60 yrs and up

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  • 23majiki18
    23majiki18 Posts: 2 Member
    Morning!! I’m “Nana” and am hoping to lose a significant amount of weight and throw out meds for blood pressure (entirely doable!) and cholesterol ( maybe not so doable—-we shall see)! I would appreciate input on “easy on the knees” movement activities (aka—-exercises!) as my knees hurt most of the time (miniscus injuries and auto crash). I know losing weight will help with the pain, but it’s a double edged sword right now. I’m planning to start some water aerobics because I know that will relieve a lot of pressure on my knees. However any/all other suggestions are greatly appreciated. Have a great logging day and enjoy!
  • AnnPT77
    AnnPT77 Posts: 34,600 Member
    edited May 21
    Welcome, @23majiki18!

    "Easy on the knees" has some individuality to it, I think. I can only comment from my own experience, but your experience may be different.

    Ridiculous59 has good advice there about water exercise. That will work for quite a few people, since the water supports body weight and takes some of the stress off.

    I have osteoarthritis in my knees, and at least one torn meniscus. (I suspect both are now torn from the sensations, but only one was MRI-ed at the time.)

    Myself, I find that I can do things that require work from my knees bending in the linear front/back axis, but things with higher impact or torque/twisting on my knees makes things worse.

    By higher impact, I'm talking stuff like running, jumping, etc. Torque/twisting happens in some dance-type exercises, and in some games. (Some examples of games with twisting, things that I'm not suggesting are currently on your or my agenda, but are clear examples: Tennis, basketball, etc.) So I don't do things like that.

    What I'd suggest is some cautious experimentation.

    For me, with my limitations/reactions, major activities are biking (stationary or outdoor) and rowing (machines and boats, which is a leg exercise primarily, some upper body). Those are things I worked up to, and that involve only knee bending in the linear-hinging way, and pressure but not impact. I'm not saying "do those", I'm just giving examples of my personal thought process.

    I do find that some activities are uncomfortable at the time I do them, but don't make the overall conditions or pain worse longer term. That's an even more scary level of experimentation, though.

    For myself, I put walking (for exercise) in that category. I like to keep conditioned enough to walking that I can freely do things like art fairs or music festivals and whatnot that require quite a bit of walking. When I've cut back on walking (in Winter here!), I start gradually and build up distance over a period of time. My knees hurt by the end of a long walk, but don't get worse in general.

    Another thing that helped me was physical therapy. At first, my orthopedist didn't want to refer me for PT, because he said it couldn't help treat either OA or torn meniscus. But when I told him I wanted to learn how to walk and (especially) climb stairs in ways that would reduce further knee stress, he was supportive and referred me. I took one cortisone shot that sort of tided me over, and did the PT. For me, it was helpful.

    The physical therapist also assessed me to see whether certain muscular weaknesses or other musculo-skeletal issues were contributing to my knee pain. For many people, quadriceps (front thigh muscles) need strengthening, but that wasn't the case for me. However, I did have tightness in my hip joints that was contributing to my problems, and he gave me exercises to improve that. Very helpful!

    It can take a bit of patience and cautious experimentation to find some activities that work, but in my experience, the results can be worth that effort. I'm hoping you find some things that a workable for you!

    P.S. Apologies for the long post!
  • lclark04957
    lclark04957 Posts: 100 Member
    I love this group! Great advice and very supportive. Welcome, @23majiki18!
  • designer91056
    designer91056 Posts: 15 Member
    edited May 21
    @cfriedman44 Hi my name is Carol. I am 79 and brand new to My Fitness Pal and I am still getting lost on the app. I weigh 208 and have a lot of health issues that makes it hard to exercise. I love the diary as it helps me to be accountable and the suggestions on how I can make changes in my program.
    I would like to make new friends here. Some of the things I enjoy doing is knitting, crochet, and reading fiction.

