Fifty plus (or so) support group
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Hello everyone. I am not 50ish but I could use all the support and motivation I can get. I am really good about being consistent but its always so hard to take that first step. I know I can lose the weight because I have before, not many pounds, but enough to know that if I stick with it I can attain my ultimate goal. The key is to keep going! I notice a major problem I have is that I see results and get excited and think, oh I can do this no problem. And instead of continuing I end up "falling off the wagon" because I gain confidence. Not so good because then I gain the weight back and have to start over!!! I have hypothyroidism so that already hurts my metabolism. BUT, I no longer want to use that as a crutch or an excuse for my weight. I want to be able to slide down the slide with my daughter and not feel like I am going to get stuck or break it. I want my daughter to be proud of me. Its not easy to be asked by an innocent child if I am pregnant and all the while its just that I am fat.
Speaking of which, I would like to have a 2nd child, but my weight is an issue. Im just tired of not being happy with my body. I am my own worst enemy. My body issues affect my confidence, my marriage, everything. I am so insecure and unhappy and I hold back a lot. Time to take my life back and not be in bondage to my weight. 0 -
54 and am interested in joining.
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standenvernet wrote: »
Yep -- and after some consistent performance you may be able to form a habit for gym time.I usually feel tired. I know if I can make it to the gym I feel better. It's being consistent to get there that's been the problem
For me, "the gym" was really enough of an excuse to not go to the gym (just hated it there). Really wasn't sure if the gym ran afoul of my base personality or what, but I didn't like it; so I did not go.
As a good turn of bad-fortune, I'm coming up from being so sedentary and out of shape, that a little bit of any activity will help; so I looked at body-weight exercises (really "exercises" is an over-statement, more body-weight "motions") that I could reliably perform to get myself in motion. More importantly, the "gym" was not gonna dictate my self-recovery... I began to log my eating accurately and make choices based on my own eating patterns to help reduce my intake to something near target levels.
For "body motions", simple walking and opting for stairs can get things moving. I also try to begin each morning with squats (often just in the shower being safe and cautions about it). Building up from one to about 50 or so each morning. Small dumbbells helped to get the rest of me moving AFTER I began without weight to understand correct form and to get old-fat moving again. In my thinking, the no-weight to low-weight approach removed any excuses I would have, with the added benefit of allowing my body to understand full range of motion with minimal risk of injury.
I'm sure at some point I will "need" a gym, but at the moment, I'm moving along my goals at (or above) my anticipated rate, with fairly consistent performance of muscle retaining exercise, but without the ability to blame "the gym" for my own transgressions.
Granted, it's only been a few months, and time will tell... This is week-7 of logging food here with MFP, and not only do I weigh ~7% less than I did 10-weeks back, but I can already feel some energy and endurance returning. I know that my losses will slow down, and that my physical gains will plateau; so when they do, maybe I'll find a nicer "gym", or just head outside where all the good times are.
For me at least, "the gym" was a premature step, but served as a very convenient scapegoat for my lack of will to initiate.
Give me more info on the body weight exercises, please Logging food is going well but I gotta get moving. ThanksHello everyone. I am not 50ish but I could use all the support and motivation I can get. I am really good about being consistent but its always so hard to take that first step. I know I can lose the weight because I have before, not many pounds, but enough to know that if I stick with it I can attain my ultimate goal. The key is to keep going! I notice a major problem I have is that I see results and get excited and think, oh I can do this no problem. And instead of continuing I end up "falling off the wagon" because I gain confidence. Not so good because then I gain the weight back and have to start over!!! I have hypothyroidism so that already hurts my metabolism. BUT, I no longer want to use that as a crutch or an excuse for my weight. I want to be able to slide down the slide with my daughter and not feel like I am going to get stuck or break it. I want my daughter to be proud of me. Its not easy to be asked by an innocent child if I am pregnant and all the while its just that I am fat. Speaking of which, I would like to have a 2nd child, but my weight is an issue. Im just tired of not being happy with my body. I am my own worst enemy. My body issues affect my confidence, my marriage, everything. I am so insecure and unhappy and I hold back a lot. Time to take my life back and not be in bondage to my weight.
