I feel so frumpy.

WilsWil

Hi, I just now joined MFP. I'm a 67 year old gal but I don't feel, act, nor dress like most women around here that are my age. It's hard for me to believe that I let myself get to this point... I weigh around 165 pounds. I hide it well as I have always weighed much heavier than I appear. I still wear my size 10's but mostly size 12's. Ugh! I plan to walk twice a day for 15-30 minutes, work out with hand weights, go to my line dance class which is once a week for as long as my feet can take it...I usually dance for just over an hour. I also bought an exercise hula hoop. When I was young I lived on a farm and there was no one to play with so I played with my hula hoop. I became an excellent hooper... around my hands, neck, waist, knees and ankles. I could work it down to my ankles and then all the way back up to my neck! I'd like to get good again and work some "stagnant" muscles, get my joints limbered up, improve my balance, and of course lose weight. I want to ride my bicycle too but I have problems with my wrists (they don't bend) my ankles don't bend either and I had a dislocated shoulder for 7 years before it was diagnosed, then it was too late to do much about it. Riding my bike is scary as I don't have much strength in my arms when they are spread out so far. I have trouble steering. I have a super nice cruiser bike and I have stabilizer wheels on it so I cant fall over. If I were to fall, I can't get up. Just lay there in the road waiting for someone to have pity on me and pick me up... ha ha ha I don't plan to start my diet and workout until September 1st as my son is here for the next couple of weeks. We don't over do it but we do enjoy good food. When he returns to New York, I will tackle this out of shape body.
I will track my water intake, food eaten, exercises, and weight loss here. Thank you in advance for any support and thoughts you might want to share with me.

Firefly0606

Welcome!
Sounds like you have a great plan for more movement in your days which is part of the equation.
As simple as it sounds, this is about calories in / calories out. That's it. No gimmicks, no fads.

I would recommend you get yourself a food scale. You need it. It is impossible to "eyeball" quantities of food and you can end up going over your calories for a day without even knowing.

I started my first week by logging food. I didn't try to stick to a calorie budget in that first week. It was the best thing I could have done - man, I was putting away some calories. No wonder I got fat! It was also really good to see exactly what I was eating, and where I could make adjustments on these normal foods so I could still have them and not miss out. So now, I still have a homemade hamburger and chips with the family for dinner....but now it is 1 burger and a weighed-out portion of chips....not 1 and a half burgers and a plate piled high with chips.

Perhaps you could start logging while your son is still here and you are eating your current normal? It might give you a great starting point on 1st September, ready to set a calorie deficit and equipped with some knowledge and understanding.

Once you start, be patient. It might take you a few weeks to find the optimum calorie amount for you so you are losing weight, but also not starving to death. I started at 1800 cal based on a stack of research and a fear of starving and giving up. After 3 weeks, I was losing, but felt more confident then and wanted to lose a little faster...so dropped down to 1600. I'm currently 1500 cal per day...through trial and error and what works for.

It's not a race - educate yourself along the way. Welcome again and good luck!