WOMEN AGES 50+ FOR SEPTEMBER

exermom

Amanda - congrats on the weight loss. Hoping for the best for you. I say you should definitely go for the swimming lesson. It can't hurt, right? I had tears in my eyes at your description of your gift from you dh. How lovely!

You know what I like to do with chocolate chip cookies? I make them REAL small and then put them in the freezer. Frozen, they taste so good. That's one of the reasons I don't make them very often....lol Hard chocolate chips...with a tall glass of milk....yum.

Almost forgot that tomorrow is the social for the Newcomers. They are having it at this park. I'm going to bring "indoor smores". Basically, it is Golden Grahams, coated with melted chocolate chips/cornsyrup/I add marshmallows to hold them firm, and marshmallows. I thought that would be a good "picnic" type of food. Just finished making them, now they have to sit while they harden up.

Did 1 hr of extremepump today (Fri). Tomorrow...yoga

Was going to have my one neighbor over for dinner tonight along with another couple from the neighborhood. The other couple couldn't make it because her hubby was having a colonoscopy today and my neighbor couldn't make it since they were going out to dinner with one of their parishioners. Let me explain....she's a pastor at a church near us, she's retiring, this Sun. will be her last day. I WAS going to invite them over Sun. but things are probably going to be a bit of bitter sweet, so we'll just put it off until later.

To all you who have had to have put pets to sleep: here's my dilemma. Sadie has the fibrosarcoma tumor. It is getting bigger. However, he is breathing fine. Yet, he seems (for lack of another word) more "feeble". When you see him walking, it's as if an 80 year old were walking, deliberate and careful about his balance. We took him to the vet today and he's lost 1/2 a pound (he was around 9lbs). He does still jump up on the bed. Yet, he doesn't seem to want to go downstairs as much. He still goes, just not as much. When is the time to say "enough"? Right now what we're doing is giving him subcutaneous fluids, he got a cortisone shot today. Hopefully, that'll spur him to feel better and therefore eat more. He does eat and drink, just not as much as before. We know that basically we're in hospice mode. We know that he's not going to get any better. Our thought right now is to make him comfortable. We'd like his health to be sort-of on an even keel and then it will most likely suddenly drop. then we'll know it's time. Does anyone else have any other thoughts?

Robin - my, what a trip! Glad you survived!

Well, went to the social. Have lots of the indoor smores left over. I'll take them to church tomorrow, give them to the pastor (in other words -- get them out of my house). Really, as far as socials go, this one was a bust. Only about 20 people were there. The VP of the Newcomers wanted children there since she'll be babysitting for her gd, only she wasn't even there! Lots of desserts, not much other foods. It should be intersting to see what kind of spin they put on this.

Everyone, have a great weekend!

Michele

msh0530

One of my dogs had cancer in her shoulder, and when she just looked like she was in pain all of the time, we let her go. It was very sad, but I have not regretted our decision shorten her suffering.

I made three kinds of soup today and had the kids over for dinner. Yum! I kept my two grandsons all day, and they kept me hopping. It's a good weekend!

chicletgirl

Michele :flowerforyou:

I am sorry to hear about your puppy. I have been through this so many times.......and it never easy. I always have to evaluate each animal differently. When my cat was extremely arthritic, she walked like she had no joints. Very stiff legged. But she still lived like her old self. She ate fine, she slept more but that goes for any animal that gets older, and she always liked to plant herself by the heater. I knew with her because her breathing became ragged and labored and she wouldn't move at all all of a sudden. It literally happened overnight.

