What your parents share

Did you know, you get your ability to lose weight from your mom? 

But, how easily you gain weight is something you get from your dad's side.

Your ability to focus, or lack thereof, is because of your mom's genes.

If you hit puberty early, that's your dad's fault.

How well you age and how much you show it come from genes you only get from your mom.

Also, your mood(iness) is more likely to be passed down from mothers to daughters. 

The sex of your children comes from your dad's genes.

The genetic risk of Alzheimer's comes from your mother.

A woman's fertility is inherited from her father.

And debunking an old myth, your hairline is determined by both your parents, not just your mom's!

Aging

When did I become an old person? Older person. Oh, a "mature" person. A senior citizen. What? I've started getting mail from our benefits department about my milestone birthday. Hold up there people!! I know they do that to prepare for you for getting ready for retirement and Medicare. It's still weird.

A long time ago I saw a little sign that said, How old would you be if you didn't know how old you are? That's a fun question. I think I'm still in my 40's somewhere. In my head. Now, my body is a different story! My body says, yep, definitely not 40's! I guess this is when things start to wear out. I'm ok with that as long as it doesn't hurt. I suspect that's why some 'seniors' are grumpy...they have chronic pain. That would suck. I injured my back putting up the Christmas tree, and for 2 MONTHS it hurt me. It's exhausting to be in pain all the time. 

It takes longer to do things. Physical and thinking things. I saw some dumb humorous story about old people and bird watching - that when you're younger you could care less about the birds in your backyard. Then I realized, well of course! When you're young, you're busy making a life for yourself...taking care of your kids/spouse/partner. You don't have the time to watch the birds, or smell the roses.  That's the part of getting older that I like. Now I have the time to do those things. Watch the birds. Watch the snow when it falls. Take leisurely walks. Spend more time cooking and trying new recipes. Reading. Learning new hobbies.  

My brother said he misses all his friends getting together and the big parties at holidays and game days. Now everyone has moved away or they just don't do those kinds of parties anymore. I told him, of course not, they're all old now! You've already had that kind of fun. You can't party forever. It's a pain in the butt. Move on! "Fun" becomes something different when you get older. Lots of mature people find out that they like things they never knew they liked! Like reading, or doing puzzles, or cooking, or sewing, or gardening! Lots of mature people find out that doing some kind of volunteer work, gives them purpose. 

As long as you're in good health, getting older is pretty great.

the body

 If you have Disney + and you're interested in the body and brain, living longer and being healthy, you should watch the NatGeo series, Limitless. Not just because it's Thor either. Although that was nice :-)

I'm pretty sure they picked him because he's a good age for this series and of course because he is really physically fit...not just because he's Thor! Anyway, it's really fascinating. 6 episodes. And if you're over 50, the last episode is amazing. My fella and I had conversations all day about that one.

food. glorious food

Dieting is hard. SO hard. Some people have had to diet their whole lives. I used to feel sorry for them. I don't anymore. At least they know how to do it! If you never had to watch what you ate and now you do, it's hard. SO hard. It's hard not to overeat. It's hard to give up the things that are unhealthy. Also, I don't like carrots. What is there to snack on? Oh...you're not supposed to snack. I like snacking. No, that's not right. I love snacking. I could just snack alllll day! And throw in a salad here and there. Dieting is SO hard. I'm having success but still. Take last Friday for instance. I was needing some happy food. So I went to a place called Fat Dan's. Great name, right?! Anyway, they have a dish called Dirty Tots. OMG!!! Tater tots covered in melted cheese, hot sauce, green onions and BBQed pulled pork. I'm not gonna lie, best. food. ever! And I was happy. Super duper happy! But there isn't a single thing that's healthy about that dish. Dammit! If I were a normal person, I would've just eaten like 5 or 6 of those suckers. That's not what happened though. I ate almost every single one. I thought I would feel guilty. Nope. Well, maybe a smidge. I did walk on the treadmill extra over the weekend. Why don't they make serving sizes for normal people. No one ever sits down to watch a movie and says, oh goodie, let me eat these 9 chips now. Dumb. Just say, right on the bag, 1 serving is 1/2 the bag and if you eat a whole serving, you might die. There. That makes more sense. And who in the hell eats a 1/4 cup of rice?! What is that, 3 bites? Dieting is SO hard. Oh ok, it is getting a little easier. Honestly though, all the best healthy food is expensive and labor intensive to make. It does make you more mindful about what you eat. Still, dieting is SO hard. 

guns and death

Yesterday, a landmark, historic settlement was made by the gun manufacturer, Remington. In a suit claiming that the gun manufacturer is responsible for a massacre/mass shooting, it settled out of court for $73 million dollars.

