Yes- The POWER of YES!

Austin Texas, September 2007

The Power of YES ~ where you were born to go.


Yes~ is to simply cooperate with what is meant for us.
When we are in agreement with ourselves.



Never abandon your talent or forsake your dreams.
From the most inner voice that- from childhood said - YES.



Yes is the perfect harmony in tone, appearance and performance.


Yes is the natural state of flow without being contrived, it is.



YES, include Kathie in your next gathering.

What I did on my Summer Vacation

(Remember this annual assignment?)

What I did on my Summer Vacation
by Kathie Turner

Simple times, family camping and visits to the farm....We fought over who got to collect the eggs. One summer we cleaned chickens. (That will be appreciated only by those who have actually cleaned chickens!) We saw everything from Disney World to Hoover Dam, the Black Hills and I remember Paul Bunion. I got fools gold and sea shells. Blankets over the clothes line to make tents in the rain while we ate peanut butter and jelly sandwiches.
Were your summers this great?

************************************************************************************

Assignment: Summer Vacation 2007
Self Improvement with Class

Regress. Enroll now!

Back to school and everyone seems to have the healthy glow of a warm summer suntan and I am as pale as a ghost. Without the mask of parched skin I see the age spots on my hands, blue veins etched across my legs and love handles muffin’d across the top of my hip-hugger,~~ you’ve got to be kidding me,~~ jeans.

Am I feeling healthy? One summer out of the sun to see what's really happening has been great. Besides, I had the right attitude when I saw this picture! Way too much of a good thing.


SCORCHED!

Sign me up and lay out the curriculum. I go back to school and learn all I can about how aging elements have conspired to take me down. Education is key, use every advance in medicine, cosmetics, nutrition and the Big Guns~ laser light technology!

Time and gravity make a worthy opponent, play to win and give up nothing. But at what cost?

I am told no less than 5 times a week I look like Michelle Pfeiffer. I am flattered yes, yes, yes... and by now I can finish the sentence. That many people can’t tell the same lie so it must be at least somewhat true. All the same I am keeping this low key, dollars to donuts, she’s not often told how much she looks like Kathie Turner.
We’ll be fine if she is satisfied to be Cat Women and leaves me to be, well, Kat.

Michelle Pfeiffer, "Cat Women"...... Kathie Turner, not

Actually I love that all the advantages Michelle and other stars have are available to all of us!

When I was working in the broadcast news business I would see in the trades, primary network anchors out for “Plastics.” Who cares, it is a matter of maintenance. Some can budget more than others but from a bright healthy smile to glowing skin we take every advantage available. No different than staying in shape and manicured. This is just more a long term investment. Anywhere from several months to permanent benefits. It is smart and we feel better when we are at our best.

I remember my parents seeing famous people I grew up with on TV and commenting, "he's getting up there." Now we generally comment on how great people look and how we are not like our surrendered parents' generation with frumpy middle-aged resignation.

I am the spokesperson, storyteller, been-there-done-that girl so I must have first hand knowledge. I of course do this for you.

At the moment my legs are between laser hair removal, spider vein removal and fat dissolve. My face has been zapped with laser treatments for the rejuvenation of collagen and even hair removal for the now errant strays that have sprouted like timbers across my chin. I am, in short, a Grandma. Dang!


The good news is I know my limits. I will not wear a bikini. You are welcome.




Fear not my aging friends.
Dress code is optional!
Some of you have gone too far now…


In fact, the object for me now is discretion.

Notice all the on lookers have a bit of a tummy. Now this is where the “law of extremes” comes into play. If you stand next to someone outrageous you will draw no particular attention. This Grandma is a Super Star with cameras popping at her every step.

Back to the story!
What I did over Summer Vacation!

Day One
Attack Enemy #1. Wrinkles, lines I am not fine with.
Botox.
Some call it the “11’s.” Those nasty furrowed lines between your brows that make us look like we are scowling, unhappy or have a negative attitude. Also, around the eyes, because every time we use those muscles we further deepen the wrinkles.

Blow them out with BOTOX. Almost immediate gratification. Takes 5-10 minutes, improves gradually over the first 3 days of injection and lasts for months. I go in every 3-4 months or when I start to see the need.

People won’t know why you look like you’re happy. They’ll guess you lost weight, you’re in love or business must be great!

Sona occasionally has a Botox Saturday set up to be efficient and fit into your busy “to do list.” If you want to be informed on the schedule send an e-mail to Houston@sonamedspa.com asking to be added to our e-newsletter distribution list.


Restylane: A first for me but it makes the maintenance list without a doubt.
I did it in the upper lip to balance to the size of my lower lip. Turns out to be a double blessing. It minimized the little lines I installed while smoking all those years. I kicked it long ago but not without some lasting reminders of my stupidity. (Scroll down for a Restylane story you may want to read.) Sometimes people call this filler. If you can’t imagine what I mean, look in the mirror and see if you have any little lines that you would like to just plump up and fill in.

