WOMEN AGES 50+ FOR APRIL 2016

Annr

nb1959 wrote: »

Oh, y'all. I binged again last night on Cascadian Farms Oats and Honey Crunch. 6 ounces, almost half a box. That's two nights in a row. I have a new plan for tonight. After dinner, I am going to our upstairs den and working on a storyboard. John is not going to like this, but I cannot just sit there and watch his 6 foot tall, 150 lb self eat all night. I love him dearly but this is just too much. Now I know how I gained 60 pounds in 10 years. Got it. Well, they say the first step is admitting you have a problem...thank you for reading this. I am grateful for your support.

Cereal is my downfall too. Staying out of my kitchen is the only way to deal with that. So mentally I say that the kitchen it closed for me after 7 PM. I try to fix dinner at 5 or 6 PM so I can be done by 7 PM. Sometimes I have dishes to do, and my husband and sons leftovers sitting in their pots talking to me, so I don't put away their leftovers either. Seeing the serving spoon is like telling me to take a bite, so I just don't go there. Last night I made my husband french toast, and I was boiling carrots. It's not easy, but I just play the part of awesome chef and think, "I am so special I have to make food just for me". My 100 g of boiled baby carrots, 2 tsp of light margarine, 2 tsp of brown sugar, and 1/4 cup walnuts was just fine, and yep I scraped the pot to get all the sweet syrup!
Becca

Annr

This morning I aqua-aerobic'ed it in the pool and it felt really good! I am feeling the affects of dancing in the pool though. I did alot of push-ups with my arms on the sides of the pool. The Center was playing great music over the speakers, so I danced in the water, and did pull-ups with my arms under the water.

It was nice to wake up, weigh, and be under the 230 mark. Presently at 228.8. Feel like I am turning a corner, and getting closer to Onederland! I would like to never see 230's again thankyouverymuch.

I never told you guys that my Eldest Navy son called me on Friday evening. We talked for 3.5 hrs.... Actually we were having fun being on the phone, and looking on googlemap at all our old homes. You can click on it, and there is a place where you can slide on the dates (of when the google car came by that area). Some were back to 2007 so one previous residence showed our RV parked in the front! The last time he came by, we saw the google map car, and waved to it. If you wish to see it
https://www.google.com/maps/@46.163112,-123.9010976,3a,33.1y,153.74h,78.58t/data=!3m7!1e1!3m5!1shY5lUTd6g0sqRwKKMboDsw!2e0!6s//geo0.ggpht.com/cbk?panoid=hY5lUTd6g0sqRwKKMboDsw&output=thumbnail&cb_client=maps_sv.tactile.gps&thumb=2&w=203&h=100&yaw=114.24052&pitch=0!7i13312!8i6656

let me see if that worked.
Becca
Oregon

Annr

Cool, yep. So you can zoom in using the plus sign, and see my Son driving and giving the thumbs up sign, and I am in the salmon pink sweat jacket waving! That is my sons awesome Japanese truck. You can also use the compass thingy and look around it. And yep its a right-hand drive truck.
Becca
Oregon

PackerFanInGB

Well, better late than never I guess! I'm only 30 pages behind! I'll try to read a few at a time as I get time, but work is so crazy busy lately that when I get home I don't even want to turn on my laptop to read my email, look at my Facebook messages or do anything online! So, it'll probably take me until May to catch up on the news.

I'm going with my husband tonight to look at a treadmill that we found on craigslist. Looks really nice. I'm a little concerned because my knees still hurt after the knee scopes and I don't think they should anymore. So treadmill may not be my best option. But I really like treadmills so I guess we'll see. I might have to do 20 minutes in the morning and 20 at night for a while or something. When it gets warmer here in Wisconsin, I will be able to ride my bike. Hoping to get it out this weekend. Supposed to get up to 68 on Sunday. JOY & RAPTURE!

Getting stir crazy. Want to plant a garden and get outside a little. I love my job but don't like that i'm salary and end up working so many hours all the time. I wish I were independently wealthy...

Well, have a great day everyone. I'll try to do some reading and catching up and will try to check in daily from now on. I've just been such a slacker lately with everything except work!

