WOMEN AGES 50+ FOR DECEMBER 2012

Hello lovely MFP pals,
I couldn't find the December Part 2 thread this week, so now I'm waaaaay behind on reading everyone's news. Have been under the weather with a flu and then a cold, but most of it is past and the good news is that I didn't have much appetite so have lost a few more pounds without much effort. That's always nice.

Went to the gym today for the first time in more than 2 weeks and I was dreading it, but it felt great! I was perplexed. I should be thrilled by this turn of events, shouldn't I? This building of new habits is still taking some getting used to, but I will keep going. I am feeling proud of myself.

Finished the grocery shopping today, and now all I have to do is wrap gifts and write the Christmas cards. My inlaws decided to come for Christmas day after all, so I had to come up with a menu for the day. At least I'm doing the cooking so I have more control over all the options. I was trading recipes with my sister and for some reason I have a yen for crab cakes. I know it's not a traditional Christmas dinner (and I'm usually the one to stick with tradition), but my inlaws are not big on tradition so everyone will be happy except DH. I've only made crab cakes once before and they fell apart. But I think I have a good recipe this time, so I'll let you know how they turn out.

Wishing everyone a warm and peaceful Saturday night. Drink your waters. :drinker:

Polly

Good early evening beautiful ladies:flowerforyou:

LinC hope the little one is feeling better, and hope whatever was going around skipped over you!!

Kate what a nice compliment even if it should have been shortened!!! Glad you got the "piggy" stuff figured out!

Meg that is the sweetest story about the bear talking, I admit I shed a little tear reading about it . What a fantastic present!!!

Katla I, too enjoy shopping with friends, it's just so much better to have someone to laugh with!

Liz I like lists too, I wouldn't get half my stuff done without my list!

Gabuller welcome to the group! Come in often and just start chatting!

Rebel I only have 4 places where my hair turned pink, it's mostly on the top of my head, there is a stripe that looks like it was perfectly placed and dyed pink:huh: :laugh: . I did google it and didn't get very many results, on one site a woman said she used a " magic eraser" on her hair:huh: , I'm not sure about that, on another site it said Faith Hill had pink curls, she had her hair dyed platinum blonde and the curling iron reacted to it, but only on the ends. Who knows, I'll just live with it I guess until my hair appt. , it's coming up soon! It did seem to fade a bit after washing so I'm hoping it will continue to do that:ohwell: . Congrats on losing 7 lbs. so far this month, that is just fabulous!!!!

Teri love the money ball idea!!!

Bj people absolutely before presents, hope you had a nice visit!!!

Janie congrats on getting the okay to go back to work! Loved the songs, you're very talented, along with some of the other ladies!!!!

DebA I'm with you and Janie, gained 3 pounds in Nov. :sad: and according to the dreaded scale I've gained 1 pound this month, I weigh in at the end of the month, so I'm working on getting that pound off and hopefully another one with it!!!!! I'm going to have to rethink what MFP is giving me calorie wise, I've been sticking to my calories and it's not working:sad: :sad: :sad: !!!

Cheryl the post eating gremlins attacked...I know them well !!! Congrats on being down another .6!!!

Robin what a sweet hubby !!!! I don't blame you for wanting to wait and have extra money to spend on Olivia !!!

Jmccrary52463 welcome to the group! Come in often and just start chatting with us!!!

Polly glad you're feeling better! Congrats on getting rid of a few more pounds!!!!

Well, I went to the grocery store today and my friend couldn't go because he's sick, he told me he would still drive me and I refused, I do not want any sick germs around me!!!! I was lucky and got a place just as someone was pulling out, the parking lot at the Fresh Market is horrible during the holidays, more cars than parking places. I was more worried about getting hit in the parking lot today. Oh I'm so glad that's over with!!!!

Well it's time for me to get off this iPad and back to doing a bit of work. I've sat here so long the behind is going numb!

Have a wonderful night ladies!

Hugs,
DeeDee

Sending along warmest wishes (and I've finally STOPPED singing...........for now).






Lin

Welcome! This is a fabulous group. I'm thrilled that I found them and I think you will be, too.

:flowerforyou: Hi everyone, You really cheered me up - I was sat singing Jingle Bells Fitness Pals, losing all the way, when hubby walked in - he already thinks I'm a bit crazy!!

:flowerforyou: I've caught up with all the posts, and been singing along to the "songs" as I said, I really needed the laugh too because I've had a bad weekend. It started on Friday at the Secret Santa lunch, I tried to eat carefully, but didn't do too well,:embarassed: :embarassed: then on Friday night it was my Christmas Meal at a restaurant with family (five of us go out every year). On Saturday I nibbled rubbish all day. This morning when I got on the scales I had put weight on :frown: Can't believe I was so lacking in willpower. Well I can.

Anyway today is a new day! Logging my food and trying to be careful and make good choices, or at least stop when I get to my calorie limit. Get back to exercising, think I'll go back to level 1 of Jillian's 30 day shred and start over.

:flowerforyou: I love this time of year and although we have had non stop rain for about 5 days, the sun is shining today, and I am listening to Christmas Carols on the radio I have lots to be thankful for.