The Laser Hair Removal. Now that I have had this a second time I am appreciating the process. It all falls out after about 2 weeks and then as our hair growth cycles, it will emerge again. That is why 5 treatments are required to make it permanent. The second time they took a reading with the Chroma-tester it revealed a much lighter skin tone. That is because I have stayed out of the sun- really. I can’t believe how seriously I have taken my commitment to turn my body over for a solid year.

Now here is a tip if you go to this length, or just don’t care about these things until you have to go somewhere and have wimpy looking white legs. There is a product, (Sue Devitt, Liquid Gold Coast - Oil Free- Bronzing Glow) you can buy at Sephora and it is like make-up for your body, not your face. It goes on like a golden rich liquid and gives you a fabulous tanned look. The draw-back is that while they say it won’t rub off and soil your clothes,…. It does.
But it washed out and so I recommend using it with caution and the right outfit.

OTHER… Hair Removal. Well as Noel Halgreen says, they can remove hair anywhere you shave. That may be a back, chest, arms, under arms or the bikini area. I can tell you that the bikini area is great because it eliminates shaving a tender area and the little bumps and even ingrown hair. But of course it has to be darker than the surrounding skin and that means people with blond or gray hair will not be candidates. I have 2 tips. Make sure you stay out of the sun for at least 2 weeks if not longer before you do it and do it before you are gray!

The laser facial treatment- I have now had 3 treatments and I am pretty much done with that but it will be up to 6 months before the full results can be a seen. If the collagen is rebuilding as I am told it will, I will consider that the best thing rivaling Botox for top billing. It is deeper and that is good but at the same time if you can stop the muscles from those repetitive moves you stop perpetuating the wrinkles. Perfect marriage, one repairs the damage and the other arrests the cause.

Spider Vein removal. I can’t wait! I have only had one treatment. My legs aren’t great but if I can wear shorts and skirts without pantyhose it will be the first time in many years. That’s half the reason I like to have some tan, just to minimize the spider veins. The first treatment has broken down the deep purple color of the largest cluster and I think the second one will take a bigger step towards my goal. They are timed so the blood in the zapped veins can be absorbed and dissipate.

It's late I am tired and way past the days of the all-nighter. Well, anyway it's time for the news. The rest of the story will wait. It is after all a process.

By the way- I will have an assignment for you soon. Get ready.

"Lust, Liberation, and Fat"

I just spent a week with my parents in Omaha and timed the trip around my son Brandon’s band, The Steed, touring the Midwest. My 81-year-old mother, or my son’s Hip Grandma Bunny, went to listen to the Rock Alternative and loved it. She dances to Polka music in the kitchen every morning… are you developing a picture here? She is, by the way, bored with magazines these days as they all seem to talk about looking young, bla, bla, bla and I think, “wow, that must be true”. I will feel the same way when I get to my 80’s, but for now I will try to stay healthy and diligent with sunscreens and good practices…

I mentioned I was going to have the LipoDissolve procedure this week and she gave me the anticipated… “Why, you don’t have any fat?” In truth, I don’t have enough of an issue to worry about, and many don’t, but there is always that area that you just can’t target easily. Anyway, I need to describe these treatments and I do have some dreaded areas of irritation. I am honestly irritated, first by own lack of discipline, and then of course there is time and gravity. But take a look at the legs… it was just a mere 20 years ago. Where are they now? Drat!

So… I was raised Catholic, went to church 6 days a week and my mother was married by 4 priests and a Bishop. (Yes, I have lots of childhood material….) Now she is watching, nearly round the clock, the Catholic TV Station. Did you know they had one?

It’s Bishop Sheen in an old black and white show from the 50s. I am drawn in by his casual manner and humor. He sets everything up, lays it out and ties in genuine humor. Just when you forgot who he was… he hits it out of the park with “LUST“. He was talking about how we blow through life with little regard for the season and then later lust for our youth. His brilliance is timeless, and so is his message. This is before cosmetic surgeries and procedures, Botox and Retin-A products. Doesn’t matter, our sense of loss is timeless and universal. To “Look & Feel Young” is priceless. There you have it; it’s all about how you feel.

I get together with my great friend Jeannie talking about aging parents, I lament; the loss of awareness and faculties seems unfair. To work at being better all your life and then in these years things start slipping. She always says the right thing. “It’s not about how we are in our old age, it’s about the legacy we’ve created”.

Then she laughs and says, ”Finally, after all these years, I can find my cheekbones, I feel liberated!” My mother in her 80’s, liberated from the superficial and Jeannie finds her cheekbones…

Jeannie has lost over 100 lbs., more than once. The rest of the conversation wrapped around all the cosmetic stuff - what works and where to focus etc… I tell her what I am about to tell you, “Fat can be dissolved with the right cocktail injection.”

Jeannie has another 30 lbs. to go, and I have a few inches.

Go in to Sōna MedSpa for a consultation. They identify the areas to make sure you have enough fat to work with, describe the treatment and how to prepare. For me, it is the upper inside of the thighs, tummy and the infamous “saddlebags”. Do you believe I am revealing this to you? I shudder as I type.

Now, they will tell you it is 6 times on 2-week intervals, and it hurts. It is good that they tell you, so you can make a better decision with no surprises.

Remember - No alcohol before you go, because it thins the blood.

