another one we've already done ad that, that though.

Oh my God. Oh my God. I'm scared. I cannot believe this is the question. What is it? When we're 85 years old, what will we be doing together? Oh my God. I hope our

[00:36:14] Natalie McMillan: to, can you

Well, I hope we're living close to each other and oh my God. How fun, how much fun would we have when we're

[00:36:29] Corinne Foxx: Oh, oh, oh my God. There's so many things. Um, I hope we're still doing like little witches circles. Yes. You know, with our kids or something. Yes. We, we kind of Coogee together.

I see us. What do you think? I think, yes. I think people like our kids love to be an old Winnie with you.

[00:37:00] Corinne Foxx: maybe we'll hunt the blades.

[00:37:18] Corinne Foxx: Yeah, it would be traveling and, uh, conjuring traveling.

Which number? And I am I going to choose? I'm going to choose 31. I hope that's not only 40 times. No.

[00:37:39] Natalie McMillan: I don't think we've asked that.

I know what it is, but I don't know if you're not going to

[00:37:57] Corinne Foxx: mean, I would buy my mom a really nice house. I'd fix it first. That's kind of like investing it. Yeah. I would do something of that nature.

Like invested, buy a house or. Buy a jet, you know, something. Yeah. Like I'm

[00:38:17] Corinne Foxx: thing I would do is like buy my mom a new house or just fit. My mom was a hole in her house and I'm like, mom, this is going to clap.

Yeah. Oh, there's a hole. And she just like, we should, we just don't talk about the whole and I go, mom, someone needs to fix that. And she's like,

[00:38:36] Corinne Foxx: why don't you guys? That's the epi. If you want to be more involved with the podcast, you can follow us at, am I doing. Pod on Instagram. You guys can also just like this episode, you can request something you want to learn about.

You can write in to, am I doing this right pod@gmail.com? You can also write in for random advice or you can go on our website. Am I doing this right? pod.com and sign up for our news letter, the newsletter. And there's so many things, oh my God. You know what we're going to put in the newsletter. Chihuahua and I also want to do,

Really cool. Yeah. And he's all like dehydrated.

[00:39:28] Natalie McMillan: Tone. Is this a red flag? Yes. Oh