WOMEN AGES 50+ FOR AUGUST 2014

Kayzoola, I'm so sorry to hear what you are going through with your mom. I hope you will keep us updated on how things are going.

As far as getting negative comments about how thin you have gotten...poo-poo-poopie on them! You are taking care of yourself and doing great at it. Is your family heavy? Maybe they are jealous and think you are looking better than them so they have to drag you back down a notch or two. Family are usually the worst for sabotaging self esteem. Or maybe with the stress over your mom they are just searching for something else to focus on. Same it has to be you. Keep your chin up!

Sylvia

Kayzoola, I'm so sorry about your Mother. Hugs and prayers for you.

Cindy in OK

Good Day Beautiful Ladies !
I am new... 52 and recently moved from CA to NC. I just wanted to pop in and say Thank you so much for sharing. I read the stories and I know I'm not alone. I see all these beautiful faces and I am so inspired to hang in there when times are trying. This is an amazing group of women. My story... I've had a stroke to my optic nerve that has affected my vision, so I retired early. This is all new to me. I have so much time on my hands, so I am learning to garden :flowerforyou: . I may not be able to drive anymore, but I am so thankful to have this time with my husband and children. It is my youngest daughter's 20th birthday today. And you have given me a gift!
Donna

Kayzoola, I am so sorry about your mother. I cannot imagine what you are going through. Cyber hugs sent your way.

As for the relatives, try to shake that off. They are concerned because they know you are dealing with a lot. If they are used to seeing you heavy, you will look too skinny to them until they get used to the new you. I had a friend that I had never known at a "normal" size. When she lost 70 lbs, I thought she was too skinny, but really, she was in the right range for her height. She has kept it off for a couple of years now and it took about that long for me to get used to it. I did keep my opinion about her looking too skinny to myself since it would not have been helpful and I knew it was just my perception.

Do try to pop in for support and take care of yourself.

K

Kitty how long do you let your Kombucha ferment and how did you create a starter for it. Do you ever add fruit juice to sweeten it rather than a sugar. The version I bought was made with tea and raspberry juice. It has more of a raspberry taste than tea. It is a bit tarter than raspberry juice by itself. You right is has a fizz to it too. I find drinking about 4 ounces satisfying and I sip it rather than chug it down.

Just got back from our State Fair. Had a great time. The most fun we have is just walking around the fair and seeing the sights. I also enjoy the fine arts, ecology building, education and craft buildings. The also have a building that has flowers and produce on display. We didn't see much of the animals this year. Only briefly went to the horse barn. They did have a great exhibit on different features of a horse like what they look like on the inside and how long their digestive system is. The police exhibit was interesting too. They demonstrated what happens in a roll over crash. Convinced me to always buckle up after watching that. I made sure I thanked them for the dangerous job they have. We just had an officer killed on a routine traffic stop.

Today I enjoyed our State Fair, so tomorrow I have good memories.

2014: contnetment

Anne,

Regarding your water retention, there may be several factors to consider:
How much sodium do you get per day?
How much water do you drink?
If you find your sodium intake to be fine and water intake sufficient to hydrate you, then you maybe fined relief with a dandelion tea. A friend of mine calls it the "p-tea". Some people do good with a banana a day.

Thanks for the tip, I will check into that - I'm at Home Depot anyway pretty much every weekend!


Kayzoola,

I lost my mom less than 3 month ago, and I still can't wrap my head or heart around that fact.
I'm sending big hugs your way!
Regarding your friends and the skinnier you - on one hand you're dealing with a lot of stress right now. On the other, as long as you feel healthy, enjoy the fruit of your hard work!

It’s a Monday. And I was feeling quite lazy so I stayed home today. I ended up finishing our taxes (!!!) and catching up on all our retirement accounts. So I am very pleased. Tonight is aqua zumba. Otherwise no news to report.

Carol: I agree you need a rest day! Do you have your house with an agent? What does he or she say about the lack of showings?

Rori: Grand Platte NE? Do you mean North Platte or Grand Island? I'm about 2 hours from Grand Island (Vicki lives there) and about 5 1/2 from North Platte. Your seafood restaurant sounds grand!!!

Akinom: I often feel relieved to go to work so I can rest up from the weekend!

Sylvia: I had quite the laugh reading about your hubby trying to rationalize with the dogs!