Tracie in WI

April Goals:

• 30 minutes activity x5/week
• Weigh less than I do today
• Continue to stay away from added sugars
• Be patient and kind to others
• Be grateful for each and every day and write it in my gratitude journal.

margaretturk

Miriam very well said. I think it a good reminder that with any illness finding the things that work for you besides or in addition to medication is the way to healing. Thank you for being such a strong voice for the mentally ill. Margaret

gluten2012

Hi gals. I'm over 50 for sure....I'm 67.
And still at it. I lost 50 pounds, put back on 9 since November.
My April goals are:

theresacan1

Hi All: Thank you for being so welcoming! A little about me; I am from the Chicagoland area, divorced, have a couple of grown wonderful sons. The oldest one is a writer and the youngest will be graduating from law school next month. I am currently unemployed but looking. I love to photograph, trying to learn to knit, and now that I have the time cook. Healthy cooking is a challenge for me, I want to add butter and wine to everything - for taste . Oh and please just call me T. It was a nickname I got at a job I loved and it just stuck.

So far I am sticking to my goals. Fingers cross I can add exercise next week. I have a lot of weight to loose, so I will have a lot of time to add to my goals.

T

gluten2012

Where are my goals I entered?
Well, most important is to lose 2.5 pounds this month.

CSSJ09

Dear All,
This is my favorite Moche gold vase. It looks as if it was done by Picasso. I love how an eye is shared on each side of the face. It is located in the museum of the Peruvian National Bank. I have found that the national banks in many countries have wonderful museums and the collections are far more than numismatic artifacts, although there are certainly many of those.



This is a Quipu - the ancient bookkeeping system developed by the indigenous peoples. The conquistadors destroyed them so few exist. As fabric, they are quite fragile.

Speaking of Conquistadores- this is Pizaro's grave in the cathedral in Lima. The guides in the museum refer to his assignation as martyrdom although he was killed by the son of a Spanish rival. There are mosaics on the wall that celebrate his subjugation of the native Peruvians.



This is what happened to some of the gold plundered by the Spanish - one of the chapels in the cathedral in Lima.



This is probably one of the most famous pieces in Peru- contained in the Larco museum. It is a Chimu chief buried in Chan Chan.


We were lucky enough to be able to go into the storerooms where all the ceramics are stored, any one of which could have been the centerpiece of a museum display.

My very favorite part of indigenous culture were the cities and temples and tombs and the incredible Moche and Chimu ceramics. I will go through those pictures and post the best.

CJ

bwcetc

miriamwithcats wrote: »

Beth, as I was sitting in my hot tub doing my workout this morning, I was thinking about you and your son. When you say the treatments don't work, I was wondering what your definition of a treatment working is. Medication does not alleviate ALL of the symptoms. It only lessens them to a manageable level. The person, like me, that has a severe mental illness, must do a lot of other things to manage life with a severe mental illness. Someone who has schizophrenia or mania has to learn how to ignore the voices/ sounds. They don't go away entirely, they just are diminished with medication. Someone who is having paranoid thoughts has to learn to use cognitive therapy (changing your thinking) or learn how to ignore/ manage the voices or even to check with others about if their reaction is out of line or not. At this point I am reminded of the man in northern Iowa who talked back to his voices, aloud, and kept getting picked up by the police and put in the hospital since it scared others. He managed the voices, not by stopping his talking back to them (arguing with them that they were wrong) but by holding a cell phone to his ear when he talked back to them so people thought he was just having an argument on the phone!

People with depression, like me, learn how important daily exercise, eating right, sunlight, cognitive therapy (changing our thinking), not isolating, and other things are to our well being. Medication does not "cure" depression. It just gives one the ability to use other tactics to manage life. That is why a wellness recovery plan is so important. There are things one has to do every single day to stay well. (Avoiding alcohol and street drugs is probably the most important.)

Peer support (people like me helping others, since I have been trained in listening, etc.) can be very helpful. The Depressive Bipolar Support Alliance is a good source of peer support through their support groups and literature.

Sometimes people have to make a major life change to minimize stress, which makes symptoms worse. That is why my oldest sister went from negotiating contracts for the aerospace industry (big bucks) to negotiating contracts for academia WITH the aerospace industry (much less money but also a more relaxed work environment since the focus was on learning, not making money for shareholders). Throughout my career, I intentionally did not seek out supervisory roles, or management roles, since there was more stress in those roles. So I worked in direct care where there was less stress, but also far less money. I changed my standards for housework and other things, giving myself permission to be less than perfectly tidy since that was additional stress I did not need. Others go to minimizing possessions to lessen the stress of housework.

