Looking for People over 50 that need to lose weight
momhealthac
Posts: 100 Member
I am 54 and it has been very tough for me this past year. Getting back on track but would love to have others who struggle with being older and still having to lose weight.
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Hi. We are in the same boat. Let's struggle together. Starting my diet today. Wish me luck!0
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Hi ladies! My name is Rae and I just turned 55 this month. I've had a rough year and a half with serious health issues, but I'm ready to get my health and stamina back for good. I've been on MFP since mid-January and have lost about 12 pounds. It's a slow loss, but going in the right direction.
Happy to join you and motivate each other! Feel free to send me a friend request or personal message.0 -
Hi everyone.
I want to be fabulous and I will. We all will be fab
and healthy . Looking forward not backward. Feel free also to friend me .0 -
Hi... I'm 56 and have been doing MFP since the beginning of Feb. I lost 18 lbs. then Easter hit and I've been off-track since then. I haven't stepped on a scale since because I think I gained it all back.
Really want to begin again and go forward!! 0 -
Hi everyone. I'm well over 50 and have been with MFP since mid-January. This is a great way to get the support we need on our weight loss journey. I've lost, gained a couple and lost again, but can't seem to get past that certain point. I'm a stress eater, and have a very busy life so often snack, eat fast or eat on the run. Would like to "restart" and see some success. Would be happy to join this group. Feel free to friend me also.0
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Hello, I'm 57 and have been doing MFP since December 2014. Since then, I have lost 22 pounds and have about 40 to go to reach my goal weight. Already feel much better eating healthier foods, staying away from most heavily processed stuff, getting more sleep, and actively dealing with life stresses. I am enjoying being more active, especially with walking, hiking, and gardening. There have certainly been some ups and downs since December and the support of others here on MFP has been a major part of the overall success of this journey.0
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I'm 62 and feeling a tiny bit optimistic about losing the 20 lbs. I'd like to lose. I was beginning to think it was impossible but have lost 4 pounds in a week from keeping track and getting more active. Seeing my calories in black and white seems to give me a framework to go by. Eating less seems to give me more energy. Maybe it's all psychological and it will get ridiculously hard again soon. (not that it's EASY now)
I'm a yoga and meditation teacher - which should help - but, for some reason, being mindful and aware in other areas of my life doesn't keep me from binging or eating things I know are unhealthy and have tons of empty calories.
Looking forward to sharing with people. I don't feel like talking about any of this with anyone in my life. They've all heard it a gazillion times before.1 -
The scale has kind to me today. I lost 3lbs this week. I made some good changes this week and it seems to help. Keeping the carb's at bay and increasing exercise. Making an actual deficit in my numbers is encouraging.1
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Hi I just joined the 50+ club last month. I decided it was time I made a few changes for a more healthier lifestyle. I joined 5 days ago. I tried other weight loss programs as Weight Watchers and E-diets, but I could never stick with them. I weigh more now than before I started any of the diets. Your posts are very encouraging.0
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Went to my oldest granddaughter's 9th birthday party - at a karaoke place. It was lots of fun and I was encouraged by seeing lots of food and only eating the things I'd chosen ahead of time from the menu and entered into my food diary. Being in a place with lots of good food accessible is usually a diet killer for me.
I have a barbeque with friends coming up on Wed. evening. Already gearing up for battle. Any helpful suggestions for dealing with that kind of situation?0 -
AEPHubinc2015 wrote: »Went to my oldest granddaughter's 9th birthday party - at a karaoke place. It was lots of fun and I was encouraged by seeing lots of food and only eating the things I'd chosen ahead of time from the menu and entered into my food diary. Being in a place with lots of good food accessible is usually a diet killer for me.
I have a barbeque with friends coming up on Wed. evening. Already gearing up for battle. Any helpful suggestions for dealing with that kind of situation?
