Over 55? Beauty Tips for YOU!

BEAUTY TIPS FOR WOMEN OVER 55

(Check out my website Bethcohen.arbonne.com)

1. Use cream-based, not powder-based cosmetics on your face. Powder adds texture to skin that already has developed texture.

2. A good rule of thumb for lipstick is to find a tone that matches the inner lip or gums.

3. Women older than 50 tend to lose definition in their eyebrows. Just go with that. Don’t recreate the brows you had in your 20s.

4. This is a hard one, but do not wear any eye shadow at all (and especially no contour eye shadow in the crease because it gives the appearance of deepening the crease). A little bit of mascara is OK. I use the eye primer for a hint of color. 

5. Tinted moisturizers don’t work. If you’re going to use a foundation to even out skin tone, find one that gives coverage but doesn’t add texture. Be willing to spend money on a foundation and take your time to experiment and find the exact right shade. Matching your skin tone exactly is critical.

Another Day!

Take the good with the bad kind of day today. Let's start with the hashtags...#boyscouthusband #Pfeifferboys #lovemyfamily 

Baked rigatoni was perfect! Packed up all the other parts to our dinner with our kids. So far ok. Right? It's a pretty drive up to Reiglesville on a beautiful day. 

Remember the snow? On a dirt road it makes for mud. Neither one of us remember which is the street to turn off of Rt 212 but, yay!, found it! Then Larry says, "Is that the driveway?" I take that as to turn there. Uh oh! This only leads to the horse stable, no connection to Mike's place. I turn the car around and attempt to surmount the mud at the end. Several tries but our sedan is not an ATV! All 4 wheels caked in mud! Husband now named Mr WRONG, tries. I call and tell Donna our predicament. Mike & Jake trek down to assist. I go pet the very nice horse. More good! With Mike at the wheel, his dad directs him over the drier weeds and out. Jake and I make our way to the lower drive. More mud! I step in a divot and I hear and feel that mud sucking my foot down. At least the ground was soft when I fell. Grandson Jake helped me up. My shoes and socks are soaked. I'm embarrassed I fell. 

BUT! Dinner was great! Had a wonderful afternoon and evening with the kids and grandkids. Heard about cyber school, college plans and amazed at how much better my 16 year old granddaughter is better with makeup than I am! So proud of them all. Love them to bits. We laughed, I teared up a couple times, had fun!

Journey into Abstinence: Step One

Step One of Overeaters Anonymous (adapted from Alcoholics Anonymous)

We admitted we were powerless over food - that our lives had become unmanageable. 

***trigger alert***

This step, personally, is the most important. I cannot eat just one cookie. Or just one piece of chocolate. Or one donut. My self-control gene is lacking! Sometimes I'm a binger: continuing to eat when physically I'm full. I'm an emotional eater: sad or happy, depressed or excited, stressed, you name it. I'm also a "yo-yo" dieter where I follow it faithfully, lose the weight then put it back on and then some. Overall I've probably lost about 1,000 pounds! As a baby or toddler, the extra fat was cute. Now as an adult, it is not pretty and also dangerous. 

Looking at all of my eating habits over the years, I've loved food. It's necessary to survive. I was surviving for three adults the way I was imbibing. One night, 12 days ago, I had made chili. Served it over rice. I tried being healthy using ground chicken, not beef. I ate two portions. Didn't need to. But that night I was uncomfortable. Couldn't sit on the sofa, not even reclining. I drank some seltzer, I don't recall why.  Not five minutes later, I was throwing up. This was not the first time. I sat down and and my grandmother's picture was right there. It was that moment a switch flipped. This may sound silly, you may scoff, but I felt her calming presence. I had to do something.

I talked to my husband, Larry. I told him, I cannot do this anymore. No more sweets, cakes, candy, cookies. I can't handle it. I need to admit it to myself. I was out of control. Then I realized I was living Step One: I admitted I was powerless over food. The next day, I went to my first OA meeting and found the group very accepting. 

