WOMEN AGES 50+ FOR AUGUST 2012

Good morning,

I had to fast last night for lab tests today and hypoglycemics do not fast well (blood sugar levels plummet). So between the lab and the bone density test I grabbed breakfast in the the little tea shop. Since it was located in the Health and Wellness Center I figured it had to 'healthy'. Well, it certainly was delicious, I had a 'muffin-sized' spinach omelet and a barey,zucchini and cranberry muffin. When I tried to calculate the nutritional values using recipes I found online, I found I had used up almost twice my normal breakfast calories, wow!. Too delicious to regret, I now know that I will behave a little better the rest of today thanks to the 'calculator!

While putting a recipe on the calculator takes a little longer, it certainly is a reality check and well worth the effort. I feel a little more confident that this time I will break through the 200 lb. barrier with the technology of this website and the support of people who understand. I really feel it is important to regain my health and enjoy my years as yet another friend has been smacked with the big "C", lymphoma. It makes my heart ache.

Love yourself first my friends and all else will come a little easier,
Kate

Good afternoon,

Started the day out good-reading all your posts and eating a good breakfast and then even did my chair exercises. Unfortunately, I should have limited myself to upper body ones and did not. Needless to say, my toe is throbbing so back to elevation and ice I go.:grumble:


“Whenever you feel like giving up, remember why you set this goal in the first place.”

~Unknown~


Thought this was a good quote for the day-hope everyone has a productive one!

Kathy

Good afternoon lovely ladies!

Had a nice birthday yesterday. DH bought me more time with my trainer at the gym so I can keep working toward my 50# goal. That was a nice present. My 16-year-old son made me a workout playlist on my i-pod with his favorite electronic dance music. I used it on the treadmill this morning and it worked great! It's not music I would ordinarily listen to, but it definitely upped my energy and it gave me a little insight into what he listens to, since he's always wearing headphones.

Michele -- I have to measure my food too, because I have trouble knowing how much 1/4 cup of something is, or how much is 1 ounce of lettuce. I finally broke down last week and bought a $5 scale at Walmart. It came with a removable measuring cup on top which makes it easy to weigh/measure stuff. It's keeping me honest and helping me develop a better eye for small amounts which I'm hoping will carry over into my cooking when school starts in a few weeks. How's the pool construction going? And I like your trick of having tea while others are having dessert. Gives you something to consume while others are indulging.

PS2CR --Welcome. You mentioned you like skating as your exercise. What kind of skating do you like to do?

Amanda -- Hope you're feeling better today. I think of you everytime I catch a few minutes of the Olympics on TV and send you a little "hello!" thought.

LindaSundance B -- Your post about how your thinking has evolved about diet and feeding yourself healthy things was helpful to me. For years I ate things that I wanted because they tasted good, and I ended up fat and not feeling good -- physically AND emotionally. Now I'm feeling like I can say, "I did that. And now for something completely different!" I'm ready to feel good physically AND emotionally, and changing what I put into my body is an important part of that.

Laura -- You mentioned that you are trying to give up wheat to see whether it will help you feel better. Me too. I've cut out wheat since the beginning of July, and although I don't have a diagnosis for Celiac's disease, I'm feeling more myself than I can remember. Let us know how it's going for you.

JuneKaatz -- Congrats on 4# lost despite the good food at the family reunion. Way to go!

Lin -- sounds like you and your friend had a great outing despite the heat.

Jeannie -- Sorry July was a difficult month for you. Glad you are here. Here's hoping that August will be a little better. Planning and packing a healthy lunch whenever you can is a great start!

Supermoo2 -- Wow -- 42# lost in 6 mos is great! It sounds like planning a running program soon might be a good next step. I'm not even close to that step yet, but I'm starting to dream of it. My trainer had me run for 20 seconds and then walk for 40 seconds on the treadmill yesterday. I'm imagining myself running a 5K everytime I'm in my 20-second jog. LOL

Lou3753 -- I was in a food rut too. I bought two new cookbooks (one gluten free) to give me some new ideas and to help me replace old standby recipes that weren't very healthy.

Laura 8011 -- Hope that Grandson #3 comes before the weekend. Watch for a big change in barometric pressure -- sometimes that brings on labor. Worked for me 17 years ago...

SandhillsMom -- Planning make-ahead lunches and snacks before school starts up again is smart. I'm taking my 2 new cookbooks with me to the beach on Friday so I can do that planning too. I'm switching from elementary to middle school this year and so I'll have a chance to establish my eating habits with a new group of colleagues. I'll be teaching back-to-back blocks right through the lunch schedule, however, so I'm not sure how I'll manage my 5 mini meals on that schedule. Planning the snacks will be key, I think.

Kathyszoo -- Glad you're able to get into your bed again. How are you doing with the chair exercises? Are there any you can do with a resistance band, just to keep things interesting?

