How to Stay Strong, Healthy & Energised After 50

What Did You Want To Be Before You Grew Up?

I’m poorly. 🤒 Seriously you couldn’t make this stuff up. Almost 6 weeks ago now, I found myself at 2am in a dodgy back street hospital in Cartagena with severe stomach pain, that a week later turned out to be a blocked gallstone and swift gallbladder removal in a hospital in Costa Rica. And here I am now, in a lovely city just north of San Diego having picked up a chest infection of sorts and feeling very sorry for myself. (Clearly my body is at a bit of a low ebb). So today I’m doing the thing I almost never do in the daytime. Lying on the sofa with my laptop, blanket on, intravenous drip of tea, Teddy snuggled up on my lap, and Disney movies playing in the background. (They cheer me up!) Which is how I found myself watching “Hook” this morning. For anyone who hasn’t seen it, (I highly recommend you do), Hook is the 1991 Steven Spielberg film where a grown-up Peter Pan, played by the brilliant Robin Williams, has forgotten he was ever Peter Pan. He’s a corporate lawyer now, stressed and distant, too busy for his kids, and deep in the whole sad modern catalogue of being a responsible grown-up. Then Captain Hook (Dustin Hoffman, in possibly the most enjoyable wig & fake eyebrows in cinema history) kidnaps his children, and Peter is dragged back to Neverland to remember who he actually is. The cast is extraordinary. Robin Williams, Maggie Smith, Dustin Hoffman, Julia Roberts, Bob Hoskins (even Phil Collins makes an appearance!). Made even more poignant as three of them are no longer with us. 😢 But watching it this morning in my slightly sensitive state, I found myself thinking about the meaning behind this particular adaptation and wondering: “What did we dream about as children, before our imaginations got quashed by real life?” Stop Day Dreaming! I still remember to this day my teacher’s snapping me back to reality in the classroom with the words ‘Joanne! Stop daydreaming!’ My grandmother used to tell me to stop being such a dreamer. Even my Mum told me I walked about life with my ‘head in the clouds.’ I once told an old boyfriend that if I ever had children I’d raise them in a hot country, near the beach, travelling the world, and his reaction was to laugh and tell me to come back to reality. (We all know how that dream turned out! 😉) * “Stop dreaming.” * “Get your head out of the clouds.” * “Get back to reality.” * “You’ve got responsibilities.” * “There’s life, there’s work, there’s the gas bill, there’s the boss, there’s the mortgage.” The endless sensible chorus. You hear it enough times and eventually you realise you’re listening to your own voice . Using Your Imagination I’m an emotional soul at the best of times so it was no surprise to find myself shedding tears this morning to two very poignant scenes in the movie. The first is when the Lost Boys are trying to work out whether this exhausted middle-aged man could really be their Peter. They’re sceptical. They’ve got a new leader, a young upstart, and he doesn’t believe Peter is Peter at all. The other Lost Boys aren’t sure either. Then the smallest, cutest one gets Peter to kneel & takes Peter’s face in his hands. He pushes the lines around on his face. The frown, the tiredness, the years of forgetting. He keeps pushing until he reveals Peter’s smile. And he says, very softly with a huge smile: “Oh, there you are, Peter.” (Seriously, tear ducts in full motion 😢) The second is when the Lost Boys sit down to a banquet of imaginary food, miming great forkfuls of nothing into their mouths, while Peter sits there completely confused. An argument starts & escalates between him & the upstart leader. Peter, mid-rant, picks up a spoonful of nothing and flicks it across the table. Except it isn’t nothing anymore. It’s brightly coloured pretend-food, a great splat of the stuff, and the Lost Boys stop and stare. “Peter, you’re doing it,” one of them whispers. “Doing what?” he snaps. “Using your imagination.” And the table fills, course after course, every dish the Lost Boys could possibly want, all conjured by a man who’d