Weight

I've had a few discussions with friends lately about weight. I think it's a myth that you MUST gain weight as you age...yet I know some believe that..

Yes your body changes but the changes need not lead to increased weight. And don't forget that muscle weighs more than fat so if you work out - you will lose inches but not necessarily a lot of weight. Losing the weight may come at a slower pace than losing the inches. But being lean is good!

Our bodies all work differently - which is why there can never be a "for everyone" diet - yet I see eating recommendations that do not mention any metabolic differences....one size fits all can't work for human bodies and eating.

Take a look at the people around you - some are thin, some are more muscular, some are tall, some are short, some are men, some are women, etc. Should they all be eating the same foods in the same proportions? Nope!

I learned a while ago that I am a protein eater...my metabolism needs more protein per meal than my very active friend who needs more carbohydrates per meal. If I ate as much in carbohydrates as she does - I'd balloon and not only gain weight but get lethargic. If she ate as much protein as I do, she'd feel lethargic. Is something wrong with either of us? No- we have very different metabolisms.

There are some short paper/pencil tests that quickly assess your metabolic profile. No physical testing needed. If you would like more info about this - fill in the info box and I will email back asking you for a phone number as most of you are not near enough to come to my office...I will call you and in 10 - 15 minutes I can give you info - and it's free.

More about parabens

For those who have read this blog for a bit - you know I have posted info about "bad" stuff in cosmetics, your home, your food and your pet's food.

Here is another review of studies on parabens and their relation to cancer...

FYI paraben are in most skin care products....including shampoo, anti aging products and on and on..

In fact many cosmetics and skin care products do not list what is in them! and those that do use parabens defend the practice by saying they are needed to preserve the products and also that the FDA allows them to be used...

Sorry - but I for one do not trust the FDA !

To read the article....click here

One sentence is cited here:

But now the presence of intact parabens in tumor tissue shows that these chemicals can not only be absorbed through the skin but can also persist and accumulate in breast cancer tissue in their original form, without being degraded.

Scary - and this report is from 2004.....did you read about it in your daily papers? Even I, who try to stay up on good v. bad stuff for the body - especially as we age - was not aware of parabens...

Now that I am am - I have taken to very carefully reading the ingredients on all products I buy for moi...most usually shampoo and soaps....

It's why I am now using and marketing skin care products that are paraben free, preservative free and water based!

And - the company lists all the ingredients in these products...and not in microscopic sized print either !

8 weeks of skin care

Here are my eyes and mouth after 8 weeks .








April 23







June 23













April 23









June 23








The dark circles and lines under my eyes are nearly vanished...and the lines around my mouth are finally disappearing...but hey it took me years to develop those lines - so making them almost go away in 8 weeks is great!

Other differences I have noticed are that my hands are in better shape as they also get the product rubbed into them daily and my fingernails are stronger.

Scams

I've mentioned some scams by name - but I will not give those persons any more "ink" than they got...

Of late - I have noticed a new take on scams - or at lest they are hitting my junk mail/spam boxes....

These are the ones that tell you that you are a finalist or winner [or whatever] in a drawing by a Foundation...
I've checked and the Foundation names are legitimate....unfortunately the contests and drawings are not.

The usual clues are the many misspellings....especially as these spammers want you to think they are from legitimate sources. Legit mate sources would not spell so poorly or misstate the obvious names of USA or European agencies.

Please beware... I read that as more and more of the over 50 ish population gets more into being online - many of these are targeting us..

How do they get our info? That too unfortunately is very easy....One can buy email and postal addresses by age or other demographics! Or they buy millions of email addresses hoping to find the one who believes...

To stop spreading email addresses please do this...use the bcc: function in your mail program...it stands for blind carbon copy and it hides the addresses of all those you are sending to..

Also if someone sends you an email with many names and addresses showing - pass along the bcc info to them...

and when forwarding or replying - erase the RE: or change the subject heading....

There are programs that scour the Internet seeking those addresses that come in bunches and to often when one replies or forwards - all those names are again included...hence the RE: as a signal to the sapmmers...

Hmmm...why are the over 65 people seen as targets?

Here's another scam that does not surprise me. Anytime the bottom line is more important than people - you get abuses...be it people food, pet food, medications or health care and insurance...

And remember that United Health is the one that pays AARP to use the AARP endorsement.. I find that offensive! Yes it's called a contract between them but for me what is means is that United Health is given free access to the AARP data base. and they are not the least expensive at all - they just like you to think they are - and to make you think that if you are an AARP member you are getting a "deal." I at first signed on with them when I was 65 and my "guaranteed" rate for a year went up after 6 months - so I found other insurance.....and got a very rude call from UnitedHealth....

Humana, UnitedHealth Suspend Some Health Plans After Complaints

By Aliza Marcus

June 16 (Bloomberg) -- Humana Inc., UnitedHealth Group Inc. and five other U.S. health insurance companies agreed to stop selling a type of government-funded plan for the elderly in response to complaints that sales agents forged signatures and enrolled dead people.

The seven companies are working on new marketing guidelines with the U.S. Medicare health insurance program for the elderly and disabled. The voluntary sales suspension will end as each company adopts the guidelines, the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services said yesterday.