Congrats on taking that first step
. MFP is an amazing tool to use. I log every bite that goes in. Even bubble gum. It has def made me more aware of my calorie intake. Sometimes I even pre-log my food to make sure I stay under my allowed calories. If I can do it anyone can. So jump on the wagon and let's go 0 -
Morning everyone! Welcome new friends.... Great advice this morning I'm the first to admit I'm not a fan of gyms, or working out at all in fact LOL. My sweet fella calls me a slug but I've still managed to lose 13 pounds so far, so every day life can still get you there with dedicated logging and food choices. I also prelog my day and found myself in trouble last week when I let myself get too busy to preplan. Lesson learned
We're trying to get in the swim habit, once a week to start, and I know one day soon I need to start on light weights too because that back fat isn't going to cure itself HAHAHA. Love the idea of body weight exercises first and working my way up to dusting off my little dumbbells. One of those biggest loser trainers said at least once a week weight training is a must at our age.....
We do walk a couple times a week depending on weather, and when we go up to the cabin we get in a daily hike. My son and I are also walking or biking to the grocery store a mile each direction from the house once a week for fill in items. This limits what I buy and we also have to carry those heavy bags home again so I consider that a win/win
My small victory today was getting all my water in yesterday.
Have a GREAT Tuesday! You guys are awesome
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butbygrace206 wrote: »Give me more info on the body weight exercises, please Logging food is going well but I gotta get moving. Thanks...
My personal list is messy, and my reply here got quite long, and I figured that there'd be something like that on the exercise part of this forum (I did send you a short list though)...
Mostly I focused on getting the parts I'd need for real exercise safely moving again using Calf raises for ankle stability so I could get into Squats (with a "pistol" variant) to help with knees and ankles, then Burpees. And similarly (prior to beginning the Burpees even) some shoulder work (gross & fine motions in the rotator and pec-minor) to stabilize my shoulders enough to get to arm circles, then planks, then push-ups...
So little baby steps to build a foundation to avoid injury as I move toward more conventional exercise stuff.
I'd be happy to expound on a few of these, but didn't wanna bore folks that I don't know!
**Nearly forgot my favorite "warm-up", Gorilla Walk! - Take over-sized steps, not quite as extreme as a lunge, but waaay too long of a step to look normal; while you're doing this raise both hands over your head leaving your elbows flexed and fee to move. Your over-long steps will cause your hips/spine to kinda roll (similar to a stiff lower back), just kinda 'go with" this motion and allow it to roll into your shoulders and travel along your up-raised arms before whipping off the ends of your fingers -- stay loose and walk along this way. I've found that you can GREATLY increase the number of good laughs you get if you sag your pants like a young urban gangstah allowing your waistband to ride at or below your hip joint (with your shirt tucked-in, this will look like your legs are very short and your torso is much longer - quite ape-like, yet seriously "uncool" if you've got teenaged grandkids... Rotating the bill of your ball-cap rearward only adds to the hilarity (with no significant impact to the stretch)
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standenvernet wrote: »butbygrace206 wrote: »Give me more info on the body weight exercises, please Logging food is going well but I gotta get moving. Thanks...
My personal list is messy, and my reply here got quite long, and I figured that there'd be something like that on the exercise part of this forum (I did send you a short list though)...
Mostly I focused on getting the parts I'd need for real exercise safely moving again using Calf raises for ankle stability so I could get into Squats (with a "pistol" variant) to help with knees and ankles, then Burpees. And similarly (prior to beginning the Burpees even) some shoulder work (gross & fine motions in the rotator and pec-minor) to stabilize my shoulders enough to get to arm circles, then planks, then push-ups...
So little baby steps to build a foundation to avoid injury as I move toward more conventional exercise stuff.
I'd be happy to expound on a few of these, but didn't wanna bore folks that I don't know!
**Nearly forgot my favorite "warm-up", Gorilla Walk! - Take over-sized steps, not quite as extreme as a lunge, but waaay too long of a step to look normal; while you're doing this raise both hands over your head leaving your elbows flexed and fee to move. Your over-long steps will cause your hips/spine to kinda roll (similar to a stiff lower back), just kinda 'go with" this motion and allow it to roll into your shoulders and travel along your up-raised arms before whipping off the ends of your fingers -- stay loose and walk along this way. I've found that you can GREATLY increase the number of good laughs you get if you sag your pants like a young urban gangstah allowing your waistband to ride at or below your hip joint (with your shirt tucked-in, this will look like your legs are very short and your torso is much longer - quite ape-like, yet seriously "uncool" if you've got teenaged grandkids... Rotating the bill of your ball-cap rearward only adds to the hilarity (with no significant impact to the stretch)
These will be put to use ASAP. Thank you so much for taking the time to post. 0 -
As I thought, the exercise & fitness area has a few lists as well ( http://community.myfitnesspal.com/en/discussion/10059807/body-weight-exercises is one of many; has a few nice links within ), but many start above "man-jello" fitness levels.