:drinker: Congrats to all who are losing, I WILL be joining you one day.!!

Best get a move on - I've been sat here for an hour - how time does fly when you are enjoying yourself.

Jingle Bells fitness pals, losing all the way.....................

Viv

Rebel – I eat egg whites and spinach most every morning. Today I’ve got beet greens instead as I roasted yellow beets to go with dinner last night.

DH and I went to pick up my glasses with new lenses yesterday and then went to the local whole foods place. We were hoping some of the produce prices would be a bit lower than the grocery, but not really, so I’ll take the convenience of the grocery.

They had folks handing out various samples – I had one of brie, so yummy and warm, and a tiny chunk of some cheese. As we toured and talked we commented that it wasn’t as much fun to go to when you are watching budget, sodium, calories, fat, etc. The bakery items were beautiful, delicious looking take-and-bake casserole items, etc. We did buy some frozen blueberries and edamame, plus the yellow beets.

After that I met DS#1 at Lowe’s and purchased the Christmas gift for DS#1 and DS#2 – they needed a washer and dryer. We’ll have a couple of other small things, but not much. They have everything they need otherwise, having combined their two apartments into one. Both are computer/electronic geeks and are quick to acquire the latest and greatest items, so gift giving at any time can be challenging. The W/D will get used and I’d rather give a practical, useful thing anyway, but it is dull….

Afterwards we went to his favorite pizza place and I thoroughly enjoyed a calzone. Haven’t had one of those in several years!

We are going to their apartment for Christmas dinner – a first! We’re taking most of the food, since it was already purchased, but DS#2 is making an oreo pie for dessert. Never had one, but it sound yummy and I will enjoy one piece guilt-free.

My next challenge will be DH’s birthday, which comes up very soon in January. He is another tough one to buy for! He’s a foodie though, so I will have to think of something related to that – maybe find a different restaurant he might like to try.

Found out at work this past week that our intern has the same birthday as DH. (It is odd, because my boss and his wife have the same anniversary date as DH and I.)

I got to the gym Monday and Tuesday this past week and that was it. I have been doing 15-25 push ups using the rails in the ladies room each time / each day, though, so that is something at least!

Today’s scheduled is church this morning, the gym in the afternoon and trying to finish up a scarf for a gift. I thought my BF told me she was going to her brother’s yesterday, but it is Thursday and she wants to get together tomorrow so I will be knitting like a madwoman into the evening.

Have a wonderful day!

Morning to all my virtual friends!

I won't try to catch up on posts as I have been AWOL for more than a few days...

I had a rough couple of days eating with no structured exercise but got back on track yesterday. I am happy it was only two days although the days ahead will still be a challenge. I hope to balance it with the exercise.

DD# 2 came home for the weekend and it was a wonderful surprise! Spent the day making cookies for her work friends(I packed them away with only eating the smallest one) and a holiday craft project. So nice to make new memories!! DD# 1 will be home for about a week on Christmas. Hopefully we won't butt heads too much. LOL

DH is picking up our living Christmas tree today and we will decorate it on Christmas day and he will plant it out back in another week. DK's (aka dear crazy kitties) have had a field day climbing and playing with the ornaments on the artificial tree. I don't remember it ever being such a problem before.

I found a Yoga and Wellness center about 20 miles away and they offer the first class free. I will probably check it out next week to see how it will fit into my schedule. It would be fabulous if I could get a couple of classes a week if I like it.

Wishing everyone a peaceful and healthy holiday!

Carolyn

barbie - you are truly a great inspiration

Did an hour of the new pilates DVD that I got. Time went so fast that I didn't even realize that an hour was up. I'm PLANNING to do some yoga tomorrow and then ASAP DVD (weights). But a lot of this depends on how much time I have. We have an appointment with the vet at 9 so I need to have my workout completed by at least 8 so that I can have something to eat (I'll probably have an apple or something before working out) Tuesday I'll do a Leslie Sansone walking DVD. The PLAN is to do the stairmaster Wednesday (the pool is closed for maintenance)

The next few days will be totally crazy, I doubt that I'll log. Today I made the catfish so that just has to be baked tomorrow, made the stuffing for Christmas day dinner, boiled the lobster tails and got them ready to broil tomorrow, peeled and cut up the potatoes and have them in water in the refrigerator and baked some sweet potatoes for me. I'm going to try to be mindful of what it is that I'm eating, but I know that I'll go over. It's interesting how now that I've been eating semi-healthily for a while now, I'm not so tempted by the not-so-good for you foods. Oh, that's not to say that I'm still not tempted, just not as often. A friend sent us some smoked salmon, I figure I'll have that for breakfast the next two days. I'm the only one who'll eat it

DeeDee - in a sense, it's too bad the curling iron didn't turn your hair red....lol I'm trying to make enough for Christmas Eve dinner so we'll have leftovers when we have Christmas with Jessica. I made her some shortbread cookies with chocolate drops, so whichever cookie gets finished, I'll use those and give her the rest!

Gail - for your sons, have you ever gone to thinkgeek.com? They have some really interesting items and decent prices.

