40+ Club: Hop Into Spring With A Fit Bod

Good Morning Duffyz and all!

All I can say is the weekend went really quickly. Friday night when I was working out, I just had to stop I couldn't move anymore. I think it was a little post TOM lack of iron or something. I haven't had a day like that in a few months so it was a surprise. So, Saturday I took a break, and was fine and did my full 20,000 steps on Sunday. Have even gotten my husband working out about three times a week which is a huge deal for him. I hate that he can really just decide to cut back on his eating and he easily loses weight, however, adding the walking will increase his health and it has definitely improved his mood.

String... Welcome Back!!! You were missed! I'm glad you had a great time on ur vacation. Did you stay on just one island? We did the cruise that took u all over. Yes we are planning more hikes, I dont know if Yosemite will be one of them because my husbands work is planning out hiking trips for fellow co workers that we have never been on so we've been checking out new territory in our own back yard. As soon as I find my disk for my blackberry I will post some pic's of our hikes. We are going back to Zion National Park again in June and my husband wants to hike Angels Landing. I really dont want to do it because it looks kinda scary. We will see though.

Sing... Have you tried going to a Chiropractor? My mother in law lost kidney function and couldn't figure out why, they were talking transplant and everything. She went to a chiropractor and had instant improvement. Never regained 100 % due to the length of time it was being pinched off but at least her kidneys are functioning again. Also I lost all hearing in my right ear and could barely hear with my left... Same thing, they couldn't figure it out so I went to the Chiropractor and also worked with the specialist and got my hearing back. I just have a sensitivity problem. They dont "hurt" but bother me sometimes especially when I use the phone.

Duffy... I hear ya, I need sleep too. My husband thinks everyone is like him and can survive on only 4 or 5 hrs of sleep... Not the case for me.

Today I have to get more laundry done and hang it outside. Then were are going hunting for a hand held GPS. They are so darn expensive...

singfree, thanks for the update. You are definitely in my thoughts and prayers. I hope they can diagnose the situation soon and provide you some relief. I've known a few people who have suffered from bouts of vertigo, and I know enough to know it isn't any fun. Please take care and continue to keep us posted as you can. :flowerforyou:

duffy, I'm with you on the 8 hours of sleep thing. I can go for a few days on less sleep, but it always catches up to me (and not in a good way). And thanks for confirming what I thought about the Spark book. I'm glad to hear your runs continue to go well. Like you, I find I'm needed to stretch more and more as I get older, and I lose my flexibility much faster. I try to stretch about 15 minutes a day. While we were gone the past two weeks, I didn't get those stretches in (I was just doing the stretching I do with my workouts) and, boy, am I tight. I haven't been doing as much yoga over the past few months as I was last year, and I think I'm going to add that back into my schedule now.

zebras, good thing you listened to your body when it said 'stop'. I have days like that too, and they always surprise me as well. But when I think back after, I can always figure out why I might have hit a wall, and that helps me prevent it happening too often. Chances are the stress of your week (with your car and such) combined with TOM just made your body want to sit still. Glad to hear you are feeling better now.

TxMs, thanks for the info on potassium and kidney function. That's really interesting to know. I hope you have a great trip.

tron, the hiking sounds great!! I think it would be fun to be able to find good hiking places where you are living since the drive up to Yosemite can't always be fun. I'll have to look up Angel's Landing and see what that is all about. I love Zion and would love to go back there some day to do some hiking. But I don't like scary hikes either.

I didn't get a great night sleep last night with my husband calling in the middle of the night (he's in Alabama) and jet lag and such. But I feel really good today, so I got in a good cardio AND a good leg workout. My eating isn't back on track yet, but I'm not worried about that. As I get back into my normal routine, I'm sure my diet will fall into line.

Hope everybody has a great Tuesday!

Good morning everyone!!!

I am very happy to report that my husband got into Dulles airport late Friday afternoon! :bigsmile: :bigsmile: :bigsmile: Too late to outprocess at the Corps of Engineers facility in Winchester, VA (about 70 miles northwest), so was going to stay there until Tuesday because the facility doesn't outprocess returning personnel on Mondays (go figure:huh: ). So...................... after he called me at midnight Friday morning from Amsterdam to tell me what time his flight would be arriving at Dulles, I got on the internet and booked a flight for myself to Dulles so I could spend the long weekend with him. Arrived safely in Dulles, took the train to the baggage claim area and found a VERY SHAGGY looking guy there.........he hadn't shaved OR gotten a haircut for the whole 6 months he'd been deployed!!!!!!!:noway: He's out processing right now and we have a 3:45 flight back to Kansas City. Youngest daughter is picking us up..........she doesn't want to wait one minute more than she has to to see her dad!!! Oldest will meet us at a restaurant in KC for dinner before we drive the 2 hours home. Life is good :happy: :happy: :happy:

Didn't do much of anything on Saturday; jet lag caught up with him; the poor guy nearly fell asleep leaning against the wall in the hotel lobby waiting for the elevator at 6:00pm!:laugh: :laugh: Sunday we drove to Union Station in Washington DC and took one of the double decker bus tours of the monuments, etc. Great way to see the famous sights of the city without fighting the traffic! I highly recommend it - $30 for a one-day pass; you could get off at any of the monument stops, wander around as long as you wanted and get back on another bus at a another location. Walked the Mall from Lincoln Memorial to the World War II Memorial by the Washington Monument so we could see the Vietnam Wall, the 3 Soldiers statue and the Women Soldiers statue also. Very moving.........