It's a slippery slope, isn't it? No matter what side of the issue you're on. I've had several questions, as a casual news reader. One is, why did they settle instead of go to trial? Did they think they would lose? Did they settle because if they lost it would set a precedent, which would be bad for other gun manufacturers. Now that they've reached a settlement out of court will other gun manufacturers be targeted? The other thing that was really curious to me was, even though this was "breaking news" when it happened, I couldn't find a single headline about it in any news outlet that was in even the top 10! USA Today, Fox News, NY Times, MSN...The way the media covers anything about guns and gun control and the 2nd amendment is so aggressive, I just don't understand why they didn't have a million words to say about this?!!?

Gun related deaths in the US topped 45,000 during the pandemic. (There was a spike in homicides.) Is that a moral issue or a gun issue?

I didn't/don't follow this case but I gathered that part of the suit against them was how they market their firearms. That made me wonder, why is it ok for Anheuser-Busch to market (target) a young audience?

Did you know, drunk drivers cause more than one third of all traffic related deaths. Alcohol related deaths, ie excessive alcohol use, is responsible for more than 95,000 deaths each year. Who is responsible? The drunk driver, the bartender who served them, the alcohol maker, the store they purchased that alcohol from?

According to CDC statistics, drug overdoses  accounted for over 91,000 deaths. Is that a health issue or a big pharma issue? What about the doctors that prescribe the drugs?

Cigarette smoking is estimated to cause 480,000 deaths annually. 

Where is the outrage, exactly??

Crisis Fatigue

Have you heard of Crisis Fatigue. It's a real thing. It's sounds pretty self explanatory.

Here's a pretty good article about Crisis Fatigue. It explains what is actually happening to your body.

https://www.wired.com/story/crisis-fatigue/

It's interesting. I suspect that there are A LOT of people in the world suffering from it. On different levels but still. I am. And it's exhausting. Also, there's something called the 'quarantine 15!' It's about weight gain during the pandemic. 

https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/blog/the-right-mindset/202003/what-is-quarantine-15

That seems pretty normal to me. If you can't go anywhere or do anything, what else is there? Eating or drinking. Or both! I've definitely been drinking more. I know I'm doing it too...and I don't care. HA!

Virus movie

On December 31, Wuhan confirmed that they were treating dozens of  pneumonia of unknown cause.
On January 11, they reported their first death.
On January 20th, the first confirmed case in the US.
On January 23rd, Wuhan, a city of more than 11 million was cut off.
On January 30th, the W.H.O. declared a global health emergency.
On January 31st, Trump restricted travel from China
On February 2nd, the first death outside of China, was reported. 
Think about that for a second.
On February 7th, the Chinese doctor who tried to raise the alarm, died.
On February 14th, France announces its first coronavirus death.
On February 23rd, Italy sees a major surge in cases and officials lock down towns.
On February 26th, Latin America reports its first case
On February 28th, Africa reports its first case
On February 29th, the US records its first coronavirus death
On March 11th, Trump blocks most visitors from Europe
On March 13th, Trump declares a national emergency.
On March 17th, France imposes a nationwide lock down
On March 19th, China reports zero new infections
On March 23rd, Britain locks down.
On March 24th, India lock down
On March 26th, the US leads the world in confirmed cases.
On April 4th, the CDC recommends that all Americans wear cloth masks if they go out in public.

It took 67 days to reach 100,000 cases in the US. That was March 27th. 5 days later the US had 200,000 cases. It only took 3 more days for the US to reach 300,00 cases. Today, 4 days later, we've reached 400,000. Staggering, and scary shit for sure!

Virus movie worthy. Dammit.

Nutrition

Here's what I've learned about eating well and nutrition....don't eat.

Sodium is bad for you.
Sugar is bad for you.
Carbs are bad for you.
Processed foods are bad for you.
Too much, is bad for you.
Not enough, is bad for you.
Really, just stop eating!

Half your plate should be vegetables. 1/4 should be protein and 1/4 should be carbs.
Try to do 80% of your shopping on the perimeter of the store, where all the fresh foods are, and 20% of your shopping in the middle, where all the processed foods are.

Here is something else I discovered, when we're on vacation, we eat a lot less. Mostly because we don't snack. And I guess, we're too busy to be boredom eaters.

Also, we very rarely eat fast food. Some people eat out, 2, 3, 4 times a week! I would rather eat at home and/or pack my lunch.

Aaaand, if I'm going to a burger joint, I'm going for the burger. Period. Don't tell me to order a salad. Seriously. If I HAD to do that, I just wouldn't go. Geez!

