ReBootYourLifeToday

New Take On Exercise - Short Intense work-outs quick way to lose weight

 
 Ran across a book that looks at exercise in a different and I think useful way. Mark Lauren writes in his book, HIIT, High Intensity Interval Training, “Through the use of short intense workouts that train muscular endurance, strength, power, and cardiovascular endurance all at the same time, you are able to build muscle while giving your metabolism a lasting boost.”  www.MarkLauren.com

Lauren’s idea for HIIT  is that short (about 4”) of intense exercise is far more effective than 30 minutes at your weight-loss-heart-rate exercise.  Lauren feels if we focus on building strength, balance and endurance we automatically lose weight and not the other way around.  “Most people train with their emphasis on changes in body composition or, even worse - weight loss. “When you train properly, your body composition changes because there is a greater need for cardiovascular endurance, muscular endurance, strength, and power. Next time you’re working out, think intensity not duration.”

“HIIT, builds muscle. Muscle plays an important role in your metabolism. It is a metabolically expensive tissue that causes you to burn extra calories even while at rest! The average adult American gains 2.2 pounds of fat per year, due to an ever slowing metabolism. The slowing of the metabolism is mainly due to a loss of muscle as we age. By gaining just 2 pounds of muscle and maintaining it, the average American could completely reverse this weight gain. Muscle not only allows you to burn far more calories while at rest, it becomes especially important while performing high intensity workouts.

Adding a few extra pounds of muscle, to most people’s frame, is like upgrading from a 4 cylinder motor to a 6 cylinder motor, and while working out, that larger motor requires much more fuel to operate. That extra fuel is - calories!

Another reason HIIT is so effective is that these workouts cause you to burn extra calories long after the completion of the workout. For up to 36 hours after HIIT your metabolism remains boosted while restoring the body’s systems to normal.

I’ve found that male trainers are rough and far more intense than I can handle as I’m injury prone. Probably most women in our time of life are not up for macho routines.  So how can we adapt Lauren’s idea to our type of exercise?  This is what I came up with.  I have an exercycle with programmed routines.  One program does intense pumping for about 2” – that’s enough for me.  Then it goes down to much lighter pumping like going up a hill and then coasting down the other side.  The whole routine takes 10” and alternates between high and low intensity .  It works my thighs, calves and gives cardio, but it does not work my upper body.  A better piece of equipment might be the machines where you pull handles and do pedals with your feet. 

These are sold by Nordic Track and many others.  Don’t have one of those so I’ll see how much I can accomplish with the exercycle routines.

Nobody Cares More About Your Health Than You Do

 

Here’s the thing, the advances in medical science are stunning.  However, I promise you your health is a million times more important to you, than it is to your doctor no matter how good and dedicated he/she is.  It’s your body, your life and your health. 

According to conventional wisdom there’s only one certain thing about reaching a “certain age,” and that’s illness. If you’re not sick now, you’ll soon be. That’s what conventional wisdom indoctrinates us to believe and since we generally get what we expect, the expectation of a diseased old age is widely believed.

These ideas are deeply rooted in our culture.  Conventional wisdom about our old age seeps deeply into our frame of reference from childhood.  Television ads peddle all manner of “fixes” for what ails old folks like arthritis, osteoporosis, and high cholesterol 24/7. These ads do the job. They feed into our belief system that we must decline and become diseased.

Mail comes daily warning us to get long term care insurance so we won’t use up our kid’s inheritance during our grossly expensive “end of life care”. This post is going to run full force in the face of that kind of “wisdom.”

We need to take a U turn and take the responsibility for our health away from the medical establishment and assume that responsibility ourselves. What exactly should our responsibility be? We can care of our bodies as if they were precious gifts, which in fact, they are. We can stop abusing our bodies through addictions, poor nutrition and couch potato-ism. And we can take time every day to de-stress in healthy ways.  Take a bubble bath, work in the garden or chat with a friend. Find ways to appreciate all day, every day. 

Even while we negotiate difficult situations we can take time to appreciate the beauty of flowers, the laughter of a child, the distraction of a good movie. We must treat our bodies and psyche as if they were priceless jewels and cater to their well being at every turn.

