The Glow Code
A Cheat Sheet for Feeling, Looking, and Being Your Best at Any Age
- Publisher
- Rowman & Littlefield Publishers
- Initial publish date
- Jun 2024
- Category
- Happiness, Aging, Beauty & Grooming
-
Paperback / softback
- ISBN
- 9781538180723
- Publish Date
- Jun 2024
- List Price
- $29.95
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Description
Readers seeking a "holistic, approachable guide to approaching middle age with verve" (Foreword Reviews) will appreciate this "comprehensive and chatty guide" (Publishers Weekly) with inspiring and practical advice to navigate aging well.
When I was 41, I learned how to wash my face. Turns out I’d been doing it wrong. (Hint: ditch cleansing wipes!) This made me wonder what else I didn’t know. Like: Cardio or weights? Why can’t I sleep? Is there a trick to ordering good wine? Or buying art? I figured if I still had questions about how to adult and age like a superwoman, maybe you did too.
The Glow Code provides all the answers you need to feel, look, and live better in midlife and beyond. Rich in advice from top scientists, psychologists, makeup artists, fitness and nutrition authorities, and others, this book offers strategies and tips for better fitness, friendships, sex, creative practices, and more. And to make sure it works, I’ve tested it all—with sometimes hilarious results.
Fun, practical, and inspiring, The Glow Code is the manifesto to aging joyfully. For all of you with minimum free time but maximum ambition to rock this next stage of life, welcome to your cheat sheet.
About the author
Contributor Notes
Michelle McIvor is a journalist on a mission to age gratefully. A former columnist with the Calgary Herald, she has written for Maclean's, Chatelaine, and Best Health, among others, and ghostwrote the #1 Canadian bestseller Forever Terry: A Legacy in Letters. Michelle lives in Calgary with her husband and kids.
Excerpt: The Glow Code: A Cheat Sheet for Feeling, Looking, and Being Your Best at Any Age (by (author) Michelle McIvor)
Excerpt © Reprinted by permission. All rights reserved.
Excerpt from the Introduction
I found my first gray eyebrow hair a few months ago. Correction: My first gray eyebrow hair proudly announced itself a few months ago. Seemingly overnight, it had sprouted from my face as if to say, “Hello, world, I’m heeeere!”
I was less enthused.
Of course, I saw this hair when I could do nothing, zilch, nada about it. I’d just dropped my kids off at daycare and was stopped at a red light, glancing at my reflection in the rear-view mirror. And there it was—a long, coarse, gray hair jutting out at an odd angle from the inner corner of my left eyebrow, glimmering in the sunlight. Couldn’t it at least get in line with the rest of my brow? The audacity of this hair!
That’s when two things really hit me: (1) Despite my best attempts to stay youthful, I am aging—and there’s no hiding it. And (2) Why don’t I always keep a set of tweezers in my car?!
For the rest of the day, I was sure everyone I met with was staring at my errant eyebrow hair. I couldn’t wait to get home to pluck the damn thing. When I eventually did later that night— and by eventually, I mean the minute I walked through the door—I was so relieved.
A few weeks passed. I didn’t think about it again.
And then the second gray hair popped up.
That’s when I started to Google things like “Does plucking gray hair make more grow?” and “Can you dye eyebrows?” and “Am I having more or less sex with my husband than the national average?”
That last question was unrelated, but it had been on my mind. And if you’re curious, the answers were no, yes, and more. Yay us.
Why am I telling you all this? Because if you’re a woman—or you just care about how you’re aging!—and, like me, you’re brushing up against midlife, chances are we share the same types of concerns, questions, and Google searches. Have you wanted to drink less alcohol but not give it up? Me too. Wondering if you really need to take a multivitamin, a handful of supplements, and that pricey collagen powder? Great question. Interested in switching your decades-old makeup routine because you’re now a woman in your forties with crow’s feet and puffy eyes? Same, girl. Same.
But where do we even begin? And more importantly, who has the time to sort through all the information and products at our disposal? I feel overwhelmed with my life at the best of times, let alone when I’m perusing the aisles in Sephora.
That’s because navigating life as a woman between the ages of 35 and 50 is no joke. We have less time to ourselves but more concerns to deal with, ranging from the big to the small. When I turned 40, lines dug in around my eyes and mouth. My body fat percentage crept up even though I had lost weight. I had a hard time sleeping through the night. My lower back started to hurt more. So did some of my friendships.
Worst of all, I couldn’t escape the sneaky suspicion that I should have learned how to deal with these matters by now. I was a grown woman, after all, and not getting any younger. What had I been doing with my life? I should have prepared for this! I should have known better!