Monday we had nothing to do, and I'd never been to West VIriginia, so we looked up Harley dealerships; found one near Cumberland, MD and programmed the GPS........... BEAUTIFUL drive thru the mountains of extreme northwestern Virginia, West Virginia and Maryland. No cell reception, no radio reception...........it was like stepping back in time 200 years! I learned a lot this weekend about VA history; I never knew that Winchester was George Washington's first military headquarters or that this regions was so critical during the Civil War!!

Well, gotta finish packing............
Hope all is well with everyone!

mk, I am so happy to hear you are back together with your husband!! It sounds like you enjoyed a nice vacation, and I bet it will be wonderful to be back in your home all together again. :flowerforyou:

alf, welcome back! :drinker: I'm glad you had a good trip, but I'm sorry to hear you got sick. I know that by the time you read this, your Zumba class will be long over, but I just wanted to say that if you did do your Zumba class, I think it was fine to do if you cold is isolated above your neck. The rule I've heard is if you are sick above your neck (like with a head cold), it is okay to attempt some moderate (but not intense) exercise. If you are sick below your neck, then it is best to get better before attempting any exercise. I hope you start feeling better soon. I hate taking medication, so I usually suffer through colds until they are done with me.

singfree, thanks for the update. I hope you get some answers soon. I can't imagine how frustrating and scary this must be for you. Please know I am thinking about you. :flowerforyou:

I didn't get any sleep last night so have been feeling a tad lethargic today. There is a military exercise on the base where I live this week, so the sirens and alarms have been going off all night long. Last night, they were even flying all night. Our temperatures were in the mid-80s yesterday, so I had all my windows open....and, thus, no sleep. :ohwell: I did manage to get in a good kickboxing workout this morning and a tough upper body workout, but I haven't done much else the rest of the day. I'm hoping this exercise is over soon because I haven't had a full night sleep since getting back from Hawaii. And as I said the other day, I can do little sleep for a few days but after that........I'm no good. :frown:

Hope you all have a great Wednesday!

Good morning my friends!!! Well, I did not teach last night after all. I was not feeling good and was afraid I would get worse if I taught so I called the instructor that subs for me and she agreed to teach for me. I am feeling a tad better this morning and will attempt to teach tonight and hopefully tomorrow night. I really hope I get much better by Saturday. We are having our first Zumbathon on base and I want to have my energy back by then. I am not doing any other form of exercise this week except for teaching Zumba.

Sing, I feel for you. I am sure this is very stressful for you. But hang in there, I pray that everything will turn out ok. I am positive you will be able to go on vacation in 3 wks!! Did you have your ENT appt? Are you taking any meds for your dizziness?

Stiring, thank you for the suggestion. I too have heard about exercising with a head cold but not a chest cold. That is the reason I was going to teach last night but I was way too congested. I have a little cough but it is mostly from an itchy throat and not that my lungs are congested. I am going to tell my students tonight that I have a cold and that I will be taking it easy. That will be hard because I get carried away but I have to think about the big event this Saturday. I hope you get some rest soon. Oh, and I love your new picture. You hair has gotten long. Did you get the bikini in Hawaii?

Have a fantastic day!!!! :flowerforyou:

Just a quick hello - I wanted to to just check in with you all.

Marla: So happy for you!

Sing: I'll be waiting for an update after your stress test. My fingers crossed that there is a simple solution.

ALF: Hope your head cold passes quickly! and Stiring: Hope you get a good nights rest.

Feliz Cinco De Mayo! 10 days till Mexico for me:drinker:

Hi everybody!

