Nana didn’t want to pay Weight Watchers, but I am…. I’ve put it off for long enough. I finally gave in last two weeks ago and Joined Weight Watchers. I am a Life Member but have had 13 pounds to lose so I have to pay each week until I reach my goal weight again. I bought the monthly pass so it comes to a little over $9 a week for 4 weeks, then my credit card will be charged again…unless I cancel before then.

How’d I do the first week?  I counted my points, but I didn’t exercise more than once for 30 minutes which eauals 1 point. My weigh-in was on Wednesday evening, without eating before hand, I lost .4 lbs. I wore the same pant suit that I wore the week before. My son, who has only a few pounds to lose in preparation for his wedding, which isn’t until next May, lost 3.8 lbs. He claims it is because he didn’t wear his sweat shirt this time. I don’t think it weighs that much…I think he was being kind to me. (We were also weighed on different digital scales.)  (See below for 2nd week’s results.) (more…)

A new report in the Archives of Internal Medicine explains that people who have been active in their leisure time are likely to have cells that are biologically younger than those who tend to be couch potatoes…all the more reason to get up, get moving, and get going.

“A sedentary lifestyle increases the propensity to aging-related disease and premature death,” the authors write. “Inactivity may diminish life expectancy not only by predisposing to aging-related diseases but also because it may influence the aging process itself.”

It appears that aerobic exercise not only jump starts your metabolism but also reaches down deep into the chromosomes of your white blood cells. What happens is that it slows down the aging of those cells, therefore slowing down the aging process overall.

This gives me the added motivation I needed to finally get into the groove and shake my booty. Physicians recommend that just 30 minutes a day will do the trick. Since exercise in itself leads to less aging related illnesses, why not take full advantage of this discovery and start walking faster, dancing more, biking longer, hiking harder and if you’ve been a laptop couch potato likethis grandmother, start out with a beginner’s aerobics class, which is also great fun, and share the experience with other newbies. Don’t be shy – we’ve all been there at one time or another…or still are…but not for long…

You can read further about the study and its findings at Psych Central News.

Also read: Nana’s New Year’s Resolution…same as last year…lose weight

Nothing is simple anymore. More and more each year, we are losing control over the quality of our grandchildren’s lives.

I recently read about a serious problem that was mentioned within the feature article about High Tech Trash in the current National Geographic magazine. This grandmother didn’t become aware of the problem that could seriously affect our grandchildren until I read the second to last paragraph. Upon finishing the article, I had three immediate questions: 1) Why hadn’t I heard about this? 2) Why is the problem not mentioned until the short, second to last paragraph of the article? 3) What is being done to prevent it?

What am I angry about? I’m angry about the fact that there is enough lead in an extremely large number of individual inexpensive pieces of jewelry that have the potential to cause illness, brain damage or death. If a child sucks on or swallows a trinket containing lead, it can cause irreversible harm. Not only is the lead found in jewelry, it has also been found in the zipper pulls of boppy (breast feeding) pillows, pencil boxes, and more, not to mention the toys that were recalled in 2007 because of lead in the paint – which I did hear about. Guess where the leaded jewelry pieces are made…yes, you guessed correctly…98% are made in China!

As a grandmother, I am angry because I’ve purchased costume jewelry for my six year old grandchild unknowing of this problem. I’m educated; I listen to the evening news programs just about every night. I’ve been careful to read choking hazard warnings on items before I buy them. I’ve just assumed that toxic materials would be banned in the manufacturing of jewelry that could do harm to our children, or anyone.

As a special education teacher, I am angry because I work with some students who have unexplained difficulties when it comes to learning including hyperactivity, short term memory difficulties, poor fine motor skills, and find it difficult to process more complex thinking skills. There could be a strong possibility that it could be linked to exposure to lead even though it does not show up in blood tests of high school students. In researching this topic, I found an article where one mother explains that the lead is now out of her daughter’s system after 15 years. The problem is that because she is in high school now where deeper thinking skills are required, she is finding it more difficult to process even though she has always earned high grades.

