WOMEN AGES 50+ FOR DECEMBER

Birdie: You are falling off of your ticker! Good for you...one more pound! You are showing us all how to do this...you are very consistent with your exercise too. Way to go!

Barbie & Barb: I add my thanks to you both for keeping us going each month! We all appreciate your efforts!

Newcomers: Welcome to each of you! Look forward to getting to know you.

I am spinning my wheels today it would seem...trying to find things that I apparently "hid" from myself while cleaning up before the Thanksgiving crowd arrived! We have wild weather here in the Southeast today...windy and unsettled. It is supposed to get close to freezing tonight. Not usual for our coastal area, so I need to move plants around from my porch and outside.

I'll say goodbye again for now. Take care, Kackie

Just checking in with all you lovely ladies! :happy: I can't believe it's December!!!:noway:
Welcome to all the newbies! :flowerforyou: This website has changed my life! When I started in August of 2009 I was hoping to drop 40 pounds. As of today I've dropped 55! :blushing:
I am realizing that if you change your lifestyle and focus, the weight just keeps coming off even when you're not trying anymore.:bigsmile:
The difference, for me, is simply a new way of thinking! :bigsmile: It's the Holiday Season and the first thing I would think of before is FOOD! All the pastries etc that I would be baking (and tasting):embarassed:
Now, I changed my focus to people....what I will wear:bigsmile: ....decorating my house:bigsmile: ....enjoying the wonderful music and lights!!!:bigsmile: :bigsmile:
The food....is just an after thought now. I choose to move away from food gifts to a bottle of wine...or something like that!:laugh: I used to do sooooo much baking...(I'm a great baker and my cookie trays, rum cakes, Jesus BD cakes etc. were the toast of the town). It was a little hard, at first, not getting all the accolades that came with the wonderful food gifts,:ohwell: but my life is now filled with new accolades:flowerforyou: .....from being fit and healthy.:flowerforyou: :drinker: :flowerforyou: :happy: I am like a spokesperson for MFP and recommend it to everyone!:laugh:
Exercising is like brushing my teeth! I just do it and don’t think about it! I drink lots of water, track my food....whatever it is....and have a glass of wine at night!:happy:
I don’t deny myself a taste of some of the treats, but the portions are so incredibly smaller! I can’t even eat the way I used to, today, if I wanted to........ because my stomach gets too uncomfortable with too much junk! :sick: It’s a process....and I do it “One day at a time”. That’s it!
I really can’t believe I dropped another pound:noway: ...because I’m enjoying life, some of the treats.... carefully...and not concentrating on losing the weight any more....but on making good healthy choices! :happy: Honestly....the weight loss just follows! If you find something that works...just keep doing it!:flowerforyou:
Remember, December is just another month full of “One day at a times”! Enjoy the spirit of the season and find new ways to celebrate.... and come January, you will be amazed at how.....with just a little adjustment in your focus.....your choices will be better and you will be happier!
Good Luck!!!
BirdieM:drinker:

:yawn: :drinker: good night everyone. had a ok day went a little over my cals. i was so happty to see the site was still going thank you. having my cup of tea and heading to bed. i hope everyone had a good day debie (momof10)

Happy December everyone!

Survived the 2 Thanksgiving dinners with minimal damage, but skipping line dance class due to weather is taking its toll, on my attitude even more than the scale. Last Wednesday it was just too cold (single digits), tonight there's 6-12 inches of slush on top of black ice on the roads. .:sad: Dug out a line dancing CD and got in 40 minutes but sure miss the other people, it's so much more fun with them.

Expect this to be the last long post from me for awhile. :ohwell: The new plan is to get the steps and gut'n'butt in before posting, means I'll be back to lurking. Not that I don't love you all, but I'm going to love this body first!

Alice how does your son come to be working with such exotic rides?

Barb congrats on your successful first time gravy, sounds yummy! Glad the nerve has eased and you made it home safe before the storms. Gen'l Lee barks his greetings to Mai Li, Pepper and to Bradley the (other) terror. Con VERY grats on being DOWN half a pound after the holiday and party. Camels in College, who'd've thunk it!