Full article HERE

"Our" babies - April and June

We watch the goslings as they grow each year - this is one of the 2007 groups....

April







June







AWWWWWWW - aren't they cute?

Never too old for yoga

Most everything I have been doing of late is working at tightening my muscles...cycling, walking, playing squash....

That's not bad as I am losing inches - but I was beginning to feel a bit crampy at times...and that's not good.

I do yoga at home with my videos - but like most - on my own it's a short session and not frequent : -) and so I am going twice a week to a low-key yoga class....and I feel the difference immediately...

We all need to keep ourselves flexible...and oddly enough, by adding yoga to my life - I have suddenly lost weight!

As we age, that flexibility is important - the stretching and working at staying more "moveable" is good for all bodies.

An old saying [I can't find the origin of] is: "whatever the question - the answer is more yoga."

Here we go round the recall idea [again, again]

From the recent news:

Meat supplier expands beef recall to 5.7 million pounds of beef

Tuesday, June 12, 2007

- Associated Press Staff Report LOS ANGELES (AP) - For the third time in a week, a meat supplier has expanded a ground beef recall to include about 5.7 million pounds of fresh and frozen meat because they may be contaminated with E.coli.

David Goldman, acting administrator of the USDA Food Safety and Inspection Service, announced on Saturday that the recall would be expanded to include products with sell-by dates from April 6-April 20. The beef was distributed by California-based United Food Group LLC.

Goldman said that none of the latest batch of suspect beef is in stores now because the product would be well past its expiration date, but consumers may still have some of the meat at home.

"It is important for consumers to look in their freezers," Goldman said.

For more info on the dates and stores involved as well as the phone number of the distributor - go HERE

I eat only Kosher meat - it really is safer - and tastier!

50 years ago

I was looking at the paper today - which had an entire section devoted to the local high schools and their graduates for the year 2007. I suddenly realized that is was 50 years ago [exact date no longer recalled] that my own high school graduation happened: the class of 1957 - Andrew Jackson High School, Queens, NYC.

Not sure if it's a NYC thing - or more widespread - but I don't recall having been back to my high school since graduation - nor have I ever attended a reunion. Nor am I sure if reunions even happened over these 50 years. But even if they had, I am not sure I would have gone as I've never gone to a school reunion of any kind...even when I lived closer to the schools I attended.

1953- 1957 at Jackson were seemingly typical times for New York City High Schools and only in retrospect has any of it seemed odd...Jackson had a mix of black and white students but we had what are now called race riots [of sorts] but I don't recall what they were labeled than. Most of the "issues" stemmed from basketball games and seemed more of a your high school v. our high school rather than black v. white.

We had stabbings in the staircases - [ah the up and down staircases] - where a student would be stabbed in the leg by someone on the "other" side of the glass that separated up and down and which always had broken panes....most of us dealt with these incidents by walking near the solid walls and not the side near the windows. There was a time when we had NYC's finest in our locker rooms although I can not recall the specifics of why - it seems there were always police around the school...

I think we had over 700 in the class of '57 and the classes behind us were even larger! That's over 3000 teens in a building built for far fewer...[In those days grades 9 thru 12 were in the same building.] I had some classes where two students shared the small seat and desk for some classes; the kind of desk/seat combos that were bolted to the floor ☺.

We had criminals in our classes – kids that wound up in Sing Sing before they graduated. We had academic stars and athletes. We had pregnant female classmates who “went away to live with a relative” for a while since pregnant “girls” were not allowed to stay in school.

We had friends get married as soon as they graduated and many who went off to work in Manhattan while some of us went off to Queens College, one of the NYS Teacher’s Colleges or more "grand" colleges and universities.

I am still in touch with a few from my NYC childhood and high school days. Like my family, they still live in or near NYC... while I became a wanderer.

Wow - 50 years since high school graduation.....it amazes me.... I'm sure at that time I thought that anyone over 25 was ancient and anyone in their 60's was a doddering old person...we all live and learn....

Will you ever retire?

From today's news...

After falling for more than 100 years, the retirement age chosen by working Americans is edging up again, and the trend could have broad consequences for households and the economy.

In the mid-1980s, just 18 percent of people in their late 60s still worked, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics. That figure is up to 29 percent, and experts believe that the number will rise as people confront the prospect of a lengthy and expensive old age with limited retirement benefits.

More than 1 in 4 baby boomers -- born from 1946 to 1964 -- plan to never retire, a recent survey by the National Association of Realtors shows.

Full article HERE

This statistic has popped up before - and the whys of it are mixed - some people keep working because they love what they are doing. Some "retire" from their "job" and start their own business doing something they have always loved.

But - and it's a big but - many keep on working because they need the money, the health insurance and because they fear what the financial future might bring in terms of the loss of retirenemt benefits, lack of retirenemt funds, and the general overall picture of our futre sfilled with taxes to pay the debt our governemt is running up with it's Iraq occupation...

So when you are approaching what used to be considere retiebnwe age - what will you do?

It's a good question to ponder whether you are still working or if you are already sort of retired...or fully retired..

I truly believe we can all have several careers in one lifetime....so why not one you love for now?
[you can always change what you do if you so wish : - )]