WOMEN AGES 50+ FOR DECEMBER 2011

mimi7grands

Thinking of all of you. (I sure will be glad when construction is finished!)

Amanda, you've done a wonderful job. I'm begining to think (I hate to believe it but the evidence is proving it) the struggles never end. Why we were born or learned this obsessive way of being, I don't know. Thank goodness for the ability to change. We're proof change can happen at any age. How lucky and blessed we are.

It's strange how reading of someone's struggles can take me out of my own and make me think of what has changed and how grateful I am. It's easy to forget and I was doing just that.

Joyce and Mary, congrats to both or you. There's nothing more wonderful than snuggling up with a brand new baby.

Jeannie: Thinking of you. You're another one who has been an inspiration. Hang in there and treat yourself well.

Kackie, what a good friend you are.

Beth, you did a great job of staying on track. A big congratulations to you!

I hope the holiday season is a good one for all of you, no matter what holiday you are celebrating. This is a good time to count our blessings. Thank you for remnding me!

xx

tiarapants

Good morning Ladies

I am keeping, keeping on and I hope you are too. Just unbelievably busy right now. My days are extra long at present as I am visiting my mother-in-law in the nursing home every evening to take the pressure off my DH. His brother is away, so he's out of the picture. It means that I get up at 5:00 am to drive over to look after the twins and I don't get home before about 9:00 pm. So tired, but it has to be done.

I will check back in again soon. Love to you all.
Amanda x

msh0530

I am hoping that Isaac comes home from the hospital today. They held them an extra day, because big brother got the stomach bug yesterday. I think that my daughter had a touch of it last night and was glad that she hadn't come home yet. Anyway, I am trying to get back to logging my food. Do pretty well with breakfast and lunch, but haven't managed to fit it back into my evening yet, and my life is too unsettled at this point to know in advance what I will be eating. Everyone have a great Thursday!

MacMadame

It took man 1.5 hours to get to work today! (Normally it takes 30 minutes.)

There was a big rig accident right above where I normally get on the freeway. Luckily my GPS routed me around it. A lot of other people I work with got stuck there and took even longer to get into work.

BirdieM

So I thought because my boss was out of town for 12 days, I'd have time to post!:bigsmile: NOT!! ! Very busy getting ready for Tax Season.:ohwell: So just a quick hello, dear friends! Sending hugs from a busy little office in Rhode Island

birdieM

SallyCC

Hello All...
I love reading your posts and hope to get back to really responding in a couple of days.....its been a little crazy. I am hanging on with my food plan and having a tough time getting to the gym lately. So many stressors but trying to deal with one thing at a time!

Beth.....WOW!! Good for you to stick with your plan and help your friend too. I have a friend that always said "...but for the grace of God go I...".....just always brings me back to gratitude.

Mary...I hope all is well with your daughter and family. Hopefully the stomach bug is gone!!

I'll be back.....

Just want to share our message that we sent to our yoga students this week ( I think the source is from Mother Theresa):

May today there be peace within. May you trust that you are exactly where you are meant to be. May you not forget the infinite possibilities that are born of faith in yourself and others. May you use the gifts that you have received, and pass on the love that has been given to you. May you be content with yourself just the way you are. Let this knowledge settle into your bones, and allow your soul the freedom to sing, dance, praise and love. It is there for each and every one of us.

Peace,
Sally

cathys01

Hi Everyone:

It is certainly getting busy, isn't it?

I hope you all are well.

Beth - Hope your friend is doing better. There is not much you can do, but be there for them, so good for you :flowerforyou:

Michele - I sure hope you can talk Vince into taking a cruise; I think you would love it. I know we do; there is just so much to do if you want to, or not do, if you don't

Mary - So glad the baby and new Mom are doing well. Hope he can come home soon :happy:

Mimi _ So happy to see you Isn't it the truth that just when you think you have the biggest problem in the world to cope with, you will hear about someone else, who truly does have the biggest problem and suddenly your problem doesn't seem so big anymore. To me I always think that is the Lord taking care of me and reminding me that people are worse off than me

We still have no snow, which is not a bad thing, we are having so much rain that if it were snow, we would be shoveliing from here to Timbuktu :noway:

I found out my little granddaughter, who is not yet 4 has contracted pneumonia. Poor little thing. I feel so badly fopr her. Her Daddy is my son, who is the serviceman who has been posted away these pas few months and won't be back until next week. My DIL is so frustrated as she has been taking the little one to the doctor for weeks trying to find out whyMaddy won't stop coughing and so on and they kept telling her basically there was nothing wrong and now it is pneumonia. They are leaving for Florida on Wednesday next week, I think it is, but by then, the medication should have kicked in and Maddy should be feeling better by then.

