WOMEN AGES 50+ FOR MARCH

anotheryrolder

Thanks to MacMadame for the suggestions on my shin problem. I have googled dynamic stretches and will incorporate them into my warmup. I had not thought of having my gait analyzed - thank you! I will try to find somewhere that can/will do that. I do have foot issues - very high arches and a bad injury almost two years ago. I can tend to be a klutz from time to time.

Glad I reminded you about glucosamine Kathy. I can get carried away on the subject. :embarassed: It's just that I'm so darn glad I found the stuff. It's been a lifestyle saver for me.

I did overdo on Saturday though. I got way into the yard work I was doing and convinced dh that a few smallish trees at the back of the property needed to go. Many hours later I was done in from dragging wood around and paid for my effort with sore wrists and foot the next day. Today I'm all better and off to the gym when I'm done here.

I sure fit right in here... I got a few flashbacks from the old technology posts. I can add that I remember getting our son an Apple computer when he was 12 in 1980. It had no hard drive. We were all fascinated by the cool game of Pong and some game that had a helicopter rescue stick figures from rooftops. I used to think I would never have cool stories to tell my grandkids about back in the day. :bigsmile:

Well, day's a wasting. It's off to the gym. Oh- goals for March, losing 6-8 pounds. I can do this!

weezy8150

Does anyone have any advice on how much protein we should be including ? I could live on fruits and veggies, do love lentils, and egg white omelets, but have a difficult time getting enough protein included....is there an amount that is best for getting the weight off ? I know there are food combos that work better than others.....thanks for sharing.

arborsong

:flowerforyou: :flowerforyou: :flowerforyou: :flowerforyou: Happy Birthday to Barbara today and to Terri on Thursday. I want to include my birthday on Wednesday also. Wow! What a birthday week we have going - let's all celebrate with flowers instead of cake!!!

My goal for March is to survive best I can. Until April15, I'm working every waking hour. I try to reach for 'better' food choices but they're not the 'best', I know.

rose2359

Hi my name is Rose and I am from Michigan. My weight is way out of hand and causing me health problems. I have vowed to do something about it because if something does not happen by summer I am having bariatric surgery. My doctor has started treating me for low thyroid which is fine, but something has to change with the weight I am carrying right now. It has depressed me every day for months and the weight just gets worse. My diet has already changed some what but it seems the harder I try the more weight I gain. My daughter even said I did better when I lived on Doritos and pizza. I do not know how. But I am determined to change this. I think this site will help me greatly in keeping better track of things cos I think that may be part of the problem.

doobiedoo

:flowerforyou: HAPPY BIRTHDAY BARB!!!:flowerforyou: You have been an inspiration to each of us!!:drinker: Kathy (plant lady) it's good to read your post. Caregiving can be a stressful item, but you are a jewel to be taking care of your parents. My hat goes off to you. Hope you can keep your weight-loss goals in mind as you go through each busy, hectic day. We are all here for you!!:flowerforyou:

weaklink109

:flowerforyou: Me again ....Dr. Neil proclaimed the way to achieve inner peace...:ohwell: is to finish all the things you have started.......

So..... I looked around my house to see things I'd started and hadn't finished; and, before we begin March's challenges tomorrow....this evening ..... I finished off a bottle of Merlot, a bottle of Chardonay , a bole of Baileys, a butle of Kehuha,
a pockage of biscuits , the mainder of bot Prozic and Valum scriptins, the res of the Chesescke, some saltins an a bax a cholates..

Yu haf no idr who gud I fel.

xxxx
who am I???:glasses:

Jackie--

My position as the resident comedienne around here is being challenged--Totally hilarious!!!:laugh: :laugh: :laugh: I think at the end of the post, if you really did all that stuff the question would be "WHERE am I?:smokin:

February was not a successful month for me in the weight loss department. After making it through both Thanksgiving and Christmas without gaining a trip, my 50th birthday and Valentines day all within 2 weeks had devastating results. I gained 5 pounds and an inch in my abdomen. So far I have whittled 3 pounds of it back off and still have 2 more to go plus 3/4" around my belly to go to get back to where I started on Feb 1st.

