Welcome to Simply Anti Aging!
I hope this will be the first of many visits to my site and look forward to welcoming you back over and over again. My name is Eileen Gravelle and I am the publisher of this website – the voice behind the words!
Simply Anti Aging arose out of my own responses to getting older.
With each year – from around 40 onwards – I noticed more and more of the changes that most of us become familiar with – laughter lines turning overnight into wrinkles, a light sprinkling of gray hair spreading into a solid patch, bathroom scales lying to me every morning about my real weight, stubborn flab around my middle that seemed to come from nowhere.
At the same time, I became aware of an avalanche of anti-aging products, articles, TV makeovers, documentaries and advertising campaigns. I realized that I was part of a huge demographic shift – population aging. We are all living longer than ever before and the 40+ group now makes up an increasingly large proportion of the total population in most western countries.
One result of this demographic shift has been a complete change in the way in which we view the whole process of aging. Forget the rocking chair on the front porch – throw out the carpet slippers – society wants to control aging, manage it, fight it – ultimately defeat it.
Aging starts from birth..
Like most people, I wasn’t wildly happy about the physical changes that happened to me as I got older. Part of me wanted my younger self back – at least the outer younger self.
On the other hand – deep down – I knew that I had been on this road for most of my life. We sometimes choose to forget that aging starts from the moment of birth – even before. Acceptance of the simple physical facts of life is important to aging well. Gradually a view emerged in my own mind about the way I wanted to grow older and how I wanted to look and feel.
Aging gracefully or disgracefully – it’s our choice..
Coming to a view about aging also meant – and continues to mean – making choices. How far do I go to look younger? Will I have surgery? How much money am I prepared to spend? How much discomfort or pain will I put up with? Making decisions of this sort – whatever the TV shows tell us – is a serious business for most women and what we need above all is information.
Easily accessible – enjoyable to read information IN ONE PLACE..
Of course, there is a lot of information about anti-aging out there – but in my experience it’s often not very well written, not interesting to read and definitely not all in one place.
If you think you may be interested in botox – for instance – how can you really make a choice unless you know all the other options available and how they compare. As scientists push the boundaries of what’s possible keeping up with your choices becomes more and more difficult – impossible if you have to search all over the internet to find out about them.
This website attempts to address that problem. I’ve assumed that if you are interested in skin care to deal with your wrinkles then you may also be interested in food that will make your skin look good and anti-aging supplements for optimum nutrition. That was the assumption I made – because that’s what my own experience told me and what I found lacking out there when I started looking.
A simple philosophy – looking good for your age..
My view now is that while I accept the process of aging, I want to age as well as I can and to keep looking as young as possible without resorting to drastic interventions like surgery. I believe that there are many women out there who share that simple philosophy. A recent article in the ‘Sunday Times’ Style Supplement by Shane Watson talked about a new "aesthetic goal" and she went on to define this goal as:
".. to be admired for looking in terrific shape….. It’s about looking good for your age, great for your age if possible, but not spectacularly, implausibly preserved."
If you share that goal – then this site is for you.
Some words about the content of the site..
Most of the main pages on this site have been written by me and express my own perspective about the subject matter. I have tried to make that perspective as broad as possible in the interests of maximum choice.
For instance – I have covered radical procedures in some detail – although most of these are things that I probably would not choose to do myself. I have tried in these cases – to present the information in a neutral fashion and with sufficient detail for you to make your own mind up.
Content sources..
As you will see from my brief personal profile – I am not a technically qualified expert in any of the main topics covered on this site. I have, however, read a lot about the subjects and researched thoroughly from web articles, libraries, specialist and general interest magazines and my own personal book shelves. I have been interested in this stuff long before I started the site and I have built up a large amount of information and knowledge about it over the years.
A word about style..
I have tried to balance accuracy and technical detail with an easy to read and enjoyable writing style. Writing is something I have done a lot of over the years so I hope I succeed in holding your attention and giving you the information you need.
I am English myself and live in the UK but I wanted the reach of this site to be far beyond the boundaries of my own country. For this reason I have chosen to write in American rather than British English wherever a choice had to be made. My aim was to write in a manner that would connect with anyone speaking English who landed on the site – wherever they came from!
I have also included a translation option so that the site content should be accessible to you if English isn’t your first language. Unfortunately, I don’t have any control over the way the content is translated so please forgive any strange results.
Personal profile..
Lastly, a few words about me – just who is this unknown person behind the web page?
As I said at the start – my name is Eileen Gravelle and at the time of writing I’m 57 years old and living in the countryside in a beautiful part of the UK – West Sussex. I am married and have two teenage daughters – one of whom is at University in Sydney Australia. The other is in the middle of training to be a Beauty Therapist (Esthetician) at a local college.
I have worked most of my life in Human Resources. In the early 1990′s I set up my own in Human Resources Consultancy and ran that for fifteen years working for many major corporations and businesses in the UK, Europe and occasionally in the Middle East. Recently I felt in need of a new challenge in my life and it was this feeling that ultimately led to the creation of Simply Anti Aging.