On Saturday night, my other granddaughter, who is 5, is coming to spend the night and I am taking her on Sunday for a pedicure and manicure, which she has been asking me to do for her for ages (because I go all the time and she likes my "pretty nails"). Then on Sunday afternoon, we have a Christmas party to attend. So, it should be a good day

Well, I better run. Hope you all take care of yourselves. Talk to you soon.

Love, Cath xx

exermom

Still, what are the advantages/disadvantages of this becoming a group? How will this affect me? How will it be different? Will it be more convenient? Is there a group that I can see how it is? As you can tell, I have not a clue about a group here. Not one clue.

Where did I leave off? I don't remember. Anyway, Tuesday I did an hour of incline intervals on the treadmill (if I'm repeating myself, just ignore me), Wednesday we had a Newcomer general meeting so I did an hour of a step DVD at home, today (Thurs) I did an hour of a DVD Bob Greene's Total Body Makeover. Tomorrow...water aerobics, then probably stop at one food store then home to help Vince with the last of the outside decorations. It was so windy today that he had trouble putting up one of the inflatables.

Was under A LOT of stress today. Gotta learn more manageable maneuvers. Anyway, WAAYYY overate, I'm not even bothering to finish recording. I was doing well until the afternoon...... Well, tomorrow is another day. Right now I feel so "yukky" from having overeaten. Hopefully, this feeling will stay with me for a while...I hope.

I seem to recall that there are people on this board who had WLS. If so, don't you have to limit your fats?

Amanda - take care of yourself and don't get worn down.

Cathy - I hope the med kicks in for Maddie. How frustrating! When Bryan was little, the doctor said to me "one thing I've learned, even if everything looks OK, if the mother says something's wrong--something's wrong". I told him something was wrong and even tho every test came back positive, sure enough there was. I know your other granddaughter will have a wonderful time at her mani/pedi.

Better run. Busy, busy, busy (and that's not helping my eating any, either)

Michele

RebelRenny

I have no idea what the difference is between a group and what we have now, which I think is called a ........what IS it called anyway? A message board, a forum, a thread?

I would kinda be lost without this thread, so could we just keep going? :bigsmile: :bigsmile:

msh0530

Sally - thanks for the inspiring quote.
Cath - hope your granddaughter is improving.
Isaac came home yesterday, and we are enjoying him. I am picking up the boys from school/daycare when I get off work, and going over to prepare dinner.

Group questions:
If you want to look at groups, look at the top of this page underneath the food tab and click on groups. Leave the "find a group" text box blank, and click search. It will bring up all of the current groups. I would suggest looking until you find one with a fair number of members, and looking at it for an example. As a group, you can start different conversation threads. So, if there was something that some of us were interested in and wanted to discuss, it could be broken out by topic. However, personally, I like reading everything, and am afraid that I would miss something if we didn't have everything together. But an advantage would also be that you can easily look at a list of all of the group members. So, I can see advantages both ways, and would personally be okay either way: if we stayed the same or became a group.
If you belong to groups, and go to the message board home page, your groups are listed with the most recent topic under the general new topic section. If you go to my topics, any topic that you have personally posted on in the group shows up just like this thread currently does.
I hope that this isn't too confusing and has answered some questions. If you have more, ask away and I will try to answer.

Happy Friday! Mary

Editing to add: I did not mention that some people are joining groups because the rules are not as stringent on topics that you can discuss, like politics, religion, or risque topics, but our group doesn't tend to head those directions anyway!

