WOMEN AGES 50+ FOR SEPTEMBER

Here is my happy hubby with his new grandson

WOW...WELCOME NEW POSTERS...ALL OF YOU!! I'm really intrigued by the one experiencing the first day of Spring!! Where are you??? New Zealand, Australia ??? Anyway, everyone is welcome and sharing successes, failures, what works for you, what doesn't is all encouraged.

I'm on Day 4 of being back on track and still feeling really good about it. Doesn't mean I haven't had to stop and ask for the strength to stay out of the kitchen and away from the food...but I am doing MUCH, much better!

Did exercise a little differently this morning. Turned on the tv and found first jazzercise, then yoga, then tai chi....did three back-to-back programs of exercise and found it fun and relaxing.

My goals for September are as follows:

1. Stop procrastinating and making excuses to binge.
2. Faithfully practice true and accurate portion control (no guessing and being a little too generous).
3. Log all of my foods, every bite.
4. Lose the 4 pounds I am up from a bad July and August plus 4 more to boot.
5. Schedule that congratulatory massage as soon as I hit that oh so elusive 50 pounds lost mark!

That's it...hope everyone has a great month (myself included) and a really good day!

September! I plan on this being a MUCH better month than August!
I am setting more specific goals than I normally do--I think I need them in order to getback on track!

August was an awful month for me for some reason and to top it all off my best friend at work was let go yesterday. It was her own fault but still...I'll miss her a LOT!

It's a new month and I am determined to get the scale and inches moving in the right direction--DOWN!

Amanda--Your experience in the shop was oh-so-wrong! I wonder if the directors (or whatever) know about this assistant? She needs a serious attitude adjustment!

Welcome all you new ladies! You are SO welcome here!

Barbie--the baby is beautiful! Where did he get all that hair! (We tend to have bald, or nearly bald, babies in my family.)

I took today off and my dd and I are going into Olympia to look around for a couple of hours. Thankfully it isn't raining like it was yesterday.

I have done 30 minutes of Richard Simmons' Blast and Tone and will do 30 minutes more of exercise later. I have really been slacking on my exercise lately and on logging my foods. (I sure hope we change our phone plan to one with internet access soon so I'll be able to track my foods wherever I am.)

Let's all have a healthy and happy September!

Barbie, Cute grandbaby. Jake is not too bad either. LOL. how close to them are you guys. will you get to see the baby often. I am so close to my grandchildren. cannot imagine any other way. Barbie love the pic of you and your friend. You look like one of those ladies who has always been slim and trim. No one would ever know you battle with your weight. Great inspiration to me as always. Enjoy the rest of your trip.
Vicki M

A new month already. Times flew by in August. I didn’t make my August goals but did get in some exercise (did well the first part of the month then took a “break.”) I’ve picked up again now. :happy: I probably lost about 4 pounds in August, again in the first part of the month. I won’t know for sure until I get home and onto my own scale. It’s not the pound-and-a-half I’d hoped for but, you know, I’m feeling pretty good about it.

I relaxed the way I was eating, a couple of weeks ago (for my niece’s shower). Since then, it’s been non-stop visiting. I stayed “relaxed” (but not crazy) for 9 or 10 days. I think I maintained my weight while I was “relaxing” and I count that as success. Getting back on track was hard, but not as hard as it’s been other times. It helps that I didn’t get very far off track.

I’m going to keep my same 1-1/2 lbs per week weight loss goal for September and change my exercise goal to 45 minutes a day, 3 days a week. I’d like to do more. I hope to do more. I *plan* to do more. But a stretch goal works better for me than an Elasti-girl goal.

Barb, congrats on the big weight loss. When you got going, you really did it! :flowerforyou:

Laura, 1 lb left. Oh my goodness, what a wonderful feeling that must be. Congrats to you. :flowerforyou:

Barbie, a new grandson is so exciting. Welcome to the world, Jesse! Thanks for sending the pic of you and your friend. You look so cute – and tiny! Awww. Just saw the pic of your DH and Jesse. He’s a cutie. (Jesse that is – oh, of course, your DH too!)