Good news is ?I'm back on track now.:drinker:

Suzie--

I feel your pain. I broke down and adjusted my ticker backwards this morning. In a month I went back up 7 lbs. from my lowest weight. I just couldn't bear to go back THAT far, so I split the difference and added back 4.:mad:

I had a bad February. I think it may have something to do with the aftereffects of my head injury. Just can't put things together in a logical fashion without a great effort. Much more affected by stress than before. Seems like it takes twice as long to get anything accomplished, so I seem to have less time for exercise. Have backslid into the "May'swell Syndrome" that plagued me all my life. As in, I "may as well" have one since they are here; as in a piece of cake, or two; a Girl Scout cookie, or three; a late night snack due to boredom.

EDIT: Re read the above, and realize also, there is another point in here about eating that way "mayswell" you, for real.:laugh: :laugh:

So March is here, and I have about 5 weeks to my birthday, so I HAVE to get back in the wagon. I would really like to be down 60 for my birthday--definitely NOT where I wanted to be. My goal when I started last April was down 100 lbs. by my birthday, but 60 is still better than a poke in the eye with a sharp stick.

I guess my goals for March would be to get back on track at what made me successful to this point. Put the debacle of February behind me. Commit to 30 minutes on my Gazelle 6 days a week, plus regular strength training at least 3 times per week. (I would LOVE to be in my size 12 jeans by my birthday, but realistically, that probably will take til the beginning of May.)

I've got the water drinking thing down--second nature now. Just have to focus on eating the right amount of the right foods. There are some transgressions in my kitchen that I am going to remove. If they are in the garage, they are too much trouble to go and find. (I hope).

Now, to answer some posts...

Weezy8150--

You asked about protein needs. MFP calculates this when you fill out your profile info, but googling the question will get you a boatload of answers, but here is an excerpt from an answer to that question from the website exercise.about.com. Here is a link to the complete article: http://exercise.about.com/cs/nutrition/a/protein_2.htm

"....In essence, the more you exercise, the greater your protein needs will be. However, taking it too far, for example more than doubling your protein intake, won't necessarily help you build more muscle.

How to Calculate Your Protein Needs:

1. Weight in pounds divided by 2.2 = weight in kg
2. Weight in kg x 0.8-1.8 gm/kg = protein gm.

Use a lower number if you are in good health and are sedentary (i.e., 0.8). Use a higher number (between 1 and 1.8) if you are under stress, are pregnant, are recovering from an illness, or if you are involved in consistent and intense weight or endurance training.

Example: 154 lb male who is a regular exerciser and lifts weights
154 lbs/2.2 = 70kg
70kg x 1.5 = 105 gm protein/day

Calculating Protein as a Percentage of Total Calories

Another way to calculate how much protein you need is by using daily calorie intake and the percentage of calories that will come from protein. To do this, you'll need to know how many calories your body needs each day.

First, find out what your Basal Metabolic Rate is by using a BMR calculator.

Next, figure out how many calories you burn through daily activity and add that number to your BMR. This gives you an estimate of how many calories you need to maintain your current weight.

After you've figured out your maintenance calories, next figure out what percentage of your diet will come from protein. The percentage you choose will be based on your goals, fitness level, age, body type and metabolic rate. Most experts recommend that your protein intake be somewhere between 15 and 30%. When you've determined your desired percentage of protein, multiply that percentage by the total number of calories for the day.

Example:
For a 140lb female, calorie intake=1800 calories, protein=20%:
1800 x .20 = 360 calories from protein. Since 1 gram of protein = 4 calories, divide protein calories by four:
360/4 = 90 grams of protein per day.

No matter what your calculations are, remember that there are no magic foods or supplements that can replace the right training and the right diet. The foundation of any program, whether your goal is to lose weight or gain muscle, is a combination of strength training and a healthy diet that includes carbs, with a balance of protein and fat. ...."

Kathy, plantlady--

Hang in there. After reading about what you are going through, I realize I don't have it so bad where my parents are concerned. The little scare I had w/my mom a couple of weeks ago hasn't produced any long term effects.
I am tired today because I drove roundtrip for about an hour and a half, twice yesterday to pick up my mom's cousin who lives in another town. I brought her back to my parents' place.

