WOMEN AGES 50+ FOR APRIL 2013

Happy Sunday. The sun is out and the temperature rising. Finally, Spring! :flowerforyou:

The theme of my yoga class this morning was forgiveness. It is hard to forgive (whether someone else or ourselves) but holding onto resentment or guilt is toxic.:grumble: Letting go frees us. I focused on the process of forgiving (acknowledge formally the wrong, seek empathy so there can be understanding and ultimately forgive and let go of all those negative feelings). I had a number of students come up to me afterwards to thank me. I was worried that it was too heavy a topic but apparently it is very relevant. I often have to work through this process. We pick how to react. I would much rather feel joy than hold on to anger or guilt.

Michele – you were the catalyst for my theme today. You can’t change the way Bryan is acting, but you can try to understand and forgive him for his immaturity and inconsideration. Hopefully with forgiveness you will be able to get your eating back on track

Carol – it is always that way. Typically when I run errands I never see anyone I know but the time I decide to run a quick errand after working out – sweaty and no make-up, hair going every which way – I’ll run into at least one if not more people. But honestly friends don’t care if you or your house are a mess. It’s just nice to catch up.

Welcome to all the newbies – I started on MFP in January and fortunately found this thread pretty soon after that. This is a very supportive and encouraging group. I know that their support helped me stick with it and finally start to lose weight. Come back often

Gonzamm – congrats on the weight loss

Viv – hang in there!

Lucy – glad you found your pedometer

Jb – I’m going to need to try that popsicle recipe – they look wonderful. We won't have those fruits for awhile yet though

CityJane – hang in there. My weight actually went up at one point even though I was doing everything I was suppose to. Give it a bit more time. If it still doesn’t start to drop you may need to take a closer look at what you’re doing (e.g. is sodium undermining you?)

Dee Dee – sounds like you had a great time with your DGDs. Playing is a great way to burn up those calories. I curtsy to the Queen!

Kathy – congrats on the weight loss

Well lots to do on this beautiful day. Have a great rest of the weekend. Jodios:flowerforyou: :drinker:

This is in response to the person asking about what to do after surgery - but it is not attaching to her message.

Hi, I think that is a great question. I am no expert, but have learned that even little things add up. At first I am guessing you can't do much. But, walk around the house as much as you can. Stand while talking on the phone. Park further away from stores or your Dr's office. As you feel better you can walk further at easy pace.
As far as eating - try things that will make you feel fuller longer, like proteins. You will be home so don't hang out and get tempted in the kitchen.
Good luck to you!

Well hello all my VitF people. Yesterday certainly turned out to be a wet dog day. Didn’t matter what I planned, the weather did me one better all the way. It’s still kind of misty out there today, and I understand all the high mountain passes (which totally surround me) all have snow and highway issues. Welcome to the Kootenay spring. Hope it passes quickly because I will be driving the Kootenay Pass 4 times this week.

Today is going to be a work day unfortunately. I am a bit behind at work so will spend a few hours today catching up then I have a Youth Council meeting to attend (and they will have pizza so I am going to try JB’s idea of a pig out and see if that jump starts my metabolism).

Renny – you always make me homesick for the Island whenever you talk about places. From where you work and your work changes, I assume you work for the Province? Glad that your 10K was fun and I can imagine you did encounter some mud on the path.

Gail – right after you mentioned Soma I got an email from White House Black Market showcasing Soma – serendipity?

Mary – your DH sounds like a keeper. How great to have a chef quality veggie tray – it would definitely top the pizza cravings in my book.

JB – thanks for posting the fruit popsicles, I copied and pasted it to my MFP recipes. Now I have to find a popsicle mold which I couldn’t find last summer. And the photo makes me salivate.

Lin – more about the pea/lettuce soup please. Where did you find the recipe – it sounds like something I would really like. I found a few recipes online and will try a couple out but would like to know where yours came from. Always better to work from someone else's success - lol.

Gonzamm – congrats on another pound lost – way to go.:flowerforyou:

DeeDee – your day sounded delightful. I sincerely hope my kids get it on and I can have grandchildren to play with before I’m in my dotage.

Liz – sounds like you need to ask your family to put a little time aside to help you then you can all enjoy some free or family time. Ask for what you want! Politely and rationally and without blaming and shaming. I think we might have created this ourselves – I remember in the 80’s being so proud of being a super-wife/mom and doing everything as well as being a successful earner. The older I get, the more I realize that “workaholic” is not a good thing.

Anyway, off to do my penance at the office. :sad: I do resent it a bit though, but it is my fault for letting minor issues eat up the time I needed to do other things (forest vs trees again).