I run into this all the time! If it is a potluck, I make a big healthy veggie salad and eat a lot of my own food with maybe some small amounts of other things. With a bbq, there is usually some lean meat options so you could eat the protein like a burger without the bun or a piece of chicken. Even if it's not a potluck, I will often bring some healthy salad or appetizer and eat a lot of that myself along with small amts of other things. Limit yourself to one beer or wine or cocktail and drink lots of water. Have fun!!!!!0 -
Happy Sunday ladies!! Today is a glorious day and I've made some great healthy choices today. Went for a 3 mile walk with friends along the riverfront this morning. One of my friends gave me some tomato starts so I came home and worked in the garden this afternoon. Healthy food choices for breakfast and lunch and plans coming together for a healthy dinner. Hope everyone else is doing fabulous today!!0
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How long have you been at this, RaeBeeBaby?
I've been here for about 10 days and woke up to a less enthusiastic mood about it this morning than I've been feeling for the past 10 days. Not a good sign since I really want to make this a lifestyle change for the duration and not a "diet".
I have a vague long term goal of losing 25 pounds in the background and a few more present short term goals:
1. Sticking to 1200-1300 (healthy) calories a day
2. Adding some more cardio-type exercise to the 2 hours of yoga I do a week (I teach 4 classes a week but can only really claim 30 minutes of yoga in each class since I spend a bunch of time making adjustments with my students and guiding them through seated meditation.
3. Becoming accustomed to portion control.
I had a client once who inherited enough money from his parents not to work...and didn't. We once talked about how he spent his days and he said that he spent them "not drinking" ( he was a recovering alcoholic). I thought it to be a challenging response at the time. But recently I'd gotten to the point where I spent a large portion of my day "not eating" so after 25 years I understood his response firsthand.
My biggest goal is to change THAT!
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AEPHubinc2015 wrote: »How long have you been at this, RaeBeeBaby?
I've been here for about 10 days and woke up to a less enthusiastic mood about it this morning than I've been feeling for the past 10 days. Not a good sign since I really want to make this a lifestyle change for the duration and not a "diet".
I have a vague long term goal of losing 25 pounds in the background and a few more present short term goals:
1. Sticking to 1200-1300 (healthy) calories a day
2. Adding some more cardio-type exercise to the 2 hours of yoga I do a week (I teach 4 classes a week but can only really claim 30 minutes of yoga in each class since I spend a bunch of time making adjustments with my students and guiding them through seated meditation.
3. Becoming accustomed to portion control.
I had a client once who inherited enough money from his parents not to work...and didn't. We once talked about how he spent his days and he said that he spent them "not drinking" ( he was a recovering alcoholic). I thought it to be a challenging response at the time. But recently I'd gotten to the point where I spent a large portion of my day "not eating" so after 25 years I understood his response firsthand.
My biggest goal is to change THAT!
I've yo-yo'd a lot throughout my life, but this time I've gotten serious about it since mid-January. It's been slow, but I've dropped 14 pounds since then. I'm very committed to sticking with it this time for good. Ideally, I'd love to drop another 20 pounds, but we'll see how it goes. I like to set smaller goals for myself and that seems to work for me.
A couple things I've discovered for myself:
1200-1300 calories is not enough food for me. I stuck with that for the first couple months but I wasn't happy about it. I was losing, but I was always hungry and felt deprived. I would often go over my calories and feel like I'd failed. I also didn't have the energy to workout at the level I was aiming for. A few weeks ago I decided to increase my calories a bit and see how I felt. I just made the change in MFP to only lose 1 pound a week (instead of 1.5 or 2) and now I get 1410 per day not counting exercise calories. That has really made all the difference for me. I try to exercise most days and I do eat back most of my exercise calories (so I'm actually eating around 1700 per day with exercise). This week I still lost 2 pounds! I've had many weeks of no loss, but it's trending downward so I'm happy.
Cardio is great for the heart and for fat burning, but doing strength training has made a big difference for me. I used to lift heavy weights about 10 years ago, but back-to-back injuries derailed me. I'm not lifting real heavy right now - sticking to 5-10 pound weights and bodyweight exercises. I have lost inches everywhere. When I first started up again in January I measured everything. I re-measure about every 2 weeks and have dropped 2 inches in my waist and 2 inches in my hips (smaller amts elsewhere). That's a good gauge of body changes when the scale isn't moving. I still do cardio, but I mix it up.
