WOMEN AGES 50+ FOR NOVEMBER 2012

One of the results of being the only house in the neighborhood without dogs is that all of the animals congregate here. I knew that "rutting" season existed, but had only seen it on National Geographic. When I backed out of my garage yesterday afternoon, two large buck deer were fighting in the driveway, and then moved on to the front lawn. Their antlers were entwined and they were butting and shoving each other back and forth with great violence. One broke the antler off the other, then chased him away. I was less than six feet away, and far too surprised to think of taking a picture with my phone. That might be just as well, as getting in the middle of that for photos was probably not a good idea. It was truly interesting!

I'm going to the grocery store to get the rest of what I need for tomorrow. I had hoped to beat the crowds yesterday, but ended up spending five hours with my mom's eye doctor issues and didn't quite make it. Thanksgiving will be the strangest of my life, with just my parents and me (hubby said he wants to go to the casino to play poker for the day). Maybe he'll change his mind. I've never had the holiday without both of my kids and a large family gathering, but I guess I can still be thankful on my own. There is a lot to be thankful for!

Kate -- I wonder if the poltergeist is related to the gremlins that have been plaguing us lately?? DeeDee said to pour hot tea on them. I'm sorry that your bracelets got broken. Between that, the flu and a plateau, no wonder you're out of sorts! I've been playing with the same 4 lbs. for 3 months now. First a plateau for 6 weeks, then my current medication which made me gain 4 lbs. after just 2 doses. I'm still on the meds, so hoping the water weight will come back off when the meds are finished (one more week). You are definitely not alone! Just keep plugging away....

Lin -- Happy Thanksgiving to you, as well! Thanks for the graphic.

DeeDee -- How scary that they may have been considering your house. I hope that the tapes help the police to catch them!

Zumbagirl1962 -- Welcome to our thread! I'm extremely impressed that you can run 1/2 marathons. The weight does have a way of creeping up as we get older, but we can overcome it!

Gail -- I'm so sorry about the passing of your stepmother. It sounds like she was a wonderful lady and will be missed.

Linda Sundance -- I don't blame you for being frustrated! :grumble: :grumble: :grumble: The system is so screwed up! I hope that things get resolved soon, in time for the holidays.

Jen -- Congrats on finishing your Thanksgiving Challenge!

Nancy -- Your 15 year old son was up at 6:30am??? Wow! On the rare occasions that mine calls before 10am (he usually sleeps until 1pm), I'm always afraid that something is wrong. He called at 8am today -- shock -- as he was driving to Key West. I was certain he'd been in an accident, but he was fine.

Rrboxer -- I'm cheering you on! :drinker: :drinker: Just keep logging daily, and it will all fall into place.

Wishing you all a wonderful Thanksgiving day, filled with family, friends and good cheer. We all have a lot to be thankful for. I'm glad that we have a day to take the time to reflect on our many blessings and appreciate them.

Jane

A quick post to wish all a Happy Thanksgiving. Wish I had time to give personal shout outs, but time is flying and I need to head out to Houston to meet the rest of my family for TG. All siblings, spouses, grands & spouses, and great grands will be there AND MOM - everytime we get to have a complete family get together and still have DM (85 years young) with us is an extra special blessing!

My plan for the holiday it to evoke ELIZABETH's Es! (yes I go by Lizzie but my formal name is Elizabeth)!

Eat in moderation, make wise choices but do not deprive
Exercise - even a small walk after dinner is good!
Enjoy - holidays are about friends and family, don't stress over calories, just be wise. Remember what MWheatcraft shared earlier - one bad or kind of bad day will not ruin it all. So Eat - Exercise - Enjoy!!!

Happy Thanksgiving
Lizzie

Happy Thanksgiving holiday to everyone.:drinker: My plans are MODERATION in amounts I eat, but enjoy the turkey and all the trimmings with that piece of pumpkin pie.:bigsmile: My goal this week is to maintain or at least not gain more than couple or three pounds which I can shed right back off by the first of Dec.. No pressure, No stress!!:noway: :laugh: See you all in Dec. June

Mary and Carolyn and Katla and M and anyone else traveling this weekend - safe travels!

Amanda - prayers for you and your dad. You know that you're going to get so much from him. My heart goes out to you. When is he going to have these procedures?