When my boston terrier had a growth similar to your dog, I took into consideration his life and how he lived it, compared to when the tumor developed. He still played, still ate, wasn't in pain, and was himself. When I knew it was time, he couldn't play anymore without breathing hard, he just couldn't do what he used to do easily. On the outside he looked okay, but his insides were not allowing him to live well. When I took him to the vet, the vet said he was ready to go. I asked him if he was sure and how did he know?" He said when he listened to his breathing and his heart, he was struggling and in pain. I said, " He looks okay on the outside and he is still young." and he shook his head saying, "Deb you don't want him to continue living like this, It's not fair to him. You know how he was when he was healthy, he's just hanging on for you. You want him to be comfortable, not suffer." That dog was the hardest one for me to put to sleep. I loved him so much. He was alert and looked happily at me, but he couldn't breathe right and he couldn't play at all, he couldn't even walk without being out of breath. Nothing was wrong with him mentally and that was what made it hard. He was still thinking he was a puppy and he loved me and was still able to show it. But he couldn't be a dog anymore and it wasn't fair of me to make him live like that. So when it was time to put him to sleep he knew what was going on and I asked the vet if it would hurt him and he said no. He'd just go to sleep. The entire family was there and they each came in and said their goodbyes to him, he was a very special dog to a lot of people. He knew he was loved up until the very end. I know he knew it. And when I put him down, he passed away in my arms, with no pain. It broke my heart. I cried for days. I even went back to the vet a week later and asked him if I had done the right thing, because he looked okay. He took me into a private room and said "He was suffering, he was just a strong dog and he loved you. But his quality of life that he knew before, was gone. You did the right thing." And he hugged me and I cried my eyes out. I'm crying right now thinking about it all over again. God I loved that dog. He was so special to me.

Chiclet

AHealthierSuzyQ

Congratulations Laura! :flowerforyou: Nothing left to lose is a pretty awesome place to be.

This afternoon I began my usual what-to-wear-to-church routine. Now that fall is here most of what I HAD been wearing is just too summery, both in style and color. So I dug to the back of the closet after the fall stuff. Well my favorite outfits from last year are 2 sizes too big. (A few of the sweaters still fit.) The pile of to-give-away grew and grew. I plan to take the nicer things to a girl I sing with.

Honestly I only have a couple of things nice things to wear now into the cooler weather: 1 pr of slacks, a pr of dress capris, a few tops and 2 dresses. We're still having enough warm days I can putt off clothes shopping another month. Maybe by then I'll have lost the rest of this weight.

tiarapants

Happy Sunday ladies.

Another cold one today. It's my dad's 79th birthday and we are all going over to see him this afternoon. It suddenly dawned on me that yesterday would have been my 29th wedding anniversary to my second husband and the day before that is the 29th anniversary of my grandmother's death. Where on earth did all those years go?? Having said that, on October 4th it would have been my 35th wedding anniversary to my first husband! Admittedly I was only 16 when I married him, but it still makes me feel ancient. How my life has changed! I know that 3rd time lucky was definitely the case as far as marriage is concerned for me. I have the best husband in the world (ok, I don't want to get into an argument about who has the best husband - so I'll change that to the best husband in the world for me).

I am decidedly off my food at the moment. It may be the antibiotics or perhaps the worry about seeing the specialist on Wednesday, but I'm literally having to force myself to eat. I've just had a protein shake for breakfast - it's not sitting well though.

Reading about doggy problems made me really sad! I had to have my mum's dog put to sleep a couple of years ago. I adopted her when my mum died. Merrylegs (yes, that was her name!) was absolutely everything to my mum and it broke my heart when I took her to the vet and they said that her cancer had returned. I had to make the decision there and then about what to do and it was extremely tough. The vet's assistant had to let me out of the back door afterwards because I was in such a state - I sat in the car for ages, sobbing my heart out. But, it would have been unfair to let her linger. She was no longer enjoying life and was clearly in pain. DH tells me that I get too attached to my animals (this from the guy who sobbed like a baby when one of the new born puppies died at 3 days old!) As far as I'm concerned, an animal is part of the family. We are still in 'debate mode' about getting a new doggy friend, although I am probably going to put it on hold until I find out if I need surgery and also until after the twins are born.

I've decided to go to my swimming lesson tomorrow morning. My chest infection is much better and I REALLY want to learn to swim! I will definitely take some extra warm clothes to change into afterwards though, don't want to risk a fresh cold.

Suzyq, well done on the smaller clothes sizes. I don't blame you for holding off buying new stuff until you've lost the rest of your weight. I seem to be constantly walking around in clothes that are too large for me - even the stuff I have just bought is already too large. I think belts are the way forward!

