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Don't say I've quit. I'm on a ‘power pause'

Don't say I've quit. I'm on a ‘power pause'

Times6 days ago
It's been a while since we've heard from the #girlboss of the mid-2010s, who hijacked millennial Instagrams with career-centric motivational speeches and lofty work ambitions. We didn't really question where she went — perhaps she joined a cult or married her MacBook — but fear not, she's now been found alive and well. She was just tending to her children at home.
Coined by the American author Neha Ruch, who spent years working in advertising and start-ups, the 'power pause' is a new concept that aims to rebrand the modern spectrum of stay-at-home-motherhood for women choosing to 'downshift' their careers and make more space for family life.
I am apparently in the throes of a power pause, having left a stressful career in fashion. Instead of working nine to nine, I'm now at home every day alternating between parenting, freelance deadlines and the Sisyphean task of tidying the kitchen. I left my previous career for a host of reasons, one being that I was on the precipice of insanity and another being that it didn't allow much time for children. I could have them, of course, I just wouldn't be able to see them during the week.
I probably would have left eventually anyway. It's not very #girlboss to admit that aggressive emails leave me emotionally withered, like a bedridden Victorian, but that's the kind of person I am. And now, post-Covid and pre-AI takeover, freelancing and working from home has never been so easy or socially acceptable.
Some days one child is at nursery, some days they are both with me and some days I have a full ten-hour stretch to focus on projects. I'm able to find fulfilment beyond my family while also being around to make misshapen cupcakes with my daughter, three, on Mondays or take my son, nearly two, to a farm on a Thursday. As far as I can tell, I haven't 'paused' anything, I've just chosen to change my life and work in a way that makes more sense in this life stage.
• Read more parenting advice, interviews, real-life stories and opinions
Perhaps when they're older I'll crave a high-stress job and crying in an office loo but, as of now, I haven't felt the draw of that siren's call. Maybe I wasn't ever powerful enough for what I'm now doing to be considered a pause, or maybe my pause just lacks power, but regardless, I don't really feel the need to repackage it with a sassy label. I'm just a mother, working from home, praying that no one sends me a rude email.
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‘Old people are capable of more': meet the female weightlifters in their 70s and 80s
‘Old people are capable of more': meet the female weightlifters in their 70s and 80s

The Guardian

time15 hours ago

  • The Guardian

‘Old people are capable of more': meet the female weightlifters in their 70s and 80s

Joan MacDonald is an influencer. There's no other word for it, though she winces a little when she says it. But she is an influencer, and an extremely successful one. The fitness maven has been on the covers of magazines such as Women's Health, modeled as part of lucrative brand deals and launched her own fitness app, Train With Joan. On Instagram, where she has more than 2 million followers, she shares pictures of herself posing in bikinis in picturesque locales and training at the gym in color-coordinated workout sets. But there's one small difference between MacDonald and many other social media starlets. She is 79. 'I was 70 when I started [working out],' MacDonald says on a video call from her home in Ontario, white hair elegantly coiffed. 'I keep thinking I'm in my 30s.' MacDonald's workouts are intense, whether you're 30 or 70. She does deadlifts, weighted planks and kettlebell swings, and casually lifts dumbbells the size of fire extinguishers over her head. Her arm muscles could put professional rugby players to shame. She is arguably the most famous older woman lifting heavy, but she's far from the only one. There's Ernestine Shepherd, 89, who has more than 101,000 Instagram followers and calls herself 'the world's oldest living female competitive bodybuilder'. Nora Langdon, in her 80s, recently shared a video of herself deadlifting 225 pounds. And earlier this year, the New Yorker published a documentary about Catherine Kuehn, who broke multiple world records for deadlifting in her 90s. This article includes content provided by Instagram. We ask for your permission before anything is loaded, as they may be using cookies and other technologies. To view this content, click 'Allow and continue'. Many of these lifters seem to delight in bucking the stereotype of the frail old woman who needs help carrying her groceries. 'Once you reach a certain age, it's like you can't do anything any more,' MacDonald says. 'Trainers and coaches dumb down everything for older people, but old people are capable of more than they think.' As they age, women's physical abilities are often underestimated by others as well as themselves, says Elaina Manolis, a physical therapist and assistant clinical professor at Northeastern University. Manolis says the menopausal and post-menopausal women she works with often need help unlearning the negative messages about exercise they absorbed growing up. 'This is a generation that has been wired to think women should never be in the gym,' she says. MacDonald and Shepherd remember worrying they would 'look manly' when they started lifting. 'At the beginning, I thought, 'I don't want to be lifting weights, I'll look like a guy,'' recalls MacDonald. 'But that's just brainwashing. [Women] are told that so much that we believe it.' Women who avoid strength training are robbed of its benefits, many of which are especially helpful for ageing bodies. 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Rob Kardashian's ex Blac Chyna showcases dramatic weight loss amid Hollywood's Ozempic craze
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Rob Kardashian's ex Blac Chyna showcases dramatic weight loss amid Hollywood's Ozempic craze

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Woman who lives on cruise ship reveals top ‘gross' habit she sees from guests
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The Independent

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Woman who lives on cruise ship reveals top ‘gross' habit she sees from guests

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