I've got a sponsor. We've talked extensively. I send her my meal plan for the day. I measure my food. I have felt so good these past 12 days! It's a momentum that may reach its top all at once or be in peaks and valleys. No matter what, I'll work on my life. 

One meal at a time.

One day at a time. 

Journey Into Abstinence: My Food History

My earliest memories of overeating was as a kid, 6 or 7. Both my mom and her mother, my MomMom were wonderful cooks. I was introduced to all kinds of foods. Thanks to them, I developed a broad palate. Always told to finish what was on my plate. So to make them happy I did. 

As a pre-teen, we took walks down to the Grove. I would spend allowance money on candy. I loved chocolate and thought it was a great thing to buy it myself. At some point, I felt a guilt over buying it and would hide it. I know sneaking food started then. 

In senior high, I was given money for lunch each week. I could buy whatever I wanted. Then there were the fundraisers. Booster club sold the paddle pops, soft pretzels. The school store had cookies and candy. I ate them on the walk home. Sweets and chocolate were huge triggers. When MomMom died when I was 15 I spent that summer of '75 gorging on anything and everything. Everyone was so upset around me. I kept to myself sneaking food up to my room. 

Probably my worst initial binges, always hidden from view, were in college. I was unhappy about my extra weight even though I was told how pretty I was. I think I was jealous of my younger brother who was so skinny my parents prayed he would eat. 

I digress. I would buy whole pizzas and eat them in my room or my car. Then quickly break down the box and toss it. I'd buy hoagies, corned beef specials, Chinese food. Never eaten in the kitchen but upstairs in secret. After college I stopped eating those things because I was working in my parents' store and with them almost 24/7. But I managed to bring in chocolate. I put the empty wrappers in my dresser drawer or between the mattress and box spring. My mom discovered them and we had a tearful and heated discussion/argument. 

In 1977, mom discovered liquid protein diet. She lost 95 pounds in 9 months. She eventually put it all back on, predominantly after my dad was diagnosed with breast cancer, stage 3 in '85. Shortly after that I was invited to an OA meeting by our Cantor's wife. She was my sponsor but I only did the easy things like a meal plan. Never did the 12 steps. 

Fast forward to '89 and my dad passed away. I always had a problem with IBS but it got worse at that time. I wasn't eating much either. No candy, no bad foods. Everything I ate went right through. I lost 50 pounds in 3 months. My mom insisted I go to the doctor. I did, they diagnosed my with Crohn's disease. I was on a strict diet with the threat of hospitalization if I didn't stick to it. I was so very ill. I avoided a perforated colon by a whisker. I was scared!

In that time frame, I met my first husband. I was still following the doctor's food plan with small additions. In 6 months we were engaged and then married. I kept most of the weight off I think because I was afraid to gain any, that he would leave me. We bought a house, had a baby and divorced in 6 years. I moved back home with my mom with Eric. 

I was unhappy with my life. I was unsettled. I went back to sneak eating. I was, after all, in my old bedroom! I fell back to bad habits. I tried WW, Jenny Craig and shakes from Arbonne. I took off weight and put most back on. Nothing I would call significant. 

Right now, even though we are struggling financially, I'm in love with Larry. Nothing like my ex. 

This time around with OA I feel so different. I can stay away from chocolate even with it being in the house. Right now there is no candy here either. If Eric brings it in, it stays in his room. My blood sugars are so improved! In a few weeks I'll get new blood tests done. 

My Journey into Abstinence and OA

I just wanted to say I went last Saturday morning, 2/28/2017, to my first meeting of Overeaters Anonymous in over 25 years! Wonderful group! I'm making a list of my triggers in food. I'm going one meal at a time then work up to one day at a time. I'm definitely good with Step One! I've admitted to myself and one other person that I'm powerless over food.

