I don’t like the notion that the “new elite body”, as More magazine calls it, for over-40 women is more gristle than glamour.

The real work is happening in the middle of the physical challenge, not with women who have 6 to 10 percent body fat, but women like Michelle Obama, who work out hard with weights, giving her genuine muscles and physical stature.

Owning sensual “muscle lust” is different than owning “gristle”. I’m not attacking “gristle”, just pointing out that most women over 40 don’t have a BMI of 18-25, and if they do, life can change in many ways. This is where the future lies, the real definition of an “almost elite” body.

The majority of women seeking the new elite body are very easy on the eyes, according to my research. I chuckle with the idea that we over 40 women just can’t get it right, even in our own magazines.

Elements of the article ARE true.

It is amazing, being a woman voer 40, committed to dedicated, demanding workouts that transform one’s body. Sports psychologist Marc Sagal, founder of Winning Mind, a consulting firm, thinks that there’s a new paradigm in town: “To look like that? And be over 40? It’s like, holy cow…this is possible.”

I agree that the experience is a head trip. Society and pop culture told me that I would be all washed up by now, physically undesirable, in fact.

That’s not my reality, and it doesn’t belong to any woman who gets serious in the gym.