WOMEN AGES 50+ FOR JUNE

Good Morning!

I was very happy to see some fellow knitters here (tiarapants, Kathy, auntiebk and barbiecat , anyone else??) and if you’re looking for patterns try www.ravelry.com as they have the very best stash of patterns you will ever see. I love small, portable projects as I’m a fibre-aholic – I have even tried knitting while riding the stationary bike but you can tell that my priorities weren’t really on the bike! Ravelry also has a ‘group’ feature, so if you’re looking for a s&b**** group in your neighbourhood, you’d likely find it there. :flowerforyou:

Exercise is my downfall – I just don’t enjoy it .:ohwell: I don’t mind walking the dog but he is old, arthritic and only wants to pee on the bushes so I can’t get the heart rate up that way!! I also don’t mind walking with my iPod and I’ve download books on that, which helps as I get caught-up in the story, but I still don’t think I’m walking far or fast enough. Has anyone ever used one of those ‘walking programs’? I’m just wondering if it’s music or talking or what?

Mimi – You’re so right about wanting that first bite to be the best and only wanting to eat things you just know are going to taste good and be good for you! (I sound like a cereal commercial – but it’s true!) :laugh: :laugh:

Sadly, when I’m not being mindful I can eat anything and not even notice I’ve eaten it! :noway: Or worse, when I feel I must be polite and clear my plate – and believe me, I must be good at being polite as I have a gold star membership in the clean plate club!! Yesterday I ate two (2 !?!?) :noway: :noway: pastries from the Italian bakery. I was out to lunch (or out of my mind, not sure which!! :embarassed: ) with a friend and she wanted to ‘celebrate’ so she bought them for us. Could I have declined, absolutely, but the nice, polite, non-confrontational me just said ‘oh thank-you’ and dug in (or perhaps this is just my great fallback excuse?:grumble:). Sadly, that first bite wasn’t filled with sweet but rather sour.:huh: : Bleh! A sour pastry!! I guess it comes down to this, if I’m really seriously going to do this I better learn to stand my ground – so perhaps it was karma that the pastry was filled with mascarpone not butter cream – next time, I’ll say ‘thanks but not today’.

Oh and in case anyone’s wondering the second pastry had red food colouring in the centre which tasted like Popeye cigarettes, so neither of us finished it. Lesson learned. I shall be mindful, I shall be mindful, I shall be mindful, I shall be mindful…..

Barb (weaklink) :flowerforyou: Thanks for the techie tip! I've a HP laptop and it downloads all sorts of weird stuff without my even knowing what's going on - big brother truly lurks out there!!

ainslieglen :flowerforyou: don't be too down, we're behind you 100%

RJ :flowerforyou: I call getting my yearly pap test and boob-squish my Spring Tune-Up ~ that way, every May I go and get it done.

Have a fabulous day everyone – and I do hope you Wet Coasters are getting some sun. I grew up out there so my sympathies are with you but there is a reason the trees - and the slugs - grow so big!

Cathy

Mimi: Congrats on the new exercise machine. It’s good to move onto something else when you’re tiring of what you’re doing. And yes, grandchildren can really make you tired but they are just so precious!

Jeannie: Glad you had a great time and were able to get so much exercise! The fact that you didn’t get winded, like you use to, shows that you are getting healthier and stronger! The hotel sounds like it was a great deal, too!

Barbie: Thanks for the words of wisdom as always. I agree 100% with that cookbook!

SuzyQ: We all understand about mindless eating and have all done it at one time or another. The difference is your approach to it AFTER the fact. Exercising has been quite a savior to me in those times!

Barb: Yay for 90% goal made on the voting issue...and thanks for the Tech seminar LOL:laugh:

So sad about Kyron, but we’ll keep praying.:brokenheart:

Viv: Keep on keeping on. If you do that you will finally have the success you want. If you stop trying I can guarantee you will gain everything back plus more. T’is unfair…but t’is the truth! Have you checked with your doctor Re: the hormone issue?

Auntiebk: Did you drink a lot of water? When I drink I always make sure I drink about 10 glasses of water that day. Just a suggestion.

