WOMEN AGES 50+ FOR DECEMBER 2012

Good morning beautiful ladies:flowerforyou:

Today Noel gets groomed, I will have a fluffy white sweet smelling cute doggie, at least for a bit:laugh: . I`m sure she`ll have cute bows in her hair and Jane might even polish her nails, if she has time. I`ve put her Christmas dress up somewhere and can`t find it now , I usually hang her coats in the coat closet, so I thought I might have put it in there, but no, not there:ohwell: . I`m not sure she would like it anyhow!

Katla Prayers being sent to Dan and the family! I love your rosemary tree, what a fabulous idea!

DebA Prayers to you and your family as well, hope your dad is doing better!!!

Barbie Flowers from Jake ! What a sweetheart he is!

I will try to pop back in later and respond to more, I`m going to try to get as much done in the house today as I can, after a trip to the grocery store. I would like to be spending more time outside today, it`s supposed to be sunny and in the low 60`s today:glasses: , maybe a nice long walk!

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

Hugs,
DeeDee

Good morning, December Dollies!

I forced myself out of my chair and into the car immediately after my meetings ended yesterday so I wouldn’t be tempted to blow off shopping. I am such a living example of how a body in motion tends to stay in motion and a body at rest tends to stay at rest! My sister came down with a bug and wasn’t able to go out, but I really needed to kick the shopping into gear. My list isn’t long, but I had to date only bought a few gifts, one of which needs to be mailed but is sitting here on my floor :frown:. Anyway, I’m rambling.

I went to Costco gripping my rebate check in my hot little hands (yay!) and went straight to the cameras. It hadn’t taken me long to decide I was using the check to buy myself a camera to replace the one that *somebody* had in his backpack on the hike from heck in August. I don’t know if I said – in addition to how awful that hike was, when it poured down rain it also poured down rain inside his pack, ruining my camera. Costco had the same camera, newer model, but after looking at it I decided I really wanted a somewhat sleeker design that I could throw in my purse or pocket. I went with the Sony CyberShot High Zoom. I hope I like it. I also found a couple of small gifts for DH and DSS, then got out of there. It was surprisingly uncrowded. I swung by a sporting goods store (I was really looking for a snow suit for DGD) but they had nothing, so I girded my loins and went to the mall.

The mall parking lot was crazy busy, but they’ve recently expanded our mall so the insides weren’t horrible. I found the snowsuit and adorable tiny snow boots for DGD plus gift cards, then I went in search of food. I had a salad and water (yay!), then decided to mosy over to Macy’s to see if anything struck my fancy. Oh, did it. I really needed a new pair of jeans, at least one – all of mine are so baggy they’re almost falling off. I’m well into size 10s now, and medium tops. I found a great pair of jeans and a coat they were practically giving away, so I think I’m set for a bit. There *may* have been a purse in there too. So yes, for those keeping score, I got most of the presents, DGD came in second, and everyone else got bupkas :laugh:! Not really – I found DSD and DSS’s gifts, my niece, and some other gifts for DH, so all in all a very successful trip! Now for wrapping.

BJ, we too are looking at a green Christmas. I would love a white Christmas – after I get to where I’m going :laugh:. I hope you get your tree up soon and finish up work so you can enjoy the rest of the season.

Texas, I love the man-tree! I promised myself when I have a real tree again I’m going to make over the fake one in a disco theme, complete with a mirror ball on top. Glad your shopping is almost done.

For those interested, here’s the link to the article on the long life secret: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/12/14/getting-up-without-hands-longer-life_n_2301715.html. I can’t say enough about what yoga has done for my feeling about my body – I see muscles not only from working out but also from yoga – it stretches and strengthens me everywhere. I don’t have back issues (never did), I no longer have pain in my shoulders and neck, I can lift my arms above my head out of my shoulders with ease – honestly, I feel like a little girl in the joy I get out of just moving my body. It has also really helped strengthen and expand my lungs, which is huge for me.

