50+ with 50+ To Lose Group

KeriA

She is at UW. I am going to go for a run and then go by for an hour. I am wondering if she is coming home today or not.

Well all this has taken a toll on me. I have decided to accept I have gained and have changed my MFP weight. This is a first for me. I have also changed my goal to 1 pound loss a week. I don't think what I had it set at is sustainable but I might go back to it later. I want to set it at something I can achieve whether life is cooperating or not. However I know that if I really eat that much I won't lose so I will try to stay under my goal. I haven't been drinking enough water that is for sure and not as much exercise as usual. Meals have been hard to be able to make as well on some days. This is really the most important. I am trying to get things settled down a bit. Maybe I will have some progress by the end of the month but I am not giving up.

YoungerNextYear59937

I have been there and I understand. Take a deep breath and try to relax, although I know that is hard to do. Just don't give up. Don't worry about goals for now, just take each day one day at a time and do your best. Know we are thinking of you and pulling for you and are here for you.

~Joni

BrynnGetsThin

Hi everyone, sorry I disappeared. Sister was taken to hospital a few nights ago with chest pains and I drove down to be with her (she's about 100 miles away). Turned out to be her gallbladder with severe pancreatitis, so they did an emergency surgery. She's still in hospital till her labs get back to normal, but after that she should be okay, with rest, as long as she starts eating a healthier low fat diet. I'm not working right now, so will be staying with her till after Thanksgiving, and longer if necessary, to clean and cook and help her out. We both live alone. We're actually even talking about moving in together now. I'm not going to try to do MFP till things get back to normal, but will be eating healthier and lighter with her, so maybe I can lose anyway.

Keri, hope your mom is doing better, and remember to be patient with yourself with all the stress in your life right now. And everyone else, don't work too hard.

See you all down the road a bit, probably, and thanks for being so great. Wishing everyone much success as we approach the holidays.

Brynn

YoungerNextYear59937

I'll be thinking about you and your sister, Brynn. Be sure you take care of yourself as well as your sister. I have taken care of post-op family members in the past and know it's easy to stop taking care of yourself. It sounds like your focus is right where it should be--with your sister and eating right. Don't worry about MFP other than giving us short updates about how you and sis are doing. Bless both your hearts!

~Joni

swimmer54

Maybe we could be something like 50+, but Younger Next Year, or something on that order. I suggest you all read the book, there is one specifically for men and one specifically for women. It tells you how to be strong, fit and sexy into your 80's and beyond. Now who doesn't want to be all those things? :happy:

I like your idea for the name Joni. I like the reference to 50+ combined with the younger idea.

Mary

KeriA

Resetting my weight and calorie goal seems to be working probably psychologically since it takes longer for your weight to adjust to calories. Anyway the added pounds are starting to come off. Went to Aquafit today but not the weight training my shoulder doesn't feel quite up to par right now. Hope we all have agreat week.
Keri

lhershaw

I found this thread thru KeriA and would like to join in

KeriA

Welcome Ihershaw, Boy I am impressed you found this thread/group so fast.
We usually by telling a little bit about ourselves and our major health and fitness goals.
Looking forward to getting to know you. This is a great bunch of people here.
Keri

CRody44

Hi Keri,
Got your message inquiring how I was doing. I’m still alive and kicking. I moved over to LiveStrong to log my food because they also have a diabetes tracker which graphs my blood glucose in relation to my carbs/calories/fat/protein. On October 9, I started eating and exercising Paleo/Primal and since then, I have my diabetes completely under control and have lost another 12 pounds, down to 242. I haven’t felt so alive and energetic in over 40 years. I’m walking 30 minutes, 1.7 miles a day, three days a week and working out with 35 lb. Kettle Bells three days a week. I’m trying to get an appointment to have my Lipid Panel and A1C done. My blood glucose and blood pressure are both so good now that I hope to talk my doctor into getting me off my medication. I have been taking statins and have been experiencing some cognitive problems as well as muscle weakness and sleep problems. I really want to get off them. From the reading I’ve done, I wonder if they do more harm than good. The size 42” waist wardrobe that I bought for our cruise in August I can now pull down over my hips. I’m going to put off buying anything smaller until I hit 232, which will be 100 pounds lost. I hope to me there by Christmas

I read a few pages back, and, Keri, sorry to hear about your Mother. Hope she won’t have any complications in recovering.