Caminogirl: It’s real important to find an exercise that you like or else you won’t stick with it. As they say, the best exercise is the one you’ll do! Do you like to dance? Garden? Walking is great if you can keep doing it and burn some calories. Some people can’t do traditional exercises for health reasons or physical limitations. But if you move….you lose. Find out what “moves” you! LOL:laugh:

As far as the pastry episode, I had a similar situation. My DD and SIL took us out to eat last night at a Pizza/Pasta place. I rarely eat either since I’ve had a rebirth into a healthy lifestyle. So I noticed they had baked haddock but it was a little more expensive than the P&P. Now they KNOW I don’t usually eat that stuff, so I graciously mentioned the salad or the fish. They insisted I get the fish and the salad and would be insulted if I felt like I HAD to eat something that I was uncomfortable eating.:bigsmile: Sometimes I think, at least for myself, that when I make an excuse, which I have done several times since I joined MFP, it’s really because I WANT to eat it:blushing: ….and that’s okay as long as I understand my behavior and am truthful with it.:flowerforyou: (I am in no way pointing fingers, just sharing MY experience) . You could always say that you want to take them home and share them with someone else….then dump them in the garbage ASAP….:laugh: (I’ve done that, too…and no one ever knew or felt offended and I would continue losing weight! Win….win!!!:bigsmile: :bigsmile:

Ainslienglen: Enjoy the sunshine! They say it lifts the spirits!:bigsmile:

Today is my 3rd day off (off my vacation) but I took the time off to help my daughter move. The closing will at best be on Friday! :grumble: So I am trying to make the best of it doing things around here that I never can get to or seeing people I never get the opportunity to see! :bigsmile: Also, I can spend more time with my MFP friends! When I get back to work, I sometimes don’t get to post.:frown: So making lemons out of lemonade is what I’m doing….and enjoying it too! “A truly happy person is the one who can enjoy the scenery on a detour!”:bigsmile: I’m not sure who said that….but I find it to be true!:flowerforyou:
Have a great day ladies!!!

BirdieM

Afternoon All,

One more day of "the galloping rainies" and we are supposed to have at least 3 days of sunshine.:drinker: :drinker: :drinker: Guess I shouldn't jinx it by celebrating early.:ohwell:

Glad my techie ramblings helped some of you out. After I read what I posted, I realized I had gone on about that subject longer than was probably needed, but as I always say. "If you are posting, you are not eating.":laugh: :laugh: If anyone has a specific issue about their system, send me a PM and I will be glad to offer any suggestions I can for self help.

To those who succumbed to the "MayaSwells"--as in "may as well" have......insert temptation here. It happens, just have to pick up and move on. At home I try to keep temptation at bay, and since the doggies don't do the grocery shopping, I have no one to blame but me if there is something here that I shouldn't have!!:laugh: :laugh:

Sometimes, however, questionable things seem to sneak into the house....hmm, maybe the doggies are opening the door to strangers when I am gone. :noway: I wonder if there is a gang of "snack stuffers" running amok in my town, leaving questionable items in the kitchens of dieters!!!!:laugh: :laugh: :laugh:

Well, still no break in the Kyron Horman case.

I have to get a wiggle on as I have to take my mom to her physical therapy appointment, so I will catch up with you all later.

Barb

Good evening All,

Did anyone every know that an Outback Steakhouse Chicken Caesar Salad has 908 calories???:noway: :noway: :noway: Wow!
I picked one up to have for dinner because I had to go to Charleston for the day to the doctors and was too tired to go to the grocery. I got DH a different salad. I will NOT be eating the dressing but making one myself. I am so glad that I looked it up BEFORE I ate it since I haven't gotten my usual walk or bike ride or anything yet. My OLD self would not have have looked up the calories, so at least that is a good thing!

Jackie: Way to go Girl!!! Have a good weekend but I'll bet you can keep that hard-won lose!

Fellow Gardeners: I complained about fiddler crabs eating my first tomatoes...well now I have a pesky raccoon...or 2...or 3...who have climbed over my fence and helped themselves to some tomatoes. AHHHHHHH:grumble: I have set my Hav-a-hart trap and DH and I will start our Raccoon Relocation Program. Last year we "helped" 7 find new homes on islands far away from our own!!!