    Hi Carol,I’m Mary Terese. I have MS. So that comes with a a lot of issues, including balance an fatigue. I’ve been using MFP for a few years on and off. On 5/16 I restarted AGAIN!! My weight was back up to 198 😩. So frustrating. Dr. has me using the Brook + app for my insurance. He feels I’m insulin resistant and eligible for a med to help with that. I need to document diet and activity for 3-6
    mns for insurance to pay. The app isn’t very user friendly so my coach said I could use a different app for my food diary. Yeah!! I love Fitness Pal. Weighed myself yesterday and I was down. 197.2. Another app I was considering talked about intermittent fasting. Really easy. You don’t eat after dinner and until breakfast. So basically 12- 14hrs. Depending on your schedule. I do 14-16 hrs which is the max. I would love to be your support partner. I enjoy reading fiction as well. Especially thrillers and murder mysteries. I do reformer Pilates twice a week for exercise. It offers my body the support it needs while I work out while developing the muscles needed for balance.
  • BCLadybug888
    BCLadybug888 Posts: 1,755 Member
    Welcome back @g2renew, you can do this, we are all in it for the long haul.
  • BCLadybug888
    BCLadybug888 Posts: 1,755 Member
    My goodness @SbetaK, that is one skinny bear!!
  • SbetaK
    SbetaK Posts: 400 Member
    He'll be a fat bear by the end of summer, he's right next to a salmon stream
  • ridiculous59
    ridiculous59 Posts: 2,910 Member
    @SbetaK It's so skinny that it's hump hardly shows at all! So far this season I haven't seen any bears (or scat) on my trail walks. The general opinion last year was that the fires had pushed the bears closer to town, but cooler and rainy weather at the moment is making us feel a bit more optimistic about this year's fire season. The bears are probably feeling the same way!

    Between walking dogs, being on my feet for a few hours helping at the soup kitchen, and loading our RV for a trip to see our daughter, I had a 17,500 step day yesterday. Love those days! I was actually so busy that when my husband came home from a meeting I realized that I'd forgotten to eat supper. This retirement gig isn't as relaxing as I thought it was going to be haha. Confession: this is exactly how I envisioned my retirement. But it's now filled with stuff that I want to do, that's the difference 🙂
  • SbetaK
    SbetaK Posts: 400 Member
    @ridiculous59 Ah, retirement. I'm on the cusp, am just filling in as a casual a couple days a week at my winter medical job. Loving it, as I can tell them when I'm available, instead of "begging" for some time off. It's a good arrangement, as I'm in a small town on an island, and if they have a greater need for help I can step in to help right away. I spend my summers at a remote bush camp. Its work but also fun, and hoping to keep it up if physically able. I just went on the biggest vacation of my life, overseas, for a whole month. I can definitely see the attraction of retirement, hahaha. Whenever I do fully retire, I will probably be like you, keeping busy doing things I've wanted to do for years, and stepping into some new adventures and experiences too. I don't think I would be very good at slowing down towards a sedentary lifestyle. Although, it is so nice at times! :D I tend to think I'm hungry, or eat out of boredom if I'm not busy!
  • ridiculous59
    ridiculous59 Posts: 2,910 Member
    SbetaK wrote: »
    He'll be a fat bear by the end of summer, he's right next to a salmon stream

    On our travels yesterday through a provincial park and a national park we saw eight, fat, lovely looking black bears. And of course all the obligatory tourists blocking traffic to take pictures of them. Don't these people have bears at home??? 😆 (obviously not).

  • BCLadybug888
    BCLadybug888 Posts: 1,755 Member
    @ridiculous59, my goodness - eight sounds like some kind of a record - must be the time for sightings, but all from the car is amazing (and safer). 🙂
  • AnnPT77
    AnnPT77 Posts: 34,600 Member
    Nice to see you again, @evamutt and @g2renew! (Also nice to see that supermodel-thin bear, @SbetaK! :D

    Retirement and "slowing down to a sedentary lifestyle" are not synonyms. Nowadays, I don't need to sit at a desk or conference table for 8 (or 10, or 12) hours a day, 5 or 6 days a week, and can do any of the fun or useful things I like.

    Sure, some of them are sedentary (MFP-ing, some of the art'n'crafts I like). But many are more active, mild (playing bluegrass banjo badly) or more vigorous (rowing in rowing shells, cycling). Lately, I've been rowing 4 mornings each week, weather permitting, and helping teach my club's learn-to-row class 4 nights a week (all of June). There's also more to do in the yard/garden than during Winter.

    Update on my medical weirdness lately: For the mystery right posterior rib discomfort, I've been referred to physical therapy, mostly because no one has a better idea after many X-rays, CTs, blood tests, ultrasounds, and other stuff. The PTs say I have dysfunctional breathing patterns that could mess with my diaphragm, which is in the area that hurts. Totally speculative, but I'm currently doing breathing exercises to see if that helps (maybe??). I'll be scheduling more PT with a goal of improving some scapular issues that my osteopathic (manipulation doc) thinks might contribute. Hopeful!