Chuck

KeriA

Chuck,
It is so nice of you to let us know how you are doing. I am so glad it is all good news too. We miss you but we want the best for you and want you to concentrate on what is working for you. Just brought my Mom back today and this morning some of the regain has been relost. So things are hopefully calming down. I have read about the Paleo diet since another friend on here mentioned it. I hope you are able to get off the meds soon and I suspect you will.
Thanks for the update. Yay Chuck!

KeriA

OK I did it. I created our group. I invited all who posted on this thread or joined it. Here is the name I picked. 40/50+ but Younger next Year. Here is the address of the group http://www.myfitnesspal.com/groups/home/820-40-50-but-younger-next-year .
I will post a notice on my updates as well. I will be checking both threads daily for now.

Keri

KeriA

Hello! Anyone ready for a restart?
I started this thread a while ago and then we morphed into a Group. Well I realize the Group thing just wasn't working. When I did challenges on it they worked well. I have looked around for a thread that works and just haven't found one that works like this one. So this is an experiment. I am going to see if I can resurrect this one. The idea is age has made losing harder and gaining easier. The other idea is you have significant weight to lose. 50 isn't really important. It could be 40 or 60 or more or less. You don't have to be female. Anyone can join at anytime. The idea is getting and staying healthy and fit not just losing. So ignore the post above. That group is there and I am the moderator and will reply and post if others are but I like the thread format better. So here goes.

KeriA

I will start by posting in a format that works for me but feel free to find one that works for you. Anyway introduce yourself for your 1st post.

Introductions:
I am 64 but my birthday is next month. I am an almost empty-nester. My "baby" is half way through college. My son is married and well launched. No grandkids yet but lots of grand nieces and nephews. I lost 40 lbs on here when I was underemployed during the economic downturn but I am back working full time in my field and am loving it. However going back to work resulted in gaining a lot of what I had lost due to being too busy to eat right and exercise as much. I have stopped that. I am exercising regularly and eating much better. Not easy with office food temptations. Now the goal is to lose what I gained back and more. So this truly is a restart for me.

I will start with my goals/focus I have set for the spring:
1. increase my exercise slowly from 3 days of aquafit a week
2. increase my water intake,
3. keep under my calorie goals,
4. get enough sleep,
5. making healthy meals at home,
6. eat healthier breakfasts

My exercise right now consists of a pretty rigorous Aquafit Class 3 times a week which keeps me well stretched, provides great cardio and resistance training. I have been told not to run anymore (arthritis) after doing C25K on here , but I can walk. I broke my leg a while ago and still need to get back into the shape I was in before that. I want to add some weight training in beyond the water weights.

My weight loss goal is simply to start losing.

How about you?

KeriA

Some helpful information as to how to find this thread after posting once. At the top of this page where the title of the group is to the right is a star. Click on it so it is highlighted (yellow). When you want to post here again go to the Community Tab at the top of the page then click on My Discussions and you will see your favorited threads.

Cpagali

Hi. I've been on MFP for nearly 50 days. I am extremely obese and unfit -- probably in the 100+ to lose category. I've decided not to have weight loss as a goal, this time 'round, because experience has taught me that it just makes me crazy. (At my request, my husband has kept our scale hidden for years. )

This time, I just want to establish healthy habits that will last me for years. I want to run a marathon, not a sprint (metaphorically speaking. Definitely not ready for literal marathons yet!). I suspect that my goals in this "get healthy" marathon are going to change over time.

Here are the goals that I am starting with:

1. Plan my food for the next day every evening
2. Log my food intake every day (including unplanned food).
3. Stay within calorie limits
4. Stay within the limits that I set for sodium intake
5. Meet the targets that I set for protein intake
6. Meet the targets that I set for iron intake

I've decided not to stress about carbs and fat for now (which is very, very hard after decades of being obsessed with them), but I assume that if I stay within calorie limits and meet my protein targets, my fat and carb intake won't be excessive.

I eventually want to set some exercise targets, but for the moment, I just want to get established in a good solid habit of planning, logging, and (more or less) sticking to the plan.

A couple of the goals that you have listed for yourself are essential to my own success, too. I haven't written them down, because I'm not sure how to measure them, but I'm working on them nevertheless. One of these is to get enough sleep. The other is to make healthy meals at home.