Thunder storm is rumbling in the distance. It has been in the mid 90s today...our warmest day yet, so a good little rainstorm would be welcomed! Have a nice evening all, Kackie

Okay, enough is enough already!!!:grumble: I have made up my mind to get back to wear I left off. No more excuses cuz I was sick, no more excuses cuz I quit smoking!!! The fact of the matter is that, while I was sick, I did eat poorly, but I am completely better now and just have to get my sh$t together. Yesterday I walked outside because it was too hot to do the treadmill inside, today I walked again outside. Just getting started again. I didn't eat well today, but am getting it right tomorrow for sure. I feel like I have my mindset in the right direction once again and it better be for the last time. If I can quit smoking, I damn sure can stay commited to this!
Now that I got that off of my mind, let me see if I can get to some of the recent posts that I have missed.

Michele.... I am so sorry to hear about PJ. I know how you must feel.

Birdie.... All I have to say is that you look absolutely wonderful :drinker: :drinker:

Wanda.... I am alittle late, but welcome to you :flowerforyou:

Cathy... Thank you for the no smoking support. I am in very much need of that right now.

Viv.... I know I am late posting this, but oh how I can relate to those calories. Sometimes I am my own worst enemy!!!:mad:

MacMadame... This is great advice for me.....The recommendation to avoid this pattern is to eat like King for breakfast, lunch like a prince and dinner like a pauper. Another recommendation is to eat 50% of your allotted calories by lunchtime.

What a lot of people do is deprive themselves too much during the day so that, by the time dinner rolls around, they are starving and self-control is at a low point. It can be hard to convince yourself to eat when you are trying to lose weight but it's a lot better to plan to eat than to lose control, either at night or on the weekend.
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I forgot who was having the problem with slugs but it reminded me of earlier this spring. We had a huge skunk roaming around our yard digging up slugs. It may have gotten rid of the slugs but there was a gazillion holes dug up in our yard. The grass grew back and night before last was the first time I knew the the skunk was back... pheww, he stunk :laugh: I opened the door to let my dog back in from being out in the yard, and I almost wanted to cry I thought the poor guy got sprayed, but luckily he didn't :drinker: :drinker: :drinker: He wasn't too thrilled with the smell though :laugh:

Barb.... You are going to have to wear zebra clothes when you go to you friends house :laugh: :laugh: :laugh:

I am sure I missed alot of things but I am getting tired of reading so I hope everyone has a great night, and I will be accountable for myself.
Donna

Hello All,

I survived the day and stayed within my parameters, or so close, it feels as though I did. I managed to stay pretty well within calories and under in sodium, even though I had dinner out tonight. Spent the day taking my mom to a medical appointment and then grocery shopping. Went on a wild goose chase trying to track an MIA condo owner down to get a ballot out of them for the question before our HOA membership.

I may have posted that we had reached our goal, BUT turns out we are 3 votes away from having the 90% participation we need to pass our measure. There are three votes that we have been promised that have not materialized in the mailbox, so we are all getting frustrated with the lack of follow through.

Doggies are in the throes of cabin fever because of all the rain. It is supposed to straighten out on Friday and be nice all weekend. I am READY!!! Our motto around here is "rain is a 4-letter word."

Bradley definitely liked the idea I came up with to get him to eat more. I know, I refer to him as an eating machine, but turns out, he hasn't been getting enough food, or not absorbing nutrients--vet is not sure which. We went from 14 lbs. to about 12.5 in about 6 weeks, so I am trying to get him to gain some weight. Around here that isn't something we normally have to "work at.":laugh: :laugh: :laugh:

Anyway, I picked up a little container of Cesar brand "Porterhouse flavor" wet food in a little tin. I took about 1/2 the container and mixed it up with the easy to digest kibble that the vet recommended. Up to now, Bradley has been nibbling at this, but didn't particularly care for it. One sniff at the "porterhouse flavor" and he stopped playing hard to get with his food.:drinker: :drinker: :laugh: :laugh: He inhaled what was in his dish as though it was "people food.":noway: :laugh:

Unfortunately, Mai Li and Pepper have noses that picked up on this new flavor, and they were NOT happy that the new flavor was not "appearing in dish near them.":noway: :laugh: :laugh: After figuring out that they were stuck with what they were offered, everyone had dinner and crashed, which is what I am going to do.:yawn:

Donna,
I may have to try that zebra clothing idea of yours for the next time I visit Thomy. The concept of wearing a zebra print made me laugh.

