Nothing inspires me to take care of my health like watching my female relatives age. I have their genes, after all, so they're a pretty good indication of what's ahead for me. It's been a rough few years for my mother. She suffers from arthritis. Her knees ache so badly she's had to cut back on her great passion, gardening. Even standing in her front yard raking up the mimosa blossoms has become too much for her. She finally found a holistic practitioner who helped her cope with the pain, but it was just a band-aid. Just last week my mother finally faced the inevitable: She had the first of two knee replacement surgeries.

Those of you who have known knee surgery have seen that it doesn't magically transform your knees. There's months of physical therapy, a recovery that can take forever, and then you still have to do the other knee! My poor mom, I hate that she has to go through this! But -- I'd also hate to go through it myself. Can I prevent the same thing happening to my knees?

Aging is a fact of life; if you're not getting older, you know, you're dead. And that's not really that fun. So instead of worrying about our deepening wrinkles, our thinning hair, and that damn mole that keeps sprouting a tuft or two every few weeks, let's work with what we've got. No use in trying to turn back the clock, no can do there, but perhaps if we listen to beauty advice from some of the most beautiful women over 40 on how they keep their youthful glow, maybe, just maybe, we too can feel and/or look like we're 22 again. Or 32. Or just a few years younger than we are now. Whatever. We'll take what we can get.

Without further ado, here are 5 tips from stars like Cate Blanchett, Demi Moore, Julianne Moore, and ... more!

The other day at in the women's locker room of the gym, two likely young 20-somethings were having a dramatic conversation in front of my locker, so I really had no choice but to overhear everything they were saying. One of them -- who, I must note is tiny all over but blessed in the bust -- was freaking out that she gained two pounds. Her friend was consoling her that sometimes that just happens, and "like, the other day she totally only ate salad and still gained weight!" Upon hearing this, I wanted ... to ... cry.

Really, ladies? This is what we spend our time, money, and mental anguish on. Going crazy over two pounds here, one pound there. Our breasts, our noses, our hair, our eyelashes! We fail to truly see what we look like. We often exert so much energy hating how we look. It's no surprise a new poll of 3,000 adult women by myspecialk.co.uk found women don't really feel confident about their bodies, inside and out, until they're 52 YEARS OLD!

"All I want for Christmas is my ... face injected with Botulinum toxin!" Oh, it's not as much as a joke as it sounds. Plastic surgeons are reporting that they're increasingly busy this year as women ask for, and receive, plastic surgery as holiday gifts. Okay, yes, these are doctors operating in the vicinity of 90210 ... Orange County, to be precise.

But being that cosmetic procedures are up 81 percent from 10 years ago, it shouldn't come as much of a surprise that many women -- not just The Real Housewives of Orange County --  want nothing more for Christmas than a shot of Botox. And their loved ones are making their wishes come true, all over the country. The trend may make you cringe, but it really isn't as crazy as it sounds.

Has anyone else wondered what Jennifer Aniston will look like when she's 60? She just looks so amazing now in her forties that I'm beginning to wonder if she'll ever age. Turns out, the former Friends star has started taking precautions to ensure that she keeps looking young and fresh for decades to come. She sat down with InStyle and talked about her beauty routine, what she has and hasn't done with injectables, all while sounding like your best friend who always has some killer advice.

She basically says that she keeps herself looking so fly by using these 5 tricks:

Did you wake up feeling ancient and creaky this morning? Did you shuffle over to the sink to brush your teeth, glance in the mirror, and startle at the sight of those creepy signs of aging: the untamable gray hairs, the telltale lines and wrinkles?

Don't worry: It turns out you're probably way younger than you think you are! A new Census Bureau study has found that nearly three times as many Americans are living to the age of 90 and beyond as they did just three decades ago. And those numbers are expected to continue to rise dramatically: By the middle of this century, experts predict, the ranks of the oldest of the old will swell from 1.9 million to ... around 8.7 million. That's a lot of mega-oldsters!

Certain scenes from Disney flicks you see as a kid can end up haunting you forever. But as scared as I was by Ursula when I saw The Little Mermaid at 6 years old, I saw one of the most terrifying scenes only a couple of years ago, as an adult ... in WALL-E. Pixar's illustration of humanity's future -- basically, we become obese slobs who float around all day sipping Big Gulps and communicating via screens -- terrified me, because sometimes, I feel like there's lots o' proof that we're headed in that direction.

Researchers tend to be on the same page as Pixar. Just in time for World Diabetes Day, they're reporting that less than 20 years from now, 552 million people could have diabetes. Already, 366 million people suffer from either type 1 or type 2 diabetes, but because more people are aging and gorging themselves on high-cal foods and sitting around like couch potatoes, 10 percent of people worldwide could soon be diagnosed with the disease.

Scary?

How hot is Helen Mirren? She's still so hot at 66 that in last night's episode of The Office, Toby brought up Mirren as another great beauty when everyone noticed Pam was feeling insecure about her looks in late pregnancy. "Oh yeah, have you seen her in a bikini? Amazing!" Ryan yells, eyes glowing. "You know what would be even hotter than Helen Mirren? A pregnant Helen Mirren," Toby adds. 

Ahem, pregnant Mirren aside, you have to admit she is probably one of the first people we think of when we ponder how to age gracefully. 

Just this summer, an L.A. Fitness poll voted hers the "Best Body of the Year" -- not "Hot Older Dame of the Year," Best Body of the Year, period. So how does she do it? What are Helen Mirren's aging-gorgeously secrets?