WOMEN AGES 50+ FOR JANUARY 2020

barbiecat
barbiecat Posts: 17,271 Member
edited December 24 in Motivation and Support

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Many people find that the beginning of a new year is a clean slate and the time to start new habits, attitudes, or behaviours. I don't make "resolutions" in the classic sense, but I like to use this time to start something new.

My word for 2020 is "flexible"...instead of being trapped by my routines, I'll be open to necessary changes in routine....and I'll be open to the exercise to make my body more flexible.

I've made a list of 20 for 2020---projects and changes I want to make for the new year--some are fun and involve knitting, some are tedious like clutter clearing, and some are physical like spreading four yards of bark in my yard in the spring.

The name of the thread is "Women Ages 50+" but all women are welcome. Please join us if you are looking for encouragement and support on your journey to health and wellness.

We encourage participants to sign a name and a general location so we can get to know each other better and can address each other in a more personal way.

Be sure to bookmark this thread so you can find it again.

Barbie from NW WA

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Replies

  • linder4866
    linder4866 Posts: 11,462 Member
    🥳🥳
  • exermom
    exermom Posts: 6,559 Member
    This is a shot in the dark:

    Does anyone know someone who can make a cross stitch pattern? I know what I want it to say, but I have no idea how to make a pattern and all I could find online was an already-made placque. I would think it would mean more if I made it.

    Michele NC
  • LuciBThinner
    LuciBThinner Posts: 207 Member
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  • LuciBThinner
    LuciBThinner Posts: 207 Member
    Thank you, Barbie for getting us started!

    Happy New Year 2020 to those who have already reached it and those who will be in the next few hours.

    Go Blue (Michigan Wolverines) at the Fiesta Bowl 1/1/20!

    Luci in WNC <3
  • exermom
    exermom Posts: 6,559 Member
    Rori - with how many hints I've dropped ("I'm seriously thinking about getting a roomba. It would be such a help with the cats") I would think I would get it ("maybe when Jess comes back for Easter I can try her Roomba") Do ya think I've been subtle enough????? How long were you out of commission with the trigger finger surgery?

    Happy New Year everyone!

    Michele in NC
  • exermom
    exermom Posts: 6,559 Member
    barbiecat wrote: »
    :)MIchele, If you want a Roomba, just go buy one for yourself.

    I'm dropping hints for gifts for me. I can live without it,

    Michele NC
  • csofled
    csofled Posts: 3,022 Member
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  • skuehn48
    skuehn48 Posts: 3,082 Member
    Happy New Year!
  • Machka9
    Machka9 Posts: 25,716 Member
    First bicycle ride of the year!

    Distance: 14.52 km
    Elevation: 65 m
    Moving Time: 1:00:17
    Elapsed Time: 1:09:33
    Speed: Avg: 14.5 km/h | Max: 19.4 km/h


    Machka in Oz
  • bananasandoranges
    bananasandoranges Posts: 2,410 Member
    Hi everyone,

    1 good thing for beginning of year: I meditated 1 hour this morning.

    Do you all track all every day?
    I find I have not been able to keep up with it regularly for quite some time. I track a couple of days or a week at best and then just forget for a while.

    Do you buy food online?

    I'm GF which is more expensive than usual, plus aiming to add more protein. I saw a food buying online thing offers lower prices but for a subscription price of 50 euros or so. I spend a lot on food so 4 euros per month is a drop in the bucket. I tend to support brick and mortar businesses, even if they are organic food chains, -still have humans working in them, and I find food shopping often pleasant when not overbusy, another tiny way of being connected to my community, but GF is so pricey, plus the online thing gives other options.

    Do you have resolutions or goals?
    For the year?
    For the decade?

    Thinking about a decade seems: daunting, possibly empowering, and impossible due to unknown.

    Off the cuff :
    Things that seem to have evolved positively in last decade:
    Have master's degree
    Have 'permanent' work contracts
    Not concerned with friends and buddies thoughts about me so much at all
    Have lease (I had been paying under the table for 10+ years)
    Connected much more with one sister (she had been out of touch with family for 20+ years)
    Connected with my father's cousin, as a somewhat kindred spirit
    More frugal
    Bought 2 tiny investment studios on credit (after 10-20% downpayment the rent pays 15 year credit)
    More aware of worker's rights
    More politically aware (that is not fun, but reasonable)
    More at ease speaking to and meeting all sorts of people I think
    Am a coordinator in one school
    Am on international commission in one school
    Much more involved in places I work at. (I feel like this is both a grown up thing and a fall from grace. before I used to just come teach and leave and know nothing. Now I'm very aware of political things and not very good things, and it's disheartening.
    Deepened my teaching skills
    Have more professional recognition

    Mixed : Defending workers rights (I feel this is a "good" and necessary thing to do, but it does not leave me light-hearted at all. on the contrary it leaves me heavy-hearted and disappointed much of the time. The directors give lip-service but are all more or less disparaging and even illegal with particularly some of the lesser paid teachers (which I am one of). I aspire to leaving this to others in 1-3 years. But at present I'm in the thick of it.