Did an hour of incline intervals on the treadmill today (Tues). Two minutes at 4mph 3% then 6% then 9% then 12% then 3% and so on. Tomorrow (Wed)...yoga and then deep water.

Worked outside on the landscape lights today. We got 13 more put in. I'm digging the trench for the wire, assembling the lights, Vince puts them in (he's somewhat OCD, so I just let him be). We also put insulation around the pipe that has the water for the spa. I know Vince was concerned about it. What we did was put insulation around the 2" pipe, then put a 3" pipe over that. He says that we won't be taking it off. Rinsing out our "crummy" clothes right now. Just want to get some of the red clay off. Eventually, I'll probably get rid of these clothes

Leaving Thurs to go to Jessica's for dinner. I think she'd really like for me to have it, but I really like Chirstmas and I really don't want all those leftovers. Perhaps I would if Thanksgiving in the US weren't so close to Christmas.

Lynn - I'm glad you'll be with your mom this Thanksgiving. She may be especially somber. Then again, if she's busy cooking, etc. she may not have much time to dwell. Which would be a good thing

M - hey, you've given me an idea for when we go to FL. I have to check to see if the Y down there has WiFi (I know our Y does). I usually bring my laptop to the condo, so I can take a DVD along with my laptop there. Now to just hope and pray that they do have WiFi. Thanks for the idea. I was wondering how I was going to get my weight exercises in. I can use their equipment, my DVD. Sounds good to me. In case they don't have WiFi, we have a MiFi that we use at the condo. I'm going to ask Vince if I can bring that there and use it.

I just spoke to Jessica about the Thanksgiving meal. I asked her what she was going to have on the menu. I got the "ma, why do you need to know what we're going to serve". "Well, Jess, I need to know how many dishes and serving forks I need to bring up". Kids!!!! Jess "You need to bring up another table, Amanda and her son will be there". Me: "what size do you want, I have a small folding table in my exercise room and we also have a card table" Jess: "bring whatever you think is right" Me: "who will be there" Jess: "a friend, I don't remember her name, me, Ryan, you and daddy, oh, my roommate might be there, but then again, maybe not" How wonderful!

Cheryl - I get a lot of really nice things at the Salvation Army.

janehadj - I really like Subway That sure is weird about the woman renting the condo! I'd never heard of something like that (the lady calling you afterwards). You know, I never thought of cut & paste, probably because I usually scan her letters and put them on my flashdrive. I would think there'd be a maximum amount of characters you could cut & Paste at any one time, one letter page is probably too much.

zumbagirl - welcome! And happy birthday!

DeeDee - you have a security tape? What prompted it? I didn't think private citizens had them, only businesses. Learn something new every day! Kind of gives you the creeps, doesn't it, knowing that they were looking at your house.

barbie - I relly liked your eating quote.

Gail - my deepest cdondolences on the passing of your stepmom. Good luck to your hubby Mon, I know everything will work out just fine. Have fun at the timeshare

Did an hour of yoga this morning and then an hour of deep water. Tomorrow I'll do Jillian Michael's No More Trouble Zones DVD. Talked to Jess and got her (really I made the decision more) that she should be home by 6 tomorrow so that we can drop off the cats and then check into the hotel. Sometimes Vince procrastinates so much, today was an absolutely gorgeous day, I really would have liked to have worked outside, but he didn't get to it until almost 3 (at my request), then we find out that the fuel line for the Ryobi that we will be using to put in the edging broke so now he has to go buy another one. If only he'd done this earlier, he could have gone to Home Depot and fixed it, but he didn't. He also hasn't gotten down the appetizer tray for us to take. I'm someone who does a little at a time, I don't like waiting until the last minute to do something, but that's me. Vince works better under pressure, I absolutely don't.

Linda - sometimes it takes a looonnnggg time to understand what God wanted you to learn. Hey, my mother died when I was 9 and it took me 30 years to finally understand why God did that.

rrboxer - as barbie would say "never, never, never give up" So you fell, as long as you get back up that's what counts. You don't want to fall all the time (like every other day), but we all (that is, except for barbie) fall. I know that I will Friday when we have our Thanksgiving dinner. But then I'll be back on plan, until Christmas Eve Good for you putting down what you did and will do, that's a great step!