DebA -- You asked for ideas for other forms of protein besides chicken and turkey. How about eggs -- quiche, or omlettes are quick, and you can add veggies for an easy one-dish supper. Go Mexican with tomatoes, fresh cilantro and avocado and a sprinkle of chili powder. Another one I like is to throw in some left-over asparagus. Hardboiled eggs are easy to pack for lunch, or you can dice them onto a pile of mixed greens. Beans and lentils are another great source of protein. I use them in soups a lot, or add a 1/4 cup of chickpeas or kidney beans to my salad. A friend of mine uses bean curd, too. I haven't found any ways to prepare it that will work for my family, but it might work for you. I'm interested in what you figure out about using the ipads for your math classes, too. I'll be teaching middle school math full-time this year after being in elementary school for the past 6 years. I teach kids who are learning English, and I'll be co-teaching with the Math Dept. Chair. Wish me luck!

Brenda -- thanks for the reminder about being proud of every step we take to accomplish our goals. For so long I've been evaluating myself on all the things I don't do or can't do anymore because of my weight or lack of energy or will. I need to re-adjust how I think about everything. Thinking of what I do each day to move towards this new lifestyle will help me gain momentum.

Dixie -- Good for you for packing your breakfast and lunch for your days on the road! I'm glad that's helping. I hope your DH continues to feel happy and has more good days ahead. Keeping you both in my prayers.

cjspensley -- lunch meeting at work can be deadly. My last principal would always just order a pizza when we had lunch meetings and that was a nightmare. If you are eating out, try looking up the menu online ahead of time so you can figure out what you'll order. If you're ordering in, you can always just bring your own lunch and join everyone with a smile. I think planning is key.

Dyetcoke1 -- Saw a similar picture of body fat when I was looking for inspiration pictures to post for myself. It's hard for me to imagine that's what's under my skin, but now that I've seen it, I want it out of my body. I didn't end up keeping that picture. Instead, I found a headless photo of a woman with a large middle, and a photo of a 40-something Olympic swimmer Dara Torres who is as lean as you can imagine. Those two photos are hanging on my shower door. "This? Or This?" I might never look like that photo of Dara Torres, but those pictures are a frequent reminder of what I'm trying to accomplish.

Jane -- Hope all goes well with your move this weekend. It will be good to sleep in your own space, even if everything isn't ready. When we moved into our house 8 years ago we had bare lightbulbs hanging from wires, no doorknobs, missing trim, and only one working bathroom, but I slept like a rock that first night, just happy to finally be "in." All in good time.

Jan -- 9 days smoke free? Good for you! Keep it up. Your body will thank you, and so will your family.

Welcome to all the other newbies I missed. Keep posting and coming back. Keep drinking your water (I'm up to 7 glasses a day now, ugh), and keep logging your food. Breathe. Then smile! You're doing something good and important. It's worth being happy about!

Thanks again for all the birthday wishes. Turning 55 isn't so bad! :drinker:

Polly

Greetings and encouragement to all! Success over excess! We can do it!

Jumping in here on August 8th, better a bit late than never! I'm so happy to see this topic, as I wandered through the "looking for a twin" thread and couldn't see any other "oldies but goodies". I'm 56 years young, lol.

My goals for August: log all my food; stick to my calorie goal *almost* every day; increase my excercise; enjoy life! Oh yes, and don't beat myself up if I have a bad day, just get back to it the following day!

“Come, come, whoever you are. Wanderer, worshiper, lover of leaving. It doesn't matter. Ours is not a caravan of despair. come, even if you have broken your vows a thousand times. Come, yet again , come , come.” ~ Rumi

@ Walker that is going to be my issue. I teach back to back classes (6) until lunch at 1:38. I will definitely be snacking it during the day somehow. A brutal schedule but I love having planning at the end of the school day.

Hello beautiful ladies:flowerforyou:

I hope each of you has had a fabulous day. I'm somewhat rested at the moment , I kept my 11 yr. old granddaughter yesterday ,she has pneumonia ,mom thought she just had a coughy cold, however a trip to the Dr. and chest x rays told a different story. I had errands to run yesterday and mom said it was fine for her to go with me, so off we went and I asked if she had anywhere she would like to go, Barnes and Nobles was her choice, so we spent the better part of an hour in there, then decided she might need just a few new school clothes, so stopped at a dept. store, got a few things for her and her little sister, then made another stop to pick up school supplies, finally home almost 4 hours later, mom and dad had called the house and called my cell (which I didn't hear:blushing: ), checking up on her. My daughter said " you went shopping":noway: , I told her she was fine, this is my first grandchild and I adore her I would never let anything happen to her!!! I did make her lay on the sofa for an hour after we got home. When she left my house she was feeling better, perkier, and had good color in her cheeks, I would like to think it was the shopping trip:laugh: , but I'm sure it was the meds. working. She's even more better today:bigsmile: .