Have a good Sunday ladies, and drink that water (I seem to be slacking a bit on this).:drinker: :drinker: :drinker: :drinker:

Lila in the misty Kootenays, south east BC Canada

Sasha - the pea/lettuce soup is from Dr. Fuhrman.....(I consider it 4 servings instead of 2)


Boston Green Pea Soup
www.drfuhrman.com

Serves: 2
Preparation Time:

Ingredients:
1 medium onion, diced
3 cups no-salt-added or low-sodium vegetable broth
10 ounces frozen peas
1 head Boston lettuce, coarsely chopped
1/8 teaspoon black pepper
1/8 teaspoon dried tarragon leaves
1/2 cup unsweetened soy, almond or hemp milk
1 tablespoon fresh lemon juice
Instructions:
Heat 2-3 tablespoons water in a soup pot. Add onions and water saute until tender, about 5 minutes. Stir in vegetable broth, peas, lettuce, pepper and tarragon, bring to a boil, reduce heat and simmer for 10 minutes. Stir in non-dairy milk.

Add soup to a blender and blend until smooth, working in batches. Pour blended soup into a large bowl after each batch and when all the soup is blended, return to soup pot and heat through. Stir in lemon juice and remove from heat.


Lin in Central Iowa (chowing down on leftover soup today!)

My 'BMI'...:laugh:

Jo – I started on Level 1 and 2 a few weeks ago and honestly don't even know how long I did those. I just started on Level 3 a few days ago and may just do that for 30 days.

MA – congratulations on getting below the 200 mark.

Gonzamm – I really like your goal of having your husband carry you over the threshold.

Lucy – glad you found your pedometer. I am trying to find mine – haven't used it for some time.

Cooky – good luck with the painting. I decided to paint my bathroom, but first had to remove wallpaper. Of course, it wasn't sized and the walls aren't suitable for painting and need serious prepping. I did clean the slate and put enhancer on it, so at least that looks good. Maybe next week I will be able to paint.

Viv – I am not from the UK, but did do a boat on the Norfolk Broads. I don't remember it being that deep. We went on a day excursion rather than hiring a boat ourselves. My grandmother lived in Norwich, so I have a connection to that area and wanted to check it out. The boat ride was quite enjoyable.

Blister Lamb – you will catch up with your 30 miles. I envy you as I haven't even gotten my bicycle tuned-up yet. That is supposed to happen today – need to find my clipless pedals, but can just use toe-clips if I can't find them. It's just starting to warm up here and I am so anxious to get in the saddle. I like your ticker, too.

Liz – I agree about nicely asking others to at least clean up their messes.

Struggling with drinking water – better force some down. Even when I walk, ride my back or exercise, I usually don't feel thirsty and neglect to hydrate myself.

Have a good Sunday, everybody.

Tari - Ohio

This is such a great idea....My goals for April 2013 are......Donate the things that no longer bring joy into my life to other who might enjoy them....Enjoy time with my family through fun outings and activities while engaging in both deep meaningful and light hearted humorous conversations with them......Enjoy a flavorful soup for lunch at least 3 times per week to help balance my inceased calorie load for the various holidays/birthdays/treats/rich dinners that will be ocurring this month.

Hi ladies :flowerforyou: have been mia for a few weeks...but always thinking of you and am so happy that you are all still here!

I only have one main goal for April...20 minutes of exercise every day...March averaged 3 times a week...but I feel soo much better when I have done something that I am reducing my time commitment but increasing my frequency...all about sustainable lifetime habits...we will see how this works.

The carbs then protein then balance of both try of a couple of weeks ago was interesting.....no real changes other than re-focus of portions and mindfulness...not a bad result but a little too much work for me.

Off to do my 20 minutes...just the treadmill (uphill) while watching netflix on my kindle

Have a wonderful day, my friends, and thanks for letting me pop back in! Hugs and high fives!

Jen from sunny, then rainy, then sunny New York!

alright ,now can this be possible?maybe from sodium i got on my scale early am and I was 178 lbs, I got on a little while ago and I was 184.5 ,really? well that sucks big time, I always weight myself in the morning.. but I did this for ha ha's.
Im depressed now, but I will not give up

Katla,
So interesting on the boating. Thanks ya. I am a mom of a 31 year old son, he's starting an internship with Foreign Servies when he gets back form a short program in the Philipines. I want to read the Arthur Ransome now, just for me! Sounds wonderful. Congrats on the 10K! I think that was you, hard to remember back a few pages, sorry. Anyway you lead a very active lifestyle, I really benefit from reading such things.

I love my life!
Have a great evening and wonderufl week you all.