I got a full NINE hours of sleep last night, so I feel much better today. It is amazing what some sleep can do for a person. I was able to do a good 90 minute cardio/leg workout this morning and hope to go for a long walk this afternoon.

singfree, I hope you are on your road to recovery. Please continue to keep us posted. I have all my fingers and toes crossed for you to be able to go to Germany in a few weeks. Regarding my diet, no I'm not doing low carbs right now. I decided after finishing my last STS rotation to give my body a break from the more restricted diet. I really felt like I needed to re-set my metabolism a bit after the yo-yo stuff I've been doing this winter. I'm in my third week of that and, to be honest, it seems to be working. I gained weight immediately, but since then, it has tapered off, and I feel like I have more energy and am metabolizing my food more appropriately now. I've taken the time to develop a maintenance diet for myself, which I plan on implementing when I start back up with STS again this coming Sunday. I've really thought long and hard about what I think I can live with long term and such, and my goal is to spend the next seven months (that is how long this rotation is going to last) really working on my fitness, eating well BUT making sure I can live with both my fitness AND nutrition plans for the long term. I'm definitely going to monitor the bad carbs more than I have been doing the past few months, but, at the same time, I'm going to reintroduce some other foods (like more fruit) that seem to help me in fighting the carb/sweet cravings. We'll see how it goes.

alf, I hope you get to feeling better before the weekend. Thanks for the compliment on my photo. No, I didn't get a bikini in Hawaii. I had one that I bought ten years ago, and my husband convinced me to wear that one. Only when I got on the beach in Hawaii did I realize how truly dated that swimsuit is. :noway: I looked like I had crawled right out of the 1950s or something. :laugh: So no photos of me in my swimsuit will be posted on the internet this time! And that will teach me to not take fashion tips from my husband again. :ohwell:

tron, my husband has a Garmin, though I'm not sure of the model he has. But he loves the way it works. Hopefully you'll enjoy yours as well. Our military exercise is over, which is good. But they do them once every three/four months. :grumble: I shouldn't complain because we do have a very real enemy less than 100 miles away, but I must admit.....as much as I like to think of the bigger picture at times, one of those times isn't when I'm trying to sleep. :laugh: Oh, well.

I hope everybody has a great day!

Stiring: You probably looked like a pin-up girl in your old school bikini, you shouldn't be embarrassed! But yes, most husbands don't really have a good fashion sense. I haven't worn a bikini since I was 12. Its not even a goal to ever get back in one.

Sing; I hope you are doing OK today.

:drinker: :drinker: :drinker: :drinker: :drinker: WOO HOO !!!!!!:drinker: :drinker: :drinker: :drinker:
Sing: so glad to hear the good news.

Hi all. :flowerforyou:

Time for Friday check-in.....I'm not weighing or measuring myself, so nothing really to report on that end. I feel good, and I've had a good week of exercise. I'm starting a new STS rotation on Sunday, and I'm looking forward to that. I'm also going on my 'maintenance diet' on Sunday as well. My goal is to get as fit as possible AND find a healthy eating plan I can live with for the long term. This rotation will last for seven months, so I think that gives me ample time to do both. At least I hope!

I was happy today, though, because I went shopping at Whole Foods while we were in Hawaii...and my stuff arrived home today. :drinker: Now I have some agave nectar AND almond butter to put into my oatmeal in the morning. I can't wait! Who knew that I'd miss Whole Foods so much.

singfree, good news from the doctor! It is sounding more and more like you do have an inner ear infection. I hope they can fix it soon so you are ready to get on the airplane in a couple of weeks!

duffy, I so wish I had the confidence in myself at 20 that I have at [nearly] 45. I would like to knock some sense into that younger me. I totally agree with both you and mk....be proud of those stretch marks!

I hope everybody has a great Friday and a wonderful weekend! For the mothers on the board, Happy Mother's Day!! :flowerforyou:

OOHHH! Missing posts huh? Let's see how my Friday update goes.

I'm trying to only weigh myself weekly. Down just about a 1.5 lbs this week. I've had another great food and exercise week and I even incorporated 2 Coronas for my Cinco de Mayo dinner. (Well Corona Lights but still). Made soft tacos with 99% fat free ground turkey and corn tortillas and a really healthy brown rice/black bean side. This week I'm most proud of my fruit/veggie consumption. My goal is to have at least 1 fruit or veggie with each meal/snack. So far so good. I'm getting at least 3 servings of fruit and 3-4 veggie servings each day. I still want to work at getting 1 serving of nuts and 1 serving of beans each day but since I'm keeping my calorie count lower 1400 or so - I'm only able to work in .5 serving of nuts right now.

My foot is doing really well and this weekend I'm going to attempt a 5 mile long run. Somewhere between 4.5 and 5 is where I was having problems before so this will be my first run over that and I thought my walk/run of a long run would be the best one to get it a try.

My mother is visiting for the holiday and I've been very good as far as not emotionally eating or drinking. Big accomplishment for me as she really knows how to push all my body image buttons.

Have a great weekend and Happy Mother's Day to all the mother's and those who take on the mother role for others in their lives.

Hi all. :flowerforyou:

duffy, I so wish I had the confidence in myself at 20 that I have at [nearly] 45. I would like to knock some sense into that younger me. I totally agree with both you and mk....be proud of those stretch marks!
:flowerforyou:

I saw a comic strip once that read " I wish I was as skinny as I was when I *thought* I was fat"...Isn't that the truth!

Julia