    Less interesting evolution:
    Not in a couple relationship (not that it's necessary but the one I was in was imperfect but interesting enough)
    Much less exercise
    Foot and knee issues
    Gained 5 kilos
    Have more tension and distance with some family of origin members
    More frugal
    Unable to keep up with housework and paperwork much of the time
    Less close friendships.
    Difficult relation with thesis teacher, very stuck in thesis.
    Doing much less art work
    More conflictual work relation.
    3 legal cases in action in relation to 2 work places. (1. contestation of statutory decision. 2.harassment 3.illegal conditions of our contracts at one school from 2008 to 2017- they were obliged to give us normal contracts but did not; I am not alone here, but only a few of us prefer to fight for our rights). At this point, for the latter, it has bearing on our retirement.

    I think a major shift is I have been putting more energy into work and less into personal life. Most of my life I didn't so much focus on work in a strategic way. I was not so concerned with retirement reality. I focused on relations and present moment. I've had to grow tough and defend myself, at work (enormously), with my landlady.

    My lawyer made a request on the last possible date, on Dec 31, for 42,000 euros from my employer, 20,000 from harassment, particularly in a period 2015 -2017 rather well-documented. And the rest from mismanagement of my working file, and prejudice, a little bit from outright legal fees (about 2000). He doesn't think I will get all, but he thinks I will get some. It sounds- according to the lawyer- like the common response would be a refusal from my school and then necessity to go to court. Which takes 2 years. Another hypothetical possibility would be a highly respectable counter offer.

    Nonetheless, I am surprisingly relieved that the letter has been sent. We have a school wide lunch next Wednesday. The director will have received the letter and will - once again- be all over himself with seething anger, I assume, but I'm not too concerned about it at present.

    I make so many goals and achieve just a few in the year.
    Of course ideal would be to make less, but it's not so easy. I'm a bit under economic (and thus partly professional) pressure. I was not recognition or money focused in the early part of my life, that is for sure. I was more living in the present moment, which can be very pleasant but problematic when you come to retirement, and the present didn't involve retirement planning. Long story. Now I realise minimal recognition is necessary for minimal money (in my field), and possibility. Higher ed is a very competitive, even cut-throat field. I didn't realise when I arrived as an adjunct, but when one wants to go further it really is a rough road. It's hard to change paths at this point (56) and whose to say other fields aren't the same in one way or another. Thank goodness the relation and work with the students is mostly quite good still.


  • bananasandoranges
    bananasandoranges Posts: 2,410 Member
    @LisaInAR Thank you for the Ny's wishes ! right back to you!

    And Happy New Year to everyone !

    @exermom, if you want a Roomba as a gift I would ask for it. personally I wouldn't buy it as a gift, without a specific request. it's mechanical and with quite variable specs, some better for sweeping, others for mopping, and so on. But even moreso, my mom, mother of 5 was totally offended when she got household gadgets as gifts. Even when she was living alone and I bought her a blender, way back when. It was surely a throwover from when my dad must have bought her a washing machine or something as a gift to do the laundry for 7 people. She said "so I can make you food!" which was absolutely not our dynamic- I was moved out and she never made me food.
    And also about 10 years back a newish serious BF was too haggly to buy me a 30 euro natural necklace without haggling (and so I didn't get it) and offered to pay for half of a new stove 250 euros. It seemed so unromantic and I declined. I think farther on in the relationship I'd have accepted but it just didn't sit right for the 1st few months of a relationship. So: 2 x negative experience with household appliances as gifts. Though it depends on the person. my older sister is super-frugal and happy to get any practical thing. I got her spark plugs and a measuring cup (to replace her melted one still in use) one time and she was totally delighted : "spark plugs! :) "

    @machka9 what are some low cal interesting foods you've found?

    off the cuff:

    Financial Goals: use a monthly zero-based budget, track all expenses and income. I used to do this.
    Organizational goals: get all papers filed (this is massive!)
    Spiritual Goals: meditate daily 10-60 minutes
    Fitness Goals: 20 min minimum per day 6 days a week, including 3x a week at gym at maximum target rate, tracking all daily. (i'll keep working at that)
    Educational Goals: Finish thesis and get Phd (I'm in last possible year and stuck) :#
    Family Goals: Go out on one date a week. Very easy living in a big city with apps. At our age there seem to be more normal guys and less creepy guys. This has not at all been a priority for me these past years. I have to kick myself in the butt to do it. Usually it's pleasant. I met some nice people last summer. Then I get so busy and I just don't care. There are some softer apps (not tinder) and it seems like there are some nice guys happy to meet for coffee.
    Career Goals: Get website redone professionally. See if I can get another professional in terms of a related point.
    Social Goals: Meet a friend for coffee or something once a week. I usually do but with transport strikes for past 27 days it's harder to get around.

  • Machka9
    Machka9 Posts: 25,716 Member
    bananasandoranges wrote: »
    @machka9 what are some low cal interesting foods you've found?

    Yogurts and puddings with no sugar.
    Frozen dinners that have lower calories and better flavours and choices than WW brands etc.
    A no-sugar maple syrup which I use on vanilla yogurts because I don't like vanilla yogurts.
    Certain soups and "international" foods.

    Veggies, of course.

    You'd have to explore your own grocery stores to find things ... I suspect much of what I've found may be limited to Australia.


    M in Oz
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