Amanda, (and Robin,) you both remind me of my pair of over-the-knee boots back in the 60s and how I loved them! Con VERY gratulations on being smoke free, "Well Done!" right back at you! auntie bk's stuffing is not so much recipe as refrigerator purge, goes something like this: Cube up leftover GOOD bread and freeze. (Easy to do as we're eating much less bread than we used to... whenever we do buy a loaf, we eat a piece or two each fresh, then cube up the rest of the loaf and freeze.) This year the combo was about 1/4th grissini (italian crunchy breadsticks almost like bruschetta), 1/4th Dave's Killer 21 grain bread (any good whole meal bread will do) and 1/2 Sourdough batard in big chunks with lots of crust. Enough to fill two 1-gallon plastic bags. Melt a cube of butter. Chop up a medium onion and saute in the butter until completely clear and starting to brown at the edges. Add 2 large stalks of celery, chopped, and some of the leafy celery tops chopped fine, saute another minute or two. Crack black pepper and add about 2 tsp ground sage to the butter/veg mixture and pour over the bread cubes. Brown sausage (I used 1/2 roll each of Jimmy Dean's sage and hot, about 5 oz each) and add to bread and veggies. Beat an egg into 2 C of chicken stock and pour over the cubes. Add hot water until the cubes start to stuffing-ize. Spoon into a large (11 x 15"?) buttered glass baking dish, cover with foil and bake at 325 for 20 minutes. Remove foil and bake another 15 minutes or until top is chewy crunchy as you like it. In the past I've added apples, mushrooms, pecans, this is fun to play with and make to your taste. Enjoy!
What an amazing size transformation, even your feet are two sizes smaller? WOW!!!

Barbie it's hard to imagine that communicating was ever outside your comfort zone, you are so warm and inspiring!

Debieane sorry your wii is on the fritz. Water break? What a good idea!

Welcome edmontonukeplay congrats on the half a pound a week!

Faye Hope the town can keep the gym going.

Jackie welcome back and huzzah for breaststroking that lap with no "footsies".

Welcome Joylaut

Kathy Kitty and Isaac both sound cute!

Kackie How I envy you your ocean-smooth-as-a-pond. When I used to commute across the SF Bay that was one of the sights I loved most!

Karlene Yoga and the Wii? Good for you! Great ways to ease into exercising . . and the wii is fun too! Laughing while playing must surely burn bonus calories, right?

Lynn Multiple Christmas trees? WOW! Bet the trees are as beautiful as the memories.

Maedair con grats on the 2 lbs!

Michele I'm just amazed and how many desserts you prepare and give away.

SMVQ I tried that roasted brussels sprouts recipe from the google icon and its 3 tablespoons were WAY too much oil Ended up blotting off 5 paper towels worth. BUT the insides were delicious, very tender and sweet not bitter. 3 teaspoons of Oil would have been plenty, but you knew that already, right?

Peggy I'll say it for them. WOW! 60 lbs! Way to GO!

Priska Kudos to you for not smoking! You are doing the most important thing you can for your health. Well done!

smwert "legs too short?" mama always told me that as long as they went all the way to the ground our legs were long enough . . . Welcome to the Friday night club!

VickiM great goals!

Vikki, brava for finishing the last hill, even though it hurt. Well done!

Viv congrats on your running club faithfulness.

Warmest hugs to all!

gutt'n'butt try 11 day zer0... still, but not for long!

:flowerforyou: good morning mfp family. childen are off to school hubby brought daughter to work i am enjoying a cup of tea and planning my day around what i already have going.i finish working on the shawl i have been making a btought it over to chistina for the raffle now i working a my daughters hat. hubby just came back in hes looking fo some eggs and coffee its 7:18 here ok everyone have a good morning did yous know how much sodium is in a egg i was like wow :noway: were does that came from its going to make me think about how many eggs i eat now. debi(momof10)

Good Morning, dear Ladies,

Barbara: So good to hear from you. I don't envy your weather and I am sorry that you are missing your line dance classes. Good for you for doing them at home, although I agree most things are more fun with other people around...especially exercise!

Joy: Isn't it amazing what logging our food teaches us? I was amazed at some of the calories that add up, like the trail mix, but also quickly learned the things that filled me up without adding so much to the calories. (Like Mimi's roasted vegetables!) Good luck...you are on the right track!