If we assume responsibility for our good health, what does that mean in terms of seeing a doctor, taking screening tests, medications and so on? Perhaps if we’d taken first-rate care of our physical and emotional selves all along, we’d never need to see a doctor or take medications. But that’s not the case for the vast majority of us. I have hypertension and take medication for it every day. I appreciate the medicine and the benefit it gives my body. Modern medicine is a wonder and we owe it to ourselves to take full advantage of what it has to offer while not abdicating our responsibility for our own well being. 

The second U turn we ought to consider comes in the form of a caveat about the marvels of modern medicine. If we go on abusing our physical and emotional selves, we can’t expect the medical establishment to swoop in, care for us and fix us. Every good physician will tell you that at the end of the day, we “fix” ourselves. The doctor can help, but we fix ourselves. Everyone who has worked in healthcare, as I did for many years, can tell you stories about people who walk into a hospital for a minor procedure and die while someone close to death is carried in and walks out.

Why is that? One of life’s mysteries or is something else at play? Perhaps a strong will to live and some pretty compelling reasons to go on. Only we can provide the will to live and give ourselves reasons to extend our lives. The doctor, the drugs, the surgeries can’t give us an abiding passion and that’s what it takes to live a long, healthy, interesting life.

If you have a good relationship with your doctor and feel more secure seeing him/her regularly, by all means you should. If taking all the screening tests available today for bone density, cancers and so on, makes you feel more secure, but all means continue. But there’s a caveat here too. A lot of people feel if they take all the screening tests, they are free to continue to live unhealthy lives.  That won’t work because maybe sooner rather than later the bad habits will catch up with us.  But probably the most important thing is that a healthy life is a happy, fun filled one!

 

It's Time To Re-Invent Ourselves

While researching and doing  interviews for my book, Rebooting Your Life, A Women’s Guide to Being Alive, Productive and Sexy After 55, I found the most important asset a women can have is the ability to re-invent herself, invest her resources in herself.  Women must learn to walk away from what society expects of them.

The US Census tells us that the fastest growing age group are those over  85!  There’s lots of life left for mature women.  Using that time for productive,  satisfying experiences is far more promising than buying into what I call the 3 big D’s, decline, disease, and death that society paints for us. 

To make the overwhelming, but important transition from middle age to a certain age, I’ve learned  women must become independent thinkers, not identifying with their peers or doing what is expected of them.   We don’t have to accept the “aging process” or age gracefully, which in my mind, means embracing old lady-hood with a resigned smile and a sinking feeling of depression.

Re-Investment/Re-invention - There’s nothing mysterious about re-invention.  Little girls become teenagers then young women.  These are all re-inventions. But they are not conscious choices, When I say we must re-invent ourselves, I mean something very different.  It’s easy to fulfill society’s expectations.  There’s a well defined scrip for a young woman beginning her career, getting married, becoming a Mom.  At our time of life we don’t have clearly define roles.  For that reason we can become invisible, without a readymade set of responsibilities, goals, or aspirations.  The only real, defining role for us is that of grandmother.   Other than that, there is nothing that’s expected of us.  So why not take the energy and resources we’ve invested in our family and others to create whatever role suits us?  To do that, we must take a critical look at our physical body, our finances, our relationships, and our outlook on life.  We need to have a clear vision of what works about our life and what drags us down.  We need to get serious about who we are and who we want to become. 

Re-invention is not an overnight wonder.  We need to stop, find the time to be introspective.  Looking closely inside ourselves will reveal many issues.  We can no longer define ourselves  by our relationship to others.  We can’t say, “I’m Frank’s wife, Tracy and Matt’s mother, a 5^th grade teacher and a lover of dogs.  We have to focus on where we are right now and what we want from life going forward.  The going forward part is key.  We have decades ahead.  Do you want to go on as before?  Do you want major changes?  Stopping and reviewing where we are today and where we want to go next is life giving and well worth the time and effort involved.

The Aging Process Is Under Our Own Control

The latest research shows that the infamous aging process is to a great extent under our own control.  I spent many years in healthcare administration and I learned a lot of insider things.  If you’re under 50 and they can’t find what’s wrong with you, they blame it on a virus.  If you’re over 50 and they can’t find what ails you, they blame it on aging.  The aging process is a useful and often profitable catch-all for physicians, pharmaceutical companies and cosmetic manufactures, but it’s a trap for women.  It dis-empowers us.  We must re-empower ourselves.   One good way that helped me was to keep a journal.

