I’m not going to lie. Losing weight over 60 is harder and takes longer than it was when we were younger. Our metabolism slows down, and even if you’ve kept in shape, you may not be able to move your body in all the ways you used to.

But
permanent weight loss is possible. I’ve helped many women in their 60s and
older lose weight.

To succeed, you need to forget the model you’ve used for your whole life. The one the diet industry has spent billions of dollars trying to convince you is the way to lose weight. What they don’t tell you is that research shows that you have a 3-5% chance of succeeding at losing weight and keeping it off by dieting.

Here
are 8 things to look out for that may be tripping you up:

You Restrict Entire
Food Groups or Forbid Yourself from Eating Your Favorite Foods

Food
restrictions go to the very core of diets, especially the biggest fads nowadays.
As if diets like Keto weren’t bad enough, all you need to do is spend a few
minutes on Pinterest to see some even crazier ideas, like the miraculous 14-day
boiled egg diet or the coffee diet.

It’s
unhealthy to eat tons of fat and no carbs or eat hard-boiled eggs all day. When
you don’t allow yourself certain foods, you want them even more. You even think
you like them more than you do.  

This
restrictive approach to eating also creates one of the biggest barriers to
weight loss –
the scarcity mindset. That’s the totally false notion that food is scarce in
your life. But you create that scarcity when you don’t allow yourself to eat
what you love, and you set yourself up for a binge.

You Really Don’t
Know Why You Want to Lose Weight 

Usually, you want to lose weight because we live in a world that discriminates against and shuns people who are overweight. Or so you can wear certain clothes, or look and feel sexier, or meet someone special.

But
you really need a clear vision of why you want to lose weight to keep you going
through a process that takes perseverance. 

That
means you need to set goals you feel really good about. Ones that generate
positive emotions, like, “I want to be healthy so I can play with my
grandchildren and live to see them graduate from high school.”

You Expect to Do It
Perfectly

Another
unproductive mindset you learn from dieting is the need to do it perfectly. Diets
have lots of rules, and people like rules because it means they don’t have to
think. They can just do what someone else tells them to do.

But
humans are meant to think and question, and most of us get pretty sick of not
being able to decide what to eat after a while. 

Strict
diet rules don’t allow you to live a normal life, attend parties, and
socialize. What’s the point of that? With rule-laden diets, we actually look
for an excuse to quit because we’re so miserable. 

But
when you give up dieting and change your habits, quitting is the only way you
can fail. 

The
thing is that no one who succeeds at permanent weight loss does this perfectly.
You’re learning new skills, new habits, and that always takes practice.

The
important thing is to do your best, learn from your mistakes so you don’t make
the same ones repeatedly, and get back on track. Because everyone gets off
track a little. Everyone. So, give up the idea that you can set out to
lose weight and do it perfectly.

You Eat to Avoid
Dealing with Negative or Difficult Feelings

It
doesn’t matter how you try to lose weight, or whether you even reach your goal –
if you don’t learn how to stop eating for emotional reasons, you’re going to
gain the weight back.

Eating
to avoid feeling your emotions – whether you’re sad, angry, frustrated, bored, or stressed out –
is what causes overweight in most people.

When
you eat for emotional reasons and you aren’t hungry, your body stores the
energy as fat. Those few people who manage to lose the weight but don’t stop
emotional eating gain the weight back. Every time.

Learning
how to feel your emotions and use healthy strategies to deal with them is
essential for permanent weight loss. Check out my 30 Days to
End Emotional Eating Forever course for the tools to break
the habitual cycle of emotional eating. 

You Believe You
Can’t Lose Weight

If
you’ve been dieting for a while, you’ve had more than your share of failures.
This is another horrible thing about diets – we think we’re the failure because we didn’t lose weight
on the diet. But it is really the diet that is the failure. The whole diet
method of weight loss sets you up for failure.