Annie, I love this idea of walking the cards and gifts around. Such a great image. Congratulations on the weight loss! That’s really super, especially this time of year.

SueB, I agree, it’s harder to post when you know your eating has been bad, but I can see the benefit in it. I don’t beat myself up if I can’t, though – this isn’t supposed to add stress to our lives, right?

JaneM, oh, so sorry to hear about the accident! I’m very glad your DH is OK. Sounds like a crazy morning – and aren’t parking lots the worst? I hope the week gets better. Those muffins sound yummy!

Meg, DS is soooooooo excited about the storm! It’s supposed to span from AZ to Canada, I think. Stay safe! It is crazy – when people out here hear there’s a storm coming they literally clear the shelves at the store of bread and milk – even if it’s only supposed to last a day. Must be the native Pennsylvania Dutch self-reliance thing or something. It’s a shame you missed the party, but I understand the need to stay away from temptation. I’m considering putting up police tape across the doorways going to the kitchen right now :laugh:.

Cheryl!!!!! Look at you go, girl! I’m so proud of you. You are doing terrific.

Katla, how sad for your DD’s BIL – what an awful time of year to be in the hospital too. Sending my thoughts for a speedy recovery for him.

DebA, my thoughts for a speedy recovery for your dad as well. It’s good that’s he surrounded by medical professionals so if he does have a stoke they can treat right away. Try not to overwhelm yourself right now – focus on what you can do and don’t worry about the rest. Your family needs you. I know what you mean about not being able to sleep when you’re worried. I hope you’re able to see your mom and dad soon.

Liz, I would say you had a very good day – stayed under on calories and got some good walking in – that’s a great day! Have fun at your participant party.

Cece, welcome!

Nancy, I hope your computer decides to stay in the land of the living lol :laugh:. Your concert sounds like it’s going to be spectacular! Good for you for getting to your training class and weights – I know it was one of your goals. Happy birthday to your DH too. My FIL used to tease my MIL (they married after her first husband died, later in life) that he was going to get a motorcycle and they would motor off into the sunset together – the look on her face was priceless. I think it sounds fun now. Your snowfall sounds lovely – shaping up to be a Whoville Christmas with the snow and singing!

Barbie, I love the image of your animals lining up for treats because you’re lighting candles. My cat would be standing next to my chair, telling me it’s time to light the candles :laugh:. Your Jake loves you – enjoy your flowers!

DeeDee, love fluffy doggies! Noel sounds like she’s going to be the belle of your ball :bigsmile:. Enjoy your day.

Well, my day is off to a slow start – opted out of working out, for one. I woke up at 2am to the stupid smoke alarm – why do the batteries always die when DH is out of town? Why am I always the one who has to deal with replacing batteries and lightbulbs and fixing leaky toilets? How did I wind up being the man of the house?!? OK, gripe-fest is over. I actually like being self-reliant, just not at 2am. However I have a good two hour break between calls that I’m going to use to at least get my next workout in and maybe get out for a walk. We’ll see how the day goes.

Cheers!

M.

Whoo-eeee, here we go. Christmas Concert day. Prepare for lift off.

Home made apple pie for breakfast! It is treat time this morning. :bigsmile: DH makes fabulous pie and we invited neighbors over to play pinochle last night, but they cancelled, so we have a whole pie to enjoy for a few days. Yes, I will log every bite. It is raining again and past time to do something to enable regular exercise. I'm planning to nag DH into checking out gyms today. There are three within easy distance and we've been to two of them in the past. The farthest away gym has the most to offer but is NOISY. the middle gym is open 24 hours a day, but feels isolated, and the closest one is devoted to crossfit training. It may be DH's best choice. We'll see.

