WOMEN AGES 50+ FOR JANUARY 2013

All the stories about parents, dad and mom, and the appreciation I sense from others my age, finally made me post this. Today would have been my dad's 91st birthday. So...yes, it always is - and will remain - a significant day. After all...I had the absolute kindest father in the whole wide world!

I called my mom today - as I often do of course. She is soooo many miles away across the ocean, turning 90 next month...spunky lil old lady that she is! My sisters (and sometimes my bro) are taking good care of her (in addition to the care home). Anyway, she decided that yes, she does want to celebrate her 90th after all. (sigh) okay then...my sisters and I (can't count on bro) are renting a little hall and will have a party organized. Now what...I was just there, because this old lady did NOT want to celebrate her 90th. Have to decide I can't attend, which will be just fine because she will barely remember :bigsmile: :bigsmile: any of it...anyway. Oh my, the joys of aging.

Just thought I would share me and my heart. I just love my parents so much. While you have them, enjoy them time is short

Renny

Well..just wrote longest post I have in a while and I did something to make it evaporate:grumble: :grumble: :grumble: Rats!

Well...hope you all had a good weekend. I guess I should give up & go to bed. But did want to say,

Lucy, I am so sorry about your FIL and I hope you can reschedule your trip!

Ronny- where is your Mom? Know you miss your Dad.

Jb- you look great...love your Glam shot!

Have a great week, all Kackie

jb_2011 - when you say " I've read hundreds of posts from MFP members who have lost a considerable amount of weight by eating back SOME but not all of their calories" do you know how much is SOME? Do they eat half? Just a few? I HAVE to win this bet with my some so if eating more calories will do it, than I'll do it. It just seems kind of insane to me to eat more to lose more. I am almost always right at 1200 on the nose.

SundanceB - Great job!! Norway can be cold during the winter but the good thing is it doesn't get hot during the summer (at least I think that is good!) .... we average in the high 60's low 70's during the summer.

megblair1 - Thanks! That is the recipe I wanted. Sounds easy and yummy, I'll have to give it a try if I can find navy beans.

LinCharpentie - yep you got me beat and that's ok. I don't think I ever want to break it.

Sasha4427 - what is "Renny's F&V challenge"? I'm guessing it is a fruits and vegetables challenge? If I have time I will try to read back through all the pages to find it, but usually I try not to back read threads once I join because I get sucked up into them and before you know it, I haven't moved from the computer all day. I WILL though keep up with a thread once I've joined it

RebelRenny - thank you for the welcome!

glendalight - my hubby is actually on a diet with me (he doesn't really have a choice as I cook all his meals and pack his lunch! :devil: ) He's lost 6 lbs and I've lost 8 so I'm actually quite happy about it. Of course, I'm exercising and he's not but I think I can maybe gauge my son's weight loss by my hubby's.

PositivePower - good luck with the job! I hope you get it.

linder4866 - Thank you for posting the info about the walking. I'm going to look into it today!

lizmil79 - I LOVE using the slowcooker for dinner. I end up eating healthier because I throw it in in the morning when I have lots of energy and then by nighttime when I have none, my dinner is already done. I currently have a pork and apple stew in the crockpot and am going to serve it with mashed swede. :bigsmile:

LucyT4dieting - I'm sorry for your loss. Both DH and I have lost our fathers in the last few years after illnesses so I know your pain. Big hugs. :brokenheart:

suebw - My husband retired after 23 years. Now he works for NATO.

gardengail - HOORAY!!!!! I reading that! :bigsmile: :bigsmile: :bigsmile: :bigsmile:

barbiecat - yeah, winters suck but the summers are AMAZING! Just love all the sunshine then! We do quite a bit of traveling during the winter (leaving for 2 weeks in Rome - hubby is attending a school) so I can get my sunshine fix then.

Happy Monday (day off for many of us I suppose)....

Did 15 mins on the treadmill and a bunch of exercises yesterday...sore, but good!