The
problem is that, because of confirmation bias, we try to prove that we’re right!
So, we believe we can’t lose weight, and when we mess up, we think,
“I knew it!” Do you really want to prove to yourself that you can’t lose
weight? Wouldn’t you rather prove yourself wrong?

To
shed your extra pounds, you need to start believing that you are capable of
doing this. Stop blaming yourself for the past. You failed because you didn’t
have the right tools.

Now
that you know diets aren’t the way to go, and that you need to change your
eating habits and stop emotional eating, believe that you can learn these new skills
and succeed. Seriously, you need to change your beliefs to change your
body. 

You Think You Can
Hate Yourself Thin

You
can’t heal a body you hate. So many people think that if they are willing to
love or even just accept the body they have, they’ll have no motivation to
improve.

But think about this – when was the last time that hate-motivated anyone to do anything good? Are you really going to want to treat your body better if you hate it? Unlikely.

Start
appreciating all your body does for you. Be grateful for it. It may not be the
way you want it to be, but it has served you for many years and is the only one
you’ve got.

It’s
time to stop treating it badly by either starving it, depriving it of things it
needs (like carbs, beans, whole grains, fruits and vegetables), and to stop
giving it more food than it needs to function optimally and for you to feel
great.

Exercise
it daily, but not as punishment for what you ate. Exercise as a celebration of
all your body can do. Thank it and treat it with the respect it deserves. 

You Expect Weight
Loss to Be Fast and Easy 

There
are so many fast weight loss schemes online that I understand why people think it
should be easy to do. But if it sounds too good to be true, it is.

There
is no coffee drink that’s going to help you lose 15 pounds in 2 weeks. Losing
15 pounds in two weeks is a really bad idea anyway –
if you aren’t morbidly obese.

Don’t
get on the scale every day expecting the number to go down. If you choose to
weigh yourself, which I think is a great way to see whether what you’re doing
is working, then do it once a week.

Don’t
expect to drop more than a pound a week, although some people will lose more.
Some weeks, you may do everything perfectly and lose no weight. 

Think
of where you’ll be a year from now if you stop overeating and emotional eating.
The time will pass anyway, and slow, healthy weight lost is much more likely to
stay off, especially since doing it this way fixes what caused you to be
overweight.

You Make Losing
Weight the Ultimate Goal

The
process of changing your habits and becoming healthier is so much more
important than the weight loss itself.

Since
tuning your eating habits to your body’s signals and avoiding emotional eating
is what will allow you to lose weight, you should focus on your progress in
making these changes.

When
you go to a restaurant and order what you really want, then leave half the
French fries because you’re honoring your body’s fullness signals, celebrate
that. Every time you don’t eat the candy in the candy bowl or the free food
just because it’s there, celebrate that.

Every
time you notice when you want to eat because you’re bored, and decide to do
something else, celebrate! You did it! Enjoy the process. Notice your progress
towards establishing your good eating habits.

When
you celebrate your little wins, your brain associates doing your new habit with
feeling good, and that makes it more likely that you’ll repeat the
behavior. 

To get started on the right road, grab my free 8 Secrets for Permanent Weight Loss.

How
many diets have you tried thus far? Have you made any of these 8 mistakes?
Which ones are you ready to ditch? Please share with the community and let’s
have a conversation.

There’s something about hopping out of the shower that makes me feel so rejuvenated and relaxed. Whenever I step out of my tub, I try to remember to rub my tried-and-true CeraVe body cream all over. Sometimes I honestly can’t be bothered, but the times when I do follow through with this routine, I feel at my best ;my skin is glistening and my arms and legs are as soft as a baby’s bottom. Everyone should feel that good when they’re fresh out of the shower, but if you find yourself feeling the complete opposite, it’s time to sub your current body care product for one that Kourtney Kardashian claims is the key to looking good naked.

Kourt posted about how to look good naked on her lifestyle website, Poosh. Besides eating healthy and working out, she reminds us that the products you apply to your skin are crucial to looking and feeling your best.