Hi happy ladies! It’s an interesting day here at work. No students of course, but only a few people. We are supposed to have a blizzard starting this afternoon and into tonight…upwards of 10” of snow. I can’t leave work until at least 3:15 because I still have to get DD#2 from school after 3:30. We had our course group meeting for the class that starts in January. The new faculty had that same deer in the headlights look the students did Monday LOL. I still don’t know who my 6th instructor is….supposedly someone was asked and has the rest of the afternoon to decide. It’s crazy. I did make faculty packets so all the adjunct faculty will not have any excuses to do things incorrectly. It has copies of policies, etc in there.

Wessecg: I think you are SMART to get rid of those baggy clothes!!! I am confident that you won’t ever need them again. You can do the 12s later; give yourself some time to adjust to your new size.

Katla: sending prayers and good thoughts your way for Dan and your whole family.

Yoyo: more prayers for your father’s recovery!

Liz: sounds like you had a productive day! Don’t you love those?

Cece: welcome aboard!

Nancy: I love your idea of a mid month review of goals. I will have to incorporate that!

Barbie: Nice to hear about your traditions. I bet the dogs look forward to those treat days!

DeeDee: your dog has a Christmas dress???? I ‘d love to see pictures!!!

M: sounds like you had a great time shopping. I am jealous of your medium tops! On the news this morning it showed a bunch of grocery stores.. yep all my food is gone! I hate to shop on the weekend before a holiday, so maybe by tomorrow afternoon they will be restocked!

Viv: nice to see you again!

Well I think I am going to wrap things up here and get ready to get out of here as soon as it’s time. Take care everyone! Meg

Hello to all the providers of this great Vitamin F. Love it. Has no calories and you can't overdo it!! Woot.

I am finally working on my budget, I have the tax spreadsheets up-to-date, all the checkbooks are balanced and the filing is also up-to-date. Those are the types of things that make me feel better. And I did get some more things cleaned out of one closet and dropped off at Goodwill.

Meg, they're predicting a real wallop from this storm for us here in Des Moines. I have enough veggies and fruit for a few days!!! Not your typical stock-up items right? I'm in line with people buying water, pop, beer, chips, pretzels...........gack. I'm sure they were wondering about me. :laugh:

Be safe, be well, enjoy the company of your loved ones.

Lin

:huh: PS I think I've missed something being away so long What's going on with vitamin F that a few of you have mentioned???? :huh: :huh:

Bye for now

HI all
Jane - glad that everyone is OK
Wessecg - Wow - size 10, now that is one size I can't remember being., Well done to you.
Katla49 - will pray for Dan

Had a lovely walk with my walking group this morning. There were not many of us today, so I guess everyone else was busy with their Christmas preparations. That is the last walk before Christmas, and we start again in January. I managed to do a little last minute shopping without OH on the way home. Handy as it was for him. Have finally marzipan-ed the cake ( after promising to do it for the last week!). I need to get it iced (fondant) now, as I refuse to leave it until Christmas Eve like I usually do. Have a huge list of things to do tomorrow, and I will probably not do even half of it.

Night, night.

Annie

Lila - that special Olympics bowling must have been really great! I bet you weren't as bad as you seem to think you were.

Did an hour of a spin workout today (Tues). I really hope someone gets me a new HRM for Christmas (I have it on my list). That is the one time when I REALLY need it, my heartrate can so easily go too high. Then went to Walmart. I returned a box of raisins that I was going to use but then decided not to. when I got home I found that even tho the gal had credited me for them, she put them back in the bag. Oh welll.....came home and made the apple pies. I decided not to make Bryan the bourbon apple pie, I'll need to make it when that's the only thing I'm making. then made the fudge, have that in the refrig. Got the shrimp ready to take tomorrow to the bowling lunch. Tomorrow's exercise will be the yoga and then deep water. I need to be home by 10:30 since Bryan is going to be calling.

DeeDee - I remember when my kids were little, my father commented on how my house wasn't spotless (not his exact words). I told him he can dust if he likes. Never again said another word. Your mom is right, if people don't come to your house to see you, then they don't need to come at all.