Julie

Good morning, all! One more day off for me thanks to MLK day. I've done all my running around for the weekend but have a long list of things I'd like to get done here at the house. Good news is that means I won't be sitting around thinking about food!

Lucy - so sorry to hear about your FIL. We lost my husband's dad 10 years ago in a pretty similar way and I know it's hard, even if everyone felt they were prepared. You just never are. My prayers are with you and your husband's family.

Lin - I signed up for the walk across America and logged a couple of miles last night on the treadmill (who is it here that calls it the "dreadmill:"? So funny). Anyway, thanks for the info on the site. Not sure how the "partner' part of this works quite yet but my email inbox is full of messages telling me that people have added me.

Renny - thanks for sharing what was in your heart yesterday. I'm lucky to still have both of my parents but they are 1,000 miles away so I appreciate the time that I do get to spend with them.

Michele - here's the link to the spinach and kale turnovers. They were really pretty good but a little more labor-intensive than I like my dishes to be. That's one of the things I am working on, though. Now that both of my very active girls are off to college, I'm trying to push myself in different ways, including trying new things and making dishes more from scratch and less from a box. For many years, we have been just go,go,go and had become kind of a Hamburger Helper family but those days are hopefully gone. In case the link doesn't work, the recipe is on the Cooking Light website.
http://www.myrecipes.com/recipe/spinach-kale-turnovers-10000001571423/

I'm off to flip mattresses and scrub shower stalls. Have a wonderful day!
Sandy in OH, where it's snowing again

Good morning all!

I have an extra day to prepare for my week due to MLK day. I have a lot to do and am thankful for the extra time.

Lucy- So sorry to hear about your FIL. I still miss my FIL. He passes away aver 30 years ago, but was a special person.

Barbie- Your day does sound wonderful. I get a strong sense of peace and contentment coming from you every time I read one of your posts. I am so happy that you have achieved this. It is also my goal and I am definitely making progress in that direction. I am in the process of reading The Happiness Project. Great book!

Lin C- -39 is very cold!! I don't mind going out in the cold. In fact I love to walk in it, but I think I would have to stay inside at -39!

Have a great day all!

Deb A in CNY

Good morning, ladies,

Thank you everyone for your condolences and prayers. Besides the stroke, my poor FIL also had altzheimer's, so he didn't even know what was happening. It must have been so scary for him! I'm sure he is now at peace.

:grumble: I am bummed to be back at work on what they are predicting to be the coldest week we've had this year. I was SO ready to be on a beach! But of course, family comes first.:brokenheart: Oh well, there's always next year!:ohwell:

Linda - You are so right! It could have been worse. We still will be able to use our tickets as long as we book before October of 2013. Of course, we are going to be charged an outrageous exchange fee ($150 each ticket!), but they said if we give them a death certificate, they MIGHT wave the fee.:huh:

I was ready to pig out on vacation, but I am back on track today with MFP, although we ate out all weekend (we already had gotten rid of all perishable food). Guess we'll have to go shopping and get some healthy stuff in.:embarassed:

Hugs,
Lucy from Delaware

Good morning, everyone – cold day for an inauguration but yesterday was pretty glorious here. DH and I got out for a walk in the morning and then spent the rest of the day prepping for pizza and football. I found a lite recipe for the German chocolate cake that I tried out – it came out pretty good. The cake wasn’t as tender as it might have been – a little too much flour I think – but the frosting was phenomenal. The best part: instead of eight egg yolks it had three eggs, and instead of three and a half sticks of butter it had six tablespoons total. I’ll probably tinker with it a little and keep it for when I need a birthday cake :laugh:.

Tammytylerjon, I love Charlottesville. DH’s bff lives there, and they all went to school there. It’s a fabulous city with great wineries in the area. One of the wineries is on a large estate and is used for weddings a lot (although I think it’s been bought by the Donald). You have a really good attitude about the whole weight loss/health journey. You’re right, keep doing what’s healthy for your body and it will respond. Sometimes it just takes a little longer. So long as you’re exercising enough and eating right you’ll see changes. Have you been taking measurements? Sometimes the changes come in inches first.