I don't know your son's situation, and if any of this applies. It was just my thoughts as I was working out in my hot tub. The mental health system will NOT tell clients these things. They have to be learned from peers. The system makes more money if you stay sick. If you figure out how to take care of yourself, and get stable on meds, you can do what I do- get a primary care doc to prescribe my meds and avoid the mental health system completely. So they really are not invested in wellness, and even worse, many of the people working in the mental health system do not believe that anyone can actually get better. That belief is passed on to clients through subtle means, so that the clients do not get better. This paragraph sounds paranoid but there is research that substantiates what I say.

Miriam ... You have given me much to think about. Thank you. As for your last paragraph ... I have heard more than once from mental health practitioners that we will probably never see our son well .. He of course has heard this also.

Beth

pipcd34

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ydailey

KJLaMore - Although I share your exasperation for censorship of perfectly good words, I had to laugh because your post reminded me of a local band here that wrote a song after the U.S. Surgeon General was dismissed for encouraging *kittens* as an alternative to sexual activity for teens. (Sorry, that was me typing that and not MFP... I just found "kitten" an amusing substitution!) Anyhow, they coined "firing the Surgeon General" as a new euphemism for that activity.

Marci - Amen to being too young to be old and too old to be young! On the inside I mostly still feel like I'm in my 30s, but then I have all these aches and pains that tell me it's not so.

Kimses - I also struggle with menu planning. It's not that hard and I love trying new recipes, but for some reason I don't like to take the time to do it so I procrastinate. In fact, I have no idea what we're having for dinner tonight and will need to figure it out soon so I can send my sweetie a grocery list to pick up after work.

Heather - Would you be willing to share the recipe for your Curry Laksa?

nb1959 - I love your sense of humor about your sugar binge (and it sounded delicious)!

Becca - I meant to plant some tomatoes yesterday and never got around to it. Now your photo has inspired me to get it done this week, because I love tomatoes! I usually grow red cherry or grape tomatoes and yellow pear tomatoes. In the summer we just put them in a big bowl, drizzle on a touch of olive oil, sprinkle with fresh basil, and chow down. I add fresh mozzarella sometimes when I have it on hand.


As you can see, I had a lot of catching up to do from the weekend. And I am STILL coughing my lungs out! That can stop any time now. Also, this foster greyhound is putting a crimp in my walking style because she won't walk on lead and if I leave her behind she howls until Luna and I get back. Will have to reach into my bag of tricks for more ways to get her motivated for walkies!

I've started looking for a therapist, asking around among my friends and looking on line for listings in my area. I find the whole thing kind of daunting. It won't be my first time in therapy, but starting new with a stranger is rough. I need remember that if I'm not comfortable at the first session, it just means I haven't found the right therapist yet.

Welcome to all the new folks, and a happy week to all!

-Yvonne in TX

miriamwithcats

Yvonne, yes, try out several therapists before you decide. There are so many approaches to therapy and some are very helpful, and some are just more disabling (hand-holding therapy). I personally thing that cognitive behavioral therapy is the most effective. It has been shown to help AS MUCH as antidepressant treatment. It is actually something that some people can teach themselves using a good resource, like David Burns, MD, The New Mood Therapy which came out in the 90s. Two things to look for. Number one, does the therapist believe that you can get better (more important than ANYTHING else in studies!). Number two, what technique do they use (many will say eclectic, or whatever is indicated. Pin them down!). And of course, you have to feel comfortable with the therapist. I could recommend a niece, PhD psychologist, in the Austin area.

KJLaMore

Sioux- I was so stunned when I read about what happened to your brother, I immediately ran down the stairs to tell my husband. Wow! You just never think about the dangers when you are working on a project. It surprised me so much, I forgot to tell you how sorry I am that you lost him! So sorry!
Yvonne-"firing the Surgeon General"! Sounds like a great title to a song! lol I don't use a lot of profanity; but when I saw my perfectly harmless word replaced with *kittens* I immediately felt the urge to just start posting words to see if they have a problem with them...
Beth and Miriam- good conversation you two are having! I see a lot of holistic remedies being used with my daycare kids for different things (anxiety, add/adhd, mainly) I suffered from migraines from the time I was about 12-30. As a child, there wasn't a lot at the time that they could do for me, so it all came down to me in a dark cool room and my mom would come in and stroke my forehead, scalp, and neck with her cool fingers (her hands were always cold) and she would sing softly. She also always smelled like vanilla. LOL. I don't know if there is any science behind what she did for me, but it would calm me down and ease the pain enough so I could go to sleep. I grew out of them by age 30. I don't know if it was hormonal. At that time I was eating more soy/less dairy and perimenopausal. My mom passed away when I was 26, but I still use her as a soother when I have headaches or don't feel well. I just imagine her stroking my head and singing to me. Puts me out in minutes.

sequimtrim

barbiecat wrote: »

sequimtrim wrote: »

I started this past week. What I will be doing in April:

* weight training 3x week
* exercise 6 days per week, minimum 30 minutes, average 1 hour
* keep carbs under 100

..I hope you will also be coming back to this thread daily to let us know how you're doing and to join in the conversation. What kind of exercise will you be doing?