Portion control and not eating all day are big challenges for me, too. I retired this past September so I'm home most days. Just me and the dogs and the fridge. You just have to get the mind-set of not needing to eat until your stuffed. After a few weeks at the 1200 calories it didn't take that much to make me feel full. Then a couple times I overate and I felt terrible. I do a lot of food prep early in the week so I know what I'll be eating. I keep healthy snacks on hand. I usually make a couple big salads and just add protein for various meals. You can eat a ton of salad greens, cucumbers, peppers, celery for little calories and it does fill you up. I also pretty much eliminated chips and cheese, which were my "go to" snacks. I don't really miss them anymore (although hubby was eating kettle chips last night and his munching was really getting on my nerves, LOL).
I totally get where you're coming from about feeling less than enthusiastic. I ran across a great article about motivation that I will post here later today.
I'm very fascinated about your job as I'm just getting into doing yoga for the first time in my life. I'd also love to figure out how to meditate. I try, but I have a monkey-mind and it just jumps around all over the place. I have a hard time sitting still unless I'm on the computer, otherwise I'm always busy. I think I need guided meditation because I stink at doing it alone, LOL.
I just got sick and tired of being overweight so I decided to do something about it.
If I can help support and motivate you (or anyone else) in any way, I'm thrilled to do that!!
~Rae0 -
Thanks so much for your message.
I have a very slow metabolism - always have - and if I eat over 1200 calories a day I just don't lose any weight...ever. It doesn't make a lot of sense but I've been at this a long, loooong, time and that's just how it is. Weird, right? Even at 1200 calories a day, I lose weight very slowly.
All those lost inches sound wonderful. My husband does a serious workout at the gym 3 times a week and plays very competitive tennis once a week. My joints ache just typing that. I'm not sure I could go back to working out at the gym with my knees, ankles and hands as challenging as they've been for the past 2 years. Maybe I'll give it a try, though.
I've been sort of crabby all day after waking up that way. It all seems just that much more annoying when I'm feeling crabby but I've managed to stay within my calorie intake framework anyway. It's just been more of a struggle. In general, eating less gives me more energy and I've been happily buzzing around doing gardening, cleaning out lots of clutter and getting a new closet set up and in order. But today was another story.
I make a big salad every evening. I add a small (probably normal) protein portion and a cup of rice or some other grain and that's dinner. It's filling and I like eating that way. It's my normal dinner - just less of the protein than I was eating and a measured portion of grain or potato instead of heaping it on my plate. Also no dessert. If I HAVE to have something sweet, I have some diet coke or a piece of fruit.
Lunch is a challenge - eating a smallish meal and not getting into grazing for the next few hours - but so far so good.
Do you live in a city where there are meditation groups? I think it's often easiest to begin meditation with a group. I suggest Vipassana meditation if it's available in your community...and staying away from Zen meditation, which is tough and, imho, extreme. I tried meditation and yoga many times over decades (my oldest sister wouldn't let me give up trying) and it didn't click until it just did. At first I mostly just felt every ache and pain and itch in my body from sitting still. I'm very glad I didn't give up.
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The best thing that seems to work for me is a lot of vegetables and some protein. Reducing the carb's at least refined and getting some carb's from vegetables. I have also added a whey protein shake with flax-seed for breakfast. This seems to keep me full till lunch. When I did eat refined carb's it made me feel sluggish. I believe this is my new way of eating for life. I do allow myself an occasional sweet. I lost 6 pounds in 3 days. I think it is working.0
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@AEPHubinc2015 - I understand about the slow metabolism. I know for sure that I wouldn't be losing if I wasn't working out at the level I am right now. I'm also on a medication where the top 2 side effects are weight gain and joint pain. I'm now dealing with the weight gain that came on over the last 18 months but the joint pain is not really getting any better. I just have to work through the discomfort and carry on. I don't belong to a gym anymore so I do most of my workouts at home or occasionally walk with friends.
Re: the meditation - unfortunately I live in a pretty small town and I doubt if there are any meditation groups. I actually looked for something like that on meet-up.com but didn't find what I was looking for. I'll probably have to expand my search further afield.