Keeping a journal is an easy and free way to organize your thoughts and keep on track of where you are in life and where you’re wanting to go.  You don’t need a fancy diary - any spiral ring notebook will do.  A computer journal works well too.  

Find a time when you can write without being disturbed. If you feel frazzled or scattered  tell yourself you have entered a worry free zone. Your concerns will keep for a few minutes while you write.

(One woman told me she assigned herself a worry time period during each day.  She gave herself 15 to 30 minutes to rehash her problems.  At the end of that time, she tells herself that she has served her troubles long enough and can go on to something more productive. )

Don’t bother about spelling, grammar or even full sentences.  Make lists or jot down two or three words.  Nobody is going to read your thoughts except you, so don’t censor yourself or judge your thoughts.  Don’t worry about priority, just write down whatever comes to you. Take your time and make it as complete as possible. 

Write in your journal often.    Once you get in the habit, writing will become easier and more productive.  Here are some assignments which will help you gain a clear perspective of your current life and help you see how you can take full advantage of the years to come.

Journal Assignment 1 - What brings you the most pleasure in your daily life?  Do you have a grandchild that puts a smile on your face? Is your garden a source of fulfillment and relaxation?  Is your work the source of your greatest satisfaction?  Is your family the best thing in your life?  Identify what brings you the most pleasure day to day.  Identify as many pleasurable experiences as you can. These are the ordinary things that promote well being in your life. It’s difficult to make big changes all at once.  Small changes add up to a far better day to day life. 

Our lives are made up of ordinary moments, and these moments are very powerful because they are all we have.  Yesterday is gone, tomorrow is not here yet.  We have only the present.  Small changes add up and the ordinary moments are the building blocks of our lives.    Making “right now” better is a powerful way to make big changes over time.

Here’s an example of what this first assignment might look like:  Best time of day - sitting in the back yard playing with the dog after work.  Checking email for something interesting.  Going to church.  Centering - feel stronger when I leave.  Good novel – relaxing, time away from worries.  Monthly bridge game.  Family time spent with kids, grandchildren, old friends.

Journal assignment 2 – Review your life as a whole.  What has been the most meaningful experience of your life so far?  Have you found the most satisfaction in your family, in your marriage, in your career, traveling the world?  Write down two or three experiences

Journal Assignment 3 - Look at the things in your life that you find the most difficult. 

Do you have to care for a declining and dependent parent?  Do you have one or more difficult family relationships?  Are you facing serious financial or health problems?  You’ll need to find ways to make these situations less burdensome as your empowering and re-invention process proceeds.  This assignment can be revealing and somewhat painful to think about, but it is an important step in designing your new life.

I repeat, don’t worry about spelling, grammar or priority.  You might even get yourself a small tape recorder and record your thoughts while driving or doing household chores.  When you have time, you can listen to your thoughts and write what you feel is important into your journal.  There is no right or wrong way to do this.  There is only the way that works for you.  Remember this is your time.  Make the most of it by investing in the most important person in your life – you.   

Journal Results - Look over your journal adding anything that you didn’t think of at the first writing. Now you have some invaluable information. You’ve focused on the most pleasurable parts of your day to day life.  You’ve identified experiences that have been the most meaningful and impactful so far.  You can see what you value the most – work, family, travelling for the next chapter of your life.  What have you learned from the difficult times?  You can avoid making the same mistakes again by seeing what these lessons are. Now you have direction. 

Set aside some quiet time to reflect on your writing.  When have you felt the most joy, the most fulfillment or the most peace?  When have you felt like you were doing exactly the right thing?  Are you still angry, bitter or regretful? The hard times are of great importance because they can teach us many good lessons, but often leave some negative emotions that will hold us back from achieving our new goals.  Later we’ll explore how holding negative emotions impacts our lives and attracts more unhappiness.

Ponder your journal results carefully. These will provide you with clues about who you are, where you’ve been on your life’s journey and where you’d like to go next.  

