Turns Out 7 Is Really An Unlucky Number

If anyone missed the Today Show on Wednesday, let me summarize: Your water bottle is going to kill you. I know I might be the easily panicked-typed and I tend to assume worst-case scenarios, but after the segment, I stopped using my water bottle immediately.

The segment reiterated how some plastics are bad for us. We all know this already, right? I never really paid attention to all this because I don’t use plastic that much and the plastic I do use (baby bottles) I never put in the microwave or dishwasher. Well, I did put bottles in the dishwasher at first, but stopped pretty quickly. I am a huge fan of glass ware and have been using Pyrex glass containers for food storage for a decade now. Not because I was scared of plastic, but because I never liked how plastic warped, stained and got all gross. The only plastic I used was my Nalgene water bottle.

The segment clarified what we need to look for on plastic: That little triangle with the number in it, numbered 1 through 7. The evil ones are 3, 6 and 7. The MOST evil one is 7, which is what all of my Nalgenes are. Matt Lauer asked about using a water bottle with a 7 on it and the doctor said “Throw it out.” Ouch. No mincing of words, no equivocation. There goes $50 of Nalgenes that I (and Nicole) have been suing for years. Great. And, now that I think about, one year, Nicole bought dozens and gave one to each of the employees. Now they probably think she was trying to hurt them. I bought one for my mother in law. I gave one to one of my best friends. I bought a mini one for my nephew. I was practically a Nalgene spokesperson.

This morning they did another segment to answer more questions and a different doctor said 3 and 6 are kinda okay, but she would err on the side of caution and not use them. But, she said, backing up what the first doctor said, 7 is evil and stop using 7 immediately.

So yesterday I stopped using my Nalgene and staring just using a glass (so old-fashioned) and today I will go out a buy an aluminum Sigg water bottle. I also went through all of our plastic. We don’t have much but we have lots of baby bottles and plastic sippy cups. The thing that is scary is that most of the girls cups have NO numbers on it. Their bottles have no numbers on it. WTF? I have some Born Free sippy cups and a couple of cups with a “5” on it, which everyone says is completely safe. So that will stay in the Keep pile. Everything else, I’m afraid, is getting tossed into the recyclable bin. I just don’t want to take the chance. I don’t know what to do about the bottles. I am trying to find out what number Avent are. It might be late in the game, but I might just invest in Born Frees or glass for the girls remaining bottle days.

All of this stuff really scares me. Some experts are saying that these leaching chemicals can cause infertility, breast cancer, attention problems, the list goes on and on. But the real damages we won’t know for another twenty years or so, because long-term studies can be conducted on humans, and not just animals. So we won’t know for years and years if there is a problem, and even then, it will take more years for the government to establish regulatory practices. So by the time someone says “Yep, they cause fertility problems and breast cancer” it will be too late for too many. And then, once regulations are re-established, will they be enforced? It’s like the whole lead paint in toys issue: Even though regulations were established toys were still being manufactured with lead paint.

Today is my Gym Day Off and it makes me feel a little uncomfortable, skipping a day. I am that bad, that all-or-nothing, that prone to switch mindsets just because I break a routine. In days gone past (in my 20s) when I skipped d ay at the gym I would punish myself by either not eating ALL DAY except for something tiny like a piece of fruit or I would go to the twice the next day. Fortunately I have moved past those extremes but I still very much have the mindset that I am doing something wrong when I do something like skip a day. As I said ad nauseum, moderation has never been my strong suit, but I am trying to make that suit fit.

Speaking of fitting, my $40 seersucker dress from Target came yesterday and it fits great! I LOVE it! Thank you to the commenter who found it for me. I really don’t think I would have checked Target and might have ended dup spending much more just because I am that set on a family portrait in all seersucker! I owe you!

The Office has a new show tonight!! I am so excited! The preview showed Pam asking a question about dinner which was SO something Nicole would say, right down to the tone. And The Memory Keepers Daughter was made into a Lifetime movie, which will air this Saturday. And I rented There Will Be Blood for Nicole and I to watch at some point, She never saw it and I am excited to see it again. So it is a good TV week.

Pictured above, Miss Madeline and Avery drinking form their “safe” number 5 sippy cups. I have no idea if they are age-appropriate. I put some water in it and tried it myself to see how fast the liquid came out.