Carolyn - our first Christmas tree in our second house was a live tree, ball and all. Have you already dug the hole for the tree? As I recall when we planted the tree, we had to line the hole with leaves (I think it was)

Cheryl (or even DeeDee or really anyone else who has a fitbit) - I have a question about the fitbit. Many times I do some sort of HIIT. Now I know I'm buring more calories when I'm sprinting than when I'm in recovery. Does the fitbit take into account your activity level at the moment? Every one of the machines at the gym will give you a calories burned total, but it's based on steady state all the time. I'm really wondering if the fitbit does the same thing.

We're supposed to pick Denise up at the airport tonight.

Going to post this as I don't know if I'll be back on tonight or not.

Hope everyone has a wonderful evening.

Michele

Hello Lovely Ladies--

Sorry I've been out of touch for a few weeks. I haven't been logging the last couple of weeks.

I'm waiting for the rest of my family to get here. My baby sister, Jill, from Ohio got here on Thursday and we have been baking up a storm. Son, DIL and grandsons that live in Missouri will be here in a couple of hours. My other sister, Jackie and all of her family (husband, son, son's wife and 2 kids) from Ohio are about 2 hrs away. All told there will be 15 family members here for Christmas. I literally can't wait. Some have never been here and it will be a special family time celebrating the birth of our Saviour.

I had a few minutes and wanted to wish all my MFP friends a very Blessed Christmas.

I will be back and get back on track after the holidays.

Micki

I am back after about a year or more of giving up. Good news is that I weigh the same. No gain but no loss. want to lose 10 pounds by Jan 31 for son's wedding. owing to start tracking and exercising again

Smwert

Already started our Christmas celebration with lovely church service this morning.
Michele - you win the prize for doing the most to get ready for the holidays. Your seafood
sounds so good. Are you near the coast?
Enjoy your daughter's visit.
Cheryl. I am so proud of you. The .6 is significant. 155 here you come.
As I'm posting on my iPhone, it's difficult to keep up with everyone. Just had tea party with Dgd So the fun continues.
Tomorrow DH & DS go do their traditional shopping trip. I've already got all the gifts
Bought so he's just going to keep our son company.
My Christmas wish is that ea b of you enjoy every precious moment
of making memories.
Sue

Yahoo:smooched: ds is here! And dd comes tomorrow AND it is her birthday! I have a few.more days of misbehaving and then back to program :laugh:

I have to admit that the cookies don't taste worth the calories cost this year....big step for me because I love to bake and do not possess barbie's commitment to giving the tools away! The breads however are a different story...those will have to be sent out of the house or at least to the downstairs freezers, plus ds is here...HE can eat this stuff...A - he is a 21 year old boy and it is well documented that they can eat anything and burn it off and B- he is a marine and is supposed to protect me from stuff that can hurt me....right??! Lol

Loved the MFP carols and had to sing them all! Thank you all and happy merry blessed Christmas to you all! Enjoy the love and blessings of family and friends! Hugs, high fives and prayers!

jen

Sue - how I wish we were near the coast! Seafood from there is so much better. But we're inland in NC, at the foothills of the mountains. The unfortunate part is that most of the seafood has to be trucked in. But that's better than nothing at all. I do like to go to FL where we're on the coast.

So much for my getting ready for the holidays. We got home with dd#3, I took a shower and as I was drying my hair Vince says to me "you gotta come out in the kitchen, it's pretty important". dd#1 surprised me by coming down. My first words? "I hope I have enough food". You should have seen me, hurrying to get more lobster tails out of the freezer, more crab legs, more of the pierogi, more salmon cakes, looking up if you can even cook a frozen lobster tail and crab leg and how long does it need to cook. Thank goodness I bought two chickens to roast for Christmas day. I needed to take more corn on the cob out of the freezer, hope it defrosts in time. Looks like tomorrow I'll have to do a shortened workout, I'll just do a 30 minute express Tony Little DVD. Have to wake dd#3 up by 7:15 so we can leave by 8:30 for the vet. I'll have an apple while I'm getting dressed before I exercise, I may not have time to eat until after we get back from the vet.

Yes, I did stress eat, getting the utensils ready, finding my other set of nut crackers, getting napkins ready. Now if only Bryan would surprise me! I think I would probably fall over on the floor if he did. Was planning that dd#3 would use the upstairs bedroom, but dd#1 uses those bedrooms and bathroom for her cats (they don't get along with any other cat), so I had to clean out the downstairs bedroom for dd#3. Had all of Bryan's gifts all over the bed, had their stocking stuffer stuff in plastic bags, had to take that out of the bedroom. Let's see, tomorrow we'll have to peel more potatoes and put more carrots in. I have them in smaller pots, looks like I'll need larger ones.

Jen - have a great time with your children.

katla - I try to keep some things that I can give as a gift in an emergency. Right now I have a box of perfume, a serving dish, a box of steak knives, and two figurines. I can just throw them into a gift bag if needed.

Better run. Hope everyone has a great day tomorrow.

So THAT'S why dd#3's phone kept signaling that she got a message! dd#1 was texting her, and neither Vince nor I knew it!

I'm one happy gal right now.

Michele