40+ Club: Beating The Winter Bulge

singfree

Hello everyone!

Welcome to the 40+ Club!!! This is for women AND men who are 40 or older who need support and encouragement with weight, fitness or just a shoulder to cry on!!!

We've been around for a year now and still going strong!!!


Join us, won't you?

And to our long-time members: I hope you found this new thread without too much trouble.

The 40+ Club is committed to weight loss and fitness as we grow older. We are here to encourage you!!! You will never hear a harsh word on this thread. We all come from different backgrounds, but we all have similar goals.

Each Friday we report our successes, or lack thereof. We are in this for the long haul...enjoy the journey to health and fitness!!

DawnOf1969

Where do I sign up??

guidosgal

I would like to join (although it means I would have to admit to being over 40 :bigsmile: ) My name is Pam and I am 45. I have been on the site sense Aug but started my new healthy life choice at the end of May (notice I did not use the D word :grumble: ) I have lot 39 pounds of excess baggage so far. I would Love to meet some new people (because the few friends I have made here have all dissapeared)

duffyzmom

Sing: Woo Hoo, I found it without even looking - must be a sign :laugh:

Enjoyed my rest day from CX yesterday with a nice 2 hour snow shoveling (really more like snow pushing) workout. Wore my HRM just for fun and found out it was a good 700 calorie burn. Now if I could just figure out how to shovel left handed so I don't end up with I great right arm and a saggy left.

Doing really well this week on eating clean - and now weekday alcohol so yeah me:drinker:

duffyzmom

Oops forgot to add Welcome Brat and Guidos Gal.:flowerforyou:

singfree

Welcome bratgrr1 & guidosgal!

No need to sign up, you're here and you're in!!

Keep checking in an post when you can.

Newbies: Please tell us a little bit about yourself and your goals. We are here to help!

singfree

Welcome bratgrr1 & guidosgal!

No need to sign up, you're here and you're in!!

Keep checking in an post when you can.

Newbies: Please tell us a little bit about yourself and your goals. We are here to help!

We don't diet here...it's a lifestyle makeover!!


Sorry about the double post.

TexasMom

Thanks Sing for getting the new thread going. And welcome to guidosgal and bratgrr1.

2BLean, Alf, Singfree, Stiring, duffyzmom - keep up the great work. You're an inspiration for those of us that have the desire to reach a goal and can see through your efforts and success that persistence will get us all to the finish line.

duffy.... having grown up in the north I miss the snow. But...... I don't miss the shoveling. :laugh: I won't burn 700 calories racking the stack of leaves in my backyard but I'll be a bit warmer than you probably were.

I'm actually very happy we've had a real winter spell here in central Texas this year. It got down to 9 on my back porch last Saturday. I haven't seen single digits since I left Illinois so many years ago. I feel for all the northern folks that have been battling the snow and cold this year. We know that warm days are right around the corner because this is central Texas but you guys up north still have so many cold days to face. Brrrrrrrrr.

Elliptical for 45 mins this morning and spinning tonight. I'm focusing on cardio for the first few weeks to get myself back into the routine. Although I hear you sing and 2blean about double days. There's just something satisfying and motivating to work on strength each day, if only for a few reps.

Sing.... sorry to hear about your sons divorce situation. Raising 2 daughters and 4 step kids because of divorce I can say 'it sucks for the kiddos'. We're supposed to be adults but I see many adults acting like kids in these situations and allowing bitterness to take over. Sad day. Being a great grandparent will make a world of difference to your grandson. My prayers are with you and your family.

Have a great Wednesday everyone!!!!

Nita

Texssippian

Hi all!! Found you! Welcome new members. Good to hear from you Nita, fellow Texan.

I picked up a couple of pounds over the holidays but am ready for the new year and new healthy lifestyle. I have been nursing a shoulder injury for the past couple of weeks. (Repetitve injury from reaching into the backseat to get my big purse.) It just was not getting better and working through the hurt was not helping. I have been very good the past couple of weeks about not doing anything that hurts and it is finally getting better. Even gave up water aerobics. This taking longer to bounce back is a new concept!

I will be turning 51 in February and want to do another person triathlon: 3 miles on treadmill, 15 mile on exercise bike and 1/2 mile in pool, so I am getting cracking on the training.

Brother-in-law had a good report from the liver transplant docs in New Orleans. Jackson, MS (where my mom is) is on a boil water notice with limited water supply due to so many burst pipes with the last week's cold weather. She is taking it in stride.
Need to go run a meeting. Take care all! TxMs

Swissmiss

:flowerforyou: A big welcome to our new posters. I think that you will find a lot of wonderful, helpful information here.

mkwood, my three daughters were in Kansas City between Christmas and New Year. It was nice getting a break from them.