MacMadame

One advantage of a group: We could always find the new thread just by going to the group. We could make this thread (the monthly conversation thread) be pinned at the top so you could always find the latest one. When a new thread gets started, that one can be pinned to the top and the old one can drop off. So no scrambling to find the new thread every month.

One disadvantage of a group: if there are a bunch of threads and you don't have time to read them all, you can miss stuff.

OTOH, if people want to start a topic about something you are completely not interested in, you can skip it. So the disadvantage can be an advantage sometimes.

I guess, for me, the big advantage is being able to find you guys. The other stuff is six of one and half a dozen of another.

Susan0816

Good Morning,
I am really enjoying this thread!. I just wish I had more time to really communicate with everyone but I am quite limited on the amount of time I can give. I am in a group, yes it is small and just started in November but the activity among members is slow.
I really enjoy reading about everyone and can relate to so many that I don't feel alone in this conquest to lose weight and regain confidence in myself. I'm trying to learn to quit blaming my husband and son for every thing and take more responsibility for being a dedicated wife and mother. Also I need to put things in the past and move forward. Be more supportive.

We have been married 38+ years with a developmentally disable adopted son who will be 30 in a month and still living at home.
We all go in different directions and have different sleep/eating schedule. I have been on vacation this week and have accomplished about 1/3 rd of the things I wanted to do. But I have several more projects started and it would take to long to finish.

I have the kitchen cleaned except mopping, I think I will go bake some Christmas cookies for the first time in years.

Have a great day everyone.
Thank you for listening.

Susan

bubbles15973

I feel for your problems with your mom. I too went through this, but please be patient with her. Some day we may be like that as well. Cherish the times you have with her, whether good or bad. They are gone in a blink of an eye. I lost my mom last month and I wish I had more time with her. Just remember, they too, are just as frustrated as we are. In the end my mom could not speak, but you could see the frustration and anguish in her eyes. Love your mom as long as you can.

LuciaLongIsland

Hi all"

Sorry I do not come in here too often. I am 60 and was wondering if any of you ladies use the wii Fit? I had a bit of a time with it. I do have a bad hip and will require surgery at some point. Also how is everyones weight loss coming> Mine is so slow.

LuciaLongIsland

Hi all - first time to post. My name is Maria and I'm 54..going through menapause and finding it hard to lose. I've followed MFP for 50 days and plateaued at 6 lbs...I keep telling myself that ONE day, the scale is going to show a drop. My plan is the 1200 cal a day plus whatever I earn in exercise which is usually 250 to 300....and I eat all of it and am still hungry.

I walk every day and 2x a week go to the gym.

Anyone else a slow loser?

I have been a pretty slow loser (on average) , but have done a bit better on MFP. Why don't you try not using your exercise points and see if that helps? Just a suggestion. I've been through menopause and they say the best you can expect at that point is 300 gms per day. I've plateau'd twice in my journey, but when I do I try something different to nudge things along, adnit usually works (not WW though).

BIG mistake my me!!!!! They say the most you can hope to lose after menopause is 300gms per WEEK! Not per day! (I wish it was per day...lol.)

Oh Maria, please friend me. I am having the same issue.

thumper59

I have just joined the site. I am feeling motivated and enthusiastic. But then....I just seem to forget my resolve at the three week mark. I've heard that meditation can help with focus and determination. If anyone has a suggestion, let me know. How do resist the urge to eat all these delicious goodies, food and wine? I say no in my mind while my body reaches for that carrot walnut muffin.
Am I just weak in the Mind?

LuciaLongIsland

I have just joined the site. I am feeling motivated and enthusiastic. But then....I just seem to forget my resolve at the three week mark. I've heard that meditation can help with focus and determination. If anyone has a suggestion, let me know. How do resist the urge to eat all these delicious goodies, food and wine? I say no in my mind while my body reaches for that carrot walnut muffin.
Am I just weak in the Mind?

Not at all. I have heard people say, "Oh. you are not ready to do this" and that is OK. For me, having never been overweight and having doctors tell me to lose was still not motivation. For me, it was looking in the mirror and hating what I saw, my self esteem and looking in the closet and the stores and seeing all the clothes I couldn't wear. Sadly, it isn't about health, that will come, it is about looking good. Yes, I have bad days, but that is ok. I want me back.