We'll be staying at a hotel that we usually stay at when we go up to Jess's. I normally have 1/2 a bagel and 1/2 a container of cream cheese (lower in calories than butter). Many times they have hard boiled eggs and I just have the white (there's just something about the yolk that I don't care for -- it's probably the consistency). That reminds me, I should bring some boxes of cereal with me, last time we were there they didn't have any of the cereal that I like -- only the high calorie stuff. They usually have skim milk in the small bottles and I usually have 1/2 of one. They usually have apples and bananas so I'll take some back to my room with me. Am I cheap or what?

Laura - congrats on the loss! How wonderful that your hubby got the promotion! I'm so happy for you guys

janehadj - that must have been a sight to see!

Lizzie - I like your "e's". Yes, enjoy, that's the secret

Here's hoping everyone has a great evening.

Michele

Hey Ya’ll! Happy day before a holiday. OK now everyone sing: “Hallelujah! Hallelujah!” DD#1 made buttermilk broccoli soup, salad and rolls for dinner last night. Aside from burning the rolls (which she always does…she does not get the concept of watching the rolls cook and taking them out when done; she needs a specific time) the rest of the dinner was GREAT!!!! The last time she made this soup, instead of 6 tablespoons of flour she used 6 CUPS!!!!! We ate pizza that night. :laugh: :laugh:

Well I lost I ½ pound this week. I am now below where I was before I went on my little trips! YAY.:happy: Now I need to keep it up! I have been thinking hard about Thanksgiving and although I have the least of us here in the way of wisdom, I ‘d like to share what I think.
1. It’s one day. Only one day. No matter what you do, one day will not ruin anything.
2. Eat what you truly want by being mindful of what you put in your mouth….and savor every bite you do choose. Take the time to chew slowly, inhale and love the aromas, feel the textures, notice the colors.
3. Save the calories for the holiday food. You can always have chips and dip, or cheese and crackers, but the Thanksgiving meal is only once a year so it is special.
4. Careful of alcohol. My fitness buddy calculated that on a normal Thanksgiving, she probably has 6 beers which is over 700 calories. Have that glass of wine with dinner if you like, but again be mindful. My friend is buying light beer tonight so at least her calories will be lower even if she does drink as much as usual.
5. Enjoy your family and friends; the food is secondary. That being said, no guilt. If you have guilt, re-read #1.

Mary: I live in Papillion which is slightly north and plain east of Lincoln, near Omaha. My home is only a 45 minute drive from downtown Lincoln. I used to have an acreage in Cass County too!

Kate: I hope today has been a better day for you. Red wine and wieners! Now that sounds like something I would do. One poultergeist trap on the way!:bigsmile:

Zumbagirl: welcome! Wow I am impressed that you are such a good runner. You found the right place for support. I too have recently become horrified at my weight (how the hell did THAT happen????? :grumble: ) and am making slow but sure progress here.

DeeDee: sounds like the day has been better for you too? Yeah, you gotta love the calorie burning “facts”. Now how many calories are burned in sitting around *****ing? I better look that one up because I could claim that one a lot! I’m sure if there is no blood or dead bodies around your house it is cleaner that what the cops usually find! :bigsmile:

Barbie: NO giving up here. I may get discouraged, but then I have this group to pull me back up.:flowerforyou:

Lin: lovely graphic! Thank you!

Gail: I am so sorry for your losses! I am glad to read that you are able to celebrate her life. It is so nice to hear of a step mom who was loved and welcomed! :flowerforyou:

Jolene: nice to see you again.

Linda: OMG I am so sorry for your ongoing trouble. I sure hope you get resolution soon. That is awful to be in the holidays with no money. I send you hugs and warm wishes!:flowerforyou:

Jen: congrats on finishing your challenge!

Nancy: Not only are my college students ( and these are OLDER second degree students) eager to get out of class early, they LOVE stickers on their assignments! They compare to see who got the “coolest” one. Sometimes I feel like a kindergarten teacher!

Rrboxer: It’s OK. Yesterday was a holiday for you and you didn’t go crazy. That is a great start. And you know what you need to do to stay motivated. Another victory! Sometimes those are the hardest things of all. You can do this. :flowerforyou:
Katla: glad everything is ok at your place!

JB: Today must be “W”! I love your word play but sorry to hear your tale of weight woe. It will come off soon!

Janehadji: I hope your day tomorrow turns out better than expected! Maybe some surprise will befall you! I would have been awestruck to see the bucks! What a sight!

Laura: I may need to add your champagne sunrises to my Christmas menu! That sounds yummy but no more shopping for me!