@momhealthac - that's great you lost 6 pounds already! I've never dropped that in such a short amount of time. If you just started you might see a bit of a slow-down further on out, but you're off to a great start! I also eat a lot of veggies and some protein and try to limit my carbs. I think that's a healthy way to eat.0 -
I created a new thread specifically for motivation and support. Check out what I just posted there!
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Thank you everyone for your post's. I am glad to hear I am not the only one having trouble staying within the 1200 calories a day. I find the evening the worse time for the munchies. I will try adjusting my calories a little bit too.
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I find that if I can keep busy doing something, then I am less likely think about eating something. Think of the kitchen closed @ 7:00pm This helps! If I really need a snack, a piece of fruit seems to satisfy my desire for something sweet. I try to keep it at this. Keep striving each day and the weight will come off. As many people have said, this is not a diet but a life style change. The change is the hardest but in time will become habit. Have a great day everyone!0
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Yet another barbeque this evening. I've got a plan and hope to stick to it. I think I'll whip up a batch of popcorn to munch on so I don't have to twiddle my thumbs while everyone else is eating.
How's this for irony? I was chosen to be in charge of bringing dessert.
I made a really great looking strawberry shortcake for everyone else and cut up half a watermelon so I could have something, too.
I saved 650 calories for this barbeque but am still worried. Meat is so high in calories!
Keeping busy is definitely the key (along with physical activity) and, happily, the more weight I lose and the less I binge, the more energy I have for keeping busy and doing physical activity.0 -
Remember that strawberry shortcake I wasn't going to eat? The good news is that it turns out (miraculously) that it was only 120 calories per piece. The bad news is that I had a piece. The good news is that I was only a little bit over my 1200 a day goal and that I got back on track today.
It's a great feeling to head for bed knowing that I kept to my goal today.
Why so quiet in here today? What's up with you guys? I hope you're having a good day.0 -
Doing well thanks for asking, we seem to be a small group and not much talk? I too am trying to stay within the 1200 calorie range but I have seen many posts about that this starving myself. I don't feel starved and in fact when I go over this too much I feel sluggish. Maybe my body is adapting. Biggest change is decreasing carb's and more veggie and protein. Weather has helped with the workouts. I getting 4 to 5 days of power walks in some with weights. What do you do to revive up your metabolism?0
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Cutting out most processed foods makes it a lot easier to eat 1200 to 1400 calories and be satisfied. This weekend, however, I'm struggling a bit with cravings and they are taking me straight to processed and carry out. Ugh.0
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Other than that one piece of strawberry shortcake last week I have been totally keeping to my 1200 per day goal. I haven't lost any weight at all. I feel a lot better and have more energy and am trying to make that be enough for now. But it's hard not to get discouraged.
I eat no (zero!) processed food and no carry out. Haven't had a chip or cookie of any kind in 3 weeks.
What's up with this?0 -
AEPHubinc2015 wrote: »Other than that one piece of strawberry shortcake last week I have been totally keeping to my 1200 per day goal. I haven't lost any weight at all. I feel a lot better and have more energy and am trying to make that be enough for now. But it's hard not to get discouraged.
I eat no (zero!) processed food and no carry out. Haven't had a chip or cookie of any kind in 3 weeks.
What's up with this?
Have you taken any measurements? I did when I first started mid-January and I have re-measured about every 2-3 weeks. Very glad I did because on several weeks where I had zero loss, I actually had smaller measurements in my waist and hips. Body recomposition, perhaps? At any rate, my clothes are fitting better and I think I look better, so I am not holding the scale up as the only measure of success!0 -
Thanks for the advice. I don't have a tape measure in the house but hope to buy one today and start measuring.0
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Re: measuring - a lot of people just do the basics. Bust, waist hips. I measure a lot more than that:
Neck
Bust
Under Bust
Waist
Abdomen
Hips
Upper Arms
Thighs
Calves
Since mid-January I've seen the greatest reduction in the "under bust" and "abdomen" measurements. These are both problem areas for me (back-fat & baby-belly). So when I see those numbers go down I KNOW I'm making progress. The bust measurement has remained the same. I was actually quite surprised that I've lost 1/2 inch in my neck. Who knew?0 -
Still no tape measure. Hopefully I'll get around to it tomorrow.
thanks for the tips0