Marcia, Northern Va

The10 K wasn't me. I have bad knees. I do try to lead an active life, though.

Happy Sunday

I got back last night from a trip to Milwaukee to see my parents. The trip was a good idea. My mom was in the hospital the whole time I was there. She is doing okay considering all that she is dealing with. It's hard to tell how much longer her heart can deal with all the stress...so I'm glad I went now. My dad is doing pretty well. They will each be 89 in a month or two.

I got to see all 4 of my sisters as well. Only my brother didn't come (from Minnesota). We went to the hospital a couple of times a day. Mom was on the fifth floor so the last two days I walked up. It helped keep the weight down from all the eating we were doing!

One NSV for me was that I was slimmer than all of my sisters. I have never in my life been the thinnest...Ever. A couple of them asked about this web site. Maybe they will join soon too.

I read all your posts...praying for some and rejoicing with others!

Eileen near San Diego

Welcome everyone new

My ankles were swollen, and I know its from a combination of the salt in that chicken at Golden Corral (the one I couldn't eat) and the salt in the ham we had yesterday. Jessica wanted a ham so we had ham

I do have to say that I like this guy she's with. One of the things that I like about him is that I see how he inspires her to better herself. He's going to school and she's talking about the GRE. He's also very polite. It seems that he has a stepbrother who lives in MA. This brother is -- excuse me lacking the correct word here -- slow, he's very trusting, maybe too trusting. Kris was saying how he's the executor of his parent's will, they try to steer the brother in a positive way, not in a way that he can be taken advantage of

I only got 30 minutes of the bellydance DVD that I have in. See, something happened to my DVD player, Vince cleaned it and now it's fine. But as I was doing the DVD, it suddenly stopped so I took it out thinking that I'd clean it. When I put it back in, it wouldn't play at all! Another DVD wouldn't play. I don't remember enough about the bellydance DVD to do it all on my own. Well, it's fixed for my yoga DVD tomorrow morning then I'll take the extremepump class.

Viv - I like your color scheme. I tend to like bright, open colors, too.

Jo - I don't think topless on beaches in Spain is for me....lol Thanks for the info. Glad you had a good time at the amateur show. Isn't it amazing how much talent there is that is local?

cityjaneLondon - one of the things that most impressed me when we were in Europe was that the portion sizes for meals eaten out were a decent size. Vince says that whenever he had someone come over from Europe, they were always amazed at how large the portions are in our restaurants. I really feel that restaurants should offer you the choice of a full sized plate or half the amount (at half the price)

Well, Jessica and Kris just left. Now I'll need to clean her room, make the bed, wash the towels, etc.

Well, I'm definitely trying being good, been on a bit of a binge these last two days. Made this apple upside down cake and cream cheese brownies for tuesday. I was tempted to use some of the cream cheese on the low fat muffins, but I resisted. I'm proud of myself.

Sandy - what we're thinking right now is that we'll tell Bryan that we'll help him to the tune of 1,000 Euros (approx. $1,500). We'll have to see how much the airfare and other costs are, it may be more. We're going to leave the door open. You would think that if someone wanted something from you (like money), they'd do everything in their power to (basically) suck up to you. He was supposed to call this weekend -- no call so far. I just tried calling him, got an answering machine.

M - glad you're feeling better. You know something, I actually knew more about the customs in Spain than Vince did! He did some research and asked me if I knew what color their gown was. I told him "yes, black traditionally, but a lot of modern brides are going with the white".

Liz from Idaho - I used to tell my kids that "even tho mommy and maid start with 'M', I'm not a maid"

grandmalle - I tried the Artic Zero ice cream when we were in FL. It IS good. Honestly, not real creamy, but that's because it's for lactose intolerant people. But it did have good flavor. Around here I can only get it at the health food store, so I'm waiting for the weather to get warmer and then I intend to get the mint chocolate chip flavor. The Publix in FL only had the chocolate, chocolate peanut butter (which I knew I wouldn't like) and this maple vanilla. The chocolate and even the maple vanilla were quite good.

Renny - here's a question for you, I joined this group, only posted the one time, so I left the group. Yet, now that was months ago when I left, the thread always is in the top two of my threads. I really have no desire for it. Is there any way I can get rid of that?