Lizzie: safe travels!

Michele: Kids OMG! Some friend…I don’t know her name but she’s one of my best friends….where have I heard that before!:bigsmile:

Well tonight after dinner I will be doing the baking, the all the cooking tomorrow. We plan to visit dad in the morning and have plenty of time for the turkey to get in the oven before our friends get here.

Everyone have a wonderful day tomorrow. Safe travels, enjoy your family and be thankful! I am thankful for all of you. Take care, Meg

:drinker:

Good evening beautiful ladies:flowerforyou:

I can`t chat long tonight I have a friend coming over in a bit. The police decided to come over this afternoon instead of this morning , after I stayed up cleaning the dust bunnies off the desk and filing all those papers:frown: , however it is done now and I don`t (hopefully) have to do it before everybody comes here for Christmas, so something good after all:bigsmile: ! They did get pictures of the two people, now I don`t know if they are the ones that robbed the neighbors or not, but the police were very happy to have the pics!!! One thing that really bothers me about this is that these people didn`t take any big items, just things that would fit in a pillowcase, all of her jewerly and some small mementos that were her fathers, things that can`t be replaced, the police said more than likely they did not have a car and couldn`t transport anything larger without sticking out like a sore thumb. I`ve always felt pretty safe here, I have a gate at my driveway, so nobody drives in without me knowing, however you can walk in...they told me today that from now on when I take the dog out to turn my alarm on, even if I`m just in the yard, there have been 5 breakins in the last month in the surrounding area. I do have an alarm system, hubby traveled a lot and felt I was safer when I was alone (boy I`m grateful for that now)! I put the security cameras in a couple of years ago when someone stole a package that was left at my gate, they just came by and took it with my neighbors watching them, what is wrong with people??? So now I can see the road in front of my house, my gate and every door on my house has a camera. For some reason tonight I`m not feeling very safe and I certainly don`t like that feeling. I do have a gun and I do know how to use iit, I just hope I never have to!!! Well this is much longer than I had planned on it being, and I `ve got to get dinner together now!

Have a wonderful night everyone!! Happy happy Thanksgiving!!! For those that are traveling please be safe!!!

Hugs,
DeeDee

Happy Thanksgiving to all. Enjoy the day! The weather is supposed to be quite warm so I hope to get a bike ride in before we head out to my sister's for dinner.
Keep coming back,
MaryC

Have a wonderful Thanksgiving beautiful ladies!

Good evening lovely ladies--

Just popped in to wish all of my MFP friends a very Happy Thanksgiving.

We have much to be thankful for. God has truly blessed me with a wonderful husband. Today is our 42nd anniversary.
We never have time to celebrate since it is so close to Thanksgiving. Next time we won't get married so close to a holiday. :laugh: :laugh:

I haven't had time to read all the many post with this chatty group. If I get too far behind I'll just have to pick it back up when time allows.

Made it through Thanksgiving #1 & # 2. The scale went up a little but came back down right away. :happy:

Pumpkin pies just out of the oven, apples on the stove for home made applesauce, veggies cut for dressing tomorrow.

DH got the painting done in the living room and will try to get the dining room done before Christmas.I still have a bunch of cleaning to do tonight. So I better get at it.

I wish you all a blessed and safe Thanksgiving. Enjoy your time with family and friends.

Micki

Gail - My deepest sympathy to you and yours.

Rrboxer - I find that I do much better when I stay centered by checking with this lovely group daily. We've got your back!

Meg - I know where Papillion is. My brother in law used to be stationed at the air base there. I have relatives in Plattsmouth and Omaha. (And many other places in Nebraska, as both of my parents grew up there.)

I am at my mother's. We took her out to dinner, and then visited with her at the rehab center. Tomorrow we head to Arkansas to my oldest daughter's, and get to spend Thanksgiving with all 3 of my girls. We will celebrate on Friday, as we will take close to 12 hours to get there tomorrow. Hope you all have a blessed Thanksgiving! See you next week!

