When the f**k did I become old?

This week we talk body confidence and ageless style, from older models leading the autumn/winter 2026 catwalks to a Sunday Times piece asking whether you can still fit into the clothes of your youth. We look at why your waistline matters more than your BMI, how two sixty-somethings kept theirs and give an honest (and slightly sweary) update from week two of our own eight-week gym programme.
Key Takeaways
Older models are finally on the catwalk, with Chanel alone featuring 15 over-40s this season. That is real progress, and the silver pound is almost certainly part of the reason. But Kate Moss, Gillian Anderson and Mary Berry are all slim. Until catwalks show older bodies of different shapes and sizes, many of us will still struggle to see ourselves in them.
Wearing a bikini or PVC trousers later in life is not really about the clothes. It is about having enough confidence in your own body to make that choice and feel comfortable with it.
Your waist tells you more than your BMI. If your waist measures more than about 0.6 of your height, that is the danger zone. One study of 7,000 over-65s found a high waist circumference was linked to a 24% higher mortality risk, regardless of BMI.
Muscle is the key to keeping your metabolism going, because it burns calories even at rest and we naturally lose it from our 30s. Lifting weights matters far more than endless crunches, which build your core but do nothing for belly fat. And sadly, you cannot out-train a bad diet.
As for our own eight-week programme, having someone hold you accountable genuinely helps. But logging every blueberry is tedious, skipping meals to avoid the app only leads to bingeing at dinner, and one good day out can undo a week of effort. We are aiming for less heavy and a bit more toned, not a six-pack. Tune in to find out how we get on.
Timestamps
01:05 - Older models on the AW26 catwalks: Chanel, Tom Ford, Givenchy, Kate Moss for Gucci and Gillian Anderson for Miu Miu
02:34 - Burberry's campaign with Mary Berry, Olivia Colman and Lesley Manville, ageing designers and the silver pound
04:50 - Still a way to go on body size and relatability
05:40 - The Sunday Times article: bikinis, PVC trousers and the courage to wear them
06:30 - Digging out our 30-year-old leather trousers
07:13 - Clubbing in Soho, Destroy T-shirts and an accidental vibe
09:36 - Bikinis, cover-ups and body confidence
11:00 - How Alice Hart-Davis kept her waistline after three pregnancies and menopause
11:55 - Why waist measurement matters: cancer risk and the waist-to-height ratio
13:20 - Why metabolism slows as we age: it's all about muscle mass
14:23 - HRT and fat around the middle, plus Phil Hilton's approach
14:50 - The study of 7,000 over-65s linking waist size to mortality
16:50 - Why crunches won't shift belly fat
17:50 - Our eight-week gym programme and why we signed up
19:10 - Armoured motorcycle jeans for Morocco that don't quite fit
21:33 - Three apps, calorie targets, 10,000 steps and weigh-ins
23:52 - What we like and don't like so far
25:52 - Skipping meals to avoid logging food, and the pre-start Sunday binge
28:11 - 10,000 steps while moving the kids into uni, and "cheating steps"
30:37 - Why fun costs a pound and a Times reader's joyless toning diet
32:58 - Our goals and wrap-up

This week we are joined by George Goulburn, a straight male companion based in Sydney, who left a 25-year corporate career at 51 to work in what he calls the caring economy. We talk about what his clients actually want, why women over 50 are his core clientele, the loneliness epidemic and why making someone feel seen can change everything.
Key Takeaways
The thing women book George for most is not sex. It is companionship: someone who is completely present, puts their phone away, pays attention, and actually sees them. Many of his clients have been in relationships where there has been no intimacy or real connection for years, sometimes decades. They feel invisible. Two hours of genuine attention can be more transformative than years of waiting for something to change.
The work is nothing like how male escorting is typically imagined. George will not take a booking without a phone call first, asks for photographs because the women have already seen him, and turns down clients he does not feel a connection with. His minimum booking is two hours because women need time to feel safe and to arrive at whatever the session becomes. Sex, if it happens at all, is rarely the point.
The narrative that women become non-sexual after menopause is, as George puts it, a really messed up narrative. Most of his clients are 50 plus and at various points in their menopause journey. Many of them are financially independent, done being told what to do, and clear-eyed about what they want. The issue is not desire. The issue is that dating apps are soul-destroying and the options for meaningful connection are genuinely poor.
George also works with people society rarely acknowledges as having needs at all: people with disabilities, mature virgins, and couples who want help reigniting their connection. His eldest client was 82. He has seen a woman in her mid-50s who had never kissed anyone before. He discounts his rates for clients with disabilities because, as he says, everyone deserves touch and affection.
Timestamps
00:09 - Welcome and introducing George Goulburn, straight male companion
02:35 - How it started: a lover on Bumble who wanted to pay him
03:20 - How family and friends reacted, including his son and his mum
04:59 - Lovers versus clients, and why George lives ethically non-monogamous
06:30 - Pricing strategy: finding a mentor who had already done the work
08:20 - What he got wrong early on, and how it differs from dating
09:51 - Why his minimum booking is two hours, and what women actually want
12:14 - Who books him: divorced, widowed, in sexless marriages, and feeling invisible
14:35 - Online dating, the transactional culture, and why women go to a professional
16:30 - What he does to make women feel seen and beautiful
18:30 - The client who withdrew from her mortgage and went to work transformed
19:27 - Bette Midler, energy, and why confidence is not about looks
21:52 - The narrative that menopause means shutting up shop, and why that is wrong
24:18 - What he would say to a woman thinking about booking, and to men who want to do this work
26:44 - The loneliness epidemic beyond older women
27:10 - Mature virgins, disabilities, and people society does not see
31:34 - Seeing couples: helping reignite connection and showing partners what is possible
33:59 - How to find George, and wrap up
If you want to find George:
https://www.georgegoulburn.com/
https://www.instagram.com/georgegoulburnofficial/
He travels internationally (except the USA, for obvious reasons) and is happy to answer questions.