I've planned and logged for 48 days straight, which I'm really happy about, and I've stayed within calorie limits for the vast majority of those days. I had trouble meeting protein and iron targets at the beginning, but I've gotten much better over time. Sodium is also getting better, though more slowly. It takes time to find low-sodium alternatives for foods that I rely on (e.g canned beans, canned tomatoes, soup stock, soy sauce, cheese), but I'm getting there.

But I'm noticing that, in the past few days, I'm having increasing difficulty sticking to the plan and, in fact, am feeling really resentful about it. Today in particular, I've wanted to just throw the plan out the window and binge on my favourite foods. I'm surprised that it took nearly 50 days for this to start happening, but now that it's here, I need to figure out what to do. Have you had this challenge, sometimes?

KeriA

Hi Cpagali, great job at logging and planning not to mention staying within your calorie goals. As to worrying about fats there are some that help weight loss like those in avocados and nuts. You are wise to limit your focus and take this a step at a time. I try to find an achievable objective to tackle so I can be successful with it and build from there. I am hoping a thread like this will help with the challenges.

Yes I do have that challenge. When I was successfully losing I was really monitoring that resentment level too. Part of my problem is that we never had sweets when I was growing up and really no junk food. I never had a chance to learn how to limit them. I am not into cheat days but I give myself a pressure valve periodically. I would make sure I logged it and I tried to adjust accordingly. So find a way to give yourself something of what you have been missing without blowing it completely. Decide what it is that is making you feel deprived. I guess that is the issue for me. I felt deprived of foods others got to have so I can't lose if I don't monitor that feeling. I am really picky about what sweets I eat because I limit them so why spend my sweets allowance on something I don't really enjoy that much. So when I feel that feeling of being deprived I determine exactly what it is that I am most wanting or missing and try to have some of that without it being over the top. I am really not a big binger but then I just don't have things in my house since I know I can't limit them. So when I feel that feeling I get as small an amount of it as possible and have some and try to adjust by having more exercise, or less calories elsewhere maybe not that day but that week. This week I had a small bag of corn nuts.

It may be day by day process but it is really the weekly calorie deficit over time that matters in weight loss. I never really had foods that were off the list just monitored calories. However I do believe in mostly eating healthy foods. Yes there are foods I don't eat anymore because they have so many calories. I don't have milkshakes now since I wouldn't be able to eat anything else that day but if I really wanted one I would make it at home the old fashion way where there is actually milk in the shake and I could have it a smaller size and exactly the flavor I want. The ones you eat out don't really use milk just ice cream and calories. If you think about it a milkshake should have less calories than ice cream but somehow they have more?

Cpagali

We, too, didn't have many sweets growing up, and I too, had very little practice in controlling them. Interesting. And yes, it's interesting how fast food places somehow do things that add more calories and or sodium than we would have at home. Your milkshake is a good example.

KeriA

Today was a different day. The day started a little late due to snow and freezing. Then I was asked to join a meeting at the last meeting, then I had a site visit and when I got to having lunch it was time to go. So I packed up my lunch and went home but of course now I am pretty hungry. Hope fully it won't throw me off. It was fun going to aquafit last night finally after being ill.

Cpagali

I gave in to the urge to binge a couple of days ago. But I logged it all (I'm sometimes tempted to pretend it never happened) and, miraculously, I've been able to go back to normal patterns. I think there might have been two issues going on. a) Aunt Flo arrived today -- the days immediately before her arrival tend to be more challenging than other days and b) I had the day off, and therefore wasn't following my usual routine. On work days, I prepare a ziploc bag stuffed with raw veggies, and I snack on them throughout my work day. That, combined with Greek Yogurt, have been getting me through the workday without feeling hungry or deprived. On weekends and days off, I don't make that bag of veggies, and maybe I need to. It provides a lot of helpful vitamins, minerals and most of all -- fibre. Maybe I'm a person that benefits from having a similar food routine every day.

Hope the rest of yesterday went okay for you. How was aquafit?

KeriA

Aquafit was great! My week hasn't been routine either and like you I have my routine worked out so I can make my calorie goal. I missed lunch one day and dinner the next but of course you end up hungry later. I had a night meeting I had to staff. So missed aquafit that night. We have had 2 late mornings due to snow. I am lucky that my work lets us use the schedule for the local school district so if they have late start times we do too. Hoping to settle down soon. Saturday morning we go to aquafit. Have a great Friday!