Aging Gets a Bum Rap

 

Someone said, "Aging isn't for sissies." Maybe so, but aging’s  got some outstanding benefits which get overlooked.  Like what?  Well, would you go to a job interview wearing a hat that said, "Take this job and shove if?". How about answering your cell phone during a job interview?  What about wearing a low cut, revealing top to an  interview ?

 I didn’t make this stuff up - honest.  A survey of hiring managers conducted by Career Builders, and reported in the January 15, 2011 edition of the Los Angeles Times  (LATimes.com/business ) found that 71% of the managers interviewed said answering a cell was the top error made by people they interviewed.   Sixty Nine percent said dressing inappropriately was their top complaint.  Sixty six percent complained applicants were arrogant and disinterested in the job. One manager reported an applicant actually appeared at the interview with the hat saying “Take this job and shove it.” I’ll bet this kid wondered why he didn’t the job!

 All the job applicants were under 30.  We all have stories from our own youth where we made dumb mistakes.  One of my high school friends bought a car without getting  the pink slip as proof that the seller actually owned it - he didn't.   Yes, my friend bought a stolen car and lost her money. At 17 I got married to my first boyfriend.  I lived to regret it. 

 People do live and learn.  As we go through life we make some good choices and some missteps.  By the time we hit our stage of life we've learned a lot of lessons.  We’ve learned to think before making a big decision because we know choices have consequences.  We’ve also seen you get only one chance to make a good first impression. So we’ve learned to plan and prepare. How about trusting everyone at face value is a mistake.  I could fill a book with my lessons.  I'm sure you could too.  That's why all the happiness surveys show people over 50 are happier, more content with their lives, more financially solid and experience less stress.

 Aging well means we have to take care of ourselves.  We can’t abuse our physical and emotional selves and expect to never experience the consequences of our behavior.  Aging is not for sissies if you’ve led a life that excluded dealing with your issues, lacked balance and harbored long held anger, bitterness and fears.  If you’ve lived well you can expect to age well too.

Hormone Replacement Therapy and Breast Cancer in Women Over 55

Some women get through menopause saying, “What’s the big deal?” Some women have easily controlled symptoms. Then there’s the rest of us. I had a terrible time of it.  What saved me was the much maligned Hormone Replacement Therapy (HRT).  Today in the New York Times they reported on yet another study saying that women who take HRT are at greater risk of breast cancer.  http://www.nytimes.com/2010/10/20/health/20hormone.html?th&emc=th

But wait a minute.  I had to take biological statistics in grad school.  (The emphasis is on the “had to” part as math and I have never been good friends.)  But I did learn some important things that have served me well over the years.  One of them is before you run really scared about any study do some math yourself. 

 The study in question followed 12,000 older women who were past menopause.  I did the math and looked at the findings:  They found the increased risk for those women who were taking or had taken HRT for more than 5.5 years was .01%!  I also learned in Bio Stat that .01% is statistically insignificant. 

Let’s compare that .01% increased risk to that of drinking more than 2 drinks a day which will give a woman nine times the risk of developing breast cancer!!!!  Why don’t we ever see that in the New York Times or anywhere else in the media?

 In researching out this subject I found some other important studies that haven’t received much press:  Estrogen-alone hormone therapy does not increase the risk of breast cancer in postmenopausal women at all, according to an updated analysis of the breast cancer findings of the Women’s Health Initiative (WHI) Estrogen-Alone Trial. These trials were conducted by the National Institute of Health not some pharmaceutical company trying to sell its’ drugs.  http://www.nytimes.com/2010/10/20/health/20hormone.html?th&emc=thmen's

If you’ve had a hysterectomy the above is good news.  Women with a uterus are given progesterone as well as estrogen.  Those were the women who were studied in the New York Times article and had the .01% increased risk.  However, if you’ve had your uterus removed as so many of us have, you can skip the progesterone and have no increased risk.  So if you’re one of the millions of women having trouble with menopause, we just got a cancer free card.  How good is that?

And there’s more good news:  “New results from a sub-study of the Health Initiative (WHI) Estrogen-Alone Trial show that younger postmenopausal women who take estrogen-alone hormone therapy have significantly less buildup of calcium plaque in their arteries compared to their peers who did not take hormone therapy.  Coronary artery calcium is considered a marker for future risk of coronary artery disease.” 