    Also just got rescanned (CT) for some small lung modules that popped up on a CT 6 months back. Radiologist then thought they looked benign, but because of my cancer history, we're rescanning to see whether there's progression or stability. Scanned Monday, was told it may take 4 weeks to get the radiology report back because there are way too few radiologists in the field now. Yikes!

    Hope everyone else is doing well!
  • AnnPT77
    AnnPT77 Posts: 34,600 Member
    MargaretYakoda wrote: »
    I’m still here, plodding along.

    The loss of the newsfeed hit me harder than I expected.
    That and a certain (redacted) has me feeling like MFP doesn’t really care.
    I’m still logging. And trying. But really really not feeling good about it right now.

    I'm sorry the situation has become that way, @MargaretYakoda . You make really good contributions here on the MPF Community, including about certain things about which few (maybe no?) others have expertise. I hope you won't become too discouraged.
  • Evamutt
    Evamutt Posts: 2,794 Member
    Just want to say hello, it was hot today, 105! Thankfully it will start cooling down starting tomorrow to the 90's. Yesterday I spent couple hours cooking 2 different meals so I'm tired today. Glad we can eat left overs for a couple of days. I have a hard time taking care of myself, like today I should have taken a couch nap after my morning out with the dogs then had lunch but instead I went to the store for a few things that could have waited till tomorrow & feel awful. I'll have to be more aware of this & choose better next time
  • kbrink9248
    kbrink9248 Posts: 1 Member
    Hello. I'm 69 years and 9.5 months older and wiser. I'm here to regain my body back with more energy and strength than before. This can be done, friends, regardless of your age—it's DOABLE!!! Just one foot forward at a time!!
  • Slashnl
    Slashnl Posts: 339 Member
    BCLadybug888 wrote: »
    wrc72xw6l7sd.jpg
    Can you believe it? My orchid bloomed for me! Never has this happen before 🤗

    So pretty!
  • AnnPT77
    AnnPT77 Posts: 34,600 Member
    BCLadybug888 wrote: »
    wrc72xw6l7sd.jpg
    Can you believe it? My orchid bloomed for me! Never has this happen before 🤗

    That's lovely: Multiple blossoms, too! Clearly, you've been giving it the right treatment.

    I had a nice bloom-y surprise today, too, though not as dramatic as that.

    I have several "air plants". This morning, one of those was blooming. It's a Tillandsia, I think T. ionantha. Yesterday, no sign of the flower. They seem to show up fast, wither soon, so I'm glad to catch it. (I'll bet your orchid blooms will stick around for quite a while, @BCLadybug888
    : That's one of the nice things about most orchids.)

    tgqe8oyzstcy.jpg
  • mtaratoot
    mtaratoot Posts: 14,375 Member
    Nice Ann!

    The only bummer is that with Tillandsia, I think after they flower their life is close to over. I've had one that flowered and kept living. I am down to just one left, and it hasn't flowered that I recall.
  • AnnPT77
    AnnPT77 Posts: 34,600 Member
    mtaratoot wrote: »
    Nice Ann!

    The only bummer is that with Tillandsia, I think after they flower their life is close to over. I've had one that flowered and kept living. I am down to just one left, and it hasn't flowered that I recall.

    I've read that, too; but also that they flower then pup, or pup then flower. This particular Tillandsia looks a little like an angry knot. Some of those sideways spikes near the bottom seem to be separate plantlets (pups), and the whole plant is roughly half of a bigger angry knot that broke apart.

    I have around 7 air plants. Only one other has flowered (not a T. ionantha). That one seemed to have one pup, and then one or the other died (parent or pup, not sure, because they'd gotten to similar size). I have another with a good pup, nearly separated (just holding on a bit at the base), but neither of those has flowered yet and they both look robust.

    I know things could happen, and I'm interested to see what they will be. That's part of the fun of having plants. (On a related note, a couple of my slightly ratty dendrobiums have keikis that I need to get separated. So interesting!)
  • BCLadybug888
    BCLadybug888 Posts: 1,755 Member
    My goodness @ridiculous59, I sure hope an occasion comes up sooner than later, and you not just let us know, but post a pic for us!! What a find 🤩 🌟

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