forgotten he could. A Writer, An Accountant or a Redcoat! When I was a child, my mum was convinced I was going to be a writer. And not without reason. I was always writing! I wrote diaries, journals, stories, plays. I roped my friends into performing the plays in the back garden, fully cast and choreographed, with an audience of bemused parents on plastic chairs. Every family holiday, I kept daily logs of where we went and what we did. Some of the journals are still in a box in my sisters loft in the UK. I had a dream of becoming a film director. I specifically revered Steven Spielberg, which is ironic given the film I’m currently watching. I wanted to make people lose themselves utterly in a story the way he could. My dad was an entrepreneur, and the one who lit the entrepreneurial fire in me. But by the time I’d sputtered (barely) through my ‘A’ Levels, he wanted me to get a real job. In an ideal life he wanted me to be an accountant. The fact I was crap at maths had no bearing on his desires. So I did what any sane daughter would and went off to work as a singer in a caravan park, followed by becoming a redcoat at Bognor Butlins. (If you’re not from the UK just watch an old episode of ‘Hi De Hi’ on YT & you’ll get the general idea 😂 ) Finally when I was about 21, I started my management career at a company that ran concert venues and theatres throughout the UK. I worked hard, and moved up the ladder quickly, ironically spending most of my days buried under a set of management accounts. Life filled up with responsibility, profit margins, employees, payroll, accounts. The writing was long gone. For years, I didn’t write a thing. I might have written advertising copy and the occasional internal memo. But the journals, the stories, the plays, the film-director ambition, all of it went into a drawer somewhere and I forgot the drawer existed. Until I didn’t. Until I started travelling & creating content & chasing my dreams and goals. The writing has taken a while to catch up as somewhere along the way I lost my voice, but it’s back now and my dreams are still very much alive. Maybe in a different form but they’re most definitely there. How About You? * Who or what did you want to be when you were a kid? * What did you dream about? * Where did your imagination go when no one was watching? Do you ever tap into it now, or did you put it in a drawer somewhere too? The good news is, we no longer need anyone else’s permission to pull the dream back out. The teacher who told us to stop daydreaming retired thirty years ago. The grandmother who called us a dreamer was just reflecting her own disappointments. The boyfriend who told us to be sensible isn’t in our life anymore for a reason. We’re in charge of our life now (even if sometimes we forget that!). If there’s a goal, a dream, an ambition still rattling around in there, (even quietly, half-forgotten, slightly embarrassed at being noticed) it’s ours to take seriously. Time Won’t Wait In the movie, as Peter remembers himself as Pan, he remembers visiting Wendy, (played by the wonderful Maggie Smith), who gets older and older every time Peter comes back to see her, until she’s small and silver-haired and almost done. That’s not a metaphor. That’s life. Time won’t wait for any of us. The life we’re living now is literally the only one we get. If we’re not truly living now, then when? What would it take? What needs to happen? As the story ends, Peter has to go home. The children are waiting. The corporate life is still there. He doesn’t get to stay in Neverland and never grow up, that isn’t the deal. But he goes home changed. He remembers what he was before life filled up with responsibility, and he carries that knowledge back into his current reality. And through my tears as the film finished, the late Robin Williams, as grown up Peter, stands looking out to the sky with his family, snow falling & the windows wide open and says: “To live would be an awfully big adventure.” Get full access to The 50+ Nomad at club.the50plusnomad.com/subscribe [https://club.the50plusnomad.com/subscribe?utm_medium=podcast&utm_campaign=CTA_4]