All of that said, we ate a lot better when we were kids. If you're over 40, did you have chips and/or cookies in your house all the time?? We didn't. There was no such thing eating because you were bored. You didn't eat if you were stressed, you smoked. Or drank. Or both! 

We ate real food too. Butter, sugar, Crisco, eggs.

Interesting.

doomed

According to this article, I'm doomed.

The First Warning Sign of Alzheimer's May Surprise You 

Maria Carter6/16/2016

This problem crops up long before any clinical diagnosis of the disease.

We've all heard the stories of the grandma who got lost on her way home from the grocery store, or the great uncle who relies on GPS for the drive to his weekly doctor's appointment, but now there's research to back up the anecdotal evidence that trouble finding your way around may indicate a much bigger problem.

Problems navigating new surroundings crop up before memory loss, and long before any clinical diagnosis of the disease, according to a recent study published in the Journal of Alzheimer's Disease. 

Researchers at Washington University in St. Louis asked study participants to use patterns and landmarks to make their way through a maze on a computer, the Huffington Post reports. The individuals were divided into three groups: early-stage Alzheimer's patients, undiagnosed people with early markers for Alzheimer's (considered "preclinical Alzheimer's"), and a control group of clinically normal people. The study showed that individuals with preclinical Alzheimer's had more difficulty learning the locations of objects.

"These findings suggest that the wayfinding difficulties experienced by people with preclinical Alzheimer's disease are in part related to trouble acquiring the environmental information," said senior author Denise Head, associate professor of psychological and brain sciences.

While Head cautioned that the study has limitations, she explained that navigational tasks that assess cognitive mapping strategy "could represent a powerful tool for detecting the very earliest Alzheimer's disease-related changes in cognition."

I am one of the most directionally challenged people I know! When I come out of a building or even a store in the mall, about 1/2 the time, I turn the wrong way. I never know where I am. I've been like that all my life! Damn, I'm doomed!!

Hopeful

Let's talk about migraines again. Migraines suck! My biggest trigger is weather. Whenever there's a big change, BAM! December and January were horrible for me. I had a migraine in January that lasted for FOUR days. I was this close to going to the emergency clinic! It was awful. 
After that, I decided to do some more research on holistic remedies. My Rx works well but it makes me feel weird. That can't be good, can it? Anyway, I've already tried several over the counter things. I've also changed my sleeping habits on the weekend. You know, instead of sleeping in, I get up around 7:30 or 8:00. I think that helped a little! Then I read something new...it said that if you take a vitamin B complex, it could reduce your migraines by up to 40%. Yeah, yeah, could and up to are suspicious. But what the hell, it can't hurt, right? Sooooo, it's been 3 weeks. I thought I was going to have a migraine a couple times, but I took some Tylenol and what do you know? It went away. Three weeks without a migraine. It's making me happy, real happy! I'm hopeful for sure.

Now for something completely different. Look at this funny ring;

Rawr means, I love you, in dinosaur. LOL. I had to have it - super cute :-)

random things...

I love this story. It says that if you have a potty mouth, you are a more honest person than most!
Yay!!

http://www.msn.com/en-us/health/wellness/people-who-swear-may-be-more-honest-than-those-with-a-less-colorful-vocabulary/ar-BBxRoIQ?li=BBnb7Kz

I LOVE this story. It's a bout a teen boy who wore a suit to meet his newborn neice, because first impressions matter. How awesome is this guy????

http://www.wthr.com/article/ohio-teen-wears-suit-to-meet-baby-niece-because-first-impressions-matter

And this story?? It tells me that my salt craving isn't just a random thing. It's in my genes!

http://www.msn.com/en-us/health/nutrition/craving-salt-your-genes-may-be-the-reason-study-suggests/ar-AAkfaSx?li=BBnb2gg

The most annoying word of 2016? For the 8th straight year, it's...........whatever.

And now that 2016 is over, you should check out the Washington Posts data base on police shootings for the year. I suspect that the results were surprising to a lot of people. 

https://www.washingtonpost.com/graphics/national/police-shootings-2016/

It says that 963 people were shot and killed, by the police, in 2016. 465 of them were white, 233 of them were black. There were 22 unarmed white men killed by police and 17 unarmed black men. Interesting. I wonder why we aren't talking about the 963 people killed by police, as a total number, instead of by race? Don't you wonder? 

I didn't get it

There was so much I wanted to say about this article, but at the same time, I can't say anything. It was really tough for me to get through and I had to stop and start 3 times just to finish it. 