MacMadame

I have just joined the site. I am feeling motivated and enthusiastic. But then....I just seem to forget my resolve at the three week mark. I've heard that meditation can help with focus and determination. If anyone has a suggestion, let me know. How do resist the urge to eat all these delicious goodies, food and wine? I say no in my mind while my body reaches for that carrot walnut muffin.
Am I just weak in the Mind?

I think there comes a point when our bodies realize they aren't going to get the food they think they need (i.e,. what we normally give them) and they start to fight back. This usually comes when 10-20 pound and/or 10% of body weight is lost but it can come earlier.

The fighting back includes telling us we're STARVING and making high calorie foods look extra good.

I have found if I can get past that point, my body kind of gives up and stops making me extra hungry or sending me messages that that donut looks super-delicious. But the week before it gives up can be really tough.

I also find that it helps to keep biology in mind. For example, we are genetically programmed to respond positively to food when we see it. People joke about the "seefood diet" I see food and I eat it. But there is truth in that. So what I do is make sure I don't see it. If I go in the kitchen and there is leftover lunch on the counters, I advert my eyes. If I see a piece of candy, and I have that immediate gut reaction of "I must have that", I turn my back and see if it goes away. It almost always goes away as soon as I can't see (or smell) the food any more.

Another example is that ghrelin levels are higher at night. Ghrelin is a hormone that makes us feel hungry. So I manage my calories so that I can have a filling but not high calorie snack at night rather than rely on willpower to keep from eating. I know I'm going to want to eat whether I need the calories or not so I make sure I need the calories I know I'm going to put in my body anyway.

exermom

Mary - thanks for the info about the groups. I'll have to check it out. As I was reading your post, I thought of the fact that some people (myself included) post answers to multiple people in one post. In that post (I'll use myself as an example) I might also post things like what exercises I'm doing, how my day is going, things like that. Does that mean that each time I will have to post a separate answer, and how do I know if anyone else is interested in, say, my exercises? Do I have to start a new "thread" for my exercises, another new one for what is going on in my life that day, etc?

MacMadame - I would think that the problem of someone pulling up an older thread could be solved by titling the threads something like "Jan 2010, Jan 2011", in other words, if you see an older year, you would know that that isn't the current thread.

Itamago - I use the Wii Fit. Daily for the body test, then usually on the weekends just for variety and also because I can do it early in the day and our Y doesn't open until later. I just like variety. But I do find that things on the WiiFit are good. I don't know enough about yoga to know if their yoga is good or not. I'm not crazy about the (I don't even know what it's called) body toning stuff because they work one muscle but many times not the opposing muscle. How is my weight loss coming? Ask me in another month, please. This month is just too hard with all the parties and goodies, etc. etc.

Which reminds me...I didn't go to the mahjongg party today. Honestly, I wasn't crazy about driving to this lady's house. I was there when she planned it, she said "oh, we can have it at my house, and we'll do such-and-such". No input from anyone else. I would rather have had it at the place where we play mahjongg, and I wasn't really interested in how she wanted to do it. I like the game, but I have no desire to play all day long. She wanted us to play, break for lunch, then play some more. I'm sorry. I have too much to do to be spending the entire day playing mahjongg. A few hours is one thing, but all day is another.

Welcome thumper! I am having a hard time resisting the goodies right around now. When it isn't holiday season, I try not to have the goodies in the house, and if I must, I try to have things that I don't like in the house. Doing crafts works for me because if the material/yarn/whatever gets dirty, I know who'll have to wash it.

Itamago - Sadly, I'm with you. My main motivation for losing weight was not health, but looking good

Did an hour of the deep water today. Tomorrow...yoga.

Here's wishing everyone a great evening.

Michele

msh0530

MacMadame - I would think that the problem of someone pulling up an older thread could be solved by titling the threads something like "Jan 2010, Jan 2011", in other words, if you see an older year, you would know that that Isn't the current thread.

Barbie did start putting the year in the title this month. Hopefully that helps. Mary