Kathy, how fortunate you are to have the talent to make jewelry. I hope you’ll post pics.

Vicki and Terri, doesn’t it feel great to be back in the groove! Good for you. Good for us!

Viv, not gaining weight is a good thing. I look at it as practice for the rest of our lives. It’s really all about maintenance, isn’t it. Unless we can maintain, we might as well forget it. And you just proved you can maintain!

Michelle, you are an exercise champ. Always doing something new and, so often, doing something that sounds like fun.

Vikki, lambs and calves. Delightful!

Welcome to everyone who’s new. This is a terrific bunch of women. They’ve made a huge difference for me in motivation and support.

Amanda, I’m sad for you, missing the wedding ceremony. What a bummer. I’m glad the rest of the day went well. Your day at the spa sounds heavenly.

Your bout at the charity shop sounds ridiculous. :noway: I hope you’ll contact the manager. I went to a charity shop once where the person waiting on customers refused to give me a receipt for my donation because it wasn’t big enough. Honestly! I always wished I’d gone to the manager. People like that are not so good for the charities they’re ostensibly supporting.

On another note…you’ve done so well at losing…almost 90 pounds. Woo hoo! You are smokin’ hot. :flowerforyou:

Denise, welcome back.

Mary, I hope you’re feeling better.

Labrat, adding lots of fruits and veggies to my diet has worked well for me. I do much better calorie-wise when I eat them. I’m not someone who likes deprivation. It doesn’t make me feel proud, it makes me feel hungry!

I’m eating better now, liking it so much better, and losing weight. I couldn’t ask for anything more. If you want to shake it up (and aren’t already doing it), you might want to try adding some fruits and veggies. It really does take the temptation to munch away.

I didn’t like veggies until last January when I discovered I could ROAST them! What a difference (high temp, short time). Other people grill them. That sounds yummy too. Good luck to you. You have the right attitude!

Pegstet, fabulous fifties, huh? I guess I’m in the sexy sixties! :laugh: I bought an old truck from my nephew. It has a sticker on the back that says “Sexy Grandma.” I took the truck in to be painted and told them they could paint everything but had to keep that sticker!

Birdie, I like what you said, “what I call a "bad" day today....was one of my "good " days before!” Amazing, isn’t it?!

Chiclet sent a message to my mailbox. I asked her if it would be okay to post my response in the forum. There are always so many new people. (If you're an "old" person, skip this part!)

CHICLET'S MESSAGE

Hi Mimi, 

It's me again. I went to the store and was in the tuna aisle and saw the pouches of albacore and such and noticed that there was packaged salmon also from Bumble Bee. So I bought one that was lightly marinated with lemon and dill. I don't know if you've seen them before but they are ready to eat. Well I had it the other day and I did not like it. It was very dry. 



Sooooo I was wondering where do you get your smoked salmon? This was my first time eating salmon and I am hoping mine was just dry and yours is something different. 



Also, what is this Lavash bread? Is it like a pita? Where do you get that? I notice you say you eat 1/2 of it. How large is this bread? 



Finally a campari tomato??? 



I know you shop a lot probably at Trader Joes and I am thinking you get a lot of these things from there maybe. Just would like to know what it is you are eating. 



Oh and one last thing. I notice you don't eat a lot of protein. I know you are into veggies and all but is there a reason why you don't eat more protein?

By the way, I roasted some veggies again the other day and this time I shared some with Boo. Her favorite was the broccoli. So know that you have converted my dog too! 


Chiclet

MY COMMENTS

Lol. Boo eating broccoli! I’m so glad you (and she) are eating lots of veggies. They’ve saved my life. Probably literally. I don’t think I’d be losing weight or keeping it off without eating lots of fruits and veggies. They fill me up. And they’re so good. I don’t feel deprived at all – a novel experience with a diet for me.

I get a lot of my food at Costco and Trader Joe's.