Michele, hugs for you and Sadie.

Laura, I'll try to get a picture of my new necklace. It really is a beauty!

Robin, enjoy your time with your daughter. I always love my days with my girls.

Barbiecat, I hope the cabin sharing wasn't too bad. I am a little envious of your spiritual retreat. My son goes on a lot of Buddhist retreats and always seems so upbeat afterwards.

Kackie, I hope you are not getting too blown about in the blustery weather!

Peg, I too use Youtube for exercises. It is a great place for ideas (although some are better than others). When I got my kettle bell weights, I downloaded loads which were really useful.

Barb, how was the wedding? Hope you had fun and enjoyed showing off your new figure!

Sister Veggie Queen, are you still with us? We miss you!

Jeannie, the Subway Veggie delight sounds yummy! If I ever start eating bread again, I'm going to give it a try.

To everyone else and all the newcomers, hello and I'm sorry not to reply individually, but I have a policy of not sitting still for too long and I'd be here until Wednesday, typing away if I tried!

Enjoy the rest of the weekend please.

Amanda x

AHealthierSuzyQ

AMANDA, I had to smile when I read your belt suggestion. Actually tried that with an outfit for church Wednesday night only to discover the only way to make it work would be to poke new holes in all of mine because they are too big too. Worst comes to worst I'll pick up a few things at the thrift store to tide me over. Reading your post also reminded me how much I miss my Daddy. They years DO just fly by. This time 4 years ago I still had him with me. I got married young too ~ at 17 ~ so we must be about the same age. This coming January will be 33 years for us. The other night at zumba I was the only one there over 40 and as we were leaving I said something to one of the young-uns like, "I bet I could be all of you's mother." Wasn't fishing for a compliment, but long story short, one of the gals about my daughter's age told me she thought I was about 32. SURE put a spring in my step! :happy:

Today is going to be a busy fun-filled day. We are having a very gifted up and coming singer/songwriter at our church this weekend. Since its my turn to sing front-line this week, I get to harmonize with him all weekend long. Last night's practice turned into such a fun jam session we sang for over 2 hours! What a fun way to burn calories!!! This evening he will be in concert and one of my old running buddies from high school is driving in to go with me. So excited! (If you have time on your hands look on YouTube for Coffey Anderson and check him out. His first big break was "Southern Man" and most recent release is "You ARE All I'm After".) In between church and the concert I have a scentcy party to attend. Another opportunity to NOT eat junk food I'm sure...

Well, I've run out of liquid caffeine now, so guess its time to finish getting ready and get on out the door to PT practice. Have a blessed Sunday y'all!:flowerforyou:

jam0525

Laura, Way to go on being at your goal! That is awesome.

Michelle, as long as your doggy is acting mostly normal I'd say wait and see. Enjoy the time left. If there is anything left you always wanted to do with the dog, go do it. My DD always wanted to bring her dog camping, but the dog died young from cancer and she never got to do it. It still bothers her that she does not have that memory of Maggie.

I am so over tired I already forgot what else I was going to say. DD, DS and I went to the New Mexico State Fair yesterday after soccer. We walked and walked and walked. Had a great time, ate too much but ended up under calories for the day. As much as I hated to do it, I took some money I was saving to get the house painted and spent it on the fair. The kids are 15 and it's only a matter of time before they don't want to go places with their Mom any more. I got a picture of us that I hope to get scanned and uploaded here and in FB.

We got home really late and I still had to get up early to take care of my parents.

Have a great day all.

Jeannie

marlouise

Hello everyone.

Just a quickie to say that my schedule did work and I was up to do my exercises, hope this continues, sure felt good:drinker:

Looks like rain for the next few hours, not a good thing to get up to, I find it makes the day so dreary.

Hope everyones Monday goes well <<<smiles, giggles, and belly rolls >>>> to brighten up the day!


Marilyn

exermom

Chicklet/Deb - you put tears in my eyes just reading about your dog's health (or lack thereof). The pain from having to have put PJ down is still so strong. Even the vet agreed that that was one special cat. I just don't want Sadie to hang on for us.

