The Midlife Edit
A Transformative Self-Help Journey for Women
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- $19.99
Publisher Description
The major new book from social media sensation and midlife influencer Gail McNeil, @fiftysister: A transformational edit for your very best life
'If this is midlife, bring it on!' Emma Howarth
'This book opens a door for women in midlife! Mimi Kirk
⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ 'An inspiring message... Full of helpful self-care and practices to help both the body and mind' 5-star Netgalley Review
In 2019, Gail McNeill sold her cherished family home and moved to Portugal with just a few boxes of possessions. Soon after, the Covid pandemic enforced her isolation in a remote part of the world and sparked a cascade of introspection that led her to question every facet of her life, struggling to reconcile past choices with present reality. She started a journey of complete reinvention, from which she emerged physically, emotionally and spiritually transformed.
Now better known to her hundreds of thousands of followers as @fiftysister, Gail shares her story of midlife metamorphosis to guide you step by step along your own path to reinvention. Showing that it's never too late to transform your life, The Midlife Edit will show you how to build a cocoon nourished by dietary, lifestyle and spiritual insights from which you can emerge transformed and re-energized, to make the absolute most of your middle years.
Gail shows you how, by prioritizing self-care for just one year, you can unlock the secrets of health span, building strength and confidence for life, nourishing your body and your mind, and allowing you to enter this unique new phase of your life not diminished, but empowered.
Let The Midlife Edit inspire you to invest in yourself, to imagine the life you truly desire - and to be seen, as you never have been before.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
McNeil, who posts about wellness under the Instagram handle @FiftySister, debuts with a run-of-the-mill guide on how middle-aged women can transform their mental, physical, and spiritual well-being. In 2019, when McNeil was in her early 50s, she felt "suffocated under the weight of possessions" and relocated from the English home where she and her husband had lived for 33 years to a "small rental property in Portugal," leaving behind everything except a few boxes of essentials. Her excitement was soon replaced by despair as the Covid pandemic left her feeling isolated in a new country, but she recounts finding her footing thanks to various self-care strategies and lifestyle changes. Unfortunately, these strategies are by turns vague and overly familiar. Self-help platitudes abound, as when McNeil encourages readers to "embrace your inner child" by staying open to new experiences and to practice self-acceptance through means she doesn't specify. Despite having no apparent qualifications to do so, McNeil provides dietary suggestions, and though most are fairly standard (avoid added sugars, eat more plant-based foods), they're often lacking in specifics. For instance, she encourages readers to "pay attention to key nutrients like vitamin B12... and consider supplements when necessary," but doesn't discuss how to track B12 levels or at what point supplements become needed. Readers would be better off with Sharon Malone's Grown Woman Talk.
