40+ Club

Swissmiss

Good morning everyone. I haven't been here for awhile. I think that I was too embarassed:embarassed: I haven't even been recording my food. I guess I just got lazy.
singfree...I loved your list for how to know if you are on track. I will be looking for those things in myself.
I had my surgery six weeks ago today, so I am going to do some aerobics today. I will be going back to work on Monday so will not be here at all during the day. I will, however, be off for more surgery on May 18.
I have really missed all of you and really noticed it when I came to the site just now. So, please keep encouraging me so that I don't fall away again. I really find that I am receiving so much help here.
I have to get back to the Abs Diet. It was working for me. In it I am allowed one cheat meal per week. I went to a Chinese restaurant with a friend last week so that was my cheat.

singfree

I am taking my wife out for her birthday dinner. Her birthday was on Easter Day, and since we are both Church musicians, we decided to postpone the dinner until Saturday evening. I will have either a nice grilled salmon dish or filet mignon. I can't remember the last time I had a real steak!

Stiring, I wish I could help with the Mex food, but i think most of it is not the best nutrition...but I love it too.

psilva78227

when I do Mexican,I usually eat a taco salad with chicken -- minus the cheese and the sourcream, and don't eat the shell. It is still filling, but cuts down on a lot of the calories.

tron3002

ok so here's my next question.... Should I mainly stick with cardio to lose the fat and incorporate strength training later or does that really make much of a difference? I would like to get tone but I'm more interested in getting my stomach to a 33 or lower.
By the way... you all are great... So inspiring. :flowerforyou: :flowerforyou: :flowerforyou:

duffyzmom

Stiring: I'm jealous I love PF Changs And actually their orders are usually so large that it isn't unusual to share. I've never checked out their calorie counts though so I'm sure you are making a good choice. As far as Mexican goes - it depends on the restaurant - we have a favorite mexican that always has some nice fish entrees and that is a good bet but if I'm at a Mexican restaurant my biggest obstacle would be the chips/salsa/guacamole.

Tron: You will be the best judge on where your focus needs to be. If you are the type of person that really needs some instant weight loss in order to maintain your motivation, then you would probably be better off sticking with cardio. If this is a lifestyle change goal for you and you are more long term focused, strength training will eventually give you the muscle that will help you lose weight more effectively and look great. I carry weight in my middle as well so I know how frustrating it can be to still have a larger waist than you want. Cardio and Ab work actually go really well together.

alf1163

Like alf, I think the thing that gets to me the most with junk food temptation is the aspect of social eating. When I'm at home, all is well. When I spent the weekend with my sister a couple of weeks ago, it took every ounce of self-control (and, quite frankly, some of her telling me to control myself) to not dig into the brownies with the rest of the family. I'm just glad she (and my husband) didn't encourage me to eat but did the exact opposite. But if I had stayed there more than a couple of days, I have no doubt that I would have been digging into the ice cream with her one night. I don't understand that at all, and I was actually pretty surprised to have that reaction.

I'm going to face some of my bigger 'food fears' this week as I'm eating out in restaurants for the first time since January both tomorrow and Saturday. But I've done my research and really just have to remember I don't have to eat everything on my plate, no matter what my mother told me as a child.

But, honestly, I'm doing well and holding my own in this maintenance mode I'm in right now. I feel really in control of my diet right now, and while my cravings are really bad sometimes, I am less and less tempted to give in to them. I think, for me, the biggest thing is that about a week ago, I really turned a corner with my fitness. I had been feeling for a while that my cardio was getting easier, but I was doing a really hard bootcamp type of workout recently, and I realized that I was jumping higher than I had in years. In so many ways, I feel like I'm 25 again (of course, I'm the weight I was when I was that old, so that might have something to do with it). And I'm absolutely loving the feeling right now and don't want to lose it. That's been a great motivator for me. I'm so prone to injury, I don't know how long this will last. (I hate being so negative, but negative sometimes is just realistic!), but it sure feels good right now.

Hope this finds everybody doing well!

