40+ Club: Fall Fitness Fanatics

Hi, can I join this group? I'm not new here, been at it for a few months but I'm also not quite 40- YET, 39 actually :blushing:

Tron I love your pic! You weren't nerdy at all! In fact you remind me of Jacquelyn Smith. (dating myself I guess

Sing I do know how tempting work snacks can be. I only work an hour a day at my daughter's school but those teachers are always bringing something in! I just need to walk away.

Stiring your workouts inspire me. I was all ready to go full blast this week and came down with the worst virus. I am so stuffed up and can't stop coughing, but I am going to go for a walk now whether I feel like it or not. I haven't exercised since Saturday and I that concerns me. I have fibromyalgia so it's important for me to keep moving. I was lazier than I'd ever been this holiday season so I definitely was a lot stiffer than I'd been in a long time. No more excuses...virus or not!

Alf I'm sorry about your pain. I had no idea that MRI's hurt, I've never had one before.

Cardi we finally got snow too today. My husband's relatives are all in the Boston area so I know that they have been socked with it. Chicago has had a ton of snow the past two years but this year it really hasn't been too bad. I have to say I've been praying for it though because Saturday I am supposed to take nine Brownie Girls Scouts sledding...lord help me.

Claudia welcome...I am new too.

OK...off on my walk. Have a great day everyone!!!

Thank you for letting me join! Been on this site for about 3 months now, but I still have a LONG way to go. I just started c5k and I'm on week 3. It really sucks how hard (and slow) it is to lose this weight. I see many others losing much quicker than I am, but they are also MUCH younger than me too. *sigh*

Thank you for all the compliments. Its just amazing that we don't see ourselves like everyone else does.

kbefit... Jacquelyn Smith, I love her. Have you seen her lately? Gosh she doesn't look like shes aged a bit.

Sing... Just asking and please don't take this the wrong way but is your snacking out of control of is it that you don't like the fact of not having your eating out of control 100% of the time?

Stiring... Have you checked into the requirements to become a personal trainer? I don't know whats all involved so I was just curious.

Alf... I am so sorry that your MRI was so painful. :frown: I will pray that it doesn't show anything too serious. :flowerforyou:

Claudia007... It is so frustrating to have to work so much harder to get the same results as someone much younger. Makes me wish I had started 20 years ago. But your doing great! Look at how much you have already lost! :flowerforyou:

Off to do my workout for the day. I would have started earlier BUT the hubby was home and barking out orders to me. I can't stand when hes like that. Its not what he's asking but how he asks ya know.

Thanks Tron & StiringWendle for your words of encouragment! I am feeling great about my decision to be and stay healthy, but it is a little discouraging when I am losing weight at a snails pace while everyone around me is losing at lightening speed. Nothing much I can do, I suppose, but I am happy that the scale is going down! I'm here in California and I'm excited that we will be having some warm weather finally! My daughter is on 2 soccer teams, her regular team is in the play-offs and they play on Saturdays and I've been FREEZING out at the soccer fields! She also made the all-star team and they play on Sundays, so my weekends are booked for at least the rest of January. It's supposed to reach the low to mid 70's this weekend and I'm SOO looking forward to that! I can't imagine what it must be like with 5 inches of snow! I hope everyone has a great day! :bigsmile:

just checking in...I'm still here! I just haven't found time to catch up lately...

I have had a couple of nice weight loss days though! Will try to get back here later! Why is getting ready for vacation, which by the way is still 16 days away, such a project in and of itself?!

We got a break from the snow here in Northern Cal and it actually rained last night. Good thing because after the last storm it has never warmed up and we had a lot of ice. With the rain that ice has finally melted. We are supposed to warn up this week end. Thank goodness because I am tired of the winter already. I cant wait for it to warm up and be able to enjoy the outside again.

Yesterday I pulled out The Biggest Loser program for the wii. I was supposed to do and hour but I ended up only doing half of that.:frown: Upset with myself that I didn't complete it but cant do anything about it now. Haven't decided what I'd like to do today, maybe the weights. My calves are so darn sore from the steps I did the other day. I dont know how they do it on the show Biggest Loser being sore all the time and still having to push yourself.

Stirirng... What are the studies about? Nutrition in general? I think you have learned so much on your own that it will just be common sense for you and probably wont take that long at all. As for people wanting to train with you... Its not a matter of what you "think" you look like its how they feel after their first workout with you. Do they feel like you were knowledgeable and actually left them feeling like they had a great work out? And I'm sure the answer would be YES! The hardest part would be getting them in because of the economy but if you have a first time special I'm sure they will keep coming back. You will be great at it.

Claudia007... Be proud of yourself even if you just lose 1 to 2 lbs. As long as your eating clean and exercising it will come off. And its not really about the scale as it should be about your general health and fitness. You started your weight loss in Sept? And already lost 18lbs? Thats actually great progress.

Good Morning!

alf, thanks for your feedback on the ACSM certification!! I appreciate it. And I wouldn't be caught dead in a bikini right now!! :noway: But I would like to be able to wear a t-shirt and not hit anybody in the face with the flab on my underarm. :blushing:

tron, the studies, as I understand, are about physiology and what exercises do what for what part of the body and such. Nutrition isn't part of it. Thanks for your encouragement. You are very wise and say some terrific things!!

pepper, good to see you!!! Write more when you get a chance.

mrsward, good to see you again. Congrats on your weight loss.

singfree, I'm glad this is your last long work day this week. Good job on keeping up with the workouts throughout this time, though. How's that shoulder? Weren't you having some problems from doing upright rows? Hope it is feeling better.

All here is well. I did a long-ish HiiT workout this morning and will do yoga a little later. The eating is very clean right now, and I feel alot better.

Hope you all have a great day!

Happy Thursday everyone!
I'm actually feeling a bit discouraged today. I am on week 3 of c5k, and I have been feeling pretty good about it. Until I weighed in today. a bloody .5lb loss! This if after a .3lb gain last week! Party of me wants to give up the c5k and go back to previous cardio work outs, as I was seeing anywhere from a 1-2lb loss a week, but the other part of me is telling me not to quit. *sigh* I'm at a 18.5 weight loss and getting to a 20lb loss is my first goal, yet I can't seem to get there!

Hello all.....it's been a long couple of weeks, so I haven't read the thread.......maybe this weekend :yawn:

After spending a few days home in MN for my aun't funeral I didn't feel good over the weekend and we got snow Mon-Tues, so yesterday was my first workout since Dec 28 :frown: :frown: Curves kicked my butt; as usual when I've been gone awhile. I'm still stuck at the stupid "fat" weight/measurements since early December, which is frustrating. I know the extra flab is from all the holiday goodies, but I stupidly keep expecting it to disappear quickly since theres's no more goodies around the office or the house for me to eat:laugh: :laugh: Will I ever learn? Probably not, but I think we all get into that mindset, especially in January. I'll keep trudging away on the neverending cycle of the same 10 pounds:ohwell:

Got good news and not so good news yesterday................... my 72yr old dad with COPD, emphysema and prostate cancer (5 years, controlled with medication) was diagnosed in early December with an enlarged abdominal aorta and referred to the Mayo Clinic for a consultation with a vascular surgeon to discuss putting in a stent. His appointments were yesterday.
The good news - 1) the "enlargement" isn't as large as the local clinic thought it was. It's actually a kind of "bend" in the aorta that made it appear like an aneurism on the ultrasound and 2)his enlarged stomach is not due to additional cancer or side effects of his prostate cancer meds.
The bad news - 1)the aorta is "bent" because his abdominal muscle tone is gone, 2)his organs inside the rib cage are sinking down into abdominal area, which caused the "bend" in the aorta and the enlarged stomach and 3) his lungs are shot and he probably wouldn't survive surgery to put in a stent. Surgeon told Mom to bring him back in 6 months for another CAT scan. So.......it appears that Dad's 50+ years of smoking and not having a healthy lifestyle have caught up with him and he can't be fixed. I asked my brother if the surgeon recommended anything to try and improve Dad's lungs so he might be able to survive a surgery if one proved necessary and my brother's reply was "do something more than waking up, walking out to the living room and watching TV all day (and half the night)". So.......the unsaid answer was "nope, nothing Dad can/will do to improve his lungs and we're just going to have to watch him deteriorate more and more". So frustrating.........and scary. Dad was fairly active until he retired 12 years ago, but hasn't done anything at all to even attempt to keep himself healthy since his stroke in 2003. It was a minor stroke; nothing physical effected long term, but memory "cloudiness" and frustration that goes with it and minor speech impairment on bad days. Dad still kknows what's going on; he just can't process things as quickly any more and gets very frustrated when around multiple people. He FINALLY quit smoking about 5 years ago when he stopped driving and Mom refused to buy any more cigarettes for him:laugh: I really wonder how long it's going to be before something major fails on him...............

Enough of my whining/venting............I know I can't fix him and this should just be more motivation to take better care of myself, right?

Hi everyone. Thanks to Stiring and kadetr for the email exchanges and sharing your maintenance experiences - very helpful and encouraging. Always comforting to know there are people that REALLY understand because they have been in the same shoes. Looking forward to continuing our correspondence.

Based on everyone's advice and support, I have increased my calories by a bit this week to stem the weight loss recognizing that 100 calories or so per day is not going to amount to a gain - but hopefully will be just enough to maintain. It's hard to do more than that psychologically/emotionally at least until I know it is not going to cause a gain. We'll see the impact on Sunday when I weigh-in. The good news is that I did notice my energy levels were better...

Does anyone struggle else find that is hard to substantially increase calories if you are a "clean eater" without feeling really full? I like the foods I eat and look forward to the foods that I eat now that during weight loss were "taboo" for me (i.e., nuts, granola, unsalted almond butter, etc.) but looking for some other ideas. Any thoughts or recipes to share?

I didn't work out yesterday and today I hung out with my daughter all day. Hopefully I'll get some kind of exercise squeezed in before it gets too late. I have been super tired, which really isn't that uncommon for me I guess. I remember being the 5 year old who slept til noon even if I went to bed around 9. I dont understand how one person could need so much sleep.

Sing.... I live in Sonora. Its really close to Yosemite National Park. The roads really went that bad when it came to the ice. They actually came out and plowed it really good for a change before the snow froze but I on the other hand didn't shovel everything because I though... Ehhh, there's hardly anything out there it will melt quick. What a mistake that was. As for the iphones, there great. I personally dont have one but both of my daughters do. I would love to get one but I got my blackberry just before the made the internet mandatory and I dont know if I could afford the extra money right now.

Kadetr... Snow shoes... How much snow do you get?

Claudia007... Take your measurements! There were plenty of times I didn't loose weight but I lost inches.

mkwood... Oh my you have been going through quite a lot haven't you. I am so sorry.

kbefit... Take care of your health first. If you dont you will just make yourself sicker.

Good Morning!

mkwood, I'm so sorry to hear about your father!! You and he are in my thoughts. It's sad that an unhealthy lifestyle as brought him to this place. Sadly, it is a testament why it is important to be at a place like this. And I'm sorry to hear about your aunt. You've had a time of it lately. Take care!

kadetr, my experience with wine is slightly different than singfree's experience. Well, that could be because alcohol effects women and men differently because of the release of estrogen (and we have more estrogen in our bodies already.) But I digress. I find that it does impact how I look (more than my weight) and makes me a tad puffier than I would be otherwise if I drink every night. So cutting back to weekends may be a great thing especially, as you indicated, if you aren't as active as you normally are. Enjoy that snow!!!!

alf, good job on the workouts!!! I have no doubt you're a little sore. Take it easy, but good job on getting back to it!!

claudia, if you are enjoying the running, don't give it up! There are few exercises better for fat and weight loss than running. It could be that your body is retaining more water than normal as a result of continuing to challenge your muscles. That is VERY common and happens to me ALL the time, especially when I change up my exercise routine. I will be able to fit into a pair of jeans one day and not the next, and that has all to do with water retention and not fat. So my recommendation is to stick with it if you like it and really push the water consumption. That will help. And give it some time. Really, you are doing great things for your body with this fitness regime. Don't give it up because of a number on the scale.

kbefit, sorry to hear about the continuing illness. Take care of yourself and we'll be here when you come back!!

altushe, I suffered that problem of feeling too full as well when I was trying to increase my calories. I think that's why I always reverted back to peanut butter or almond butter as my calorie staple because it didn't give me that feeling. Hopefully somebody else will be able to provide better guidance than that! I forget that not everybody shares my addiction to nut butters. :laugh:

tron, listen to your body and ease back into this exercise program slowly. Like I said the other day, you may want to aim at every other day for 30 minutes each session for a little while until your body adjusts.

singfree, sounds like you've got a great day and weekend planned! Glad you are off those long days now. Good job with the workouts this week. And just tell yourself your eating will be better next week. Don't worry about the week that's already gone by. Enjoy your day!

Friday check-in.....had a great week for eating and exercise. Not a piece of chocolate consumed all week! :drinker: I feel much better. I also really pushed the workouts this week, and I feel leaner already. My clothes are still fitting the same (which isn't particularly good), but I feel better and that's important to me. I did an Insanity workout this morning and will do a Total Body workout later today.

I hope you all have a great weekend!