Editorial Reviews
The Glow Code has changed my life, from the way I apply eyeliner to how I think about aging. It’s more than a cheat sheet. It's a much-needed manifesto for women who want to make the most of their lives. Invite Michelle McIvor into your world. She’ll become your smartest, funniest girlfriend who always has your back.
Natalie MacLean, author of the national bestseller Wine Witch on Fire: Rising from the Ashes of Divorce, Defamation, and Drinking Too Much
The Glow Code sparkles with sage advice, scientifically vetted and winningly shared. Wise, witty, and charming, Michelle McIvor is the friend we all wish would sit us down and give us the scoop on being our best selves.
Bianca Bosker, author of Cork Dork and Get The Picture
Michelle McIvor has taken it upon herself to empower women by digging deep to find accurate, female-specific information. By encompassing the views of multiple experts, this book offers a wealth of knowledge that any woman can use to improve her everyday life!
Stacy Sims, PhD, scientist, author, and fitness expert
Who wouldn’t want to “glow”? Canadian journalist McIvor interviewed more than 40 people about how to age gracefully. After all, she’s just found her first gray eyebrow hair. She is funny and serious about how it’s possible to be “proud, strong women” who improve the world and still want gorgeous skin and a fashionable wardrobe. She discusses exercise; she feels the best following the LHS advice of Stacy Sims PhD. Other advice: avoid wearing eye makeup on or below lower lashes, cultivate friends, and cut back on alcohol, which accelerates the rate at which the human brain shrinks. Identify your triggers, try to remove them from your life, and establish a detailed plan on how you’ll behave when faced with them. Trouble sleeping? Set a timer for 20 minutes of “worry time.” When it goes off, no more fretting allowed. Sex, with lubricant, is good. So is comforting someone who’s grieving and being a good listener. “I am so sorry” is always a winner. So are pleasant emails with closes like, “Warmest regards.” You glow, girl!
Booklist
Journalist Michelle McIvor’s The Glow Code is a factual, friendly guide to enjoying and enhancing life in middle age. With the goal of empowering women and helping them feel better about aging in their own skins, this book draws on interviews with experts (most of them women) regarding aging. McIvor acted as a guinea pig with their tips, enacting advice on the best workouts, how to be a good friend, how to get better sleep, and how to control bad habits in her life. She engaged in weight training until she oozed “bad-ass, superwoman vibes”; she also recalibrated her love life, engaging in “no-frills sex. There’s no prep work needed. No lit candles. No fancy moves. This is come-as-you-are sex.” From chapter to chapter, there’s health related advice for attaining better skin, getting enough protein in one’s diet, and curbing alcohol use; this comes alongside lifestyle suggestions to make entertaining, investing, and decluttering easier. The chapter on looking one’s best includes helpful product recommendations for moisturizer and make-up, too. And such encouraging tips are bolstered by personable humor and a little swearing. The Glow Code is a holistic, approachable guide to approaching middle age with verve.
Foreword Reviews
Journalist McIvor presents a comprehensive and chatty guide for “aging gratefully” that addresses such topics as skin care, body acceptance, sleep, creativity, and makeup application. When turning 40 brought wrinkles, back pain, and “burning questions about aging,” the author sought out “experts, trailblazers, and maverick thinkers” for advice tailored to women in midlife. An exercise psychologist’s recommendation to prioritize muscle health spurred her to adopt a high-intensity interval training routine that “added two pounds of muscle” and increased her energy. Other experts recommended she conduct a friendship “audit,” motivating the author to reconnect with a long-lost friend, let go of an unhealthy relationship, and prioritize existing bonds. McIvor has a journalist’s curiosity and a penchant for the nitty-gritty, which proves an advantage in the detailed lists of skin-care products and step-by-step instructions for such tricky matters as comforting someone who’s grieving… [H]er message that women need not have it all figured out by the time they hit 40—and that they’re not vain for caring about fashion, beauty, or creative passions—resonates. Middle-aged women will find this a valuable resource.
Publishers Weekly
Aging is often viewed as a negative phenomenon, especially in today’s youth-obsessed society. Canadian health and wellness journalist McIvor has written a manual that encourages women, particularly, to grow older with pride, rather than reacting to their advancing age with negative or mixed emotions. Her research included contacting various experts and scientists to create a “cheat sheet” that offers advice and tips on positive aging that she put into practice. McIvor candidly shares the results of her own experiments with this expert advice and the other knowledge she gleaned in areas like exercise, skin care and beauty, friendship, sleep, body positivity, libido, and creativity.Each chapter concludes with a cheat sheet that assists readers in putting that section into action. These cheat sheets include brief chapter synopses, suggested actions, and links to other helpful resources or apps. McIvor presents these topics in an open, witty style that renders the many issues women face as they age more relatable and uplifting…. [T]his book also offers actionable advice and helpful tips on aging with grace and gratitude.
Library Journal