You are doing a great job!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! :drinker: :drinker: How was your meal at the restaurant today?? Maybe you have not eaten dinner yet. You will be fine. I have not really stopped going to restaurants at all. What I do is just select the healthiest meals on the menu, grilled chicken or fish, with veggies usually. If they serve bread I try one small piece and if it is not worth it I just don't eat anymore. I have to be careful with the bread or the chips if at a mexican restaurant!!! :noway: But like you I have been more in control when I go out to eat which is once or twice a week. :flowerforyou:

alf1163

Whew!!!! :noway: :noway: Soooooo many posts, I was reading for a while :laugh: :laugh: I needed to catch up...

Stiring, as Duffy said some mexican restaurants serve grilled fish, grilled chiken fajitas are a good choice as long as they are chicken breast. Choose corn tortillas instead of flour. Choose borracho or pinto beans instead of the refried beans. Control your portion of chips and guacamole. Best of all, enjoy your time with family!!!! :drinker:

Tron, it took me 8 months to lose 23 lbs. And I gained 9 in 3mos after that. Since Jan 09 I've lost about 6 out of the nine. As Singfree said the closer you get to your goal the slower the weight loss. You would have to make major changes in your lifestyle to lose it faster. I think 3lbs in a week are too many. Don't focus so much on the scale. I think if you focus on your nutrition and your workouts your body will start responding to it soon. I think it is very important to have a balanced workout, strength trng to include abs, cardio and flexibility. You can do it!!!!!!!!!!!!! Be patient but be consistent!!

Singfree, you got on the scale?????????????? Wow!!! :laugh: :laugh: I did a body fat test using the calipers that I got with the ChaLean extreme program. I said I have 22.8% of body fat!!! I hope I did it right. I did it about twice one day and repeated it another day.

:flowerforyou:

singfree

Alf, I hope you were not in shock when you heard the news of my getting on the scale. We've both been here from the beginning and that was my first time on the scale since Jan. I sincerely think your body fat % is very good! Don't forget as we get older, we tend to carry a bit more fat around than when we were younger. I really think that Chalean will get you over the hump. You are at your goal weight, so the thing to work on is leaning out those last few lbs of body fat and adding a little more muscle. Your pix look great! But I know too well that we feel that we can improve..and yes we can!

Boy, did I bonk on my bike ride after work! I did not have enough fuel in my tank at the start and used up my glycogen reserves with about 3 miles to go. The last few miles are uphill so I was pretty wasted. I also did my usual workout routine at the gym at 5 am and noon. I biked around 22 miles and my HRM indicated 910 cals burned. No wonder I was out of gas!

alf1163

Singfree, you crack me up :noway: :laugh: :laugh: How can you exercise so much??? :noway:

According to the chart that came with the calipers I am in the lean category, below the ideal. The American Council on Exercise says that the acceptable range is up to 31% for women. I fall into the fitness category 21-24% Athlete range is 14-20% So it is pretty good for me. I am happy with it.

Swissmiss, glad to hear from you!!!! :drinker: We have not forgotten you. Hang in there girl!! You can do it!! :drinker: :drinker:

Cardigirl, welcome!!! I keep forgetting to reply to your post. Congrats on your accomplishments!!! You are exercising a lot!! How much are you eating? Make sure you eat enough. You could manually change the protein requirements so they reflect your ratio better. You are doing a great job!!

:flowerforyou:

tron3002

Thank you for all the advice. I guess I need to learn to be patient and quit looking for that "instant fix"... But if someone has it dont be afraid to throw it my way... Hahaha:laugh:

Singfree... 10% body fat? What is the normal range for a person your size? You seem to be in great shape.

Here's the one thing I am surprised about, is how many calories there actually are in the foods you eat. I never would have guessed that the salad I just ate could be 900+ calories!!!! No wonder why people gain so much weight...:noway: You think your eating some what healthy just because you order a salad but when I entered everything into my food journal, lets just say I was shocked....

singfree

Alf, I've always been an athletic type of guy. I love most sports. Righ now my motivation is getting a nice lean look, but still retain muscle mass. I set a goal date for June 1, as we are going to visit my brother-in-law in California. You can be very proud of your accomplishments thus far. I'm sure that you will even look better after a round of Chalean.

Tron, 10 % is pretty good, especially for someone 54 years old. I must say that there are not many people over 40 that have the drive that we have in this group. As we age, we must work even harder to maintain our physique. It's a sad fact, but true! Having said this, we can be very proud of ourselves for working even harder than people half our age.