I've dabbled with blogging, never really kept a journal. So I'm blowing my anonymity. Perhaps one person will read this and seek help as well. Food is a horrible addiction. Getting rid of the sugar dependency will be a struggle. I need this. I need to get my diabetes under control. 

Thanks for listening.

Remember

"Life is a lark at Willow Grove Park". I remember it well. In the early part of the 1900's, my grandmother told me she and family and friends rode the trolley up from South Philly to hear John Philip Sousa play. That's what it's original purpose was; to encourage users of the new suburban trolley lines put in by PTC (before it became SEPTA). 

My parents rode the same trolley up from West Oak Lane in the late 40's and well into the 50's for dates. And how many companies must have had their annual outings there. 

As a kid, I remember riding down Easton Road past the "The Alps" to get a glimpse of people in the cars on the amusement ride. I thought they were so brave! We would go a couple times in the Summer as a treat with visits to Dorney Park in Allentown as well. 

By that time, the Hankin family had owned for many years and built Willow Grove Lanes, the world's largest bowling alley as well as the shopping area across the street. 

Let me see. We had Horn and Hardardts, Snellenberg's, Murphy's 5 & 10, Penn Fruit and what fun the shopping was! It was a treat to go to the automat at H & H and get to put the change in like a big kid. 

So now it's all changed. You can see some of the nostalgia in Willow Grove Mall like the old carousel horses and such. Kids and adults too are glued to their phones looking for pocket monsters, not even interacting with other humans. Makes me sad. 😢

I'm determined to try and create some great memories for my family. Stick to some annual events and hope traditions get carried on. So off to the Hatboro Moonlight Memories this weekend! BBQ nights at our kids' houses. Visits to the Naval Air Base to see the restored planes and helicopters. And just being together. Without the "smart" phones. Just simple, human contact. 👪👩❤️👩👨👨👧👧👨❤️💋👨👩👩👧👦

http://umha.com/pages/willowgrovepark.html This link takes you to the Upper Moreland Historical Society website and the history of the Park.

Breast Practices? Hello Facebook, Listen Up!

I carry the BRCA2 genetic mutation. I am, as well as millions of others worldwide, genetically predisposed to have breast and/or ovarian cancer. Additionally, both men and women have a higher risk of pancreatic and colon cancers and melanoma. 2007 I was one of probably 1000's of women globally who underwent mastectomies to save their lives. Before Rita, before Angelina, before anyone thought much of Facebook as a support system. 

Up until now, there were forums through very few organizations that we could express ourselves. Thank goodness for FORCE, Facing Our Risk of Cancer Empowered (facingourrisk.org). There, we could express our concerns, our joys, our anxieties. Even at their website, there were precious few examples of these surgeries to view. I found consolation and hope there. But what about real life photos in real time where it could be discussed?

Enter Facebook and the ability to have closed, private groups. Plus the policy that allowed photos of breastfeeding AND mastectomies. In case you didn't know, even though the one group that has over 4,500 members in their closed, private status, there are pictures that get reported as inappropriate. 

BRCA Sisterhood was created to be a safe haven to express ourselves and get help during these tragic times. How do we do we accomplish this without putting our own photos out there? In 2007, I wish I had that ability to take a photo and ask other BRCA mutants, "What is that?!"  For some reason, even after been presented with rules and guidelines of the group, some photos are reported, by our own group members! The result is that the Facebook and Group member is prevented from posting at all. 

Now you tell me, Facebook police, how will that member be able to take solace being placed in "jail" so to speak. You have just dashed any spark of light from this woman who was reaching out. Facebook has just denied its own policies because it's being run by robots. Where is the human interaction that is required to review these images? 

I'm saddened and dismayed that Facebook has been so reduced to a jumble of 1's and 0's like any other computer program. In these cases, I think there MUST be human intercession. 

We need more people to write about this problem. Protest! Shout out! Have my blog post and others go viral! 

Thank you! 💐