Once I wanted to be thin —now I want to be strong

CHRISTA D’SOUZA, 57, is a journalist who has two children and lives with her partner. She says: IT’S definitely a thing I’ve noticed recently — people having a big celebration for a birthday that ends in a nine rather than a zero. And it makes sense, too: 39 sounds a lot less frightening than 40; 49 tons better than 50 and so on. I might do the same in two years’ time when I hit 59. One last big blowout before I hit 60.

Gearing up for anything is always an invigorating pursuit, which is probably why I feel in better shape now than I did at the beginning of my 50s.

What’s absolutely certain is that I’m a hell of a lot fitter than I was in my teens, 20s and 30s.

My goodness, when I think of how I used to treat my body, all the junk food and alcohol and worse I used to tip into it, thinking, as you do when you’re young, that I was invincible.

Why fitter than ever now? Well, I am an empty-nester, which means I have more time to spend on myself.

I’ve also got myself a great class pass that allows me to book classes in all sorts of venues, not just one gym, at grossly reduced rates.

The upshot is I can do things now on the fitness front that I could never do before. Indeed, the nearer I get to 60, the more strength (rather than mere thinness) becomes an obsession. That tiresome older woman in her Lululemon leggings and crochet bikini top, the one who always hogs a place in the front row at classes? I’m afraid she is probably me.

The routine now is this: twice a week to Fierce Grace, a killer 90-minute hot yoga method invented by Michelle Pernetta, which is like Bikram but better.

One weekly torture session doing the Pilates-style reformer workout which Meghan Markle so loyally swears by. It’s so hard, I mostly want to hit the instructor. But I figure if ever there was a time to practise a bit of that old chestnut ‘self-care’, it is now.

Maybe it’s human nature to think like that at the end of a decade as opposed to the beginning of it. Certainly, when I think back to my spring chickeny early 50s, the urgency of it all, the desire for muscles, it just wasn’t there.

In the old days, all I wanted to be was thin. Now that frailty beckons, it’s about being strong. Classic 9-ender, Late Developer, Woman With A Fancy Class Pass, whatever. My younger self would be darn proud.