Results of the WHI Coronary Artery Calcium Study are published in the June 21, 2007, issue of the New England Journal of Medicine. The WHI is sponsored by the National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute (NHLBI) of the National Institutes of Health.   http://www.nejm.org/medical-index

So if you’re suffering take the HRT in bio-identical form which works well for many women or the tried and true Premarin which has been around for over 50 years.  By the way, I’m sure that if men had to go through menopause, the good news about HRT would be front page news every day!

Let’s Talk About the New Health Care Law and How it Affects Women over 55

The health care business, and it is a business, is extraordinarily complex.  At least it’s the most complex thing I ever worked in. I worked in health care administration for 18 years after I got my master’s degree in Health Care Administration.  So I know for a fact, that the health care law can’t be boiled down to handy sound bites like death panels or socialist take over.   (Think about it.  All the western European countries have nationalized health care systems and they live longer than we do.  So if they were killing grandmas with death panels how could their life expectancy be higher than ours?)

Five presidents over the last 60 years have tried to get health care reformed.  So how could there have been such a media blitz of outcry?  The average guy could not possibly understand what was going on, so the protests were well organized and generously funded by those who stand to lose big bucks under the new law.  (The president of Wellpoint took home a bonus of $11 million in 2009 that’s in addition to his regular salary.) This is not new, we’ve seen all kinds of fat cats organize and fund so called “public outcry” before.

 So what’s going on here?  We have the best health care in the world.  Our physicians are the best trained and have the most advanced equipment to work with.  So what’s wrong?  It’s a long story but here goes:

Providing health care grew up in this country as a for profit sector of the economy.  That’s not the case in any other developed country in the world.  We work under a capitalistic system. One of the things that makes our system work so well is the rule of supply and demand.  Our economic system is the envy of the world, but it’s not working for health care as the costs are bankrupting the country.  The reason the supply/demand paradigm doesn’t work in health care is that the supplier of the product is also the provider of the product. 

What am I talking about?  OK, if you want to buy a car, you can do internet research, chose a car with the features you want at the price you’re willing to pay. Then you go to the dealer and test drive the car.  If you still want the car you start negotiating the price and financing.  All the way you are in control.   

 That’s not how it works if you’re sick.  Let’s take a simple little example to illustrate.  You have a rash on your tummy, it’s getting worse and it itches all night.  So you go to the doctor.  He looks at the rash and says he needs to order a panel of tests.  You’re thinking he would give you some ointment and send you off.  But he’s the doctor so you go along with the tests, after all maybe he knows a rash like this is the first sign of something really bad.  When the tests come back they’re all negative except one which was a little off, so he orders more tests.  All the while you’re itching and worried that something is really wrong.  At the end of this experience you find that the rash is caused by the strawberries which you were allergic to as a kid. 

You had grown out of the allergy, but years later it’s back.  And since you’ve been eating those beautiful organic strawberries you bought at the farmer’s market, you’ve got a rash.  However, you’ve also got $2,500 worth of tests.  But, oh well, the insurance company will pay some of it and after all, you’re not dying so that’s the good news.

 As you can see, buying health care is not like buying a car.  You, the consumer, are NEVER in control.  You make the decisions when you buy a car, the doctor makes the decisions when you’re sick.  And to belabor the point, the doctor is the one who determines what care you get and he’s the one who supplies the care as well.  Thus the supply/demand dynamic does not work.

 The doctor in our story ordered up a ton of tests that were not needed and built up a big bill.  Is the doctor a crock?  No, he’s practicing caution medicine.  But there’s still a lot wrong here. We can talk about two things:  lawsuits and training.  This is a litigious society with people who live to sue, so doctors are very cautious and don’t want to expose themselves to malpractice law suits.  The second thing wrong is that physicians are trained to use the “rule out” rule.  In other words when you present a condition they think up every possible disease you could have and they start ruling them out one by one which mean lots of unnecessary tests.   

 With all that said there’s no way to rule out greed as a factor.  Doctors know what an insurance company will pay for.  They know the codes to use to build up the bill.  They know how much that CAT Scanner cost and they know they need to pay for it. They also know how much their Mercedes payment is.  All this and much more tends to build up the bill but not increase the quality of care at all.