Until the government can get this problem under control, it should be required for all young children to be tested for lead in their blood. One special education source on the internet explains: Even at low doses of exposure, lead can pose a serious threat to neurological development in infants and children and may result in learning disabilities, behavioral problems and hearing loss. The problems caused by lead are irreversible. Within the human body, lead damages the nervous system, circulatory and blood forming system, reproductive system, kidneys, and gastro-intestinal tract. In children, because the brain has not yet fully developed, lead poisoning can cause learning disabilities, attention deficit disorders, lowered IQ, anti-social behavior, and adversely impact their development. When a pregnant woman is exposed to lead, it can cross the placenta and harm a developing child.

Apparently, as discussed in the National Geographic article, the source of the lead containing products has increased in this country with the increase of outsourcing the eWaste to poorer populations where the people melt down high tech trash to get the copper and other valuable metals. The melt down releases toxic fumes and waste that seeps into the air, soil, and water…leading to severe health problems for the Chinese population.

The largest vendors of the leaded jewelry are the discount stores that are popping up all over that sell items for one dollar. But it isn’t just those discount stores, it has also been Disney, Nordstroms, Macy’s along with Target, Wal-Mart. Some vendors have voluntarily agreed to be more responsible when ordering stock…others have not. California has passed laws banning such items with more than .06% lead.

In my research, I found more than 60 articles on the web, dating from 2003 through December of 2007. In 2004, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reported that in 2003, a child in Oregon swallowed a charm. After several weeks of abdominal pain and illness, the charm was discovered. Blood tests revealed elevated levels of lead. CSPC ordered a recall for the vending machine jewelry. In 2004, the Chicago Sun Times conducted its own test on jewelry found in vending machines. It found 75% of the pieces contained toxic levels of lead. Upon that finding, the CSPC ordered a voluntary recall on millions of pieces of children’s jewelry. In 2006, a four-year old Minnesota boy died after swallowing a charm that had been given free with the purchase of Reebok sneakers. He didn’t die from choking on the charm, he died because it contained a high amount of lead. In a NY Times article dated August 5, 2007, the authors state, “Despite a two-year effort to eliminate the threat of poisonous lead in inexpensive children’s jewelry, hundreds of thousands of tainted items are still being sold across the United States, the federal government has found.” In the last three years, more than 17 million pieces of jewelry categorized as children’s has been recalled. Not surprisingly, the Chinese government doesn’t see the lead filled jewelry a problem.

For four years this important issue has been tossed back and forth between government agencies, manufacturers, and vendors. Why has there been so little, in my opinion, publicity? These pieces of leaded jewelry are too numerous to ignore. Apparently, the funding is low for the CPSC so they don’t have enough investigators to oversee this problem…sounds familiar for the US? Do you know that the US recently came in first in the number of deaths that could have been prevented?

The Sierra Club, an environmental group that has focused on educating the public about lead hazards, has consistently requested the Product Safety Commission to take further action on banning lead in children’s jewelry, instead of simply setting an enforcement standard. The CPSC is finally seriously thinking about it. About time???

One article states that even though products may tested and proven to have a “safe” level (.06%) of lead, the manufacturers may switch to products containing higher levels after the order was finalized…the old “bait and switch” con.

As long as people are willing to buy them, the merchants will sell them. We as consumers need to boycott those companies that do not responsibly test their products for safety. There needs to be a more thorough system in place to regulate the testing and reporting practices. The regulations need to be backed up by financial and criminal penalties. Aren’t our children and grandchildren important enough to enforce a ban, find the funds, to hire and train inspectors, to eliminate the toxic trinkets? Are we afraid of disrupting our relations with China? Where are our government’s priorities?

ConsumerAffairs.com revealed in a recent article that 96% of toys recalled from January through July, 2007 were from China and most of those were trinkets containing lead. They advise consumers to use caution. Common sense tells me: When in doubt, don’t buy it.

The CPSC asks that parents search their children’s toys for metal jewelry and throw it away. Photos of the jewelry and more information on the recall can be obtained from the visting the CPSC website or 1-800-638-2772. The CPSC also has a new policy addressing lead in children’s metal jewelry. (8/07)

Check regulary at the Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC) to keep up to date about new product recalls.

For additional resources, just Google leaded children’s jewelry - you’ll find them.

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!