I had some of those indoor smores that I made for the social last night. I took them to the priest at church today. I'd totally forgotten that they were having some sort of youth activity tonight, he said he'd take them there. I don't have a problem with that -- as long as they aren't in MY house! Then after church Vince & I bowled 4 games. From 10 until 2 it's only $1 a game. I'm still not that good. Don't really know why, but it seems when I go to the one bowling lane by myself, I usually get a higher score. But when I go with him, my score is lower. Maybe it's because I don't work well under pressure and I feel pressured to do well for him. I'd get a strike or spare, and never failed but the next frame I'd get a gutter ball or two!

SuzyQ - wish I had your problem of needing to have to add holes to your belts! You go girl!

Did 1 hr of pilates DVD today....tomorrow the water class.

Hope everyone has a great day tomorrow.


Michele

weaklink109

Hello Everyone!!

I finally managed to catch up on reading from Saturday and Sunday. As some of you know, this weekend I attended the out of town wedding that I have been planning for since June. I decided to leave my laptop home.

I will post more information tomorrow.

I notice we are at 490 posts, so that means soon we will be rolling over to a new thread. NEWCOMERS, be aware that when a thread reaches 500 posts, it will appear in the topic list with a padlock symbol. You can access it to read posts, but you can NOT post to a locked thread, and if you try to, you will sadly discover your message has evaporated into cyberspace. When you go to the last post of a thread that has reached 500 posts, you will see a link at the bottom, indicating a place to click that will take you to the new thread that automatically is created to carry on posting.

If you are wondering how you can tell how many posts a thread has, when you see a topic in my topics, or recent posts, there will be a number showing how many posts that thread has.

The doggies were VERY glad to see me when I got home tonight. More later.


Barb

chicletgirl

I am kind of freaking out a little right now. The refrigerator is bare and I am unable to get groceries until next week. So I am scrounging for bits of things left in the frig to put something together. I have plenty of chicken, but no fresh veggies at all now and one bag of frozen green beans and a half a bag of corn. I have plenty of pasta (wheat or multi grain) and I have light spaghetti sauce. I just hate eating pasta because it has so many calories for the little you get to eat (which normally means I don't get filled up enough unless I have veggies on the side.) Lunch is my main problem right now, as I do not have any deli meat or cheese for my sandwich although I do have 1/2 a bag of bread. I have 2 eggs left so I can make an egg salad sandwich though.
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But what really has me worried is I have only 3 packets of food for Boo left and I don't know how I am going to be able to get more. I don't care if I go withou,t but Boo is another story. I think the reason why I ran out of veggies faster than normal is because I have been trying to spread out Boo's food, so I use veggies and dog food together. Luckily I have a jar of peanut butter for Boo to take her pills with. Otherwise she fights me as I try to get her to swallow it. She will keep spitting it out until the pill is undistinguishable.

Well I have survived this long, juggling things around and have been fortunate that I do have food stamps so that I can eat healthy. (That's why I am having to wait until the beginning of the month.) Something will work out. It always does. I guess I shouldn't complain, I'm just worried that I will gain weight from having to eat pasta and nothing green.:ohwell:

Crossing my fingers as usual. Surprised that my fingers are not permanently bent that way by now.:laugh:
Chiclet

vikkij12

Hi everyone

Chiclet sorry to hear things are so rough for you, Chicken is good and can be stretched out by putting the dreaded pasta with it. What is that song "I will survive" will pray that things get easier for you and Boo. Give him a cuddle for me and stretching out arms over the water for you too.

I guess we all have our crosses to bear but some are harder than others and having a forum like this where we can unload our worries to people who care is a real blessing.