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/dear-every-cancer-patient-i-ever-took-care-of-im_us_58348345e4b050dfe61876d7

choppers

I hate my teeth. As a matter of fact, someday I'm going to want to have a conversation with our maker about teeth. Honestly, couldn't they have been made out of something better?? Something impervious to life. Your teeth are SO important. Not just to your survival either. If you have ugly teeth, people think you're a hillbilly. Or homeless. Often, a beautiful smile will be someones first impression of you. What if you were born with crappy teeth? That are just never gonna look good unless you're willing to spend thousands and thousands of dollars on them. If they were just made better, you wouldn't have to worry about that. 

I brought this up because I recently had to have a tooth pulled - a bottom molar. It sucks. It's a lot more challenging than you think, to just eat on one side. It's tiresome. Only 1/2 your mouth gets flavor. And don't even get me started on those stitches that my tongue can't stay away from! Ewww.

But even after the stitches are gone, it'll be five MONTHS before they can do the implant! Seriously sucks! With all the mind blowing, fantastic, unbelievable medical advances, they can't find a better way to preserve your teeth? 

Humph.

whew!

So, my guy finally had surgery on his first messed up foot.

See how there is hardly any space between those joints?

That's because there isn't any cartilage left! Ewww. So, besides the bone spurs on the tops of his toes, the bones are just rubbing together all the time. Ya know, it's funny to me with all this technology and medical advancements, that they haven't found anything to replace cartilage? Anyway...

Here is the after picture!

The first few days were pretty rough - not on my guy. He got some crazy nerve block that didn't wear off for 3 days. No, the first few days were rough on ME! Geez! And crutches were just NOT going to work for him. Thank heavens for these!!

It's called a knee scooter. Uh huh. It's awesome! This made him oh so happy :-) Which was nice for me too.

Today was even better...he got his stitches out. Ahhhhh. Now his foot can be free again! Yes, it was a problem. I didn't know people got foot claustrophobia! Lordy.

No, no it's not normal...

Look at the difference between a normal foot and a NOT normal foot;

See that one on the left? That's mine. That ugly other foot? That belongs to my guy. See how wonky his toes are? Ewwww. 

Well all of that is about to change! This coming Friday, he's finally having surgery on his foot to fix all that. Because he doesn't have any cartilage left in the joint of his big toe, they are going to fuse it to his foot bone. That means they're going to bend it up and screw a plate underneath, to his toe and foot bone. So it'll be stuck in one position permanently. I don't know. That seems so weird. But hey, at least he won't be in pain alllll the time! Crutches for 4 weeks. 

It's going to be a challenging month for both of us.   :-\

Hooray for life!

HOORAY!
Bill just passed his 3 year check up, cancer free!
His fantastic doctor was a little (happily) surprised, which didn’t really make Bill feel better. But then he told Bill that considering the amount of cancerous cells in his biopsies, he was pleasantly surprised that his tests are still coming back negative – but since they are, he doesn’t anticipate any more issues. Nice!

He gets on my last nerve sometimes but I’m glad I get to keep him  xoxoxoxoxo

Wacky local news

Just let me say, before you read this, I SWEAR I didn't make it up!

Braco the Gazer stares into the crowd of about 125 people gathered at the Ritz Charles in Carmel, each paying $8 to have the Croatian sensation stare at them (while standing in a group). Some return for multiple sessions, which run hourly from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. on Wednesday, June 26, 2013. He stood on a brightly lit stage and slowly moved his stare back and forth for several minutes while soft melodic music played. Charlie Nye / The Star.

t

I guess if you REALLY feel like you want to know more about him, click on;

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/06/13/braco-the-gazer_n_3428316.html

Be warned however, it's not for skeptics! Mwahahahahahaha 

WOOHOO!!!!

Today, my Mom has been CANCER FREE for FIVE YEARS!!!!!

Love you Mom!!
xoxoxoxoxoxoxox

It's a wonderful life!

Happy Anniversary Mom!

xoxoxoxoxoxoxox  I love you  xoxoxoxoxoxox

celebrating!

Tomorrow is a big celebration day for us...it marks the one year anniversary of Bill's surgery and becoming, officially, cancer free :-) Yesssssssssssssssssssssss!
He has tomorrow and Friday off because he's still trying to use up some vacation time, so I'm going to take tomorrow off and treat him to all his favorite things.
Donuts in morning
His favorite sushi place for lunch
Pizza for dinner
and ice cream!
And anywhere he wants to go in between all that caloric intake.
I even bought him a (little) bag of corn nuts and I'll let him eat them in the house. I don't usually because I think they STINK! But I'll suck it up...tomorrow only.
I hope he has a great day!