M - I hear ya about the 30 minutes vs. 60 minutes you usually do. It's good to change things up, and one of the things you can change is the amount of time you do something. I usually exercise for an hour/day. but when we go to FL the classes at their Y are only 45 minutes. That's good for a change, and I can usually see some sort of loss or at least I wind up feeling better by just changing this one little thing. I'm with you, I like bowling but just can't get real serious about it. There are some guys on the senior league who are real serious. My goal is two-fold. I want to have fun and hopefully improve. If I only achieve 50% of my goal, then I figure I'm doing good (and I'm not expecting to improve, I try but if it doesn't happen, as long as I'm enjoying myself to me that's what matters most). My incentive to exercise even during these trying (food wise) times is that my weight doesn't get too much out of control so that I don't have to really lose a lot come after the holidays. I'd also like my pants to fit well. I remember a few years ago my pants got to where they really didn't fit well at all, I don't want that to happen again.

You know, no matter how much I read the posts, I love reading when people respond to others because they usually comment on something that I don't remember reading about!

Hey -- I thought of a good thing about going to that holiday party Friday -- I'll take the fudge and cheese sausage balls, but it also gives me another place where I can give some of those Dove candies. I'll get rid of them yet. I'm down to the last bag, then I have about a bag of 3 Musketeers mint dark chocolate. Wonder if I should get some more since you can only get the mint ones around the holiday time?

We were going to put the popcorn on the tree today, but Vince never got around to it. He's with a friend right now helping him set up his new computer. I know we can't get to the popcorn tomorrow, I won't be home until around 10:30, then Bryan is calling, we need to leave by 11:30 for the senior bowling lunch, then we have Newcomer bowling at night so we won't be getting home until around 9. So there goes Wed.

People who own a fitbit - here's a question for you. I know it keeps track of calories burned (among other things). Sometimes I'll do sprints, HIIT type of things, etc. I know when I'm sprinting I'm burning more calories than when I'm recovering. The machines at the gym show a calorie burn but it's a constant, not more when you're sprinting, the same number as when you're recovering. Is the fitbit the same way? Or does it show the increase in calorie burn when you are spinting?

texasgal - I see someone likes Jeff Gordon! Good choice, although I liked him more when he was younger and more carefree. Is that Elliott Sadler's M&M car?

Annie - what a great loss, and especially at this time of year. Oh I wish that little Mi character on the Wii didn't keep saying "that's overweight". You can bet that I'll be celebrating the day he no longer says that.

Did an hour of yoga today then an hour of deep water Found out that the pool at the Y will be closed next week for their maintenance, so I won't be doing deep water. In a sense, I wish they'd do the maintenance in the summer so I could still get my water workout in and use my own pool. But that's not going to happen. Tomorrow I'll do a band workout DVD, then I need to take some trash bags to a friend of mine (she asked that I get them and she'll pay me for them), then I have the crochet group and this one lady wants to have everyone at her house for lunch (yuk). Fortunately, I have a chocolate zucchini bread in my freezer so I'll take that along with some of the 3 Musketeer mint candies that I have

Jane - when I get a lot of ripe bananas, what I do many times is I peel them and freeze them. Then I just defrost them (yes, there is some juice, but you can just pour that off) and use them a bit later rather than having to make banana bread, muffins, etc. right at that minute

Meg - when we lived in the Poconos many times we got big snowfalls, too. My kids were young then so it was a real hassle to get their coats on, get them in the car, run to the store for meats or whatever. What I wound up doing was using a frozen food company. At least I had meats in my freezer. You did wonderful at those holiday parties! I have a recipe for a bourbon apple pie, I just might make it for Bryan or even Jessica. I didn't make it for his birthday, didn't realize that it called for more ingredients than the one I was making for us.