“In order to achieve glowy skin, it’s important to moisturize everything—everywhere—at least once a day. Kourt’s trick to hydrating her body is similar to the scrub hack: she’ll combine thicker creams and serums she doesn’t want to put on her face and instead slather them all over her body,” the story reads. “Don’t forget to care for your hands and feet as well; we recommend focusing on these areas at night. Try adding a few drops of oil into your hand cream before applying to both areas. This trick really locks in moisture.”

Many of the products mentioned are made by pricey brands like Dr. Barbara Sturm ($95) and La Mer ($300), but the one from Kopari Beauty has a more affordable price tag. Yup, according to Kourt, a $29 body moisturizer is the secret to looking good naked, so of course, we had to investigate.

RELATED: Versed Just Dropped a Game-Changing Retinol Body Lotion to Get Rid of Your Dark Spots, Bumps & Dry Skin 

Photo: Kopari Beauty.

The 100% Organic Coconut Melt is simple; it’s made from organic, unrefined coconut oil—that’s it. There are no bells and whistles to this product, which is probably what makes this body moisturizer so good. Coconut oil is chock-full of essential fatty acids, proteins and vitamin E. These ingredients work together to make your skin ultra-soft to the touch, healthy and glowing. 

Kourtney mentioned using different products for your body, hands and feet, but with the Coconut Melt, you won’t have to. You can smooth on the oil from your head to your toes after you shower or at the end of a long work day to let your skin replenish moisture overnight. You’ll no doubt wake up with the softest, most nourished skin ever. 

Not to mention, this product also has multiple uses: body moisturizer, hair mask, dry shave oil, bath boost, makeup remover and belly balm. The beauty of this oil being made from 100 percent coconut oil is that you can utilize it for plenty of different skin and hair concerns.

“I apply this coconut melt all over my legs before I shave them in the shower. My 62-year-old legs look 20 years younger since I’ve been using this for the past two years!” raved one reviewer. “Super soft skin, silky legs. No razor burn or bumps. No nicks. Just soft, healthy-looking skin! I love this product!”

What sets this one-ingredient formula apart from other pure coconut oil options is that it’s vegan, cruelty-free and sustainably sourced. The coconut oil is filtered three times and excludes any additives. Plus, the fragrance is completely natural. As if this product needs any more praise, it comes in a recyclable jar and once you finish one tub, you can order an earth-friendly refill for $26 a pop.

“I received a trial size of this product with my previous order and loved it, so I had to get the full size. It’s moisturizing but doesn’t clog pores and makes your skin glow.”

Kopari Beauty’s 100% Organic Coconut Melt is the perfect do-it-all product for your entire body and will have you feeling confident in your skin both while you’re naked and completely clothed.

Entering your 60s can be overwhelming when it
comes to feeling that your body is falling apart. You imagine all sorts of failures
and laugh and joke about them with friends.

Yet, underneath the attempt to age with good humor,
there resides an underlying fear relating to personal vulnerabilities regarding
any hint of poor health. To deflect these fears, it is common to develop a laundry
list of complaints, real or imaginary, accompanied by a laundry list of fears.

Fear of death is ubiquitous when you accept
the unknown future of health issues. Will I get cancer? Will I have diabetes?
Will I have arthritis? Rheumatism? Shoulder issues? Compromised knees? How is
my cholesterol? To say nothing of eye and teeth issues.

The Eye Exam

For two years, my optician told me that I
ought to think about removing my cataracts.

“Why,” I asked him. “I can see fine.”

On a visit in January of this year, my
optician was firm.

“Your vision is compromised, but you don’t
realize it because you are used to it,” he said. “Time for cataract surgery.”

“I’ll get to it in summer. My book will be
out, vacations taken, family situated. Promise.”

Denial

Four months later, I capitulated. There was no
use holding hands with denial. It was April. Night driving was difficult: I saw
halos around car lights, little flashing lights played on the sides of my eyes,
and I recognized that I was off balance when dancing.