I forgot that this is reporting day! Well, I gave you the details yesterday, so please consider that a report! Actually, when I woke up this morning, I know I looked leaner in the mirror. No weights today, I have to take my mother to a Dr. appoinment. Maybe a hike or bike ride this evening. Have a great weekend eveyone!

duffyzmom

Happy Happy Friday All! Check-in Day :drinker:

I'm 1/2 lb from my goal weight :drinker: :drinker: I really think taking last week off helped me with the slow down. Mainly because I'm a creature of habit and have a tendancy to eat the same things daily and I recently read that it can cause a slow down or plateau. I made it through this week with no after 7 eating and no alcohol despite a birthday dinner out on Monday and our first 60s sunny day of the year (I really was craving a Corona yesterday but didn't cave - I just put some lime in my water and pretended).

I'm going to focus this week on really eating healthy and getting my water. I'm scheduled for surgery Thursday morning and I know that going in healthy will make my recovery that much faster.

This will be my last week of Power 90 and I'm most impressed with my chest/back/arms. There really is more definition. As soon as the doctor clears me I plan to start Chalean Extreme. My goal for that program is more definition in my abs and legs. Both are looking alright now but I'd love to see more cut.

Keep up the good work! Swiss- glad to see you back and happy that you are finally able to return to some normalcy.

aprilvet

Hi, all! I just found this thread and scanned the previous posts! I'm 42, wife, mother of 2- 10 and 6, veterinarian. I think MFP has changed my life! It's too soon to feel complete confidence that I'll be fit forever, but I can see the light!!! I'm in control of my nutrition and since finding P90X 5 weeks ago, my body is transforming!!!!:bigsmile:

Have a beautiful day!!! Gonna be 70 and sunny here outside Philly!!!

alf1163

Good morning!!! I weighed in yesterday since I started Chalene Extreme, up one pound but no biggy. It is that time of the month anyways ...I know TMI but you all know, gals, that can increase your weight. Today is CX "rest" day but I ran on the treadmill. I am going to take one day off during the week, Wed. I like to workout on weekends, I have more time to do so plus I tend to eat more.

Aprilvet, welcome!! You are doing great, awesome!!!! You can feel confident you will be in great shape in the future. :drinker: :drinker:

Duffy, great job for reaching your goal!!!! :drinker: :drinker: Oh, and setting weekly goals and reaching them!! Way to go!!! :drinker:

Have a great day!!!! Off to work...:flowerforyou:

singfree

Wecome Aprilvet to our group! You are now going to be "sweatin' with the oldies". Hey, we're not old, just getting better. I'm from PA also, Schuylkill Co. near Pottsville. Yes, I'm looking forward to this weekend's nice warm weather.

cardigirl

Hey thanks for all the welcomes! Encouragement really does help one to stay on track. Having said that, I missed the gym this morning, due to having to run some errands before work, etc...I hate missing the gym. Can't go tonight, because of a concert I'm going to. Looking forward to the concert, just hate having a day with no exercise. :sad:

What is this Chalene Extreme?

Since being on the boards, and tracking my food, I think I've probably not been eating enough. I think I eat the right things, but have been limiting my intake too much, so I'm going to try to eat my exercise calories as well and see if that helps with the weight loss.

My goal weight is still 12 lbs away. But I'm not giving up!

Swissmiss

Good morning everyone. I know I said that I was going to do my aerobics yesterday but the pills I am on sometimes upsets my stomach. Well, yesterday was bad. I had to lay down most of the day while sipping ice water and taking deep breaths. I am refusing to take any more of those pills. I feel much better but the problem that the pills take care of may prevent me from exercising.:mad:

StiringWendel

Morning everybody!

Thanks so much for the responses to my question about Mexican food. I asked my sister last night what kind of food the restaurant serves (I'm used to the standard Mexican food restaurant that serves only tacos, enchiladas, burritos and chimichangas!), and she said there is quite a bit of fish on the menu. So maybe I can find a truly healthy option. Thanks, duffy, for reminding me there is more to Mexican food than tacos!

Dinner went well last night. Boy, the portion was HUGE! I ate only about 1/3 of it, but it was tasty. I had the waitress bring me a take-home dish early in the meal because I could so see myself beginning to graze. I ended up ordering the chicken fried rice (which is my favorite chinese meal), and still feel like I made a relatively healthy choice despite the sodium content. And....it just felt nice to eat a normal meal in a restaurant again.