Use caution as you progress, not everything that hurts is good (truth is few are, depending on your '50-shades of Gray' outlook)
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Just rejoined MFP today, having fallen off the wagon over xmas hol. Don't have vast amount to lose but know I feel better a few lbs lighter. I'm 60.0
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Good morning everyone. I joined the group in January and then got kicked in the butt with a horrible cold that had derailed my efforts. Then I was bummed because I felt like I was starting from scratch again. I stopped visiting MFP and this group. Today I am back and I have caught up with your conversations. You are all so inspiring. It feels good to be back!0
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Morning everyone.... Welcome Kayterina and welcome back LAbike!! I think I found that cold you're just getting over, Uugh! Fighting a fever, massive headache and endless coughing and sneezing
. I really hope this doesn't stick around very long!
Been busy with a work project this week so just doing bits and pieces on the house rehab, but my oldest son is meeting me there today to do some exterior power washing so at least things are still moving forward
I've been doing good for 3 whole days getting all my meals and water in, so I'm considering that today's small victory Now, if I can just get rid of this dang headache!
Have an awesome Wednesday 0 -
Okay , so water ? I used a formula that our vet gave me, chatting while getting the horses teeth floated, but anyway, by that formula I should be drinking a swimming pool. How do you know how much water ?0
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Lots of folks use a "half-ounce of water for each pound of body weight" guide; many folks will just go with some sort of minimum (like 8 @ 8oz glasses each day). I had a lifting coach that had us drink water until there was no discernible color in our urine (goal was to just barely see color).
The "bodyweight/2" (for ounces of water) formula pretty much does what the old lifting coach asked, at least for me these days...0 -
Boy, the things I Iearn from you guys! I never knew there was a formula for how much water to drink. Who'd have thought? The good news is that puts me under the 8 C a day average so maybe I'm not as bad at getting it all in as I thought.
Actually I do feel better when I drink it I have two 76oz water bottles I am filling and put in the fridge.... One plain, filtered water and the other mixed with Crystal Light. My goal is for them both to be empty every two days. For some reason the Crystal light goes faster HAHAHA. But there's no more guesses how much or if I drink it 
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New to the "community" thing but need some motivation to exercise! Definitely fit in this group at 57. Need to lose about 75 lbs and hate to exercise.0
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@Sandcastles61 For me, the lemonaide CrystalLite goes just fine with a little vodka and a mint leaf
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I'm not a huge fan of exercise just to exercise -- to kinda paraphrase Sandcastles61, find something that you like doing that'll get you moving, and do that as "exercise". If you work at getting into a few new habits (like logging what you eat), you'll begin to see patterns of behavior that you can change to help you move toward your goals.New to the "community" thing but need some motivation to exercise! Definitely fit in this group at 57. Need to lose about 75 lbs and hate to exercise.
INMO, weight isn't really a good goal by itself since we'll all kinda dry-out and rot when we die (great weight loss, but not such a fun long-term plan!)... I like to think also of some of the reasons that I'd like to be lighter, and use those as goals along with the weight change.
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Have you been reading my food diary????? HAHAHA (can't help myself, but it was only a "few" times LOL)0
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I'm not judging ANYONE, besides, the more you drink, the better I look!Sandcastles61 wrote: »Have you been reading my food diary????? HAHAHA (can't help myself, but it was only a "few" times LOL)
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Welcome PegJens! It's great to have friends on this journey, especially when you're just starting out.
I'm not much of an exerciser myself and focused first on getting my food and logging together. Without doing much more than regular daily living activities I've still managed to lose 13 pounds. My next focus is actually figuring out where I am with my daily walking steps and the "intentional" exercise I throw in. So, sit down everyone...... I bought a pedometer today! Yep, the old fashioned stick it on your waistband kind
For my next 10 pounds I'm going to try to get in the habit of putting in my steps and whatnot, but definitely am NOT eating back the calories at this stage. I guess I consider it more my every day living activities that are already accounted for. If I do that for my next 10 pounds I am hoping I'll have developed some type of exercise habit and branch out to the infamous weight training for my final 10
Best intentions aside, when I enter maintenance this time I should have not only my food and logging down to a science, but my exercise and weight training will (hopefully) be habits for me ❤ Well, that's the best plan I can come up with today anyways 0 -
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