I had to make time for this procedure. I felt
resistance trying to accomplish my scheduling tasks until one of my best
friends made me promise to her that I would take care of the cataract procedure
by the end of summer.

She had her cataract operation in May. I made
plans to have surgery on both eyes in July. I found myself apprehensive until I
had my eyes examined by my ophthalmologist.

“You wouldn’t pass an eye exam for a driver’s
license,” he said with no bedside manner or sense of humor. “And your right eye
is worn out. Eyes age.”

“But I can see fine,” I said to the doctor.

“You think you can see, because that’s your
perception but not your reality,” he said.

I was obviously living in an alternate
universe.

Don’t Listen to Other People

I was strangely calm after that diagnosis, and
I plied the doctor with questions about the cataract removal procedure.

I had been given opinions by multiple people,
some of whom had already undergone the eye procedure, some of whom had not.
It’s human nature to hear what you want to hear and dismiss what you don’t want
to hear.

I told the doctor about a friend who had paid
$10,000 for both eyes.

“Did he have multiple lenses put on?” I asked.

“There are no multiple lenses. There are
different kinds of lenses for each particular eye problem. Your friend chose
the Cadillac lens and obviously didn’t use insurance.”

“Should I get the Cadillac lens?” I asked. “I
want to see the best that I can.”

“You will see perfectly well with the lenses I
am prescribing,” he said. “It wouldn’t matter if you used the Cadillac lenses
your friend preferred.”

We got into the cost for the both eyes –
another aspect from my conversations with other people. If your friend quotes a
price to you, it most likely will be incorrect.

Eyes, even on the same person, are different
and unique. The cornea on one of my eyes had to be reshaped. It was developing
a small astigmatism. That was new. The doctor told me that my right eye was not
functioning.

It is best not to play the guessing game when
it comes to cost until the ophthalmologist tells you what each eye costs, if anything,
depending on insurance.

Most importantly, make sure you go to an ophthalmologist that takes Medicare. Do not assume every doctor does. And know what your insurance plans cover before you begin making decisions on any medical procedure.

Reduce the Fear Factor

You do not know when your health, including
eye health, will affect you adversely. Some of my friends who are in their 70s
have no cataract issues. Their eyes are free from cloudiness. Lucky them.

But eventually, most of you will encounter an
eye issue. The most common and damaging eye condition is dry eyes. Over a
period of a decade or so, dry eyes can cause eye damage.

If you can barely open your eyes in the
morning, or your eyes itch during the day, or if your eyes are persistently
red, please see your optician. I had dry eyes so severe, my optician put me on
steroid eye drops.

I’ve told many of my friends and acquaintances
about my cataract operation. Their eyes got wide with fear. They plied me with
questions, and mostly, they wanted to know if it hurt.

Then they said they should make an
appointment. They should take care of it. And
they don’t. Because of fear. Don’t let fear dictate how you take care of
your health.

For the most part, cataract surgery doesn’t
hurt. You have a mild anesthesia when undergoing the procedure. And if you go
to a reputable doctor, maybe recommended by someone you trust, you will notice
that the clinic has invested in top of the line technology in the operation
room.

When you wake up, you might be a little tired,
but if you follow the instructions by the doctor and nurses – to rest and use
the prescribed eye drops – you will have good results. More importantly, you
will see what you haven’t seen in years.

How do you deal with your eyes? Do you put off
getting them examined once a year? If you have had cataract surgery, how was
your experience? Please share in the comments below.

If we could wake up each morning and have any celeb’s hair, it’d be Jennifer Aniston’s. She sets trends like no other; both the “Rachel Haircut” and “Modern Rachel Haircut” are iconic. And now, she’s even founded her own haircare brand, LolaVie. Though discovering which products she uses from her own brand is a total breeze, it’s not as easy to pinpoint the hair tools, such as brushes, that help her achieve her voluminous, shiny strands.