Liz - when Bryan was younger I said to him "I'm sick of looking at your messy room" His solution? He closed the door!!!

jb - absolutely LOVE LOVE LOVE that quote

jodios - I am trying so hard, maybe too hard??? We called Bryan just now. thank GOD we didn't call him while Kris was here. It would not have been fair to Kris to have been pulled into this "drama". Vince asked Bryan "if Jess and Denise can talk to Dianna, why can't we". All Bryan said was "that's not gonna happen, there's more to it" When we asked "what more" he said that he had to think thru it. Vince said that we at least deserve to know about what's going on, but Bryan hung up on us. I love my son so much! God forbid anything happens to him, I'm quite sure Dianna won't let us know, heck she hasn't even been allowed to talk to us! He said that he was making dinner so I asked him what he made. He said a stew from Reunion. When I asked more about the stew, he said "Reunion, the island". I know Reunion. He was there! Evidentally he used some sort of soy hotdog. But I truly just wanted to know about it. I asked him about the wine jelly that I sent for Christmas. He said that they gave it to a friend of theirs. Did they keep anything at all that I sent them???? Well, he did say that they had the pumpkin jelly that I sent. Why is he being so selish??? I am chalking a lot of his behavior up to his immaturity. Wonder why he's suddenly being so selfish and immature, he never was that way! When asking about his dinner, I felt like I was pulling teeth just to get him to talk about it.

All this talk about popsicles reminds me of what I used to make for the kids when they were smaller. I'd take a 32oz contain of low fat unflavored yogurt, a 12oz can of orange juice concentrate, thaw it but don't reconstitute it. Mix the two together and pour it into a pop mold. High in calcium, vit.C, low in calories.

Meg - I don't know enough about Dianna to know if she's trying to force Bryan away from us or does he feel that he's now 27 and so we should stop worrying about him (like that's gonna happen). Last time we spoke to him he did mention about the fact that he felt that we should stop worrying about him. Vince told him how when his (Vince's) parents moved to FL, his father would send us clippings of job opportunities down there. We know what the implied "hint" was -- that we should move to FL. But at least we did go to see them at least once/year and spoke to them on the phone. Should be interesting to see if we even get an invitation to the wedding. We understand that he asked Denise and Jess for their addresses. He probably knows ours, but still...... Denise had to ask Dianna the date of the wedding, Bryan didn't even bother to tell us.

Tari - (thank goodness you used your name, what a name you had! two ton......) When I'm struggling drinking water, I find that if I have one of the chocolate bran muffins, I can usually have about 24oz with it. another thing that makes me want to drink is air popped popcorn.

yanniejannie - wonderful weight loss!

Jen - welcome back!

Renny - I've always had it where the topic of the post is on the list and when you click on it, it just brings you to the first page. I wish the pages were in backwards numberical order with the last post being the first one you see. But, alas, it isn't.

grandmalle - I've had it where the scale for one reason or another registers a completely different weight inside of a minute. I suspect some of it has to do with where on the scale you stand when being weighed. I ALWAYS weigh more in the evening than in the morning. Normal daily fluctuations.

Eileen - that was so nice of you to go see your mother! Bet it sure made you feel good being thinnner than your sisters! Great NSV

Hope everyone has a great evening.

Michele

bump

Hello Ladies, I’m not quite 50 (47), but I feel closer to 74 these days. I am in desperate need of support and accountability. I’m glad I found this thread. I have only read the first three pages. I will read the remainder after posting.

A little history (probably more than you care to know…). In 2006, I was morbidly obese with a BMI of 53. I had high blood pressure, high cholesterol, high blood sugar (pre-diabetic), severe sleep apnea, and was losing mobility. My doctor encouraged me to have bariatric surgery. By-pass surgery scared me, so I chose the Lap-Band. I had surgery in 2007. I lost 100 pounds the first year and ALL my comorbidities were resolved. I lost another 40 pounds over the next three years and was continuing to lose. I was running and training for a 5K. I was in the best shape I had been in in years.

Late in 2011, the Lap-Band eroded, causing a perforation of my stomach, leading to a huge abdominal abscess, and the band had to be removed. I became very ill, the infection went systemic, and my kidneys shut down. I feel I have not recovered from that surgery/illness. Lying in a hospital bed for eight days did a number on my back, which has never recovered. I am in constant pain. The only thing that does not hurt, is sitting in a chair with my feet up. Laying down, standing, or walking are painful, and becoming more painful each passing week. I went from walking/running five miles a day, to barely able to walk more than 10 minutes in just over a year. Due to my complete lack of mobility, I have gained 50 pounds.

If I don’t do something, I am afraid I will gain all that weight back and become wheelchair bound. I began logging my food in December and joined MFP about 6 weeks ago. I have started slowly losing weight. MFP has helped with the food accountability, now I need help with activity.

My goals for April:
Maintain what I have established so far – log food, 8+ glasses of water, at least 1-cup green tea daily
Walk on the treadmill – working up to 30 minute sessions by the end of the month
Stretching/strength training at least three times a week
Begin Physical Therapy as prescribed