Debieanne: I have never looked at the sodium in an egg...I don't eat lots of them, but do try to include them some mornings...I'll have to look now!

Kelspal: WE:COME and you are off to a great start. I have found that upping my exercise along with logging my food is the best way to drop some pounds. I have been a long time walker but found that I had to get my heart rate up higher to really boost my metabolism. I'll bet your walks will help move that scale and it will make you feel better for sure. Good luck and keep us posted

Birdie: Barbie is right...your words of wisdom are always spot on. Thank you for taking the time to help the rest of us. We need inspiration and especially this time of the year!

I am driving over to my parents (no boat today...a bit too cold) to help them carry some boxes and other things down their stairs. At age 82 they do so much work...more than most people I know far younger than they are...but I have been trying to get them to let other people help when they are carrying heavy things and especially down their many steps. (The beach house is elevated, as all are here, above a garage height) The only person that they seem to allow any assistance from is me, being the oldest and the daughter. So I am more than happy to go help. I have to pretend like I am going over to have lunch with them, but then they will let me "help" a bit. I am so glad that I live close enough to do that now, after many years of living far away!

Have a wonderful day, all, and those of you with snow and bad weather, be careful out there! Kackie

Hello from the French Alps. Had a good November and managed to hit my targets. We've had a fair bit of snow. The resort opens next week so we will getting the skis out :happy:

Daughter no 2 is supposed to be flying out on Monday to spend a few days with us. Hope she makes it as Newcastle airport (departure) and Geneva airport (arrival) were both closed due to snow yesterday :noway:

Hope everyone is well. No time to catch up on posts as DH needs his turn on computer to check mails etc.

Bye for now

Good very early in the morning to all of you!:flowerforyou:

Haven't been able to post in quite a while. And haven't been logging into my food diary either. November was a tough month for me. Mostly because of not being able to log, post and definintely not eating right.

I have mom settled in to her room now which looks like a hospital room now.:ohwell: It's good for her, but when I enter it, sometimes it makes me a little sad. It has been tough dealing with my mother and her issues, both emotional and physical. I have a caretaker that we pay for ourselves who comes in for 6 hours a day to help me with my mom eveyday and another just for the weekend too. At this time I cannot handle her on my own:indifferent: . I do everything for her, I just cannot lift her out of bed. Through the Convalescent Aid Society I was able to get all the equipment from them for free including a hospital bed which helps tremendously, but even still need the caretaker to transport mom to the commode. He is a big help too me and is very young and actually very immature but that is what makes it all easier to deal with. He makes me laugh, sometimes at the most stressing times unintentionally. And then we all just bust up laughing while huffing and puffing moving mom. Even mom laughs. It's funny because at first we didn't think it would work out with him because of his immaturity (even though he is 32, he acts like a teenager) and mom was kind of shy in front of him when it came to bathroom changes and bathing. But then his humor just won us over. He takes excellent care of her and genuinely cares about her. But I swear he is just like a kid sometimes!:laugh: We have a hoist that has a full body swing her body fits in but it doesn't work for her situation. I need to find a special hoist that goes around her shoulders and helps lift her up to gether into a standing postion.Tomorrow I go back to CAS to see if they have one of them. But its doubtful.

It's been up and down this month with her. Fighting her to do exercise because its hard for her and she gets sore, makes her extremely angry and she throws temper tandrums. I know the exercises are necessary and help her alot, but sometimes it gets very discouraging as she yells and chews me out and calls me dirty names. I ignore her most of the time but sometimes it gets to me and we have a butting of the heads, a showdown of wills, if I must say and it gets pretty hairy sometimes. She knows she benefits her and she is stronger because of them, but she can be very pigheaded and stubborn and I have to get very tough with her. She is now able to bend her knees very high in bed and we have her push against our arms to build up strength in her legs. She does snow angels with her legs too and this has helped her be able to stand for short periods of time (with us holding her lightly for balance) but she is terrified of falling and needs to get over this fear to accomplish more. Depression gets her badly too, She is on a anti-depressant but I think it needs to be a little stronger, as she still gets into her "I wish I was dead, or Just put me in a home and leave me alone. It gets very frustrating to me, especially when I see how much better she is doing now.