:flowerforyou: tex, I have also gained a few pounds over the holidays. I have lost just about all of them already. Hey, I understand the shoulder problem. I broke mine three years ago and still have a tear in the muscle. It aches something terrible at times.


I see that we are mentioning ages. Is there a cut off age? Can one be too old to be in the thread? Is everyone in their 40s or are there some in their 50s or 60s?

tamarads

Wow a club just for me! The more I delve into MFP the more I'm hooked! I'm new.. obviously.. finally realizing the weight just won't go anywhere unless I do something about it. Just want to be healthy, look healthy and feel healthy! Thanks for the support!

singfree

Welcome tamarads!

Judging from your post, you've come to the right place. We're all experiencing the very same things.

To all of our wonderful "newbies". This thread has been around for a year now and we're still going strong. I am the only male in this group and I'm so fortunate to be surrounded by many great ladies (if the truth be told, they're just tolerating this lone male). Just kidding, we all get along just fine!!!!

I had a good workout at lunch. I started with 10 minutes on the elliptical, then some ab & lower body work and finished with the treadmill @ 4.5 mph and 15 degrees incline. No workout this evening, I'll be chasing the little guy!

alf1163

Hello everyone!!! Wow, welcome to all the new members!!!! I am excited to have all these new members. The more the merrier.

Why can't I say no????? :sad: :sad: I had all my foods logged in for today and the day started perfect. Then my son's attendant (for those who are new my son is autistic and has a caregiver) brings us mcmuffins and hashbrowns from McDonalds. I am taking about a 69yr old woman whom we love dearly and has worked with us for over 2yrs now. She knows I try to eat healthy most times, etc but she does not think McDonalds food is unhealthy. I just did not have the heart to say "no thanks". I thought about taking it with me in the car and then throw it away but I could not even do that...how would you have dealt with that situation? I have said no to her in the past when she brings cookies etc. She seemed to be very excited about bringing breakfast for us. So much for clean eating today but the rest of my meals will be great so time to move on...

Tex, yay for your brother in law!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! :drinker: :drinker: :drinker:

Swiss, there is no age limit to be a member of this group. I know there is a 50+ group but I am not there yet. And I will never leave this group. Love you all too much!!!!

:flowerforyou: :flowerforyou:

mkwood10

Hey........I finally found this thread!!!

The scale at home was not nasty to me this morning, only 1 pound different than Sunday morning before I left for my conference. I can deal with that; I know I wasn't moving around nearly as much as I normally do while at the conference, and ate more because of eating out instead of at home. It was TORTURE to only eat half of the bacon cheeseburger I had at T.G.I.Fridays.........but I left half on the plate and left most of the fries also. However.........I DID have a slice of cheesecake too, so it wasn't a totally successful (healthy) meal. I was craving a burger that day - not sure why???

Alf............I would probably have told her "no thanks, I've already eaten", even if I hadn't so that I could stay away from the MickeyD's. To me it's a little lie that keeps me from hurting someone's feelings.:flowerforyou:

Swiss.........it dopesn't matter if you're past your 40's - you still know and remember what we're all going thru!!

Tx........you can have my cold weather.........I'm tired of it! It was SO NICE to not pull on the heavy winter coat today........I didn't even zip up when I came back from lunch!:laugh:

Sing......don't kid yourself that all we ladies just "tolerate" you...........you keep us all motivated and provide the needed male perspective some days.......thanks!

Everyone else...........enjoy the rest of your day!!!!

tron3002

Back from Nevada... Had to clean up fro all the water damage. The bleach just killed me. I had the worst headache and felt so sick. But its clean now and I just have to go back next week to see if the fans dried it all the way.

Welcome to all the new comers. You will really enjoy this group we have here. Everyone is so supportive and knowledgeable.

Alf... Dont stress about t too much. Everyone has to deal with the temptation, sometimes we win... sometimes we dont... But overall you have done an amazing job not only with you weight loss but also you overall health.

Swiss.... Your so silly. No discrimination on age here.

StiringWendel

singfree, thanks for starting the new thread! And, like mk said, we do alot more than merely tolerate you. We NEED you!!