Barbie from beautiful sunny NW Washington

I'm doing very well with this. In fact, working at carbs under 40. I blew my carbs on one day only. Lost 6-7 pounds so far.

mollywhippet

Good afternoon everyone. I'm making good progress and am at 80%, according to the nurse at PT. I think she doesn't know that I was never really 100% anyway.

I'm typing with two hands right now. Slowly, that's true, and I have to back up a lot to fix mistakes, but still. I'm using both hands! I'm still on a soft food diet, and sadly, I have discovered that ice cream and potatoes and gravy are soft foods. I miss raw fruit and veggies.

Gotta go. Take care, everyone.

Sylvia

mollywhippet

CJ, I love the Moche stuff too. Studied it in college.

pipcd34

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barbiecat

Just finished my weight training while watching "Elementary" with my sweet hubby and in a few minutes I take the dogs for their afternoon walk.

nccarolb

I called my doctor this morning and actually got an appointment for this afternoon. General diagnosis is acute sinus infection. The boy child just got back with my antibiotic. I hope it works in a hurry.

I caught up with reading but feel too bad to comment except, go Sylvia!!

Carol in NC

miriamwithcats

Carol, not fun. Crossing fingers for your return to health.

Sylvia, so good to see you able to type with two hands!

Love to all.

margaretturk

KaLa love the soothing image of your mother.

Beth I agree with Miriam healing can happen for your son. It is a process, and he has to find the right combinations that work for him. I believe he has the power to do it. I am continuing to learn more and more about the glutamate/ GABA connection to those who exhibit signs of mental illness. Also the health of your gut has its influences on if substance pass the brain barrier. I just read an article and the effect of low grade inflammation as a contributor too. Unfortunately low grade inflammation can be a part of many other diseases too. I agree with everything that Miriam said too. All the things she mentioned affect ones ability to manage mental illness. I too believe it takes more than just medications to live well with mental illness.

Those with diabetes know improving your lifestyle has a tremendous affect on managing diabetes.

I say to the practitioners prove them wrong!

Hugs and prayers as your family works together to heal your son.

Katla49

Miriam: My mom was depressed most of my life, and nearly all of hers. I was a person with wintertime blues from lack of light, seasonal affective disorder. I have a house that is lit up inside with daylight temperature light bulbs and I take vitamin D3 every day. I also get regular exercise, even in winter. I don't experience seasonal affective disorder symptoms any more. It has been a blessing.

Yvonne in TX: I hope you are able to find the right person to help you reach your goals and a more comfortable frame of mind. :flowerforyou:

Sylvia: It is so good to see your post, and great news that you are making progress.


I just finished painting the pegboard in our outside storage room. I went to the paint store a couple of times and told them I liked one of their colors quite well, but could they make it a little lighter. They did, and saved the formula for me. The color appears to exactly match the old paint, and since most of our home interior is this color, I can now do clean up and patch projects, or repaint a room in that color if I want. I can also change colors. Light and color makes a big difference in my moods. I love the colors in most of my home, which I would describe as a pastel orange and vanilla ice cream bar.

Katla in Beautiful NW Oregon

“Our greatest weakness lies in giving up. The most certain way to succeed is always to try just one more time.” Thomas A. Edison

April Resolutions :
1. Log every bite and swallow.
2. Cardio exercise at least 3 days a week. Work on flexibility and back strength.
3. Have fun every day.
4. Drink at least three glasses of water daily, preferably more!
5. Monitor sleep. Try to average 7 or more hours of sleep nightly.

Annr

http://us-store.bouncelifestyle.com/products/cacao-mint-protein-bomb

Just had this for snack. Wow, it was really good. Planning on buying them and sending some to my son out to sea. Other flavors of these (think protein bar in a ball form) is Superberry, coconut and macadamia, and peanut cacao.