I made dinner -- a spinach salad with campari tomatoes and sugar free, fat free basalmic vinegrette dressing;baked dover sole w/lemon; french green beans; parmesan and garlic french bread; (to keep my dad happy since we weren't having potatoes :bigsmile: ) organic brown rice and couscous pilaf (made myself so NO added sodium:drinker: ) We also had fresh strawberries for dessert. For those not following my eating plan, I added two "Just Desserts Brownie Bites" for a foundation, and ice cream and chocolate sauce. My mom makes her own with melted hershey kisses and a dab of water--better than anything you can buy. I did have a little of the sauce on my berries, but only ONE brownie bite for me.

I stayed within 150 calories of where I should have been for the day, which is a major improvement over where I have been hanging out lately. My food diary for February looked like a train wreck.:grumble: Ooops, forgot, no dwelling on the past.

Happy Birthday, Auntie BK--Barbara. I fear I will have more difficulty putting "6" as the first number in my age, when the time comes, than I did putting a "1" as the first number in my weight.

Juicyplum--welcome!! You have come to the right place.

To the Newbies--

Just to thoroughly confuse you, there are 3 Barbara's on the site. There is our fearless leader, Barbie/AKA Barbiecat; there is me--Barb/AKA weaklink109 and Barbara/AKA Auntiebk.

I can't recall Auntiebk's status as far as pets, but between us, Barbiecat and I have FIVE dogs. She has Brandy and Sasha, two standard poodles, AKA "The Naughties." (She also has a cat named Haifa--but I am only counting dogs right now--that is enough!!) I have Mai Li (avatar photo), Pepper, and Bradley--in order--a Lhasa Apso with a DivaGirl attittude; a Shih tzu who loves EVERYBODY, and cats too; and a Yorkshire Terror. (My mom calls him the "Yorkshire terrorist") Thanks to Bradley's propensity for finding food that does not belong to him, and sharing with the other two, they are known, collectively, as "The Three Little Pigs":laugh: --Barbiecat calls them my "Naughty Piggies":bigsmile:

Happy March!!!

Barb

jam0525

Happy March everyone! A BIG WELCOME to everyone new and BIG WELCOME back to all of us who have been posting together for a while now.

I lost one pound and one inch around both my waist and my hips for February.

For March I hope to do the same.

For those of us caring for our parents - take your vacations as planned even if no one else in your family helps you. Find some one to pay to cover that one week. It may be expensive but one week is nothing considering how much having parents in facilities would cost. It's just one week and we all deserve it. I pay $7.00 an hour for some one to sleep at my house and feed my animals while we go on our family vacation. This way Mom and Dad aren't home alone. That and the lady that comes in 3 days a week give us enough wiggle room to be able to have some of that leisure time my brother gets. Where to find cheap reliable help? Check out community colleges with nursing programs. If you find one that is reliable they will work for reasonable money just to get a letter that says they have patient experience for when they are out looking for their first job.

I have one set of friends that when their family comes in to see their parents they go on vacation and their family stays in their house while they are gone. I wish I had family like that but I don't. Oh well, Cindy's right. We are going up not down when our time comes because we are doing the right thing by our parents.

Happy March and Happy Monday!

Jeannie

weezy8150

Arborsong.....I am also a Louise, and my first goal is april 15, trip to see my son's new place in southern CA, from Maine.....is that also a goal of yours ? you mentioned that date. I like the idea of smaller goals that members are listing, working up to the larger ones a bit at a time. Happy Birthday to all the birthday ladies, enjoy your special day !

weezy8150

Barb....thank you so so much for that explanation of the protein needs !! You are an angel.....I know the carbs, and the calories inside out, but never learned the protein facts.....thanks for sharing.....I really needed that ! one more Louise

cindyfranck

Hi, I read your message and decided to join the group. I started a week ago and did well during the day, struggle at night. I set a goal for this month of 10 pounds, I think it might be a little more than is realistic at my age. I also plan to weigh in on Tuesdays and will do my measurements to keep an eye on that. Any suggestions about curbing that eating after 9pm habit?