What if retirement wasn't a single event at the end of your working life, but something you did two or three times along the way? This week we dig into the HSBC Quality of Life Report 2025, which surveyed 11,000 affluent investors across 12 countries, and unpack the emerging trend of mini retirements: intentional career breaks of six to twelve months designed to recharge, redirect and realign, not just rest.

Key Takeaways
The traditional model of working solidly until you retire at 65 is quietly being replaced by something more fluid. Nearly half of the people surveyed aspire to take at least one intentional career break, and for many, that means two or three across their working life, roughly every six years, starting around 47 on average, with Gen Z aiming as early as 42.

The shift is not just logistical, it is philosophical. Younger generations in particular are redefining what wealth actually means, moving away from purely financial measures toward quality of life, personal development and the freedom to live differently before you are too old to enjoy it.

But the financial reality is significant. On average, people want half a million dollars of investable assets before they feel comfortable stepping away, and expect to spend anywhere from under 100,000 to over 300,000 on a single break. That requires dedicated planning, alternative income streams and a clear strategy well before the pause begins.

The people who make it work treat the break as a deliberate career redirection, not a holiday. They go in with a plan for what they will do, how they will re-skill and exactly how they intend to return to work afterwards. The ones who struggle are the ones who figure it out as they go.

Timestamps
00:09 - Welcome: introducing the mini retirement trend and why it matters now
02:32 - About the report: 11,000 affluent investors across 12 countries and how they broke down by generation
04:57 - What a mini retirement actually is: how it differs from a sabbatical or parental leave
07:21 - How many retirements are people planning and at what ages? Generational breakdown
09:44 - The new definition of wealth: why nearly half of Gen Z measure success by work-life balance
12:06 - Motivations by generation: family, travel, passion, entrepreneurship and personal reassessment
14:34 - 87% of people who tried a mini retirement said it had a positive impact on their quality of life
15:47 - How much does a mini retirement cost and what savings level do people feel they need first?
17:01 - How each generation plans to fund it: savings, property, pensions and part-time work
19:20 - Gen Z's fifth funding source: income from digital products and social media
21:43 - Confidence levels across generations and why Gen X feels the most squeezed
23:46 - The three biggest concerns: financial security, family obligations and re-entering the job market
26:09 - What successful mini retirees do differently: re-skilling with intent and planning the return before you leave
27:33 - Why building alternative income streams is the real foundation
28:33 - Three steps to start your own mini retirement blueprint
Full report: HSBC Quality of Life Report 2025

