WOMEN AGES 50+ FOR APRIL 2014

Bump for later.

Eileen from rainy (thankfully!) San Diego

Bump for later

Happy April:flowerforyou: :flowerforyou:
Mri done.
My 1st goal is to see what`s going on with the knee so I can plan exercise.Food wise,eat better and stick to calories.
Welcome new ladies.:drinker: :drinker:
HUGS
jane

Hello and happy April to all: Welcome to all those who are new.

My March goals were to average 7500 steps per day on my fitbit. I did that, this last week was 8263 per day!!!! I also wanted to go up one weight plate on the machines at the wellness center and I have done that too. My last goal for March was to continue my preparations for retirement. I worked my last fulltime day last Friday so apart from dealing with large doses of prednisone my March was good and I was able to maintain my weight.

My goals for April are to average 8000 steps per day on my Fitbit. I am going to continue at the present weight level but try to up the repetitions for weights. I will ride my horse at least three times this month weather allowing. My words for this year are "embrace change".

Heather - The Jag trip sounds like so much fun! Traveling mercies to you.

Wishing everyone the best of luck with their April goals. Healing angels to all who need them and congratulations to those with victories. Sue in SD

Hello all! Bumping in to save my place for later :flowerforyou:

Jill in western MA

:drinker: :drinker: :drinker:

Hello Everyone,

My name is Pam and we've been living in Puerto Rico for 3.5 years now.

Fitness wise I've been in and out of the gym for awhile but recently decided to step it up and see if I can get my shape back. I turned 50 last year and things have shifted a bit. I've been tracking on MFP this past month and find it extremely interesting to say the least.

My goals for April would be to continue strength training 5 days a week and do a better job at eating protein, carbs and good fats.

Happy Spring!

Pam in PR

Dee Dee in answer to your question yes I think we may be thawing out soon its plus 7 celcius here today and raining Spring
may have found our neck of the woods.

:flowerforyou: Barbie forgot to Thank you for starting our April off with great graphics so cheerful, and for all your inspiration


Have a great day everyone Juanita in sudbury

Good morning everyone and wishing you all a happy and springlike April!

I would love to join this group: it seems like a good group and motivating. I am in Canada, and lost a bunch of weight about 5 years ago and actually hit 'onderland' and actually reached 180 lbs. Stayed there for a long, long time, then DH retired and in the next year I gained 190. OK,, stayed there for a long time. However, got on the scale today and my April Fools weight was 198.

Decided today that 200+ was NOT going to happen, so here I am. My first goal is lose 5lb (in reality, I hope its 8lb) for April. and then move on from there. If the snow ever melts, I will take up walking on a more consistent basis too.

Good losing vibes to everyone on their journey.

Hi my Vitamin F friends!!

Welcome to all the new folks. This is a great place to get support and lots of kindness.

Here are some notes from a handout I picked up at the Y related to emotional eating (certainly an issue of mine!) -

Food journaling will help identify your emotional triggers (log every bite!!!)
Cultivate mental and emotional well-being through practices like meditation, mindfulness, massage, and yoga
Turn to message boards for help (yes, indeed and here we are)

When emotional eating hits, a 3 minute "trick" for handling the stress in the moment

1. MINUTE 1: Stay grounded. 9 times out of 10, emotional eating comes from getting caught in a mind storm of worst case scenarios, projections, misinterpretations, all those emotional overreactions.

So, take a few deep breaths. If someone else is involved, take a timeout and agree to continue the discussion in a few minutes.

Remind yourself where you are. Look around, noticing and naming the colors, shapes in the space around you.

Notice your physical sensations and try to name the emotion that goes with that sensation.

The idea is to stay in your body and in the moment---with what's real---instead of going inside your mind and spinning scenarios out of control.

2. MINUTE 2: Reality Check. Once you are calm enough to think productively, put all those thoughts in your head through a reality check. Do any of these thought patterns that are not in reality familiar?

All or nothing thinking - You go over your calorie limit and decide to keep eating because you have already blown it.
Reality: Weight loss is one a one-day event. If you stop overeating now, you'll gain potentially less and have less to re-lose.

Reading your own thoughts into someone else's words - Someone makes a mildly critical or unsupportive remark and you feel completely devastated.
Reality: The more bothered you are by such remarks, the more likely you are being way too critical of yourself. When you treat yourself with respect, what others say won't matter nearly as much.

Either-or thinking - You made a mistake or had a bad day and feel like a complete and hopeless failure.
Reality: No one does well all of the time. Mistakes are necessary and valuable opportunities to learn.

3. MINUTE 3: Put things in perspective. Most problems are easier when we don't make mountains out of molehills. Some questions to ask yourself -

How big a deal is this anyway? If I was going to die in a week, would I want to spend this minute of my time on this.

Will anything bad happen if I postpone thinking about this until I have more time to figure it out?

Do I have the info I need and do I really know what is going on or am I making assumptions?

Am I worrying about things that may not even happen?

Can I break this problem or issue down into more manageable pieces I can handle one at a time?

Is there anything I can do right now to change or help this situation?

I found a lot of myself along the way in this article :blushing: . Hop it's useful to others!