Vikki

msh0530

Chiclet - If I could send you a meal from my house, I would. I just can't seem to get it jammed into my fax machine. However, I would say stretch the chicken out with the pasta, and just know that this week may not be the week for losing weight. Sometimes survival is the most important thing. Can Boo eat pasta? I'll be praying that things work out for you.

pegstet

Brio – Well Done! 5 lbs. is great. Congrats! Being at work is good for me as well. I eat only what I take with me and it makes it SO-O-O easy to track exactly what and how much I eat each weekday. Too bad the weekends aren’t as simple; DH took me out for breakfast Saturday, and even though we split an omlet, I know I went over my breakfast calories. But I forgive myself and get back on the wagon after falling off! Ha!

Laura – thanks for trying to thing of Marie Osmond’s opera song. And thanks to Amanda (with the heart of Gold) for coming up with Pie Jesu. If it’s the one from Andrew Lloyd Webber’s Requiem, it is beautiful. My daughter has sung that a number of times in recitals and at church… what great memories it brings for me, so thanks to you both again.

Michele – sorry about your Sadie. My angel dog Penny and I send hugs to help ease your mind.

Suezzzque – congrats to you for needing smaller clothes and even Belts! Woo-Hoo!

Jeannie – I agree with your choice to spend the time (and money) with your children now; it won’t be long and they will rather be with their friends than you, as you said.

Best to all of you for a successful week.

Peg.

rjadams

quick post
went to a Zumba class at 5:30 this morning with DD. It was nice. today is my last day with her. I am anxious to get home to DH and Bodi and Keira but I don't want to leave my Holly. We are having such a great time. I haven't been able to do half the stuff I wanted to. time just seems to fly by. I haven't even had a chance to call Peggy much less visit with her. I am sorry about that because it is always so much fun to meet up with people. Any way I will catch up with all the posts tomorrow.

Much love to all of you.

AHealthierSuzyQ

Chiclet - If I could send you a meal from my house, I would. I just can't seem to get it jammed into my fax machine. However, I would say stretch the chicken out with the pasta, and just know that this week may not be the week for losing weight. Sometimes survival is the most important thing. Can Boo eat pasta? I'll be praying that things work out for you.

Great advice! You and Boo can both eat pasta. And try turning some of that chicken and pasta into a soup. I'm always amazed how drinking hot broth takes the edge off my appetite. Also, is there a food bank nearby? Maybe you could get some canned veggies there. Not as good for you as fresh, but .... Meantime we'll be praying for you.

jam0525

Chiclet – I so know how you feel. It is getting harder and harder to get by on what we have to get by on. Hang in there. Friday is only a few days away.

Susan – Glad to hear you need extra holes in your belt. Keep up the great job on loosing weight.

Robin – Safe travels home.

DS, DD and I took the younger dogs hiking in the National Forrest yesterday for about an hour hike. If I had thought to look at a map first, we would have been prepared to do a whole loop instead of a down and backer. It was fun.

I am off today as the kids are off. We had plans, but DS has a soccer game so we are just hanging.

Have a great Monday,

Jeannie

smelliott

Hi everyone,

just a quick post to let you know i'm back and planning to get back on the wagon. I haven't had time to catch up on all the posts I've missed.

I managed to finish my half marathon without any injury and was thrilled to have raised some money through sponsorship for the British Heart Foundation in memory of my first husband and my brother-in-law Harry.

We've been away for a week to attend the funeral of DH's uncle in Lyme Regis. The family there were all very compimentary about my weight loss (hadn't seen them since January). We came home on Saturday and spent yesterday at the Christening of our Great nephew, Curtis. It was a lovely day.

Today I've been catching up with the laundry.

I'm glad to be back with you.

MacMadame

I was out of town with my family for a race. We all went to Santa Cruz. Before that we went to San Francisco and walked our feet off! They went hiking on Friday but I did a bike ride (left and came back to the same spot they did).

For my race, I was really, really happy with my bike time. Not so much my swim time -- still too slow -- and for my run, I was able to run the 3:1 pattern (3 min run, 1 min walk) with a few variations, such as 5 min to start and 4 to end (I was damned if I was going to WALK over the finish line). The last mile I was hurting unless I slowed WAY down, but I did it and I think I'm going to be okay for my Ironman. I have 8 weeks to get healed enough to run/walk the whole 26.2 miles. (It was only 6.2 yesterday).