 With the above I’ve just touched the tip of a huge iceberg called the health care industry today.  I could literally write a book on hundreds of other issues.  For now let’s look at:

 The bottom line is: the new law is the best thing to happen to Americans  in 50 years – period.  There’s no argument.  We are being bombarded with nonsensical arguments against the new law by those extremely rich folks who run insurance companies and all the other fat cats that make their billions from sick people.  Not a pretty sight for anyone who knows the inner workings of the industry.

 Stay tuned for the next post where I’ll cover the role of insurance companies in this labyrinth of almost 20% of our economy.

Exploding Myths About Aging

Aging is a funny thing.  We don’t think so much about it until climbing stairs our knee hurts or a friend gets diagnosed with a deadly disease.  Then the “I’m getting old” thing comes to the front of our mind to scare us.  And why wouldn’t it be scary, conventional wisdom paints such a dismal picture for the “older woman” that anyone would get heart palpitations. 

So let’s take a look at some conventional wisdom that’s neither wise nor true.

Myth #1:  There’s no way around losing your marbles, your hearing, your sex drive, your ability to take care of yourself. According to the New England Centenarian Study, "Think aging is all about losing your memory and becoming hard of hearing? Think again. Many people sail through the aging process without walkers or pacemakers. In fact, researchers now believe it's those diseases—diabetes, heart disease, cancer, stroke, osteoporosis — that leave us frail or disabled, rather than the normal aging of our bodies.” www.bumc.bu.edu/centenarian

What this study and many, many others are saying is that just because we’re getting older, that doesn’t mean we’re automatically going straight to what I call the 3 Big D’s – Decline, Disease and Death. In fact, the New England Centenarian Study found that, “The vast majority of those who live to be 100 are able to live independently on their own well into their 90's.”

Myth #2:  After menopause women lose their interest in sex.

The New England Journal of Medicine August, 2007 reported that a survey of women between 57 and 80 years of age found that the majority (54%) were leading active sex lives, reporting engaging in sexual activity with at least one partner in the 12 months preceding the study.  http://www.nejm.org/

They also found that, “Two thirds of those aged 65 to 74 and 54 per cent of those aged 75 to 85 reported having sex at least two or three times a month. Almost a quarter of sexually active septuagenarians and octogenarians claimed that they had sex once a month or more. “

Richard Suzman, Director of the Social and Behavioral Research Program at National Institute on Aging,  National Institutes of Health (NIH). , said that the study, “Suggests a previously uncharacterized vitality and interest in sexuality that carries well into advanced age, which perhaps has not been appreciated as an important part of late life”.

So much for women don’t like sex especially after menopause. 

Myth #3 – Going partially or completely deaf is a natural part of aging.

Well, even the makers of hearing aids agree that only 35 percent of 80-year-olds need a hearing aid, and many folks in their 90s still have perfect hearing.

These are only three of the many myths that we all have come to believe.  What do you believe about aging?  Here’s a test you can use when you get a bad feeling about aging:

 Remember a relative or family friend you knew growing up or know today that was or is physically and emotionally healthy and vibrant.  For example, my mother was  mowing her own grass at age 78.  My mother-in-law had a perfect memory at age 85.  She remembered the birthdates of all her 12 grandkids and 10 great grandkids!

 Think back and find some people like that and tell yourself you are going to be like those people rather than someone sitting in the corner staring into space with no purpose or reason to get out of bed in the morning.

Wow - Women Over 55 Are In Demand - Why?

We’re in demand because we buy lots of stuff and advertisers and economists are just now figuring it out.

 We are not in the coveted demographic of people between age 18 and 34. Most TV, internet and magazine advertising is aimed at this age group.  Why? Because they’re just starting out and they buy everything - clothes, cars, homes, furnishings, baby stuff.   We’ve been written off because, well we’re old ladies, right? 

 I say think again and so have the manufacturers, advertisers and economists.  We're now a coveted group too.  What are we buying?  Anything that says “anti-aging” in the label.  According to a report from market research company Global Industry Analysts the market for anti-aging products is predicted to reach $115.5 billion by 2010.  That’s just for moisturizers and anti-aging creams.  It doesn’t include many other products such as the $7.2 billion spent on hair coloring (not all hair coloring products are bought to cover gray hair, but it is the largest part of the hair color business.)  The anti-aging market also includes tooth whitening products, fancy eye glasses, and on and on.