She eats the same thing I do and is doing well with it. I know she is eating much better. Me on the other hand have noticed that a lot of times I don't have time to feed myself because I am doing other things when she is eating; phone calls, handling financial items, doctor record transfers, medications, meal preparation, squeezing time in for Boo and my dining room table is a mess of papers. Sometimes I am so exhausted that it hurts to stand and make dinner so I just order out food. We were ordering chinese food off of their low cal menu, but then they closed and now I do not have anyone healthy to deliver food to us. So a couple of times I have had to resort to eating a pizza and or spinach tortellini in marinara sauce. It kills me to eat it and it gets me depressed while I swallow it, but I am just so tired. so instead I have decided to buy some frozen lean cusine dinners to have on hand on those days when I just cant; cook. It happened 3 times this month and I was dreading going into the doctor for my weigh in. I was sure I must have gained or would have a small loss. Plus I am not walking Boo nearly as far because my sciatica nerve is killing me from doing diaper changes on my mother who weighs 197 lbs!:sad: But I think the flipping her around like a pancake side to side and pushing with my arms is almost like weight lifting. My whole body aches, especially my lower back.

Finally December 1st had come and her new insurance in California kicked in. So I had to pay for someone to come and take us to the doctor as Access won't be available to us until the middle of December. I had to pay him $80 to take us to the doctor appts I had lined up for her that day. I squeezed the intial visit with her new primary doctor (which happens to be mine) and she saw us for a complete hour. She reviewed all the records I had transferred over to her from all the rehab places and other doctors she saw in Washington. After she read them, the doctor told my mother and me, what i already knew, that it was definitely a elder neglect case and she was shocked of my mothers condition when she had arrived in the emergency room in Washington. She has said that my mother is bascially suffering from post traumatic shock syndrome from the lack of treatment she didn't receive because my brother never took her to the doctor.And when she found out what she was eating, when they did feed her, she was appalled. The pity in her eyes and tone of her voice made my mom start crying. Lately my mom is finally realizing that she was abused and now has to deal with realizing she has nothing to feel guilty about. It is very hard on her to realize she could have died and he would have let her.The doctor has increased her anti-depressant because of her severe mood swings, ran a blood panel to see where she stands at this point of time and we did ultrasound tests on her bladder, pelvic, abdominial area and kidneys as she is bleeding when she urinates. She has been on three different antibiotics thinking it was a bladder infection diagnosed in Washington, but it may be a pessory that is needed to lift her bladder, which has fallen and was removed when she was in the rehab faclity, since she had not had it checked in 2 years! I am hoping it is just that that she needs and it is not something like a tumor in her uterus. I am crossing my fingers.The doctor also ordered physical and occupational treatment to be done at home. Mom wanted to go to a facility to have the physical therapy so she could utilize more equipment, but the doctor said that in her condtion the physical therapist needs to just work on getting her to stand first with a walker then she would order the physical therapy at a facility. We all agreed this has to be done in baby steps. Plus when she is able to stand on her own then I won't need to have the caregiver any longer because she will be able to turn and sit on the commode herself. The only reason I have him is to help her stand and hold her to get her to the commode and wheelchair. For this I am paying $588.00 every 2 weeks, because there is a minimum 6 hours daily that I have to have him there. So when he is through with helping mom and has nothing to do, I have him vacumm, wash dishes, walk Boo and just generally help in general. Still it is a lot of money that we have to pay.

While I was there at the doctors with my mom (I had to cancel my own appointment to get her in) I asked if they wouldn't mind weighing me and finally had to face the scale. I was seriously dreading the results! But when I stood on the scale I had lost 11 pounds! I was shocked!!!:noway: How in the hell I accomplished that with those 3 days of eating wrong I will never understand! Plus this is the most I have ever lost in one month. People were commenting that Iooked thinner but I knew I had gone off so I didn't think it was true. All of my clothes do not fit me now and I have some brand new clothes that I never could fit in that are too big so I have to have them altered. I will take my measurements (in my spare time) to see if there is a change there. I have noticed men checking me out more and have even been hit on a few times, but I have been so exhausted that I really didnt take any of it serious. I have just been functioning and going through the motions of living. Who cares if someone is looking at me or hits on me. I don't have the time.:noway: Even my immature 39 year old caretaker has been flirting with me and finally asked me if would be interested in going out with hiim. I said, "Do you have any idea how old I am???:noway: I'm a grandmother for God's sake." He just laughed and said, "But you're a hot grandmother and you definitely don't act like a grandmother." I just laughed at him and took it as a compliment, but Jeez! I am not a cradle robber for pete's sake. That's my Ex's style, not mine.