In October 2021, Jen posted a video on Instagram that shows exactly how she does her hair. Per usual, we put on our FBI hats and tracked down the two brushes shown in the tutorial. The first one, Wet Brush’s Brush Pro Flex Dry, was easy to find because of its unique shape and colors. The second one was a bit trickier, but after some digging, we finally found it. 

View this post on Instagram

A post shared by Jennifer Aniston (@jenniferaniston)

Jen An uses the rose gold S-Heart-S Scalp Brush. WTF is a scalp brush you might be wondering? Well, it does way more than your average brush. It features a massaging bead at the tip of each bristle that gets rid of residue and flakes, improves the effectiveness of your shampoo and promotes microcirculation to spread shampoo evenly. Of course, it also combs through knots with ease. The bristles are so relaxing, it’ll feel like you’re getting a head massage at the sink of a salon.

Photo: S-Heart-S.

The catch? It’ll cost you two to three Uber Eats deliveries (a.k.a. $68) to get your hands on one. For those not feeling its nearly $70 price tag, we searched for an alternative that works just as well but costs a fraction of the price. In fact, our discovery is on sale right now for just $9, so “pivot” your focus onto this bad boy and enjoy your new fave hair brush.

RELATED: Jennifer Aniston’s Volume-Building Brush That Prevents Breakage Is Still on Sale For Just $7 

Photo: Ikemoto.

Ikemoto’s Seduce Hair Care Brush is made in Japan and is great for massaging your scalp and gently detangling your hair. Like the S-Heart-S brush, its bristles also have tiny beads at the end. Though not metallic rose gold, the bright blue color is still super cute and hard to misplace.

Don’t believe the two brushes are that similar? The Ikemoto one flaunts a 4.6-star overall rating on Amazon, with some shoppers directly comparing the two.

“This Ikemoto brush is just as good, or as ‘normal’, as the S-Heart Scalp Brush,” wrote one reviewer. “Aside from the pretty and shiny rose-gold finish of the S-Heart Scalp Brush, I don’t feel or notice any other measurable difference. In other words, I can’t justify the cost of the very expensive S-Heart Scalp Brush when this IKEMOTO brush is so incredibly similar and works just as well on long, straight hair.”

Another shopper speaks more to the brush’s durability and how it feels on your scalp.

“This is hands down the best hair brush. It sounds dramatic but it is a fact. I got my first one in Japan. I’ve been using these brushes for literally 28 years,” wrote another reviewer. “It will last you a lifetime. It gets rid of any tangles you have with ease and without any pain. The bristles are firm but also soft and feel like a scalp massage when you run it through your hair. I’ve never had a single bristle fall out of my brushes and I use them twice daily.”

In other words, Ikemoto’s Seduce Hair Care Brush does an A+ job at massaging your scalp and detangling your hair, but it’ll also last you for ages—maybe even 28 years!

Whether you splurge on the Jennifer Aniston-loved S-Heart-S Scalp Brush or go for the more budget-friendly option from Ikemoto, your hair is about to look so gorgeous. Shop Ikemoto’s Seduce Hair Care Brush for just $9 on Amazon and you’ll soon have hair just like Rachel’s.

Bethenny Frankel’s Crochet Crop Top and Shorts on Instagram

Bethenny Frankel 2022 Instagram Fashion

Bethenny Frankel posted a photo dump of all her St. Tropez outfits asking us which one “rubs us the right way”. Our answer is all of them (duh, B)! But if we had to answer it’d be her crochet crop top and shorts. Mainly because that’s all we could find that was currently in stock. Meaning we can’t wait to get our hands on this set and rub it in everyone’s face how cute it is.

Sincerely Stylish,

Jess

Click Here to Shop Her Sandro Top

Click Here to Shop Her Sandro Shorts

Photo Credit: @bethennyfrankel

Originally posted at: Bethenny Frankel’s Crochet Crop Top and Shorts