My weight is holding steady this week (which is what I want it to do) at 116.1 (and this AFTER Chinese food last night which I think is good). I'm feeling a bit physically tired right now because I have worked out every day for the past two weeks (didn't take last Saturday off as I planned). But I'll get through today (cardio) and tomorrow (strength) and then take Sunday off. I've been adding cardio to some of my strength days trying to up the calories burned to compensate for all these meals I've had out over the past few weeks, and I think that is making me a little more fatigued than I otherwise would be right now. Over the next three weeks, I'm going to focus on going back to doing either/or as opposed to both since I will be more in control over my diet these next few weeks.

duffy, congratulations on reaching your goal weight!

alf, I'm really interested in your feedback on ChaLean, so please talk about it here. One of the things I've heard about ChaLean is that it puts more emphasis on the lower body than P90X does (which doesn't have as much emphasis on the lower body as I prefer). Since I'm doing a pretty heavy upper body system right now for six months, I'm wondering if a 90-120 day program focusing more on lower body (while still working on the upper body of course) next wouldn't be a bad thing. I'd thought about going right into a P90X rotation after STS, but the more I think about it, I'm thinking ChaLean. Maybe it's the shorter workouts that are enticing me!! But I know I'll be doing another STS rotation later this year/earlier next year because Cathe Friedrich is now putting out a cardio system to compliment this STS weight system, so I'm wondering if P90X in between two STS rotations might not be a little too much. So any/all inputs on ChaLean are welcome by me!

tron, I think the best thing for burning fat is going to be cardio. But I think best thing for toning your body is going to be weights. I actually think a combination of the two through circuit training is one best thing for toning the core/ab region. I don't actually see much change in my body if I'm focusing on cardio alone. I need cardio to lose weight, but in order for my body to change shape, I really need to do some form of strength training. You might want to experiment around and see what your body responds to best.

Swissmiss!!! So good to see you back. I'm sorry to hear you are still having problems and hope you are feeling better today.

aprilvet, welcome!!

I hope everybody has a good weekend!

ChristinaMCS

I am having a problem with my cholesterol too. I have low HDL and my triglycerides are double the recommended limit. I have lost 9 pounds over the last 6 weeks and when I gave blood my cholesterol went from 195 three months ago to 126. This is not broken down into Hdl/Ldl but when I go back to the doctor in 6 weeks we will see. You might want to ask your doctor about taking niacin if you don't have diabetes. The niacin that contains nicotinic acid(there are 2 kinds of niacin) helps your body flush toxins out of your cells and opens up your vessels so all the bad stuff can flow through and out. I am all about natural remedies as opposed to all that synthetic stuff that might help one condition but causes other problems. It freaked me out the first week when I got what looked like a sunburn or rash on my body but that is normal and it only lasts 20 minutes to an hour and goes away. It is called a niacin flush. This is a good sign, your body is releasing histamines to flush out the cells. Ask about it, it sure has lowered my cholesterol. I take 1500 mg every night before bed.Hope this helps. Always ask your doctor even if it is natural medicine to make sure it will not react with any other medicine you are taking.

aprilvet

Thanks for all the "Welcomes"! I just love all the support on MFP, and this looks like a good place to be!

I can't speak to ChaLean Extreme, but P90X is certainly a great way to change your body! I look like I've lost much more than just 13 pounds!!!:bigsmile: :drinker:

Have a great day everyone!!!

WantToBeMoreActive

Hi everyone!

I've been away for a couple of days...so much reading on this thread to catch up on. :laugh:

I did pretty good while away...skipped the alcohol & dessert and made the best food choices possible...I didn't get any exercise in but was happy when I weighed myself and lost a pound this week. :bigsmile:
I know I have to exercise to get fit and am sooooooooooo very happy my knee can now handle whatever I'm doing.

Swissmiss

stiringwendel...glad to hear when someone finds that they can go out to eat and still eat healthy. I have found that Chinese isn't too bad unless you are at one of their buffets.

ChristinaMCS...I was told that mine cholesterol was high about two years ago. Never said anything about trying to bring it down. I have lost some weight since so maybe it is down now.

aprilvet...a belated welcome. I have been away for awhile.

Want...Good for you...skipping the alcohol and dessert. I have the most trouble with not ordering a Long Island Iced Tea. But it has way too much alcohol and calories.