So we are waiting now on the results from the tests and receiving her physical and occupationsl therapy and it all seems to be finally coming into place. I can only hope it will get better from this point on now.

I miss and think of you all and resent sometimes that I cannot talk to you all like I used to. I appreciate the people who have asked me to be friends with them, but I haven't answered their requests because I wouldn't be able to answer them on a regular basis. It wouldn't be fair to them. But I thank you all for your support and I hope to be able to get back to doing My Fitness Pal on a regular basis again soon.

I miss you all incredibly. But I know you all know what I am going through at this time. As it is I woke up at 4 am right now thinking I need to add another call to my list of phone calls today. Then I couldn't go back to sleep so I thought i will check in with the ladies.

Please all take care,

Love to you all:flowerforyou:
Chiclet

:flowerforyou: It's December and what a year this has been!

I just finished reading the posts from the last week, I can't believe how quickly a week goes by and here I am again playing catch up.

Thanksgiving was wonderful, had 10.75 for dinner (that .75 were the two grandsons 3 & 4mo). I was down under my goal weight by 2 lbs going into the holiday ...something I didn't try to do it just happened...so I ate a bit of everything and it wasn't until Sat & Sun that I did a bit of gaining, but all is back to normal now and I'm back at my goal weight. Finding that right balance is quite the challenge.

What I'm having the most trouble with is getting back to my exercising:sad: so for the weekend I thought I'd try and do a bit of "decorating" exercise. I left all the Christmas boxes of decorations in the basement and brought up one thing at a time so I figured I must have gone up and down the stairs about 75 times throughout the day Saturday...and boy did my leggs feel it on Sunday. I thought I'd be able to get back at it this work week...but I've been home late everynight....:sad: something has got to give!

Still in that stressful mode too, at work I am going through a state sales tax audit...NOT FUN:grumble: and it's really stressing me out...and since I have no control over that I'm keeping my eating under control as it seems to be what I can control.

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Just a few Hello's:flowerforyou:

:flowerforyou: Welcome to all of you that have joined over the past month while I have been missing in action.
I want to thank all of you for your kind thoughts and words of encouragement as I have been dealing with Mom's passing and all the things going on in my life. I'm just glad I had lost this weight this year because I've felt better physically and at least in that I am doing well

Lynn- So sorry to read that you don't get along with the DIL's parents...We have been blessed in that we do get along with all of our DIL's parents. As a matter of fact two of our DIL's parents were here for Thanksgiving and we hosted them at our house.

Amanda- :flowerforyou: I missed where your grandtwins arrived...I love the pics...and am so happy for all of you.

Robin- GREAT PIC:drinker: You look amazing!

Rebel- Sorry you got the flu:sick: and I'm sure you already have a handle on those cruise pounds...a cruise sounds wonderful right now!

Barb- I must have missed where your Aunt Nellie passed, so sorry , glad that you have fond memories of her, loved the telling of the riding on the bumpy road. Happy B'd day to your Dad! Ilove your cute "animated doggies".:laugh:

Jackie - It's okay that you are back to square one...you know we will support you all the way....you can do this:drinker:

Allison- Welcome to Maintenance:drinker: Some days it proves to be really challenging and others it's soooo easy And I saw that your Anniversary was November 10th, Happy Anniversary (belated):flowerforyou: ...so was ours ...our 37th!

Chiclet - I see that I also missed where you were finally able to get your Mom moved in with you. So sorry to read about your Mom's abuse, but glad that she is now with you. :flowerforyou: I did so love hearing about the "younger" man that's helping care for your Mom "hitting" on you...I'm sure that does your ego good that he thinks you are sooo much younger! I will keep you in my thoughts and prayers as you course your way though the care of you Mom, I'm just glad that she is now with you and know that you will take care of her the way she needs to be cared for.:flowerforyou:

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Everyone have a good day and keep up the good fight. You can see that I didn't set very many December goals...I figured I needed to re-start at a slower pace.

Till later... Laura