50+ WOMEN FOR THE MONTH OF MAY

:flowerforyou: Hello Everyone,

I don't have the focus to reply to individuals right now, but thank you :flowerforyou::flowerforyou: for all the words of sympathy and encouragement expressed for the loss of my former MIL. Thanks to good friends, I have been kept busy enough that I am getting through the weekend better than I thought I would.

The weather here has been EXCELLENT,--sunny, a little breeze and 88 degrees on Friday, and Saturday and about the same within a degree or two today. Friday afternoon, after bringing my closest friend up to date on what had happened, she said, she had a lousy week herself and it was time to go out and forget our troubles.

We went to a brewpub that is located on the Columbia River and because of the Rose Festival taking place in Portland, to our surprise, there in the parking lot were the Budweiser Clydesdales, complete with their big red wagon. There were lots of people taking pictures, and lots of city kids with their mouths open, marvelling at the size of the horses.

We ate on the patio and watched the parade of boats. I had a wilted spinach salad and 1 pint of beer, as well as some hummus and veggies from the appetizer tray, and a slice of pita bread too, I confess.:laugh: Good food and good friends can help any emotional shock feel a little less overwhelming. Beer does not hurt the process, either.

Earlier this week, one of my neighbors invited me to be her guest on Saturday night for dinner at yet ANOTHER riverside venue. This is on the Oregon side of the Columbia, right next to a walking/biking trail and the boat launch ramp. We would have walked on the trail, but my companion has epic allergies and there is loads of plantife in the vicinity that will adversely affect her, so that is something for another day.

Their halibut fish and chips are second to none, but they also do grilled halibut, so I had that with a salad and veggies. My friend had the batter fried fish and couldn't finish one piece, so she gave me 1/2 of that fillet as well. With that and 1/2 of my 6 oz halibut steak, I had eaten plenty, so I brought home enough halibut and 1/2 my potato for another meal. We shared a pitcher of beer:drinker: , but I had no way to bring any of THAT home. Guess what's for dinner tonight .

Despite all this eating out, AND Memorial Day weekend excesses, I am still down 1.5 lbs from where I was a week ago, and not feeling deprived.

This morning, I had an unusual breakfast. We had a celebration of Pentecost at my church, and after Mass, they had the usual coffee and pastry, but also deviled eggs, cheese, grapes, crackers, and spring rolls--a menu of culinary diversity you might say. There were also brownies, cookies AND a raffle for a free cake. I didn't take a cake raffle ticket and ignore the cookies and brownies. Well, "resisted" might be a better word. I swore I could hear them calling my name, along with a chorus of maple bars in the background!!:laugh:

When I got home and tallied everything up,--even with the two strudel bites(justifed them by telling myself they contained FRUIT:laugh: )-- it wasn't any worse than a typical Sunday breakfast out, which I often do.

My intention is to start my walking again in earnest today. Saturday evening was about 40 minutes with the doggies, but they are "sniff walkers":laugh: and speed is not their forte'--though I have noticed if we walk before their dinner time, their speed increases noticeably if we are pointed toward home and I remind them that dinner awaits them.:laugh:

As far as walking today, my outside thermometer says 84 degrees, so I am waiting 'til later in the day. I have been siting here, watch the NASCAR race, and ripping music from CDs to my laptop so that I can transfer the songs to my new MP3 player. I thought it would be nice to have some music while I walk, so when I happened upon an MP3 player on a Memorial Day sale online for less than $20, I ordered it. I have resisted getting an IPOD because of the cost, but this has an FM radio receiver in it, and 2 GB of storage, so it should suit my purposes.

Funny as it sounds, as much of a computer geek as I am, I have NEVER copied a CD or transferred music on a pc, so I was very pleased to figure it out on the first try and my new MP3 play now has about 7 CDs worth of music on it. I am planning to look at audio books next.

Hope everyone is keeping their motivation up. I still don't feel quite like myself, but one thing I am relieved about is that I didn't respond to the stress by eating everything that wasn't nailed down.:drinker:


Barb

:flowerforyou: Barb, that is great that you are still losing. If I have one beer I know that I would bloat right up.

I always drink at least 2 pints of water for every pint of beer consumed. Maybe that is why I don't get bloated from beer. :drinker:

Life has been so hectic these past few weeks I have had a very hard time making time to do my exercise DVD or go walking. You'd think mowing the yard or gardening would do just as much good, but apparently not, because neither my scale nor tape measure have budged this past week. Somehow I have GOT to make time to exercise every day regardless! And DRINK WATER! :drinker: I seem to have such a problem with getting all my water in each day.

My overall progress for May is nothing: I lost 3 pounds then put it back on. And my target areas measure the same as they did 30 days ago.

School is out for the summer and I have no excuse for not going to the gym every day. Our cruise is 6 weeks away and my goal is 200 lbs. I met my last goal (prom dress) so I'm sure I can do this. My son was so proud of how I looked in the smallest of the 3 dresses that he decided not to hold me to the massage competition. Now it's up to me to meet my personal goal. If I hit the 200 mark, my husband still says I deserve the massage.

Goals:
1 hour min of exercise 6 days per week
Lose 5 pounds this week
Record everything every day (I got lazy on this one and it shows).:sad:


Created by MyFitnessPal.com - Online Calorie Counter

Srarting over, I have got to walk more than I do, may be the reason that I am so stiff, wish me luck on my journey, and good luckto all here.

Sage--You are welcome to join this group, BUT somehow you posted in the MAY thread--not just MAY, but MAY 2009--not even sure how that came up for you.

The link to the JUNE 2010 is below. Come and post so it willl appear in your "my topics":

http://www.myfitnesspal.com/topics/show/99344-women-ages-50-for-june?page=4#posts-1380029