Travel Smart: Staying Safe on the Road with Erin from Nomad Life

Travel safety is one of those topics many of us don’t think deeply about until something happens, or until we start travelling more extensively and realise the world isn’t always as straightforward as our home environment. In this episode, I’m joined by Erin, Nomad Life [https://substack.com/profile/244850552-erin-nomad-life], a long-term nomad and newly certified Empowerment Self-Defence (ESD) coach, to talk about practical travel safety, situational awareness, intuition, confidence, and how to travel the world without living in fear. Erin has spent 15 years travelling through more than 60 countries, often solo and far off the beaten path, and shares the tools and mindset shifts that have helped her stay safe while continuing to explore the world boldly and confidently. We also dive into real-life travel experiences, from attempted thefts in Costa Rica to uncomfortable situations on public transport, and discuss simple habits that can make a huge difference when travelling internationally. Most interestingly from this discussion you’ll hear how being prepared and aware, rather than make you more paranoid, actually makes you more confident and able to explore the world with freedom and peace of mind. What You’ll Learn in This Episode * What Empowerment Self-Defence (ESD) actually is, and why it’s about far more than fighting. * Why situational awareness is one of the most powerful travel safety skills you can develop. * How intuition and body awareness can help you avoid dangerous situations before they escalate. * Practical techniques for using your voice, body language, and boundaries to de-escalate threats. * The importance of confidence and preparation when travelling solo or as a couple. * Simple travel safety tools Erin carries everywhere she goes. * Why freezing in dangerous situations happens, and how practice helps reduce it. * How to stay aware without becoming fearful or hypervigilant. * Real stories from years of global travel and the lessons learned from them. Key Takeaway One of the biggest takeaways for me from this conversation was just how many situations can potentially be avoided or de-escalated simply through better situational awareness. Paying attention to your surroundings, trusting your instincts, and reacting early can often stop incidents escalating long before they become dangerous. Time-stamped Guide * 00:00 Welcome + introducing Erin from Nomad Life * 01:30 What Empowerment Self-Defence (ESD) actually is * 03:00 Erin’s solo travels through 60+ countries and why she first trained in ESD * 06:00 Free travel safety resources, training, and Erin’s ESD app * 07:45 Why travellers can be more vulnerable abroad than they realise * 10:45 Jo’s Costa Rica theft experience + emergency response challenges overseas * 14:45 The core principles of ESD and why awareness matters * 17:30 Intuition, boundaries, body language, and learning to react instead of freeze * 22:30 Simple travel safety tools and habits Erin uses around the world * 26:00 Staying aware without slipping into fear or hypervigilance * 30:30 Real-world travel safety experiences and avoiding dangerous situations * 33:30 Are some countries actually more dangerous than others? * 36:00 Jo’s London dog theft incident + trusting your instincts * 39:00 Final thoughts on confidence, preparation, and travelling safely Resources Mentioned in This Episode * Erin’s Travel Safety Resources Page [https://www.yournomadlife.com/p/personal-safety-resources] * Erin’s Travel Safety Tips Page [https://www.yournomadlife.com/t/travel-safety] * Free ESD App (Apple & Android) - Apple Store [https://apps.apple.com/us/app/mypwr/id6443930484] | Google Play [https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.mypwr&pcampaignid=web_share&pli=1] * Nomad Life with Erin [https://www.yournomadlife.com/] Join the Conversation Have you ever had a travel experience that made you more aware of personal safety? Or do you have any travel safety habits or tools you swear by when exploring the world? Share your thoughts, experiences, or best tips in the comments, we’d love to hear them. Get full access to The 50+ Nomad at club.the50plusnomad.com/subscribe [https://club.the50plusnomad.com/subscribe?utm_medium=podcast&utm_campaign=CTA_4]

No More 25,000-Word Posts

Today’s post is about practising the thing that moves you closer to the result you want. For me, the result I want right now is more engagement on my daily posts. And the thing I need to practise to get there is brevity. Because even the most interesting content in the world gets skipped if it’s too unwieldy and we’ve got more important things to focus on. So this is a post about writing a post that’s 500 words or less. Brevity has never been my forte. I talk too much, write too much, waffle on too much (my husband calls it going on like a pork chop — not sure what pork chops have to do with it 🤷🏻‍♀️). My webinars or workshops always have 10 points instead of 1. And I usually end up overwhelming & confusing my audience instead of leaving them with a memorable takeaway. Here’s an example of a post I wrote about how we built our Amazon business [https://theworkingtraveller.com/amazon-fba-business/]. I don’t expect you to read it all, it’s 12,500 words long! That’s just one blog post. I wrote another one about starting a blog (no longer live - needs updating) which was 25,000 words long! That’s a book! (Note to self - turn the draft into a small book Jo! 💡) When my daughter told me she had a 4000 word essay she had to write for school my reaction was a smirk & ‘That’s just a pen stroke, before morning coffee’ (yeah that went down well 😉). But my goal with my daily posts here is to write short meaningful, entertaining, engaging, informative, sometimes educational posts that you enjoy reading each day. Not war and peace that you skip or shove in your ‘later’ file because you don’t have time to read. What’s the point in me writing if you don’t have the time to read! So. My goal is to shorten my general daily posts. Kill my darlings as the saying goes. Say only what needs saying. Keep my points short, make one observation per post and stay around 500 words or less. Which will take you approximately 3-4 mins to read. I want my daily posts to become a must read. A daily dose of Jo. Something fun, amusing, interesting, inspiring, insightful or encouraging. Something you read because you know it’s going to brighten your day, make you think about something differently, or give you the courage to take some action. So that’s what I’ll be practicing. Writing short, engaging posts that become ‘easy must reads’ every day. (I can’t guarantee I’ll always be successful, but I will be trying!) What result do you want? What/how are you practicing to make it happen? Let me know in the comments below & let’s cheer each other on! Ok how have I done? 469 words! Yipppee! I look forward to chatting in the comments. See you tomorrow (483 😉) Think you’re too old to start again? Says who? Paid members get the full Backpack toolkit [https://club.the50plusnomad.com/p/the-50-nomad-backpack-your-toolkit] ($500+ of templates, guides and frameworks), a members-only chat where nobody thinks you’re daft for starting now, and monthly live calls where you get your questions answered and yourself unstuck. It all costs less than a questionable airport sandwich, and it lasts a good deal longer. Get full access to The 50+ Nomad at club.the50plusnomad.com/subscribe [https://club.the50plusnomad.com/subscribe?utm_medium=podcast&utm_campaign=CTA_4]