This week we explore why the transition into retirement is one of the most underestimated triggers for silver divorce, and what the research says you can actually do about it. Plus, seven tools from Bruce Feiler's Life is in the Transitions to help you navigate any major life change without losing yourself or each other.
Key Takeaways
The decisions we think we make freely throughout life, who to date, which jobs to take, where to live, are almost always made within a far smaller set of constraints than we realise. Work, children, parents, geography: these things quietly shape every choice. Retirement strips all of that away at once, and most of us are completely unprepared for what that freedom actually feels like.
That sudden freedom is not only liberating. It is destabilising. And when one partner is energised by it while the other feels adrift, or when one person starts making plans that do not naturally include the other, that is where relationships can quietly begin to fracture. The classic drivers of silver divorce, constant togetherness, mismatched retirement visions, loss of identity, financial anxiety, and issues buried under decades of busyness, are well documented. The freedom factor is the one people rarely see coming.
Bruce Feiler's seven tools offer a practical framework for any major life transition: name the emotion, mark the ending, put down the old story, try new things without pressure, talk it through with others, declare a direction, and eventually tell a new story about who you are becoming. You do not have to do all seven, and you certainly do not have to do them in order. But the ones you skip tend to find you anyway.
We are both at the beginning of a new chapter. It turns out that is harder, and more interesting, than either of us expected.
Timestamps
00:10 - Welcome: retirement as a trigger for silver divorce
02:32 - The illusion of free choice: how constrained our decisions really are
09:41 - When every constraint drops at once: retirement and the arrival of real freedom 12:06 - The freshers' crisis parallel: what sudden freedom actually feels like
14:29 - How new freedom can quietly threaten a relationship
16:50 - The documented drivers of later life divorce: togetherness, identity, finances and unmasked issues
21:28 - When one partner feels liberated and the other feels lost
23:55 - The books we read on holiday: Ikigai and Life is in the Transitions
25:58 - Tool 1: Accept it - name what you are actually feeling
27:45 - Tool 2: Mark it - ritualise the end of one chapter
28:22 - Tool 3: Shed it - let go of the story you have been telling about yourself
30:46 - Tool 4: Create it - try things without committing to anything
31:55 - Tool 5: Share it - say the messy bit out loud to someone else
33:08 - Tool 6: Launch it - declare a direction even when you are uncertain
35:17 - Tool 7: Tell it - compose a fresh story about who you are becoming
36:30 - Where does all of this leave us?

https://www.brucefeiler.com/books-articles/life-is-in-the-transitions/

We're recording this one from a wellness retreat in Kefalonia, Greece and it felt like the perfect place to dig into the 5 hottest wellness trends for 2026. From social fitness and luxury retreats to digital detoxes, biological age obsession and habit stacking gone too far, we share what the research says, what we've seen at home and what we've experienced first-hand this week.
Key Takeaways
The social fitness trend is backed by real data. Nuffield Health found that half of us are more likely to stick to exercise if we do it with other people, and Strava reports that UK run clubs on its platform tripled in the first half of this year compared to 2024.
On digital detox, 72 hours offline and in nature is scientifically proven to reduce stress and curb phone dependency. Unplugged, a UK company with 50 cabin locations all within two hours of a major city, has built an entire business on that insight. Over half their guests book specifically because of burnout and screen fatigue. You do not have to go that far.

Biological age is the new status symbol and the markers that matter are grip strength and bone density, not the number on the scales. The good news, according to longevity expert Dr Sophie Schotter, is that the best interventions cost nothing: strength training, a gut-friendly diet and decent sleep. You do not need a hyperbaric oxygen chamber.

Habit stacking is a useful concept that is being stretched well past its limits. Stacking 16 habits on top of each other will not make any of them stick. If your wellness routine is relatively simple and it is working, that is enough.

Timestamps
01:30 - What the resort offers: yoga, pilates, functional fitness, paddle boarding and spa
03:20 - Kev breaks his toe, Jo hurts her back: our first week in numbers
04:58 - Spa treatments: hammam, sea salt scrub, clay body wrap, collagen facial and red light therapy
07:22 - Trend 1: Social wellness fitness, the shift from solo to community-based exercise
09:00 - Nuffield Health research: 50% of us are more likely to stick to fitness if we do it socially
09:43 - Paddle tennis dating nights, park runs, Sweat Society run club and Strava data
11:00 - Sauna raves, group ice baths, Pilates parties and Hyrox
12:06 - Forbes: the move from self-optimisation to multi-generational community wellbeing spaces
13:30 - Our tip: keep it local if you want to actually make friends
14:18 - Trend 2: Luxury fitness retreats and the wellness travel boom
15:10 - Soho House, Daylesford, Lululemon, Sweaty Betty and Alo's St Tropez yacht
17:30 - Globetrender CEO on vacations as skills development and sporting exploration 18:52 - Noah's Surf House in Portugal, and what else is on offer in Kefalonia this week 19:50 - Trend 3: Digital detox and the return of the analogue
20:30 - Dumb phones, physical journaling and forest bathing on the rise
21:15 - Unplugged: 50 UK cabin locations, phone lockbox, 72 hours offline proven to reduce stress
24:30 - The Brick: the device that selectively locks your smartphone apps
25:46 - The Dose Effect by TJ Power and taking phones off the dinner table
26:50 - Trend 4: Biological age as a status symbol
27:00 - Longevity expert Dr Sophie Schotter: grip strength and bone density are the new bragging rights
27:53 - Why strength over skinniness matters, and the osteoporosis risk in ultra-thin celebrities
28:40 - The best biohackers are free: strength training, gut-friendly diet and sleep hygiene
29:30 - Trend 5: Habit stacking getting out of hand
30:00 - James Clear's Atomic Habits and the original stacking concept
31:00 - Yoga with live music, heated studios, red light therapy, Ministry of Sound sweat classes
32:35 - Why simple beats gimmicky, and doing wellness your own way