Welcome to all our new members!! :flowerforyou: Please feel free to jump in to the conversation, share your experiences, ask questions. As singfree said, we've been around for a year or so, and we love having new members to share with, learn from, laugh with, and be healthy with!!

duffy, sounds like you've gotten alot of snow! I know shoveling is good exercise, but 700 calories!?! That's alot. Stay safe.

alf, I don't know how I would have handled your situation, to be honest. It's hard to turn something down when somebody takes pleasure in giving you something. I might have done what you thought about doing....accepted the breakfast, said I would eat it later, and then gotten rid of it. But, more than likely, I would have done what you did....eaten the breakfast. If it becomes a daily thing, then you might want to say something again about your eating habits. But if this is a rare thing (at least the Egg McMuffin thing), then I would say 'accept the gift and move on to the next meal'.

TexasMom, so good to see you back!! I've missed you and your positive outlook....so, please, stay with us as much as you can.

tron, good to see you. I can't work with bleach either. It kills my sinuses. I'm glad the job is done.

Swissmiss, this thread is open to everybody! Don't you dare think you aren't welcome. I mean, 50+ is, after all, also 40+....and you (and singfree and TxMs and all our other members in their 50s) inspire me by giving me a sense of what I can expect (positively) in 10+ years.

mk, good job being away from home like that. I don't know that I would have been able to walk away from 1/2 a burger....or the cheesecake....either. Good for you for doing one of those.

TxMs, sorry to hear about your shoulder, but I'm glad that rest is making it feel better. I know too well that shoulder injuries are very long to heal, so continue to listen to it, don't do anything that hurts, and, hopefully, you'll continue to improve.

So, folks, I need help. I'm struggling a bit here, and I need some good talkin'. The past few months have been tough on me with this move across the world (for our newcomers, my husband is in the Air Force, and we moved from Los Angeles to Korea in early November), the holidays, etc. Well, I stepped on the scale this morning, and I am up....nine pounds from my lowest point. This is twice as much as I wanted to gain through this process (I allowed myself five pounds). I know some of the weight is from TOM right now :blushing: , starting strength training again (one of the reasons I have been avoiding the scale and knew better than to step on it), but I also know alot has to do with what I ate over Christmas (when the bulk of the weight gain happened).

Here's what I'm struggling with. On one hand, I think this (107) is a healthier weight for me than 98 pounds (I'm 5'2" btw). In what will be TMI, I had lost my TOM for about six months, and have only gotten it back since the move/weight gain. And I know that having it is MUCH better for me than not (especially since I've been diagnosed as having early signs of osteoperosis). I was technically underweight at 98 pounds and at times felt I looked too thin. At that weight, I had thought alot about trying to gain some weight back to get me to a more reasonable level (I mean, I was having troubles shopping because size 00s were too big in some cases!) So, intellectually, I know this is probably a much healthier weight for me, I am still very thin, I'm fit, etc.

But I can't shake the feeling that I've let myself down. And I can't shake the feeling that I HATE having clothes in the house that I can't fit into right now. And, worst yet, I don't feel thin (which is ridiculus....I know....but is the truth). So I'm really torn right now between trying to maintain this weight (which is well below anywhere I ever dreamed I could be in terms of weight) and trying to lose the weight again. To be honest, I don't want to be on a 'diet' at 107 pounds! In fact, I know the notion of it is rather silly. But at the same time.....I can't get past the feeling that I really should be trying to lose the weight I gained since I didn't gain it in a 'healthy' way.

Right now I'm eating clean, and have taken my calories down to about 1400 a day in hopes of losing the weight. But I'm also working out hard (at least two workouts a day and a long walk when I can get it in). And when I'm looking at all of the numbers--a healthy but still very low weight, two hours of exercise and 1400 calories.....I think I'm veering in a bad direction chasing a number on the scale that was probably unreasonable to begin with. And I'm asking myself 'Why am I doing this?' and, more importantly, 'Should I be doing this?'

What do you all think? I have to remember this is all about being healthy and given what I've said about my body, my weight and such, do you think it would be smart to accept the extra weight and just work on my fitness/health/eating habits? Or do you think it is okay (or even better) to try to lose the weight? This is a real battle between my intellectual self (that knows this is a better weight for me) and my emotions (because I liked being so small).

This is a year I want to dedicate to NOT beating myself up....and I already seem to be losing the battle. I don't want to go down that road. This Sunday will be the one year anniversary of the start of my weight loss journey, and when I started it, I never dreamed I would lose so much weight or get so fit. But I'm not celebrating my successes right now and am, instead, really focusing on the negatives of what I did over Christmas. I don't want to be doing that....but I can't seem to stop. So....help!