Hope you are all doing well in your fitness quest. I haven't lost in last two days, but haven't gained either.

Barb

Morning everyone!

Just a quick post for me. Just have been slack that is all.

BBL

Cindy

Weclome back Cindy, we've missed you!

Just joined and I hope to lose at least 5 lbs by the end of July. I hate exercising and perspiring. I'm 63 and considerably out of shape with a body that hurts every day!

Mimi - you're doing great, fitting into regular sizes. How awesome is that????? How do you make your eggplant? Good luck on the cross-country machine. I wish the gym would have one. For some reason they don't. Well, I know why, it's not a real big popular machine, it takes some getting used to and coordination. The gym would rather spend the money on machines people will use. See, I'm into having lots of different options.

Birdie - A HRM can range from anywhere from $30 up to $500. When you do consider getting one, decide which features you absolutely must have. For me, I wanted to be able to know how many calories I burned, it had to have the stopwatch function, it had to have a backlight, and it had to have a user replaceable battery. Now there are some that come with a GPS and lots of other things, but I know that I wouldn't use them so I didn't see any reason to pay for something that I wasn't going to use. Maybe some day I would use it, but certainly not today. After you decide what your criteria are, then research which models meet your criteria. I did wind up getting the FT7. I found the best price on amazon.

Thank you, everyone, for your sympathies on our losing PJ. I swear, there are times when I miss him so much that my heart aches. But then I remind myself that he's no longer in pain. I'm sure these melancholie moments will just get further and further apart. He was just such a special kitty, he was so tolerant. He'd been thru so much and never once complained. All the people working at the vet's offices knew him, he was so easy-going. There, I got it out of my system. Thanks for listening.

barbie - that is so wonderful of you to knit for people who are in need. I know whenever I do any kind of handwork (crochet, needlepoint, latch hook, x-stitch) I don't want to eat because I don't want to get the material/wool dirty since I know who will have to wash it. Hey, that works!

What I do whenever the school/church/whatever has a fund raiser and I really don't want what they are selling (well, "want" isn't the right word, "don't need" is), I just give them a flat out donation. Actually, they wind up getting more money. Say you bought $5 of popcorn, the group usually gets something like 70% or 80% of that money. If I give them a $5 bill, they get 100% of the money. And I don't have something in my pantry that I really don't need or want. If I absolutely must buy it, then I immediately donate it to a soup kitchen. They've been getting lots from me.

Barb - about your HOA, do you email people? Truthfully, if someone sends something to me in the mail, sometimes that paper gets put on a pile and not looked at for a long time. If someone sends me an email, I usually respond quickly mainly because I want to delete that email.

Cathy - I didn't know you could download books onto your iPod. Gotta look into that. There's this radio show that's on every Sat. but then they put their shows on podcasts so I download them and listen to them while I'm on the treadmill or elliptical. Very motivating. Only problem is that every show is only 1 hr in length, so sometimes I get caught up. I also like to listen to it in the car when I'm taking a long drive somewhere. But it would be great to have books to listen to. To think I can get caught up on my reading......

I really don't mind exercising....as a matter of fact I really look forward to it. For a while there I was doing pretty good about cutting out the bad carbs, but I've fallen off the wagon. Much as I try, I seem to be craving them again. Gotta try much harder. It's so hard because dd wants pretzels in the house (to dip into his hummus), dh likes his cookies etc. These "walking programs"...are they the kind you put on your iPod? I'll be interested to see what the response is. I have some of Leslie Sansone's walking DVD's, now to get an Urban Rebounder. I really think you can do them on the Rebounder. Some things you may have to modify (like when she tells you to walk up and back, just stay in place).

Everything I've read says that people who do yoga have a better body image (think better of themselves) and eat more mindfully.