How to Stay Strong, Healthy & Energised After 50

What does healthy aging actually look like when you’re over 50 and still travelling, building things, and living life fully? In this episode, I’m joined by naturopath, long-time nomad, and founder of Power Aging Women, Judy Seeger, who at 68 is living proof that strength, mobility, and energy don’t have to fade with age. We talk honestly about the stuff many of us are quietly worried about — metabolic health, weight gain, hormones, sleep, brain health, fatigue, supplements, and how to stay well when you’re constantly on the move. It’s a grounded conversation about the small habits that help you stay strong, energised, and able to keep exploring the world. If you want your next 10–20 years to feel strong, mobile, and free, this conversation will give you a lot to think about, and even more to do. What You’ll Learn in This Episode * Why movement and strength matter more than diet alone after 50, and why walking isn’t enough * The link between muscle, oxygen, brain health, and mobility as we age * Practical ways to stay strong, mobile, and energised while travelling * How hormones, liver health, alcohol, and detoxing affect energy, weight, and migraines * Simple, realistic strategies for sleep, jet lag, and recovery on the road * Judy’s no-nonsense essentials for healthy aging: supplements, routines, and mindset Key Takeaway Healthy aging after 50 doesn’t require complicated routines or endless health rules. A few consistent habits make the biggest difference. Move daily. Build strength. Eat simply and earlier. Sleep with intention. Support your body instead of fighting it. And most importantly, decide that you are worth prioritising in this season of life. Time-Stamped Guide * 00:00 Welcome + why this conversation matters for 50+ nomads * 02:30 What “power aging” really means (and why Judy shifted from longevity) * 04:30 Why fear of pain and discomfort holds women back from movement * 06:10 Strength training on the road: resistance bands, routines, and mindset * 08:30 The link between quad strength, oxygen, and brain health * 10:30 What a naturopath actually does (and why lifestyle matters most) * 13:00 Why inactivity is as damaging as smoking — and what to do instead * 16:00 Food timing, metabolism, and eating for energy after 50 * 20:20 Hormones, alcohol, detoxing, and why the liver matters * 23:30 Saunas, sweating, dry brushing, and toxin release * 27:30 Migraines, circulation, and simple hot/cold techniques * 31:00 Sleep routines, eye masks, light exposure, and nomad realities * 35:40 Beating jet lag with food, sunlight, and timing * 40:30 Minimal supplements for travellers (what’s essential, what’s not) * 51:00 Mindset, community, and the promise women must make to themselves Resources & Links Mentioned * Power Aging Women [https://poweragingwomen.com] — Judy’s platform, podcast, and programs👉 * Your Brain After 50: The Signals & Changes Women Shouldn't Ignore [https://forms.gle/Cw3PzU2Sgo3LNvhw9] on Thursday,March 12th, 12pm EST (New York Time) * Free guide: 7 Must-Haves for Healthy Aging [https://poweragingwomen.com] Join the Conversation What’s one habit from this episode you’re willing to commit to this week — more movement, better sleep, eating earlier, or simply putting yourself first? Share your takeaway in the comments and let’s keep this conversation going. Important Health Disclaimer This podcast episode is for educational and informational purposes only and is not intended as medical advice. The views shared are based on personal experience and professional background but should not replace consultation with your GP, specialist, or qualified healthcare provider. Always seek professional advice before making changes to your diet, exercise routine, supplements, or medical treatment, especially if you have existing health conditions or are taking prescribed medication. Get full access to The 50+ Nomad at club.the50plusnomad.com/subscribe [https://club.the50plusnomad.com/subscribe?utm_medium=podcast&utm_campaign=CTA_4]

Sacred Business Stories w/ Jo Barnes

Get full access to The 50+ Nomad at club.the50plusnomad.com/subscribe [https://club.the50plusnomad.com/subscribe?utm_medium=podcast&utm_campaign=CTA_4]