My mom has been mentioning the wrinkles and loose skin on her chest, arms, and stomach a lot lately, and it’s made me realize that I don’t actually understand what she’s feeling.
At first I thought it was just about wanting to look younger, but the more I think about it, the more I feel like there’s probably something deeper going on.
Is it because it makes you feel older than you are?
Is it about feeling attractive to your husband or partner?
Is it about feeling confident wearing certain clothes or being intimate?
Does it feel like you’re losing control over your body as you age?
Or is it something completely different that most men don’t really understand?
I’d genuinely love to hear your perspective.
When did you first start noticing it?
What emotions came with it?
How has it affected your confidence or daily life?
What have you tried to improve it, and what actually helped? What ended up being a waste of time or money?
I’m not asking because I’m looking for a quick fix. I honestly just want to understand why this seems to affect so many women emotionally. I feel like there’s a side of this that men don’t really see, and I’d love to learn from your experiences.

33M, around 20% body fat.

For most of my adult life I've honestly treated my body pretty badly.

Smoked cigarettes since 2010 (usually around 8-10/day)
Heavy beer drinker for the last 4 years (2-3L beer, 4-5 days/week)
Smoked weed pretty heavily from around COVID until last year
Weed-free for 1+ year now
Currently off alcohol
Currently off nicotine

Over the last couple of months I've been trying to get back on track, become more productive, improve focus, get healthier, and generally undo some of the damage from the last decade.

I've also recently started lifting seriously and doing strength training 4-5x/week.

My bloodwork is currently pretty good (CBC, lipids, liver enzymes, glucose, etc.) but I'm planning to do a much more extensive workup in September after I've been running this protocol for ~8 weeks. Thinking hormone panel, ApoB, fasting insulin, MRI, body composition, etc.

Curious what people here think.

Goals

Better focus and productivity
More energy during the day
Recover from years of smoking/drinking
Gain muscle and strength
Improve long-term health
Reduce brain fog and improve motivation

Diet

Typical day looks something like:

Pre-workout

Oats
Pea protein
Peanut butter
Ground flax
Coffee

Post-workout

Protein shake
Roasted chickpea/barley-based carb meal

Lunch

Lentils
Quinoa
6 eggs
Olive oil
Mustard oil

Dinner

Avocado
Eggs
Additional protein if needed

Rough macros:

Protein: ~170-190g
Carbs: ~140-180g
Fat: ~80-100g
Fibre: ~35-50g

Fat profile is roughly:

MUFA: high (olive oil, avocado, eggs)
PUFA: moderate (flax, fish oil, mustard oil)
Saturated fat: moderate
Omega 3 supplementation daily

Mostly whole foods. Almost no processed junk. No alcohol.

Training

Strength training 4-5x/week
Progressive overload
Creatine daily
Walking whenever I can
Trying to improve recovery and sleep

Current Stack

Cognitive / Focus

Piracetam

Mainly for focus and mental clarity

Alpha-GPC

Choline source to pair with Piracetam

Uridine

Added for membrane synthesis and cognition

Bacopa

Memory and learning

Lion's Mane

Mostly for potential neuroplasticity benefits

L-Tyrosine

Dopamine support, especially during mentally demanding work

Rhodiola

Stress resilience and fatigue reduction

L-Theanine

Smooths out caffeine and improves focus

Recovery / General Health

Creatine

Strength, muscle and cognitive benefits

Taurine

General health, recovery and cardiovascular support

Vitamin D3 + K2

Basic health insurance

Omega-3

Inflammation, cardiovascular and brain health

Magnesium L-Threonate

Sleep and cognition

Magnesium Complex

Filling any magnesium gaps

Collagen

Joint/tendon support

Longevity / Mitochondria Stuff

NMN

NAD+ support

CoQ10 (Ubiquinol)

Mitochondrial function

PQQ

Mitochondrial support

Ca-AKG

Healthy aging/longevity experiment

Shilajit

Mostly for energy and possible testosterone support

Other

ALCAR

Energy and cognition

Astaxanthin

Antioxidant

Lutein/Zeaxanthin

Eye health

Black Seed Oil

General health

Inulin

Gut health and fibre

Hair Loss

Dutasteride

Hair preservation

Oral Minoxidil

Hair preservation

Questions

What would you drop first if this was your stack?
Anything obvious I'm missing considering:
- 15 years of smoking
- years of heavy drinking
- long-term weed use
- trying to rebuild health and productivity
Any supplements that actually moved the needle for focus/motivation rather than just sounding good on paper?
Anything in this stack that could be hurting gym progress or muscle gain?
What tests would you add to my September check-up?
Anyone here quit alcohol + nicotine after a decade or more? What gave you the biggest improvement in cognition, motivation and energy once you got a few months clean?

Appreciate any feedback. Sometimes I wonder if I'm actually optimizing anything or just creating expensive urine 😅

r/LongevityInvesting

The Vascular Longevity Project

Watching my mom become self conscious about loose skin made me realize I don’t understand why it affects so many women. Can someone explain it to me?

33M trying to get my shit together after years of smoking/drinking. Looking for feedback on my stack, diet and anything I'm missing.