I used to go in June for my annual check up, but because insurance will only pay for one/year, little by little it's been pushed back, so now I'll go at the end of July. In August I usually go for my bone density scan and mammogram. I try to get it all done at the same time. I'll get my routine blood work before the physical. Worst part is that it's a fasting blood test. Well, I take some cereal in a baggie, then after the blood test I sit in the car eating my cereal. I do have this "funky" mole down there (I don't know how to describe it delicately. Fortunately, we're all women here) that I think I'm going to have the MD look at. I would be willing to bet that he'll want to remove it.

Cathy - good luck on your spring tune up.

Well, dd picked up PJ's ashes. The vet was very nice and he spoke to Jessica some.

Went out for lunch today. They had this ahi tuna salad. Basically, it was tuna on a bed of romaine lettuce. Not bad, I really didn't have much of the salad dressing. Bad me, tho. They gave me two biscuits, I think they were crescent-type. I actually ate one. Last time we were at this restuarant, I didn't eat the biscuit. The good thing about this restaurant is that they clear the table quickly. So the sooner that biscuit leaves from my table, the better for me. Oh well...it'll probably be just soup for dinner tonight anyway. Something light.

Congrats Jackie. You CAN do it!

SuzyQ - you said you get bored. So do I. I'm ALWAYS looking for something new to do. What do you do, maybe that'll give me some ideas.

kackie - good for you looking up the calorie count of the food before you buy it. Yes, I'm really amazed at the calories in certain foods. I would think for sure something wouldn't be high in calories, yet it is. Wish restaurants would include all the nutritionals. Someday.....

donna - you sound very determined. you WILL do this

Well, I did HIIT on the elliptical today for 30 min and then incline intervals on the treadmill for 30 min (2 min @3%, 6%, 9%, 12%, 3% etc). One thing I realized was that those calorie burned things on the ellipticals can be way off. I know that I burned more calories when I was sprinting than when I was recovering, but the calories burned just kept moving at the same pace.

Welcome 2short.... Personally, I like to exercise, but there's one thing that I absolutely cannot stand and that's having sweat dripping down my face. My arms I can handle, my legs I can handle, chest and back -- same thing. But don't let it pour off my face. I'm constantly, and I do mean constantly, wiping my face. Start slow, even if it's just taking a walk. Before you know it, you'll be increasing your distance or speed. You CAN do this.

Well, I'm registered for a cooking demo. There's a DQ in the mall here so I need to check out if they sell ice cream cakes. dh wants one for Father's Day. Personally, I'm not so crazy about that. hmmmm...maybe they can make a frozen yogurt cake????

Michele

Michele - I meant to add that you might check your library for iPod downloads. Mine has an online database that lets you download various books to your iTunes then shift them over to your iPod. It has books for other types of mp3's as well. It's a two-week loan and then it times out and disappears somehow. I also borrow books on cd and copy them over to my iPod but this takes up considerably more space. Listening to books is one of my favorite things to do especially when flying or on long trips in the car.

Just a quick hello! My DD's closing on her house will not be until next Tues! :grumble: So today I am busy doing the things I normally can't do with hubby and other DD around. :flowerforyou: I'll try to check in tomorrow! If not... I hope everyone has a great weekend.:flowerforyou:

Hugs to all!

BirdieM

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sigh... well I was going to edit out my help request as I didn't want to pester people. But I see I can't as I had posted after that post, which I removed, and the edit option is now gone. So, I'll explain that I have really been doing MFP since late Jan, not just since early April. I had to delete my earlier account as it was badly messed up. Didn't want to appear to be grumbling about not losing more than 13 pounds since April. It's really been since sometime in late mid to late Jan.

I may be eating too little on some days but we get up late in the morning 9/10, eat lunch late 2/3, dinner at 6/7 bed at 1/2 am. The large dinners are eaten several hours before bed and my evening snack is usually yogurt.

Have you ever started something that you realized shortly after wasn't such a good idea? Sorry - just ignore the whole thing! :embarassed: This too shall pass! I'll get a HRM and figure this out.

Off to earn the exercise calories I entered for today.

Faye