I don't know what I have planned this weekend yet. My husband's hours have been changed so he has every Sat and Sun off. We may go out. Opps...no Long Islands!!!

tron3002

Well I was down 2 lbs but when I weighed myself today I was up 1/2 a lb. I looked on my reports for my calorie intake and I have a hard time sticking to the 1200 calories especially because I haven't been exercising enough. So much going on, and when you live in a small town like I do where the grocery store is 45 minutes away, everything seems to eat up so much of your time. So this next week I'm gonna try even harder to keep everything under control so I wont have any excuses...

You all seem to exercise like crazy!!! I just hope some of that rubs off on my.

Welcome to all the new people. I hope you find this sight as inspiring as I have.:flowerforyou:

Swissmiss

I am so excited. I have lost two more pounds this week. I have been sort of on the Abs Diet. but not sticking to it completely. I have lost four pounds over the past two weeks. I think I have found what I need.

alf1163

Congrats to all the losers!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! :drinker: :drinker: :drinker:

ChaLean Extreme is a 90 day strength trng program. The trainer is Chalene Johnson, creator of Turbo Jam. It has 3 phases, each one is 30 days long. It also includes some fat burning DVDs and ab workout. You may read more about it at www.teambeachbody.com. There is a thread on here that is called ChaLeaners Unite and you can read some of the comments from people who are doing the program. I just started so I really dont have much to say. I have only done one dvd. Today was my rest day. I do burn circuit 2 tomorrow. The first DVD Burn 1 was pretty balanced between lower and upper trng. It was lower and chest/shoulders to include some push ups. She also included some core trng. I underestimated the weights so I really did not get any soreness. It has you lifting heavy weights slowly so you can reach failure between the 10th and 12th repetition. The workouts are shorter than P90X. The first DVD was only 36 mins long. I was dripping in sweat half way through it. I am combining it with some running because I would like to run a half marathon in Nov. And I am also eating clean/healthy at least 80% of the time. My goal is to lose more inches and become stronger, not so much at losing lbs anymore but I don't want to gain of course.

Have a great one!!!! :flowerforyou:

cardigirl

Thank you Alf for explaining the ChaLean workout. I did look it up through Google, and read about it. Sounds like a great program, good luck with it.

Made it back to the gym today, feel so much better. I think I'm addicted to exercise now. (hope that's a good thing ) Funny how one day off my routine makes me grouchy. Heh.

So far so good on the calories this week of journaling them. Still always over on sugar, low on carbs, and high on protein. Not sure how to adjust this. May have to add some whole wheat bread to the mix, but I've been trying to not eat too much wheat.

Hope everyone has a great weekend!

alf1163

Cardigirl, maybe copy and paste your food diary to a post so we can look at what you are eating and can give you our input. How many calories do you eat? And as Singfree said do not worry about sugar if you are eating a lot of natural foods such as fruits. If you do a lot of cardio you do need to eat carbs as long as they are the good carbs. Are you allergic to wheat? I am with you regarding being "addicted" to exercise. :laugh: :laugh: It is a good thing as long as you are not overdoing it and that you make time for other important things in your life such as family. I do feel cranky when I don't workout and on days that I am supposed to rest from exercise I feel sluggish the whole day. Exercise cranks me up!!! :laugh: :laugh: :flowerforyou:

singfree

Good Monday morning everyone! I hope you had a great weekend. What glorious weather we're finally having in the Northeast! I did lots of biking, around 60 miles over the weekend. Ate pretty well, a few treats now and then, still holding at 152 lbs. These next 6 weeks should tell me a lot. I'm looking for my body to keep reshaping (for the better) and finally see those (now small) love handles disappear for good. I'm going to up my protein this week, no wine, no pretzels...we'll see what happens.

Too many posts to comment on. Great work everyone, keep in touch!

duffyzmom

:flowerforyou: :flowerforyou: Morning All! Isn't Spring the greatest? We also had beautiful weather this weekend. Sing - Keep up the good work and lots of luck with the no wine/no pretzels. Just keep thinking California Here I Come!

singfree

Duffy, thanks for the encouragement, just a little more will power to get over the hump. I hope you are able to exercise. How are you feeling?

Alf, are you enjoying Chalean? Sounds like it will be a good fit for you.