Oh, no…what is this Nana to do? I’ll be 60 in 18 months, and 18 days…but who’s counting…my husband, of course. He wants me to catch up to him. Luckily, that won’t happen. He’ll be 61 in two weeks. He looks good for his age, really. He doesn’t smoke, eats right because I make him, and he exercises, often. I, on the other hand, don’t smoke, try to eat right (lately – thanks to my son), and am trying to get into the habit of exercising because I need to lose 20 pounds. (I mostly exercise my fingers on the keyboard.) Some women tell their age as younger than they really are, but I’d rather say I’m older than I am and have them tell me how great I look for my age. I can’t get away with that much longer - my skin is hinting at my real age…not nice. Really skin. Stop it. Now!

I’ve lived near the shore all but two years of my life. I have a picture of my family when I was just a couple of weeks old sitting on the beach in Manasquan, NJ, just a few blocks from my Nana’s house. Of course, I was covered although my face wasn’t. When I was young I presumed that if I ran around, the sun wouldn’t stay on my skin long enough to hurt it. Wrong. Through the years, I’ve had many sunburns. It was just a natural thing to have, although no one ever wanted one. It just happened.

Lucky me, I’m invited to visit the dermatologist every six months now. It used to be once a year. I’ve had basal cells removed in three places and usually have pre-cancerous cells removed at each visit. I had my most recent visit just last week. I have very dry skin which is common for being an outdoor / sun worshipper / grandmother who lives in a house with a woodstove.

We don’t always listen to ourselves, do we? We visited St. Thomas in October for our 35th anniversary. I just had to come back to school looking like I had been on vacation to a tropical island. Even though I used sunscreen, I did come back with a darker tan than when I left. Why do we do such careless things to ourselves? Vanity? I confessed my weakness to the doctor, but not until after she heard my complaining about my dry skin condition. Needless to say, the doctor wasn’t happy with me at all.

She had some things to tell me…and after her kind lecture, she added:

• Don’t sit near the woodstove in the living room. (I love to feel the warmth while I read a good book as I curl up on the couch.) The heat will just soak up what little moisture I have left.
• Turn down the tap and shower water temperature some. If it is too hot, it can cause cell damage.
• Cover thy self when outside: sunglasses, hat, sunblock – even in the winter, yes.
• Moisturize, moisturize, moisturize…

The skin will age. It is something we can’t stop, but we can help it be as healthy as possible. We can protect it from the environment. We can practice self-care, such as taking measures to cut down on the stress by finding time to relax for twenty minutes a day without interruption. We can also slow down the process by following a healthy diet including six glasses of water a day, exercising, and good skincare.

According to the National Institute on Aging , instead of living until 50 in 1900, women are living much longer – long enough to enjoy their grandchildren and to see their great-grandchildren in many families. How we take care of ourselves plays a very large part in determining how many extra years we earn to spend with our grandchildren.

My Nana, at age 60, looked like she was at least 80. I look now as my mother did when she was 45. My grandmother was an exception, though. She lived to be 94 and died when she caught the flu in 1976, just before our first child was born. She was the daughter of Irish immigrants. Nana never smoked nor even had a sip of wine, let alone beer. (I think it was listening to Casey Stengel and the Mets that kept her going.) My mother died at 50 from a brain tumor; her first grandchild, my niece, was just 11 months old and I was 18. My father died of a heart attack because he smoked for 42 years; it happened ten days before our third child was born. He was 65 years old. Perhaps, if my parents had been aware of the ill effects of smoking, they would have been alive to enjoy their grandchildren.

As a member of the Baby Boomer set, I feel younger, look younger, and act younger than my grandmother and the women of her time. I want to enjoy my grandchildren for as long as I can, and set a good example for them and my children, too…so I have a plan:

• educate myself on good skin and hair care: body, face, hands, feet
  test moisturizers to find the right one for me and my parts
• research make-up and make educated decisions as to what I want to put on my face
• plan a regimen to enhance my skin
• exercise: aerobic and weight training
• diet - low sugar, low carbs, low fat
• shop – my reward

Check back often to follow along as I re-invent myself into the new-age Nana!

Posted by admin on December 5th, 2007 at 3:07 am
Filed under: Women's Health |  |  Leave a comment  |  Trackback