Barbie, you’re right, life is pretty sweet . I also agree that walking is so relaxing and meditative – and something I love too.

Sandy, good for you for logging more miles. I’m going to sign up today and log the 4 miles I got in yesterday. I’m not sure when I’ll get out again – it’s going down to below freezing here as the hard frost hits us – at least no snow or rain. Ooh, cleaning – I got some in yesterday, so I’m hoping today I can just relax and watch movies.

LindaC, we have some little people in the house who are allergic to cats and do the same thing – keep them out of the bedrooms. DSD is the same way in that she’ll insist on holding the cat, then she’s all puffy-faced and teary-eyed with allergies. She’ll figure it out. And you’re right – today’s a new day.

Julie, good for getting that exercise in – keep it coming!

DeeDee, I’m sorry about the temper tantrum. It’s why I almost never type a long post in the reply box but in a separate doc instead.

Sunshine, depending on your size and age, you probably want to eat somewhere in the 1200 – 1500 range. If you have more to lose you may need to eat more calories, but you don’t look like you do. It may seem insane but as millions of people will attest, you do need to eat enough to fuel your body, and that’s at a minimum of 1200, not a maximum. Otherwise your body thinks it’s starving and hoards its calories, stops working properly and stalls any weight loss. It might take a little time for it to adjust to the new normal of enough calories, but it will, I promise. (hopefully I’m not repeating what JB told you .)

Gail, that is terrific news about your son. You are blessed indeed. LOL at the wanton woman for the weekend :laugh:.

Michele, I’ve found that a lot of recipes for desserts will be touted as healthy, and they probably are, but they are still high in calories. If I’m going to indulge I just am sure to include that as a snack and try to keep it within my snack allotment. How can you make a ½ cup of popcorn? Isn’t that like 12 kernels or something ?

Renny, I’m glad you have such fond memories of your dad. I’m also glad your mom will get to celebrate her big birthday.

LizM, mom to the rescue! I would love to be close enough to do that for DD. I hope your DH feels better soon – and hope the game turned out the way he wanted it.

Lynn, good luck with the scales.

SueBDew, doesn’t the “fall” season seem to go on and on? :laugh: One thing about the exercise calories – unless you’re wearing a HRM or something that is measuring how much energy your body is actually expending and not just estimating I wouldn’t give yourself more than three hundred extra calories/hour when you’re working at an aerobic pace (breathing heavily, sweating). I find the calorie estimates in MFP are quite a bit higher than what my heart rate monitor shows – I have a slow heartbeat and low aerobic rate, so I just don’t burn that many calories. MFP is an estimate but it’s not true for everyone. Having said that, I’m with Michele in that I tend to know what I’ve burned on exercise and eat back some of the calories but usually not all of them, especially if I’m working out a lot.

Lucy, I’m so very sorry to hear about your FIL. Peace and blessings to you and your family.

OK, I’m off to find something to do. I have the day off today and hope to spend it doing relaxing things. I did get in my workout this morning and enjoyed it so much. I hope everyone has a wonderful week.

Cheers,

M.

Sunshine, depending on your size and age, you probably want to eat somewhere in the 1200 – 1500 range. If you have more to lose you may need to eat more calories, but you don’t look like you do. It may seem insane but as millions of people will attest, you do need to eat enough to fuel your body, and that’s at a minimum of 1200, not a maximum. Otherwise your body thinks it’s starving and hoards its calories, stops working properly and stalls any weight loss. It might take a little time for it to adjust to the new normal of enough calories, but it will, I promise. (hopefully I’m not repeating what JB told you .)
Cheers,

M.

Thanks. I'm 5'6" and have quite a tummy roll .... in the picture the photographer had my put one on the grandkids on my lap so you can't see it. It's quite depressing. Oh well, working it off hopefully. And I have been making my "1200" a maximum, not a minimum so I will try to do better with that. The last thing I need is to get stalled right now. :grumble: I have a feeling though that since we are spending 2 weeks in Italy that it's going to be VERY difficult keeping it around 1200.