Welcome to the newbies:flowerforyou: stay with your plan and watch the lbs. come off!!!!

Meg Thank you for the list of meds.! Noel is doing better now, the Vet. said she would wait before she put her on anything else, as long as it's not happening too often.

To all the teachers:flowerforyou: , thank you for teaching and taking care of our precious children!!!!! You have to be angels, I couldn't do it, more than a couple of kids at a time, I would go crazy:noway: !!!!!

Laura still waiting for grandson to make his appearance? We are waiting with you!!!!

Don't have time to chat anymore, my 30 min. sitting still has turned into 45 :huh: ,must get up and move some now.

Have a wonderful evening ladies!!!! Drink your water:drinker: :drinker: :drinker: , log your food!!!!!!

Hugs,
DeeDee

Michele how is the pool coming along?

Hello - I am 58 yrs old with 5 grown children all married and 11 grandchildren. After a hysterectomy at age 50 my normally high metabolism kind of fell off the face of the earth. My goal is to lose 20 lbs. I started a week and a half ago and have lost 6 lbs so far. I joined a gym and have gone to exercise classes nearly every day. I can't tell you how much better I feel. I thought about doing it for so long and now that I have started listing all the food I eat and activities, I am that much more motivated. Cutting out any extra sugar made a huge difference in how hungry I feel. Wish me luck because we go on vacation to the lake with all the kids and grandkids at the end of this week for 6days. Lots of good food and fun!
Anyway, it helps so much reading all the posts and hearing your stories.

Thank you
Lucinda

It is so helpful to read everyone's posts on here. And I really love it when my husband calls and says he's thinking of getting a pizza and wants to know if I have enough calories, etc. left to have that. (I did. But the sodium wasn't good for me.)

Meg- Thanks for the cudos.
Walker- Since there is a Laura already on here, I switched to Tigress, so no one would be confused. Yes so far I am doing well on the no wheat diet. I was shocked at all the things that contain wheat. Campbell's Tomato soup, I love tomato soup, I was looking at an organic one today, no wheat so I may try it. I had zuccini with roasted red peppers and mushrooms with my tilapia tonight for dinner with a salad, no wheat but yes carbs. All my carbs are veggie or fruit, less than a 1/3 a cup of rice or beans or a sweet potato. Got to get that A1c down. See everyone tomorrow. Tigress

Hello I am. late trying to go to bed ASAP. But want to wish you all well. Sorry its been a long day and i am just done. Post more tomorrow
Liz
Take care!

Hi isabelrose88 - I love the iphone synching, too! Especially the barcode feature.

@exermom - thanks for taking the time to respond individually. Your post was amazing.

Belated Happy Birthday, Polly! Your post was equally awesome. (To answer your question, I do ice-skating/figure skating. Used to coach it, but now just skate for fun.)

Hi to the rest of you, and welcome to the other newbies (like me). Hope your day was successful...or at least not off the wagon. My calories were under the count (despite hubby wanting to eat Mexican out)...but I waffled out of going to the rink. *sigh* Here's how it went:

2:30 PM

Jillian-Michaels-Wannabe-Self: "Hey, if you go to the rink, you can check out Michael's on the way there for some jewelry crafting beads!" (Hehe, maybe bribery will get her out of the house...)

Couch-Potato-Self: "Hmmm. That's tempting. I'd really prefer to make some more jewelry or do some Etsy listings...but I DO actually NEED to see if Michael's has any more of those turquoise beads on sale...okay! It's a deal!"

...[Interject delays and many ADD diversions here]...

3:30 - head to Michael's

3:50 - lose myself in the beads

4:30 - glance at my watch and realize the rink closes in 30 minutes. (And it takes 15 minutes to get there.)

4:35 - checkout, and sternly tell myself I'll have to do the old, boring elliptical tonight instead. (Or maybe I can enter Painstakingly Slow Shopping for my cardiovascular workout??)

Of course, the "elliptical tonight" doesn't happen because teenaged daughter has come down with the flu , and hubby comes home a day early from his business trip and wants to know if I want to go out for Mexican food with him...of course I do.

Ah, well. Will try for a real workout tomorrow...

Hello Everyone!

Hope you all had a great day! I am happy to say that I can check off 3 of the 4 things on my challenge list! I ate within my calories, tracked everything I ate and did a fast one mile Leslie Sansone WAP DVD! My fail was I didn't get 60 oz of water in! That's one of my toughest things!! It's not that I don't like water, either! Oh well...tomorrow is a new day and I'm hoping to conquer that list!!