Cheryl - good for you packing up your clothes! I don't think it shows a lack of faith not to give away all your 12's. I have about 2 pairs of 10's in my closet in the other room. There are times when you might need them, like, say, if you had some sort of growth on your abdomen. You'll need something looser. But let's hope you never get a growth. Actually, when you're prepared for something, it never happens. Never fails. A few years ago our snowshovels were in storage so what happened? We got 10" of snow (yes, here in NC)

katla - said a little prayer just now for Dan

Deb- hope all is well for your dad. Will keep him in my thoughts.

Nancy - happy birthday to you dh!

Barbie - do you have an "incredible Edibles" place by you? When we lived in PA Vince got me some "roses". What it is is a strawberry, the leaves were lettuce, cut to look like a long stemmed rose. I thought it was a fantastic gift -- and the fruit was so good.

M - the other day I went to WalMart and I expected it to be much more crowded. Sounds like you had a very good shopping trip. I love to get things that I need and like at a good price.

Everyone who is getting snow...stay safe

Viv - enjoy your time away from work

Went to senior bowling today. We had the bowling lunch. I brought, it must have been 3lbs, of shrimp --- all gone. I also brought carrots. I knew that they wouldn't go and I'd be bringing them home. Actually, someone else brought carrots and put them in my dish. Then we had Newcomer bowling. The secretary of our senior bowling league's birthday is Dec. 23 so I had a zucchini chocolate bread that I took out of the freezer and gave her. Had mostly shrimp and carrots for lunch, tried a bit of this taco salad and a broccoli salad, had a bit of pulled pork (it really wasn't that good).

Tomorrow I'm going to do the band workout at home, then I need to go to a friend's house. She wanted these bags that were on sale at a store kind-of far away, but there is a lady in my bowling that lives near that store so she bought them, I just have to deliver them tomorrow. Then crochet. Then this one lady wants to have a lunch at her house, her house is sort of by me so I'll probably follow someone to her house. I had another zucchini chocolate bread in the freezer so I'll take that with me. Then I'll probably stop at one food store.

Well, before this gets too long, better post. Hope everyone has a great evening.

Michele

Two more days and our school is on break til 1/7/13! Everyone is looking forward to it.

* Michele I'll be in Cary, NC in March...it's become my favorite vacation spot with DD's family there
*Barbie I'm jealous ...would love to learn how to dance (yep-2 left feet, that's me)..most classes in my
town require partners for classes
*M I have the Sony CyberShot and love it...pictures are clear,crisp and camera fits in pocket of jeans
*Lila Snow shoveling in your bathrobe LOL...have a safe trip
*Amanda a girl can never have too much bling!
*DeeDee would love to see picture of your dog in the dress!
*Karla Love the Rosemary tree.
*Texasgal picture of man tree is so cute
*M have fun with your sister
*Lentigogirl LOL did you get up w/o using your hands?
*Annie congrats on your weight loss!
*Wessecg you have inspired me to get rid of clothes that no longer fit me ..I was packing them up and storing them upstairs
*DebA I hope your dad gets better soon...he's in my prayers

Have a great Thursday everyone!

Yay!!!! Someone said I inspired them. But seriously, I started thinking about my 12's and I really should never fit it them either. I was always a 5 - 8 for years. While fitting in 10's I am still overweight so 10's should be my only "fat" clothes in the future. 12's are outta here after my next weigh-in determines that I am normal (bmi that is )

Today was a horrible eating day for me. My family totally stressed me out - I was all excited about the dinner I'd made and the first three comments were complaints. I went into a tizzy and left to do my barn chores. When I came home I had my dinner and too much of it.

And another terrible thing I did was succumb to potato chips earlier today. Someone kept insisting I take a bag. I know better because they are my weakness. But it said all kinds of healthy things on it, including an emphasis on "peanut" oil. I decided I would eat half the bag. And I really did. I ate half and threw the other half away. Does that count as a "good" today?:blushing:

Michele, I have a Fitbit. When I go to zumba it shows how many calories I burn each minute. Some more, some less. I would think it would do the same thing for walking and sprinting. I really like it.

Time for bed. Happy Wednesday tomorrow. Eileen