The salmon I use in my wraps (usually made from lavash, an ounce of feta, a diced tomato, an ounce of smoked salmon, and sometimes miscellaneous other things, such as avocado, basil, and spinach) is from Costco. You can get it online too, but it's more expensive. It's the only one I like. It's the Honey Smoked Original Flavor. I have to say some packages are better than others. Sometimes it's firm and sometimes softer. It's hot smoked so it's not like lox, although you could use lox if you like it. All the other hot-smoked salmons I've found are too salty or have too much flavor added. This one is really good. It's expensive, but it lasts me for a couple of weeks as I use only an ounce or two a day.

The lavash is from Trader Joe's. It's the whole wheat kind. The pieces are fairly big so half (110 calories) is big enough for me. It gets crisp - kind of like a cracker - when you grill it in the pan. I brown it lightly on one side, flip it over, then add the feta and diced tomatoes. (I like the Valbreso brand from Costco - nice and mellow and more creamy than some fetas (but still feta-like!))

After the feta's gotten slightly melty, I add spinach or basil or avocado - whatever. I NEVER add the salmon until after I've put the wrap on a plate. It leaves your place smelling fishy for hours - maybe days. Yech.

I've also used pita (although it's a bit of a pain to split in half and I don't like it otherwise), whole wheat tortillas (try to get some that don't have a lot of preservatives - the ones at Costco are ridiculous - they're better at Trader Joes), and Indian wraps I get at the health food store. (I thought they were awfully expensive - about $5 for a lg package - but they were really good.) My sister likes the Indian wraps the best because she likes a moister wrap, where I like it more like a cracker. You can also use a piece of bread!

Campari tomatoes are everywhere. They're kind of small. They're much better than the big ones. They taste more like home-grown. When I can, I get tomatoes (not Camparis) at the local fruit stand. Those are usually good.

As far as protein goes, I try to get the amount recommended by MFP, which is plenty according to my sister, who's a dietician (graduated from UC Berkeley, so she's pretty smart) and according to the articles I've read that are convincing to me. Americans (and probably all the folks from the more "advanced" countries) generally get too much protein. I've recently learned that protein from veggies is just as good as protein from meat as long as you get a variety of veggies. It's a myth that you have to worry about balancing the amino acids to get complete proteins.

I'd always believed that but apparently it started when the author of Diet for a Small Planet wanted to popularize her approach. Later, she retracted what she'd said. She'd overstated the need to balance the amino acids. Unless you have a really one-sided diet (like all sweet potatoes!), you're okay.

I didn't start out to go low protein and I don't avoid animal protein on principle (although, if you look at the documentary Food Inc., you'll start to be a lot more careful about the sources of what you eat. The food industry in this country leaves something to be desired). It was more a matter of wanting to limit calories and liking lots of food (volume). You can't eat a lot of animal protein on a low calorie diet and have much room left over for other foods. But, if you keep your animal protein intake low, you can eat a lot of fruits and veggies!

For me, volume is important. That isn't the case for everyone. I'm also happy knowing I'm getting good nutrition. The fruits and veggies have lots of micronutrients that you can't get in a vitamin pill.

Some people like to get more protein and they're okay eating less of the other things. I like the fruits and veggies so much, I don't want to sacrifice them for more protein.

Good luck to you. Congratulations on being an official HECler (member of the Healthy Eating Club)! How does it feel? I'm loving it. I could go on an on about it. Oh, gosh, I just did! :laugh:

I am 55 and a grandma and I just started doing P90X, my 3rd day into it and I love it!

Hi Ladies, I am so happy to be here and to be losing and feeling so much better!!!!:flowerforyou:
You all help me so much!! Thanks for being there and all the encouragement!

Happy Fall!!!

:flowerforyou: Hi! Can't believe it's already September. We will be starting school next week. I only have 4 homeschoolers. Our tribe is decreasing. Catch you all later...:flowerforyou:

Barbie, I would love to be able to get toghether when you are in Mount Vernon for your Rally. I know you will be busy dancing but maybe we can work something out.

:bigsmile: I wanna join your group! New here....by three weeks. Lost five pounds. I'm 51 years old or young depending on the day.

I really want to make September a 8-10 pound month.