Getting old is for the birds, but then again, as my mother always says, it sure beats the alternative.

You always hear about how your body falls apart after 40, but when I was younger, I felt a certain amount of invincibility when I heard those remarks. Surely that won’t happen to ME.

Ahhh, youth! How deceptive are your charms.

This is the “before 40” me. Back when everything worked properly and I thought I was invincible.

You know how it was, back when you could start a new exercise regimen without getting cleared by a doctor first. You’d step out the door, run three miles without stretching, and then go on about your day without thinking twice about it.

I used to do that with no ill effects. Crazy.

My first wakeup call was when I started developing plantar fasciitis, the summer I turned 40. I didn’t know what it was at first. I just woke up one morning and stepped out of bed and felt this odd pain in my heel — almost as if I’d stepped on a stone and bruised it. I didn’t know any better so I kept running on it.

Big mistake. Big. HUGE. I’m channeling my Pretty Woman here.

It got worse over time, and it would always stiffen up over night. I started doing my research and realized what it was. I learned that I could no longer hop out of bed, run, and go on about my day. I had to incorporate stretching and strengthening exercises. Enter physical therapy and *shudder* cross training.

Even though I got through my half marathon relatively unscathed, I soon had to start scaling back my running. So I got a bike.

I’ve been strength training for several years now, in an attempt to keep my bone density strong and my metabolism working for me. I know it’s important for women to do weight bearing exercises. But wow, sometimes my body is in pain for DAYS after a rigorous workout. When I lifted weights in my younger years, the recovery was never quite this intense.

My attempt to live an active lifestyle continues to feel thwarted at every turn, never quite so blatantly as when I discovered I had a stress fracture a few weeks ago… yet another incidence of my body letting me down.

Recently the folks at SocialStars sent me a sample of the new Advil® Film-Coated to try out. I’ve relied on Advil for years for those times when life’s aches and pains get the better of me.

You know how it is when you’re in pain. No one wants to wait for their pain reliever to take affect, and this new innovation from Advil is fast acting and fast absorbing. In fact, no other pain reliever has been proven to work faster or stronger. That’s because fast acting Advil® Film-Coated contains an ion core of ibuprofen sodium, a salt form of ibuprofen that is much more soluble in water than standard ibuprofen. Because they are more soluble, they dissolve fast, and can be absorbed into the body fast.

My husband suffers from headaches and sinus pressure from a deviated septum, and he keeps bottles of Advil stashed all over the house, in his car and at work so he was thrilled to restock our medicine cabinet with this new fast-acting Advil.

Getting older definitely has it’s challenges, but I’m determined to stay active for as long as I can. Here’s to living a long, strong and active life!

You can buy the new Advil® Film-Coated at your favorite grocery store or pharmacy or where ever Advil products are sold.

I am participating in a sponsored campaign hosted by fast acting Advil® Film-Coated and I received a free sample of Advil® Film-Coated. This is a sponsored post for SocialStars by Crowdtap. All opinions expressed are my own.