AHealthierSuzyQ

For those of us caring for our parents - take your vacations as planned even if no one else in your family helps you. Find some one to pay to cover that one week. It may be expensive but one week is nothing considering how much having parents in facilities would cost. It's just one week and we all deserve it....
Jeannie

AMEN!!!! I learned this lesson the hard way. It is imperative to get away from time to time to rest and relax. Moma always pitched a fit every time I left town overnight, but its what kept my sanity. And believe it or not she was always just fine when I returned and i felt refreshed and more able to care for her.

Happy Birthday Barb! :flowerforyou:

Hubby came in wanting to be fed just about the time I got home from running errands, so I didn't get any dedicated exercise this morning, so I'm just now getting to strength training. :ohwell: Seems if I don't exercise FIRST THING it just gets harder and harder to do as the day wears on.

arborsong

Arborsong.....I am also a Louise, and my first goal is april 15, trip to see my son's new place in southern CA, from Maine.....is that also a goal of yours ? you mentioned that date. I like the idea of smaller goals that members are listing, working up to the larger ones a bit at a time. Happy Birthday to all the birthday ladies, enjoy your special day !

Weezy - I have an accounting practice......need I say more about what April 15 means to me????? Actually, March 15 is huge around here. We do mostly corporate work and those returns are due March 15. So are you in Maine? I get Aunt Wese and Mimi Wese a lot -- real similar to your Weezy.

And a good evening to all........I'm off to dinner with another special birthday guy friend!

smwert

SuzyQ -I too had a bad February. I was 155 News Years day = 146.4 on Feb. 11 and today I am 149.2 I am blaming the 3 pounds on my cruise. But I have been back a week and haven't lost yet.

My goal for March is to go the gym 5 days a week and to cut out alcohol. I am going to my mother's in Florida for 2 weeks and she doesn't drink and does''t have alcohol in the house. So only 2 weekends at home to get through to make my goal for March.

Although she did warn me she wants to eat out a lot!!!!! Will it never end!!!! I plan to walk a lot when I am away and do my 5 gym days while I am still at home. This up and down has to stop.

susan

pmjsmom

:flowerforyou: :flowerforyou: :flowerforyou: :flowerforyou: Happy Birthday to Barbara today and to Terri on Thursday. I want to include my birthday on Wednesday also. Wow! What a birthday week we have going - let's all celebrate with flowers instead of cake!!!

I guess I'll join the birthday roll-call--mine is on Monday (with TWO going-out-to-dinner nights involved!). I was really hoping to be under 200 by then but that's not going to happen--I think I'll be close, though!

Welcome to all the new newbies!:flowerforyou: :flowerforyou: :flowerforyou: (I already welcomed some earlier so now I'm trying to get anyone I may have missed!) This is a great group to belong to!:flowerforyou: :flowerforyou: :flowerforyou:

exermom

I just noticed on my homepage that it says that I logged in for 10 days in a row. Now I know that I've logged all my food since the first of the year. Now we did go away in the middle of Feb, but when I got home I logged in all my foods for every day we were gone. Does MFP only calculate from the last day that you actually logged in and doesn't take into account if you log in for a day at a later date? (now....did I suffietly confuse everyone????)

Oh, about the 50's/60's social, I told you all that by the time I got to get any food, everything was gone (except for the desserts)! The positive is that the potatoes augratin with ham were gone (we needed a cardiologist on call?). another positive is that the beans and franks weren't gone, now I don't like beans. I blame my mother for this, she didn't expose me to them. I like hummus....just not beans themselves. If the beans are ground up in a burger or something, then it's OK with me. I'm sure it's the texture. Anyway, these beans were very very good. If all the other food hadn't been taken, I honestly probably wouldn't have had them. But I had some b/c I was hungry and that was about the only thing left. It was probably a blessing in disguise for me. I do have to find out how they were made.

Here it is, Monday. Just as I predicted, the Wii says that I gained a pound. TOM will do it all the time!

Today since I was still a bit crampy I just walked on the treadmill at 1% incline 4mph for 1 hr.

auntiebk - hope you had a great day!