Thank you all for listening to me. I don't know what I'd do without my friends here. :flowerforyou:

Texssippian

Stiring,
You have been through a LOT! Give yourself a break. It also sounds like you were too skinny at 98 pounds particularly if you did not have your TOM and now have it back at this weight. Stay at a healthy weight. I work (tangentially) with children with eating disorders. You don't want to go there. There is a reason they don't make sizes less than 00: adults are not that small! Sounds like with all your activity you need more than 1400 calories!

Also, are you taking calcium supplements? You should (okay all us ladies should! and Sing I have a brother with pre-osteoporsis). Be sure to take with vitamin D and take a multi-vitamin wit additional vitamin D. Studies are showing better calcium uptake with the vitamin D.

Hubs and son went to a basketball game in Dallas and are spending the night. Daughter and I are going to have a ladies night tonight before she heads back to school in Austin tomorrow, so need to go. Take care all and welcome newbies! TxMs

alf1163

Stiring, first of all ((((((((((((((((((((((((((HUGS)))))))))))))))))))))))))) You have answered already some of your own questions. You agree that at 98lbs you were underweight. I believe the ideal weight range for someone your height is 102-106. So technically you are just one pound "over". And remember you are also on your TOM so that can affect your weight. These are my suggestions, don't stress about the past, you cannot change it. Continue with your exercise program that you love so much. Eat the way you were eating before while doing the same program, Tx is right, 1400 cals are not enough to sustain all the exercise you do. Focus on clean eating at least 80% of the time. I know you can eat clean 100% of the time for weeks at a time. You will see that you will drop off the "extra" weight in no time but don't try to get below 100-102lbs. Think about your journey and how last year at this same time you were over 40lbs heavier, correct? This is not the same, you have not failed at all. The Holidays are always a struggle for everyone and we, in this club, have done a tremendous job this year. And to the Holiday struggle you added an overseas move, that is a lot to deal with. Going back to your move, think about all the wonderful things you did this past Christmas season, moving to a new country, delivering cookies to military personnel away from home, serving Thanksgiving meal to the Airmen, hosting dinners to Airmen away from home, eating wonderful food and goodies...that was all great!!! :flowerforyou: :flowerforyou:

Swissmiss

:flowerforyou: stiring...bless your heart. I had to laugh when I read that you are up to 107 as I haven't weighed that since elementary school. But, I do realize that you are petite. I can guess what TOM is and if you didn't have this when you weighed less than that is not good. stiring, I would go with what you feel the best at. I know that you loved weighing only 98 pounds (who wouldn't) but if you feel better now, and seem to be healthier then keep the extra 9 pounds. You have done so good in your journey to lose weight and you are such an inspiration for all of us.

sing, I can't speak for the rest of the ladies but, personally, I like having a man around to give me a male's perspective.

:flowerforyou: mkwood, no way could I have left half of a bacon cheeseburger. I haven't had one of them in so long. And cheesecake? Well, I did have a piece of that over the holidays.

:flowerforyou: alf, McDonald's is such a temptation for me. I love their fries. My husband hates everything there. Oh, to be like him.:laugh:

Thanks to everyone who will take an old lady like me. Just to let you all know...I will be 59 at the end of January.

StiringWendel

Thanks, guys. You all mean so much to me. :flowerforyou: I just can't say it enough to you all.

I am going to take ALL of your recommendations to heart.

TxMs, you are right. I have been through alot recently. So I'm going cut myself some slack. I could have done MUCH worse than what I did. I mean, I managed to continue working out throughout the process, and I could have let that slide. But I have to remember that my entire exercise regime AND my cooking/eating habits changed for over two months because I was living in a very temporary situation. I really did my best with what I had, that's for sure.

And, alf, you are right too. I was 40 pounds heavier a year ago, and had set my goal at 120. I never dreamed I would ever get below 120 again, much less 110 (haven't been this light since I was in my mid-20s). And it WAS a great holiday season, and I'm happy I celebrated it the way I did. I will focus on the positive....and there is SO much positive to look at.

And, finally, Swissmiss, you nailed it when you said something about feeling better at this weight. I do feel better at this weight. I was lifting weights this morning after posting, and I felt SO strong (even though I'm nursing a bit of a back injury again). I do feel SO much stronger with a little bit of extra weight.

So I'm going to take my calories up again and set them to where I was eating pre-move, work on my fitness, make smart eating choices, and enjoy life. Thank you so much for your support!! Again, I can't tell you how much it means to me!

jchapple

Just found this thread (just finding a lot of things LOL, new to mfp). I'd like to join. Does anybody else find it harder to lose weight since you turned 40? (I'm 47 btw)