And there’s the increase in women over 55 using dating services.  The Executive Director of Match.com, one of the largest Internet Dating sites, stated that “Match.com is focusing its target marketing on the Baby Boomer generation as they are our fastest growing age group.” There are even many dating services that are dedicated to people over 55 and they are doing very well.

Is there more?  Of course we haven’t touched the cosmetic surgery market.  Botox injections alone accounted for about $480,000 million in sales in 2009.  Botox is just a fraction of what your dermatologist or plastic surgeon can do for you and it all costs big bucks.  Even in these hard economic times, or maybe because of them, women are still spending tens of thousands of dollars to look younger.   (Looking old is bad news in the job market.)

 Well how do we pay for all of the above?  The US Census says that 40 million women over 55 are in the workforce.  There are more mature women in the workforce today than ever before in history.  That means we have bucks to spend on ourselves and we do it happily!

 So what does all this mean for us?  It means we are getting respect and attention.  And isn’t it just about time?

Times They Are A’Changing – We Need to Change With Them

First the frivolous stuff:

• While I was waiting in the dentist office I picked up a copy of People Magazine.  Holy Cow! who are these people?  Yes, I recognized Paris Hilton and Lindsey Lohan, but what about all the rest of them. And what’s up with the people who are famous for being famous – no talent, no accomplishments just good at getting attention.
•  I was in the drug store checkout line and the guy in front of me had shaved his head and replaced the hair with tattoos of bright colored snakes covering his forehead, head and back of his neck.
•  My 7 years old grandson can run the computer a lot better than most adults I know.  Is he just a really smart kid?  He’s smart, but the point is that most of his friends can do just as well.  If a 7 year old can do it, so can we.
•  My daughter hadn’t lost her AmerExp card, but a replica was being used all over the country to charge over $15,000 in 6 hours.  How could that happen?  Apparently when you put your card into the pump to pay for gas someone can put some little copying devise in the slot and can make a copy of your card in an hour, then they sell the cards all over the country. 

 Here’s the serious stuff from the July 26, 2010 issue of Newsweek http://www.newsweek.com/

In 2000 there were 12 billion emails sent every day – 2010 there were 247 billion emails sent every single day!

 In 2000 there were 200,000 text messages sent daily – 2010 4.5 billion people were texting every day.

 The number of blogs are up from  282,242 in 2000 to 1,052,803 today.

 In 2000 there were only 4 reality shows – today 320 – now that’s a growth industry!

 Daily newspapers are down from 1480 dailies in 2000 to 1,302 today and more are closing every day

 Daily snail mail count in 2000 was 207.8 million pieces of mail– today down to 175.67 million

 So what does all this add up to?  As the guy with the tattooed head would say, “It’s the 21^st Century, Dude” 

 A lot of the changes are due to advances in technology.  Those changes are stunning and we need to learn how to use them, at least some of them.  Do you know how to use Twitter?  How about You Tube?  Are you on FaceBook?  You lived just fine without all this stuff for decades so why bother now?  Because if we don’t keep up, we run the risk of becoming obsolete, irrelevant and left behind.  There are classes to learn how to use all the latest gadgets and widgets.  If you have someone who can teach you that’s great, if not take a class.

Are you active in politics?  Do you keep up with all the amazing new trends in the country?  Do you vote?  I can hear you saying, “Politics are a dirty business and I don’t want to upset myself.”  True enough, but if we don’t keep up with what’s going on, we lose touch with our time and place.  Again we become irrelevant and left behind.

Are in touch with how the latest generation feels about everything from gay marriage to car buying?  According to research just released by Honda Motors, young people don’t see cars as status symbols or a sexy projections of themselves.  They see cars as polluters used to get them from point A to point B. They see cars as a necessary evil, not something to covet. How’s that for a change in outlook. 

So who cares what these kids think?  We should care a lot because it’s those kids that will pay for our social security benefits, Medicare benefits and many other things that will affect our lives in the future.

Not only should we care what young people think, we need to accept their views and come to terms with how they will change their world because it’s our world too.