Welcome juicyPlum! Also, Rose, and cindyfranck

Well, I'm going to post this so that it's easy for me to log in. Tomorrow I'm planning on doing 30 min DVD for weight training and 30 min of pilates.

Hope everyone has a great night!

Michele

kalmf

Oy, oy, oy

It's so interesting what a little accountability can do for you. I started off in January with a bang, logged in every day and by mid February had lost 14 lbs. Went away to handle family stuff - didn't exercise, couldn't log in, was totally stressed - and now I am up two pounds. It's not that the weight is such a huge gain, but the lack of consciousness I started to have about how much I was moving and what I was eating and drinking. I really saw how important it is to check in every day, and even though I didn't always post, I always read the other posts and it kept me on the straight and narrow. So my goal for March is to stay conscious and log in every day.

I would also like to say everyone on this site is inspiring. I am, unfortunately, the sibling who lives far away and the day to day of my parents (mom with Alzheimers) falls to my sister. It is really hard on her physically and emotionally and I know she often feels dumped on, so my heart goes out to all who have taken it on. My father refuses most help from anyone else, and is about to collapse from the stress of being the primary caregiver, so I really agree with the other posters who emphasize the need for caregivers to take care of themselves. It's not selfish - it's the opposite. Because of my Dad's stubbornness he puts a greater burden on my sister who has to constantly leave work, leave her family and swoop in to handle emergencies. If he accepted regular help, those situations would be minimized and she could plan on a more consistent basis instead of lurching from crisis to crisis. But, oh well. Just take care of yourselves, guys!

MacMadame

I'm out of town. I can't believe there are two pages already and 1 page on the old thread I have to read to keep up!

Feb goals: I did pretty good except I didn't swim one week and I could have and I didn't bike this week but my coach didn't want me to so I don't think that counts. My calf continues to heal and I'm doing more running. But I didn't get to the point where I could run a 5k without stopping. But I did run 4 miles with minimal resting in between the laps. (It was a set workout with 200 m walking between 1000 m and 200 m runs.) I also did 1 mile running as fast as I could with minimal pain. So I think I'm really close. Water and protein went great!

March goals:

Follow my training plan and attend at least one open water swim
Log my food every day
Continue drinking my water and getting my protein in
Work on my irrational beliefs about food and exercise
Cook dinner one night a week

heartrw

:flowerforyou: :flowerforyou: :flowerforyou: :flowerforyou: Happy Birthday to Barbara today and to Terri on Thursday. I want to include my birthday on Wednesday also. Wow! What a birthday week we have going - let's all celebrate with flowers instead of cake!!!

My goal for March is to survive best I can. Until April15, I'm working every waking hour. I try to reach for 'better' food choices but they're not the 'best', I know.

You got it girl!! Happy Birthday to you too!!!!:flowerforyou: :flowerforyou: :flowerforyou: :flowerforyou:

I sure fit right in here... I got a few flashbacks from the old technology posts. I can add that I remember getting our son an Apple computer when he was 12 in 1980. It had no hard drive. We were all fascinated by the cool game of Pong and some game that had a helicopter rescue stick figures from rooftops. I used to think I would never have cool stories to tell my grandkids about back in the day.

How about Pac-Man. Now that I have figured out that I'm a compulsive overeater it all makes sense!!!!:laugh: :laugh: :laugh:

Welcome new posters...it's good to have you on board. Lot's of encouragement, sharing, advice and good will to be had here...and it's all free!!

Good night, all. Terri

Lianne95519

Hi everyone,
I am here and will get my March goals up soon.
Lianne

l_mahloy

Hello all,

Maintained my weight this past month which was my goal. I hope to lose at least 5 pounds this month as long as my parents stay healthy this month.

Kathy what a blessing you are for your parents. Please take care of yourself and husband during this time. You and your parents will be in my thoughts and prayers.

Happy birthday Barbara.

Welcome juicyplum this is a great site for encouragement.

Happy Birthday to all who have a march birthday.

March Goals
Lose 5 lbs.
Enter food and exercise daily

Good night all,
Lynn
:drinker: :drinker: :drinker: :drinker: :drinker: