WOMEN AGES 50+ FOR JUNE 2014

June 1st already?!

I did not achieve my May Goal of reaching ONEderland ... sigh ... been practicing maintenance prematurely for too long ... so this is June's goal. I need to lose 3 pounds to get under 200.

My migraine suffering son had a great day Friday ... headache free for the first time in a year ... only lasted 24 hours though. Interestingly, he had forgotten to take his morning meds .... I'm suspicious one of those drugs may be aggravating the migraines. Plan to talk to the doctor. Of course, missing some meds may have had nothing to do with it. Could be the Botox kicking in, diet changes... who knows.

We are trying , at our neurologist's suggestion, Dr. Buchholz's "Heal Your Migraine 1-2-3" diet. Anyone have experience with the migraine trigger diet?? I'm overwhelmed with the amount of our food that has MSG! This is going to be hard ... especially with a 16yo.

Hugs to those who need them!

Beth in Western New York

Hi all,

I've been so busy that I'm just bumping in today.

But I have read all the posts....cheering for some and praying for others as I read.

Eileen near San Diego

Bump to mark the new thread....which I posted in the May thread early this morning. Doh!

I haven't even lurked since getting back from our trip -- just have spent loads of time working, including yesterday and maybe today, too. We'll see. … yep, I worked 6 more hours today. 50 hours since Weds, yikes!

The last pages in May mentioned heart things for more than one person, I think. Having gone through that and had valve replacement it caught my attention. In my case the aortic valve had a common birth defect - two leaflets to close the opening, instead of three. Over time and aging it had to be addressed surgically, but initially was diagnosed as SVT - supraventricular tachicardia.

My description of the sensations was a musical one: if a quarter note represents a normal heartbeat, mine would speed up and go to eighth notes, then sixteenths, thirty-second notes, etc. Finally there would be a good whole or half note (or two), and the rhythm would reset. It went on for the longest time before they diagnosed, even with wearing a variety of monitors. At one point I just manually triggered the monitor and transmitted the data, since it never seemed to go on its own. (Then they said, after transmission, "Are you home alone?" Weirdly, drying my hair seemed to be a trigger. ANYWAY, they had me on lowest dosage of digitek for a time, then was weaned off without incident and took no meds for a number of years.

Now I have a pig valve and take a beta blocker plus a statin. They want 'heart' patients' cholesterol below 150, and even with exercise and diet I just couldn't get there. But I am taking half the lowest statin dose in experiment. (With the doc's knowledge - blood test next week. If the number still satisfies her I can stay at the lower dose.)

CynthiaT60 – I see now you are one of the posters and put out a question about when the events happen. Did you ever go to natural childbirth classes? Think of it as breathing through a contraction. It is unnerving to feel it, for sure.

The dog came home from boarding with 'stress colitis'. It was so bad we took her to the vet to figure out the problem. I was scrubbing walls, cleaning carpets, etc., wherever she was -- poor thing was miserable for several days. She is on the mend now.

Heather, I have a vanilla-strawberry hydrangea and it is beautiful, but I think I may have trimmed it at the wrong time last winter, though, as I have no blooms or buds thus far. A price worth it to reshape the weird shape it had last year. I also missed my peony blooming while traveling.

Sue, congratulations on your retirement. How wonderful!

I'm having my second eye surgery (cataract removal) tomorrow. So excited to be done and then able to get a new pair of classes! Its weird to be able to see to drive without glasses.

Gail, metro ATL

Wow, I feel like I am late to the party! It's 8:30 and I'm just now reading.

We worked real hard through our working years to make sure we paid off out mortgage early. It was such a wonderful feeling. My sister is married to a CPA, is the head of an accounting department, gotten awards, etc, etc. she is 2 years older than me, been married about 5 years longer and they now owe more on their mortgage now than than when they bought the house almost 40 years ago. They just keep on remortgaging.

I went to the mall to walk with Charlie today. It has been a long long time since I have been there. One of the anchor stores has been empty for a long time and it has this big glass door in front of it. The store right next to the left has a big window and isn't open much so there is nothing in that window. So when I walk I see my reflection in that huge glass door and then turn a corner and see the side reflection. When I first started walking I would see my belly just hanging out, it looked huge. I was totally disgusted with it. But I believe that negative feelings can cause positive growth. So I wanted to see what my smaller belly looked like in the glass. I had my sunglasses hanging out of my pocket and my cell phone in my other pocket so the contour of my hips weren't quite what they are supposed to look like so I took them out so I good get a good look. Well, I'm still a little disgusted but it sure doesn't look like what it used to.

I sure wish I had the green thumb like so many of you do. But with my almost complete lack of cooking ability I don't know what I would do with all those goodies. I am very envious.

I had a much better sleep last night but the bad ol' devil was working his magic this morning when I got u[ with the alarm. I wanted to go back to sleep so bad. But I did my best to brush him away and got in the shower and got ready. I was so glad that I did. We have 5 altos in our choir. One is on vacation, one was sick this morning and the other was just incognito. So it was just 2 of us. So I was so glad I didn't give in and go back to bed.

Joyce, in stormy Indiana

Hi, I would love to join this group for June. I have probably posted here quite awhile ago. Still struggling with my attitude. Anyway my goals for June would be:

Eat more vegetables
Walk at least 3 days per week
Keep track of what I eat daily
Try to think positively

Cathy in NS

Carol – What a total drag!!! :grumble: I am so sorry – good for you for figuring out the right choice for you for now:flowerforyou: …. I have a number of friends living in condos and loving it. Here is hoping you find the right one.

Cynthia – that post sounds scary…

Sue – congrats on retirement! :drinker: :drinker: :drinker:

Beth - MSG out of your diet will help everyone’s health – even if it is hard!

Sandy – welcome back… missed your smiling face!

Sylvia – 2 lbs lost is maybe not what you wanted, but it sure is better than 2 lbs gained!!!

Gail – your flowers are gorgeous!

Yanniejannie - you sound a bit more mellow this evening - that is a good thing :drinker:

Charolette - welcome!

So this afternoon I was totally craving a rootbeer float - Rootbeer is the only soda I drink and I probably have 3-4 a year; most of those with ice cream... I am not a "diet" food fan - especially the faux sweeteners - for me they leave an aftertaste that I don't like. But I figured with ice cream I might not taste it... so instead of doing A&W drive thru - I went to the market and got diet rootbeer and a small thing of light ice cream and had my treat - I was pleased to see I was willing to put in the extra effort to get what I wanted and fit it in.. for me these are the things that help me believe that I can make this last long term.

I did get a book from the library and sat on my patio in a big rocker and read the afternoon away - it was a great break for me.

so this morning on one of my walks Levi and I found a wallet - it has money and 12 credit cards (thats a lot) and drivers license, but no phone number - I got on the computer and can not find a phone number - I did find her facebook page and sent her a message - no response yet - Tomorrow when our police department is open I'll bring it over; the drivers license address is about 30 miles away.. but it made me think about my wallet - and I looked and no where is my phone number - I am putting it on a piece of paper in there -- just if found please call xxx-xxx-xxxx. She has to be worried - probably calling the credit card companies! but no way to contact her. just thought I'd pass on the phone number idea.

well off to balance my check book :noway: hate that job.

Kim in N. California

Rode the recumbant bike for an hour today. Tomorrow the plan is to do some yoga, hold my plank, and then take the extremepump class.

Pam - welcome!

Linda - good for you going onto MFP for so long! Welcome

Liz - hope you feel better fast

Roda Rose - welcome! What part of FL are you in?

yanniejannie - walking is so much better than going to IHOP! Sorry about your fall, but glad no serious injuries. I swear, I'm almost on my next bottle of sunscreen, I seem to go thru it almost like water. Trust me, I can totally relate to how you feel about your dd, and how frustrating it is to know that there's really nothing you can do because they are LEGALLY adults.

Cindy - glad to hear your dog is more alert today

katla - my passport expires next year. Have to remember to get it renewed. Next year there's just so much that needs to be done, passport updated, CPR recert, colonoscopy, and probably other things that I haven't thought of. I'm beginning to think that part of a mother's job is praying, real real hard! I know that I have the sorest knees on the face of the earth

This morning Vince and I went out in the front and put down some of the landscape fabric and riverrock around the lights. Now Vince was always the kind of person who would do everything at one time. I was always the one who did a little one day, a little the next and so on until the job was done. However, this is the second time he's really surprised me in that he wanted to quit early. I thought for sure he'd want to finish the front walkway, but we got about 3/4 of the way done and he decided to call it a day. I went in the pool and he came in and had lunch (I just munch on tomatoes) and then turned on the heater so the spa heated up some. I didn't think the water was that cold -- it was 79. But to him it was cold. I don't like when the ambient air is chilly. If the sun is out, I can handle colder water. Can you tell that I'm loving my pool?

jb - all those wonderful veges! When can I come by? Do you have the red beets or the golden beets? I love the golden ones. That smoothie sounds so delish!!!! You have some really good recipes there. I did weigh myself shortly after my friends left, wasn't too pleased with the number on the scale. But it's going down

bj - mortgage free! How wonderful! I don't think we have ever been in that position. Big congratulations on all you've done

Nena - we have a calendar that we write EVERYTHING in. I write what exercise I'm planning to do, what we're going to have for dinner, appointments, birthdays, anniversaries, etc. I swear, I'd be totally lost without it. Yup, in this high tech age, I still use my write-in calendar, it seems to be the most efficient, believe it or not. I guess if there was some way to have a calendar on my phone that Vince could also use. I would like for it to be where if I input something, Vince can see it the next time he logs in. But I don't know of any program that's fairly reliable that can do that. I used to use Cozi, but they were forever having problems so I now use another app for my grocery list, but they don't have a calendar feature.