I have been thinking hard about Thanksgiving and although I have the least of us here in the way of wisdom, I ‘d like to share what I think.
1. It’s one day. Only one day. No matter what you do, one day will not ruin anything.
2. Eat what you truly want by being mindful of what you put in your mouth….and savor every bite you do choose. Take the time to chew slowly, inhale and love the aromas, feel the textures, notice the colors.
3. Save the calories for the holiday food. You can always have chips and dip, or cheese and crackers, but the Thanksgiving meal is only once a year so it is special.
4. Careful of alcohol. My fitness buddy calculated that on a normal Thanksgiving, she probably has 6 beers which is over 700 calories. Have that glass of wine with dinner if you like, but again be mindful. My friend is buying light beer tonight so at least her calories will be lower even if she does drink as much as usual.
5. Enjoy your family and friends; the food is secondary. That being said, no guilt. If you have guilt, re-read #1.

Meg, thank you for this! I have been wondering how I would get through today. You are so right, it's only one day!

I have pre-logged in my food for the day. Hopefully I will stay on track with the portions, but since my mother is a fabulous cook and her Thanksgiving dinners are usually heavy on the sauces & calories I am sure the calorie count will be way off. I have the weekend to make up for it.

Wishing everyone a safe holiday!

Lynn

Hello all,

A Happy and Blessed Thanksgiving to all my friends in the US of A! :drinker:

I took a day off circiut training yesterday. Went to the Dr about a strange bump that's growing on my wrist. :grumble: "That's a ganglia," she said, "nothing to worry about unless it starts to hurt. However, that cold that won't go away is a sinus infection (anti-biotics, etc) and that pain in your back should be attended to by a physio-therapist." :noway: I decided to rest the back yesterday so I could get to curling tonight. And get to curling I will!

Rboxer – We’re all in this together. Log your food everyday, check in here. We’ll help you stay on track.. Sounds like you are recovering from your Achilles heel injury, :drinker: well done getting on the bike at the gym.

Oh JB, Now that we’ve acknowledged woeful Wednesday, :sad: I hope you have a wonderful Thanksgiving and enjoy your spiced peaches. Eat slowly, fill up on salad, OH …you know how it works!

Jane, does your husband avoid Thanksgiving every year, or is this a new phenomenon? Do you celebrate Persian holidays at home? Wishing you a wonderful day with your parents.

Laura, congratulations on your husband’s promotion. :flowerforyou:

Lizzie, your plan to “Evoke Elizabeth’s E’s” sounds brilliant. Well done.

Deb, the image of the poor dog howling while the trombone trio played is giving me a bit of a giggle this morning. :laugh: What a great memory for you & your children.

Michele, It sounds like Jessica has Thanksgiving dinner under control … in her special way. :ohwell: I’m looking forward to hearing how it goes and I do hope you’re having fun.

Meg, Wow! DD#1 pulled of a pretty good meal for you. :happy: Yes, wine is my downfall too. One glass, OK. Two glasses and it’s damn the torpedoes & full speed into the mashed potatoes. Gotta watch that!

DeeDee, how unsettling to feel insecure in your own home. It sounds like you have a great security system, I hope the feeling passes.

Wessecg – Congratulations on the size 10 soon to be size 8 jeans. :drinker: What a story about your kids and the ice – I’m glad that worst of it was having to clean up in fast-forward. I’ve been known to throw a pile of dirty dishes into the oven as friends wander up to the front door – faster than loading the dishwasher, if you know what I mean!

Lila, Probably better to have a relaxing weekend and avoid the “Black Friday” sales. The bright lights in the big city can wait.

Amanda – so glad you did not cancel your trip to see your DH and that the Dr is paying attention to your Dad's mental well-being as well as his physical health.

Oh, it's late in the morning and I must scamper on to my morning routine.

Hasta pronto,

Nancy

November Goals:

Continue New Rules of Lifting – 3x week
No second helpings, no evening snacks
Keep up the exercise & good eating routine when we go away for our November break.
Add meditative prayer to my daily routine

Lin,
What a BEAUTIFUL post! :flowerforyou: how do you add graphics to this?

thanks again.

i hope ALL of these wonderful folks on mfp have a BEAUTIFUL, BLESSED THANKSGIVING! :flowerforyou: :flowerforyou:


janie

HAPPY THANKSGIVING EVERYONE
I have been doing well this past 10 days, just one more pound to be back down to my ticker. Then you will see some changes. I've been getting my exercise every day and staying on plan. The one day I ate something "off-plan" I compensated by drinking more water and eating plenty veggies. Also kept the "off-plan" item to ONE. Still moving forward. We are celebrating Thanksgiving on Saturday because of my SIL's work schedule. BLESSINGS TO ALL