Becca
Oregon

cityjaneLondon

CJ -love those beautiful Peruvian images. Don't post the ceramics or some of you would have a heart attack! I used to have postcards of the ceramics very privately displayed in my bedroom and absolutely loved them. Now they are in a drawer. What great images you saw. :flowerforyou:

We had a terrific night out in the restaurant, but were overcharged. We have rung them and they will ring back tomorrow. I'm sure we can sort it out.
Really enjoy DH 's friend's company. His wife is great - used to be a nurse. They have a severely disabled young grandchild who is not expected to live much longer. Some awful syndrome. But he keeps rallying. Hard for everyone.

I am only 10 calories over!

Heather UK

Annr

from the bouncelifestyle.com website, happy reading:-)
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LET SELF-LOVE BE WHAT MOTIVATES GROWTH

By Paula, 21 January 2016 •
The start of a new year is often a time we commit to changes in our lives – with the view of becoming a bigger, brighter version of ourselves.

And whilst intentions and goals are a good thing, I’ve been thinking a lot about what motivates us to make these resolutions in the first place. Are we motivated by dissatisfaction with ourselves or empowered by what’s possible (just because)?

Personally, I’ve spent many of my forty odd years trying to make personal improvements, with the aim of feeling better about myself. Oddly, I’ve ended up feeling the same old way about myself – regardless of whether I achieved my goals. The bar somehow kept shifting. Is this something you can relate to?

As human beings we are prone to being quite hard on ourselves. We tend to look at ourselves through such a critical lens, creating a mental checklist of faults that need “fixing”. This form of motivation may be enough to get us going – but if the focus is to move away from what we don’t like about ourselves, at what point will we be happy with our results? This route to our goals is rarely satisfying. There will always be perceived faults to tackle.



Making the shift from a “move away” style of self-improvement, to a “move towards” kind of motivation begins with having an appreciation for where and who we already are. Why not give ourselves a bit of a break and adjust our focus to things we can acknowledge about ourselves? We can do this without comparing ourselves to an earlier time in our lives, or someone else for that matter. If we care to take notice, there’s plenty of good stuff right there already. From this place of authentic self-acceptance, we can look at what we actually want to achieve, and not what we’re driven to achieve in order to feel better about ourselves. The great thing about this type of motivation is that it feels good from start to finish.

So, my personal challenge this year is:

Instead of creating intentions to be a better this or that, I’m going to experiment with the possibility of being okay with where I am. I’m going to explore being more of myself in each moment and see where it takes me.

My wish for you is that, whatever intentions you create for the year, may you discover more of the goodness already within you. From this good feeling place, the possibilities are endless.

Paula x

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Becca
Oregon

margaretturk

CJ the pictures are fantastic!!!!!!!

tryingtolive1

Spent a little over an hour at the gym today. My abs have been sore since I was there on Saturday. Sneezed on Sunday thought I was going to die. Lol Cant go tomorrow but back on Wednesday and Thursday. After the gym on Thursday going to get a new tattoo so Friday no workout. Then only abs and lower body for a few days.

Found out today if I go to the gym 13 days a month my insurance will reimburse me for my gym dues. Sweet deal.

Made oven roasted cauliflower for dinner. Garlic salt and pepper and a little parm cheese. Turned out pretty good. Normally cover it with cheese so this was a much better healthy option.

As for my emotional relationship issues or now lack of relationship still up and down. Still don't feel comfortable in my own skin or house really. To much alone time and I head into a crappie place but doing my best to stay positive. One day at a time they say. Makes the eating well trying most days but forcing myself to or no gym per Dr's orders.

Thanks for letting me vent in the last section.

Anne from WI

oceanmelody

Just made it home and logged in for today, which was not good. Fantastic breakfast followed by road food and pizza...
On to a better food day tomorrow.
Heather it turned out that it was called Lancashire pie. It was onions, tomatoes, potatoes and cheddar with upper and lower crusts. The pasties were said to a Royal Navy recipe.
Sorry I have not been reading all the posts but hope to get to them once I have had a decent sleep.
Betty

pipcd34

stats for the day:
ide hm 2 gym- 12.52min, 13.7amph, 142mhr, 2.9mi = 128c
SPIN- 42min, 90ar, 102aw, 10-12g, 113ahr, 148mhr, 18.6mi = 300c
ride gym 2 dome- 7.39min, 11.1amph, 147mhr 1.4mi = 79c
ride wk 2 hm- 18.17min, 8.7mph, 149mhr, 2.6mi = 190c
total cal 697