Bring in a restrictive garment to wear out of the office. They recommend Spanx, but Top Drawer Lingerie, (Up Town Park between Woodway and Post Oak,) has it, as well as a product they say is better -The Body Wrap -so that’s what I take with me. Very cool, seamless flow, not your mama’s girdle! You will need that because it is going to bloat or swell in the area that is treated, and this helps with the “comfort” in the first 48 hours.

When you go in for the treatment, they will weigh you, not that it is a weight loss treatment, but just to monitor every aspect of this. They’ll mark off the area with a white soft pencil and they’ll take “before” pictures.

You pop up on the bed and they will give you the injections (shots) in a grid- type formation, about 1/2 inch apart. Now, that’s a lot of shots, yes…but it goes pretty fast, though. They will pinch the skin to pull it up for the shot and that also reduces some of the smarts of the needle. I found the more fat, the less it hurts. As they go closer to the area nearing the hipbone with less fat it seemed a little more intense.

Finished, after pictures, girdled and out the door with instructions not to take a hot bath for 48 hours. Cool showers at first. You will bloat and bruise for several days.

Drink lots of water. They like FIJI, because it has silica that helps the fat bond and leave the body more efficiently. They give you a sample of 1% Hydrocortisone and of course you likely have something at home - not Neosporin, but Polysporin is recommended for the tiny needle injections, if you want, as an antibiotic-type topical.

As I leave the office the girls at the front desk all chime in with where they did it and how it works. One says, “You will be miserable for a couple of days and have some bruising.” But, she says, it’s so worth it. Now after 2 treatments she has lost 3 inches. She is ecstatic! If I haven’t told you before, I love these ladies. All of them are just fun, smart and caring.

I come home, ready to just be in terrible shape, wishing I had been better about keeping in shape. I’ll never eat another donut, I resolve to get serious. I toss the chocolate and pull out my list of resolutions.

I took Tylenol PM and went to bed. I Woke up with some, but not that much, swelling. It looks like a cake when you take it out of the oven, kind of higher in the center. It is just rounded fullness in the area of injections. It doesn’t hurt unless I tap or hit that area and the bruising is quite minimal. Everybody is different, but for the first 24 hours I can tell you it is the actually experience, and after that it is just one more little thing in life to go through in order to get there.

Relieved, I put away the resolution list until ‘08 and think about what to wear tonight that is a bit more forgiving.

My nurse is 25, funny, beautiful and bright, just married 3 months. She came to Sōna after working in the Pediatric ICU. This is a much happier place, as you would imagine. We laugh and crack up basically through the whole thing. I am a bit of a baby but make fun of myself and anyone standing outside the door would wonder what’s so funny in there.

Now as if it were not enough that I share my fat story, I will even share the pictures when we can see the before and after…. Liberation! That’s if the shame of it all isn’t too much to BARE.

Sorry, But Sometimes Age Does Matter

I went in to the Galleria area Sōna MedSpa for a quick 15-minute procedure. It was my second time to have laser hair removal on my facial areas. The desire to remove hair has lead many women to waxing, tweezers, and well, shaving with razors.

The procedure, gets rid of the hair with laser treatments that targets the hair follicle and disables it with a simple zap of laser light.

Treatments are done in timed intervals to catch the growth pattern of hair for a permanent result.

Get Ready-
1. Avoid Retine-A products for at least 2 weeks before you go in for most laser procedures so keep that in mind when you schedule.
2. Tell them if you are on medications when you schedule to determine your timing eligibility.
3. Stay out of the sun and away from tanning beds for two weeks before your treatments. Even spray and lotion tanning are off limits. The laser light looks for melanin in your skin and tanning increases the amount of melanin in your skin.
4. Shave the area before you go in or you can do it there.

The Nurse-
1. Like a photographer, they will use a small light meter instrument called a "chromotester" to read the color tone of your skin to calibrate the settings for your procedure and to make sure that the melanin in your skin meet the requirments for a safe laser treatment.
2. Applies a clear, cool gel used for ultra sounds to allow the instrument to flow smoothly across your skin during the procedure.
3. Provides goggles for both of you.
4. Apply a hose of cold air and the laser to the desired area. The cold air is worse then the laser-so how bad is that? She will also use a pop-cycle stick or tongue depressor to cover your nose so cold air doesn’t spray you.

Takes about 5 minutes and you are done. You wipe off the jell and walk out the door with the list of after care instructions.

Are you ready? Don’t shave for a couple days. NO problem! Actually, it is common sense stuff like don’t exfoliate for a few days, etc.

So what is my point, my 51-year-old point about age does matter? Well, as we mature our hair often loses some of its "depth" (we go grey...). So, the laser is looking for melanin (which gives your hair color) and if your hair has lightened in color, the laser will not be effective on that hair follicle and you’re stuck with it.

What to Do? Go do this while you are young and avoid all the waxing, shaving, and tweezing and such. Wait and you will always deal with some of those pesky light-in-color and course-in-texture hairs.

These defining signs of time are not in themselves enough to take you down, but whiskers are for men and cats. I surrender.

See a video on laser hair removal at this link: Laser Hair Removal