I read on a FB healthy eating/weightloss page about a gal doing 100 Leslie Sansone WAP miles in August! I was impressed but know I could never do that many miles! I decided to start on 8/4 and challenged myself to get in 25 WAP miles by the end of August! So far I have done 4 miles in five days--which is a HUGE step forward for me!!

Here's a cute quote I found! This one made me chuckle!! :laugh:

You have to sweat like a pig and work like a horse if you want to look like a fox!!!!!!!

Let's get our "fox" on!!!

Hello ladies



I'm rushed off my feet today, so not much time to write.



Yesterday was spent with my gorgeous grandtwins. We had so much fun. I love the cuddles and giggles we get. Molly loves to copy everything I do and Teddy is just such a funny little boy - even with his little problems.



Today is a warm one in London but, thankfully the tube was realatively empty this morning and we got a seat all the way. We got off a stop further away and walked down Regent Street to Bond Street because we had some extra time. I'd had a bad IBS night and got up early to have my stomp, but still feel restless.



We are in the process of 're-hanging' the gallery, so I'd better get to it.



Have a lovely, healthfilled day and make sure you do at least one thing that puts a big grin on your face!



Love to all.

Amanda x

Good morning lovely ladies:flowerforyou:

Brendajs , love your quote. Yes, we are all foxes!!!!

Barbara , deodorant spray in your hair:noway: . My mom once sprayed Lysol in hers:laugh: . Hope your day gets better!!!!

Ps2cr , loved your day, isn't it funny how we can talk ourselves into doing what we want to do:laugh: . Hope your daughter feels better soon!

Isabellerose , welcome. It's great your hubby is also committed , makes things much easier!!!

Penguinally congrats on losing 200 lbs.!!!! I'm sure the 38 you gained will come back off. I have hypothyroidism and my metabolism is all over the place lately, sometimes it's really good, other times it feels non existent !!!! Drs. Have been playing with my meds., for almost year now. I am thankful that I've been able to stay on this new dosage for 3 months, instead of having to check it every 6 weeks !!!! Your goals for Aug. look good.

Kate , it is amazing to find out the calorie count of items, you wonder how just a small amount of food can hold so many calories:noway: . Hope your tests all come back good.

Carolyn , 14 miles on the bike is great!!!!!

Kathy take care of that toe!!!! Thanks for the inspiring quote!

Mommie55 , welcome. It's great your son is along on this journey with you!!!

Polly what a nice gift from your hubby!!!! The playlist from your 16 yr. old son is great, how nice of him!!!

Becky I know my granddaughters have tons of energy and I can thankfully say since starting this in May-my energy level has increased!

Hellysuccess welcome! Your goals for Aug. looks good. I especially like "enjoy life"!!!!

JispyJudy , here's hoping your mojo comes back with a vengeance!!!!!

Sandhillsmom I live in NC too, in Winston Salem. Thanks for teaching our precious children!!!

Gini welcome!!! This forum has the most amazing women. Come in often and chat!!!

Meg glad your hubby is doing well!!!! That was really fast surgery!!!

Wizzywig , I too am way behind on posts!!!! Congrats for getting your exercise in. I get my walk in first thing in the mornings, otherwise I would probably keep putting it off.

Amanda I love being with my granddaughters, hugs and kisses from them are like nothing else !!!!
Hope your IBS gets better soon!!!

I apologize if I missed someone, I do read all the posts, and wish I had time to comment on everyone. You are all in my thoughts!!!!:flowerforyou:

I've got to get myself ready, I need to go to the farmers market and pickup some fresh veggies. Don't know exactly what I'm tasting for yet, tomatoes, cucumbers, squash etc.etc., maybe something new will intrigue me .

Hope you all have a fantastic happy day !!!!! Drink your water:drinker: :drinker: :drinker: and log your food!!!!

Hugs,
DeeDee

A Happy Day to All!!! :flowerforyou:

Just caught up on the posts and wow---so many of you are doing a great job managing the changes in your life! WOW! I'll try to stay in the pack of foxes with you. Wait, a group of foxes is not a pack, Wiki says it is a skulk, a leash, or a troop? Huh, I swear I've never heard that.

Moving on, need to make my list and off to pick up some things at my local mega-store (:ohwell: ) and then to the grocery store as I've run out of many healthy things. Can't let that happen or heaven knows what I'll eat right?

I adore little sayings and collect them on Pinterest. Anyway, this one tickled me:
:laugh: Today I will be happier than a bird with a French fry.:laugh:

I am just starving today. Time to find some breakfast. This starving thing is usually a good sign for me---I swear it's my body saying hey, we're about to lose some weight here, quick, FEED ME!! :happy:

Guess I'll find out on Sunday morning. That's weigh-in morning for a challenge I joined here on MFP. This web site just has everything doesn't it?

Wishing you all well.

Lin