Vicki - great NSV you had there, actually both of them. You know, it took me 30 years to finally figure out why God took my mother when I was so young, I hope it doesn't take another 30 for me to figure out why He has Bryan doing what he's doing.

jane - Vince still feels that I can do the deep water exercises in our pool. I tried today explaining to him that there just isn't as much room (our pool only goes to 6 feet whereas the one at the Y goes to 10, so you can go for a longer period of time doing activities)

Margaret - night eating is one of my downfalls, too. But believe it or not, I got a few tips from the Wii. It says that if you have to have something at night, have something that is easily digestible, like applesauce or tofu. Lately, I've been having silken tofu with unsweetened cocoa.

Sue in SD - doing a happy dance for you being retired. Pretty soon you'll be saying "where did I ever find the time to work?" You reminded me of the saying "if you want to make God laugh, make a plan"

Beth - a friend of our is allergic to MSG. I understand that it's put in the soil when growing some foods in order to make the foods taste sweeter. How in the world are you supposed to know what kind of ground the food was grown in?

Sandy - remember that a problem shared is a problem halved. Glad to see you back

Gail - good luck with your surgery tomorrow

Jan and Cynthia - another thing that sounds really strange, but it works for Vince when he goes into tachacardia is if he bears down (as if he's having a bm). This puts strain on the heart and it converts. Yes, it does sound strange, but the md said it was the right thing to do.

Cathy - welcome. Great goals

shygirl - pull up a chair, pour yourself a drink (of water, of course), and hop right in.

kim - did the ice cream help with the aftertaste of the diet soda? I don't care for "diet" sweeteners, either. It has been proven that they do increase your desire for sweets and can actually help to make you fat because the body thinks "oh, sugar coming" but when it doesn't get it the body wants more and more. That's so nice of you to turn in the wallet. I had my wallet stolen, oh, maybe 6 or 7 years ago. Just recently I needed to have one of my credit cards replaced. They wanted me to call from the phone number (our old number). We don't even have that number any more! In the end, they are going to mail me a replacement card.

Michele in NC

Good morning, everyone!

Sue: congrats on your milestone and glad the party was fun. Sure wish I could do 8000 steps; I’m afraid I’ll have to have the new knee for that. Thanks for your good wishes; mare seems fine again.
Beth: lovely that your son had a pain-free day!
Sylvia: two pounds is two pounds! May was not a stellar month for me either, though.
Gail: poor dog; maybe she’ll need another solution re boarding? I’m lucky enough to have a friend who can take mine (and I can take hers); that’s perfect for my dog. Good luck with the cataract surgery.
Yanniejannie: coughing hadn’t occurred to me. Cardiologist appointment (including ultrasound) is in 2 weeks.
Kim: you’re right; it’s great that you thought of a good solution and carried it out. Root beer floats…that takes me back! I’ve got a sticker in my wallet with my cell phone number on it. Made it with a label maker. And in my cell phone case I have my home phone number on a small scrap of paper (in case I lose my cell phone).
Michele: you’re a sweetie. You just are.

I’m going to be working at home a bit today, and I plan to go to the gym later. Will speak to the trainer and see how far I come, considering the beta blocker and a really bad muscle cramp in my back. I’ll go during “business hours” because my GP is right across the street. I’d like to go get some hanging geraniums, but we’ll see.

Cynthia :flowerforyou:

Hi All!

Been awol for a few weeks, but should be back regularly soon. We've been on a cruise in northern Europe, and just arrived in Amsterdam. Will be home in a few days. Haven't been posting food-just don't have a clue on how to figure out most of the food. I have been reasonably careful and the ship restaurant we ate in did serve smaller portions. Think I've gained a couple of pounds, though will be walking a LOT now. My fitbit has buzzed my wrist most days. Not sure what the heck that means but it has to be good.

Hugs to all who need one and welcome to all the new ladies!

Jill in western MA

Hi Kathy,
I feel stuck in a mediocre frame of mind. So I have reached out to this group as well.
Was doing real well for a while, that sense of control was awesome!
Then life got in the way and all sense of control vanished, so frustrating!
Started tracking again this morning and will head out the door for a walk
Hope you have a positive day!
- Tara