March goals - Continue more vegetables - done!
Drink 8-10 glasses water a day - most every day!
50 min cardio twice a week - and sometimes 60!!
Lose 2-3 pounds - Lost a total of 3.5!!!!!
Work out 3 times a week - Missed one Sunday when out of town
Up my weights in strength training - Done and still doing. All weights are up at least 10%, some a fair amount more. Seated planks now 1 1/2 minutes each (5 total)

April goals: Pretty much the same, though may not increase weights quite so much unless I have really adapted to the higher weights I'm now using.

Jill in western MA

Hi again,

Did a quick skim and it looks most have some big aspirations for April. I am going to stick to my food and fitness goals here (to avoid being overwhelmed) and they are.....(drum roll please):

To continue with and steadily improve with my T25 (April will make me through the Alpha phase)
Add non impact, fat burning cadio each day
Log my food here and stay under my calorie allotment
Eliminate more starchy carb and replace them with more veggies
Work toward eliminating added, processed sugars from my life again.
Work in some stretching, yoga and meditation.

I am HOPING that I will see a 5-10 pound loss this month but given my metabolic "handicap", I will be happy with any.

Yay for helping hospice Heather!

Catch ya'll later

Gloria from Metro Detroit

Thanks for the explanation of the Jag trip, sounds exciting and fun.

Sylvia, I know I am not in your situation and therefore can't even fathom what you are going through, just take this as part of making a plan. You now know the first step and that is a partial diagnosis. None of us know our future. My thoughts and prayers are with you. Have you looked into any support groups in your area?

Joyce, Indiana

Do you all post only how you are doing towards goals or daily life things too?
I managed to notice spring is finally here--it's very late this year but the pear trees finally have blooms!
I made a million trips back and forth to the new house.
Polished the floors, walked the dog then got on the treadmill. I joined my old gym--it's 3 blocks from my new house--I can get on the treadmill and watch the boats move out of the inlet. I can watch the sun move to sunset over the water. That's what I did today for 2 miles. I worked shoulders and abs too! I really hate weights and abs but love cardio so that's why my goals this month are to start weight training.

Kim, this is an actual cave that this company is in. It occupies the front half of the cave but you still have to walk a good ways to get to the complex. Apparently there is an area behind their offices that is unoccupied and she likes to explore. It is quite cool in there and wet. They have special ventilation system to keep the offices and all the records dry. She does have to wear special boots because of the rough terrain and puddles before you get to the offices. The cave system has some sort of water reserve in it that they bottle the water and sell it as spring water. It will be quite interesting. She has done some exploring outside also and found an old shed with a lot of antiques in it and quite a lot of old coke bottles in good condition.

Bumping for now. Have been away on a grueling business trip which kicked my behind emotionally and physically. So good to be back here. Need the Vitamin F in big bunches. I'll be back with April goals soon.

Rori in the Colorado Foothills

Word for 2014 = Release

Katla, my grandkids and I were tested for the genetic disorder that my son has. It's A1-AT deficiency. It's something the body produces to protect the lungs and liver, and some unlucky people just don't produce enough of it. It destroys the lungs and can cause lung cancer, liver cancer, cirrhosis of the liver, jaundice, skin lesions, and a few other things.

The results came back yesterday. They classify people according to particular markers on a specific gene. The oldest granddaughter was an MM, which means no risk. That was not surprising, given that she is his adopted daughter, but still good to know. The other two grandkids are MZ's, which means they are carriers with the lowest risk of developing symptoms later in life, so that was the best we could hope for for them. My results were SZ, which has the second highest range of severity. I expected to be just a carrier, so that surprised me. My son is a ZZ, which is the most severe.

All my life there has been a debate as to whether I have asthma or not. Some docs said yes, some said no. So when I have shortness of breath, especially when lying in bed at night, I thought it was asthma. It seems now that it could be a symptom of this and not really asthma at all. I have to have some more tests run to check liver enzymes and lung function and stuff like that. But I'm in spectacularly good shape compared to my son. He is looking at a double lung transplant in the next couple of years. There is no cure for it, but there is a treatment. He's on oxygen 24 hours a day. He had an IV port installed in his chest and has to get an infusion every week for the rest of his life. The meds are to replace the stuff his body is not producing. I don't think I will ever get that bad, and hope not to need the infusions at all. The meds cost over $100,000 per year.

The best thing for all of us is to avoid environmental triggers that the lungs normally try to filter out, like smoke, chemicals and dust. And losing weight is a plus. Of course, that is all good advice for anybody, so it's no big surprise. I'm concerned about my being able to continue doing pottery. That is something that produces a certain amount of dust no matter how careful you are. I have noticed it being very hard to breathe, especially after mixing or spraying glazes, even with a respirator. So that is something I will have to discuss with the pulmonologist. I've never been a smoker but was around a lot of smokers in my childhood and early adulthood.

There are support groups but none in our area, and none online. This doctor, who is the only pulmonologist in our little town said there is only one other person in town who has it. It's sort of a rare disease. To find a doc who specializes in it we would have to travel to St. Louis or Omaha. There is a registry for people who want to participate in medical trials and research. I signed up for that.

So, I was feeling down about it for a little while. I'm done now.

Tonight I took the girls to swim lessons and after went to Taco Bell for dinner. I showed them how I log my food and they were very interested in the whole process. They didn't understand anything about calories or sodium. The oldest needs to lose a little, so she was especially interested. I showed them my picture with my fat pants and they were very impressed. It turned out to be a good teachable moment.

Well, hubby just got home. Gotta go. Goodnight all!

Sylvia