Joyce; I feel overwhelmed thinking about our ministers and what they are going through leaving after 18 years! I’m not sure I could do it

Michele: let us know how the mushroom recipe turns out. The problem with dd is not that she’s mean but that she doesn’t think and she doesn’t get that her actions affect others. That was always something we tried very hard to instill in her

Anne: no need to feel bad; I had a hard time with the acronyms too. But funny, I texted my daughter the other day and said “ty” which means thank you and she had no idea what that meant. I thought it was cute that old me knew what that meant and she did not!

Beth: what a great idea to slice your own meat. I had no idea they were that expensive!

Jane: I forgot where you live with all that humidity.

Kitty: happy birthday! I hope it was wonderful and memorable

Sylvia: I am also glad Bruno didn’t find a homicidal bug! Having a degree in English I really cracked up over the joke

DrKatie: hang in there!

Kayzoola; I am so sorry to hear about your mother. I hope she has peaceful days. As far as looking emaciated when you are at
a normal weight, is it possible you lost some quickly enough to look “saggy” or are you pale from stress? I have two dear friends who lost a lot of weight quickly and did not look very good for several months; they looked kind of sick. But after a while, something “adjusted” and although they did not gain their weight back, they started looking healthier and healthier. So it may be like for you and that your family will see a good difference soon. In any event, please take care of yourself and be kind to yourself. You know what is best for you. (((hugs)))

Jan: I hope your recovery continues! This has been hanging on a long time

Lahdidah: welcome to the group

Cindy; can’t wait to see your new baby!

Anne: I could never stand regular bike seats for all the reasons you mention. Now I have a recumbent bike that is OOOOOO so
comfortable!

Well we are supposed to get lots of rain and storms in the coming few days. The Old Farmer’s Almanac also says we will be having a bad winter too. Well! At least my coats fit now! Woo hoo! Take care all, Meg from Omaha where we might be floating into your town soon

kayzoola, so sorry about your Mom. But I can tell you through my own personal experience that these ladies here will envelope you in their arms and stay with you as long as you need them. My Mom died in 2011 and my MIL last year and I know what you are going through. Mom was a huge amount of strength for us all even though she was in pain all the time due to a terrible back, knees and ankles. After she was diagnosed with cancer she dies less than 3 months later. Hugs to you through this journey. It will last the rest of your life. As far as your family doing an intervention about your weight. I agree about your stress level making your physical appearance not looking up to its best. Are you wearing clothes that fit your ever changing body?

Donna, welcome. You sound like such a giving person

Joyce, Indiana

Carol, I have some girlfriends that specialize in "staging" houses. They come to the house you want to sell, and they tell you exactly how to move furniture, plants or whatever to make it as appealing as possible, even what kind of scent should linger in the kitchen. I am sure you can find someone like that where you are too, and if you have a realtor, they probably have somebody. Houston is a very fast moving housing market and you have to really make your house look nice around here - but then they tear it from your hands and pay what you ask.

Anne - I don't bike because my "lady parts" can't handle those seats. I think I could lower my butt in a cloud of cotton on the seat - and still be hurting!
And regarding the strengths or the body, check out http://ernestineshepherd.net/ - this lady is my inspiration! I think she is 77 now. I want to be like her when (and if) I grow up.
Maybe you need to start carrying a water bottle around the house, I do....and add a nice amount of steps looking for it every day, I misplace more stuff than I can put away. And sadly there is nobody else in the house to blame, hehe

DeeDee, thank you, hugs your way!

Monika

Did about 25 minutes of yoga then held my plank for 2 min 30 sec, off to take the extremepump class. Tomorrow I'm planning to do a spinning downloadable workout.

Anne - when Vince was first diagnosed with WPW, his heartrate was -- get this one -- 300+ (the machine couldn't go any higher). Right now he's taking rhythmol and atenolol so that when he does go into tachacardia, it isn't as bad. It WILL happen again, unfortunately. The other thing would be an ablation which would put a cut in the electrical pathway, but that didn't work the first time he tried so we have no reason to suspect that it'll work the second time around. It's just scary, especially this time since this is the longest it's ever gone on. I wear a heartrate monitor, too, when I'm taking a spinning class. I just find it is so easy for my heartrate to get too high. I am on facebook, but I don't do much on it. I mainly try to keep in touch with the kids and sometimes I post pics or videos there, but not much else. Speaking of heartrate, it was interesting (even tho I already knew this) to see how his heartrate went up when he was sitting versus when he was laying down and when he was standing.

Gloria - I was just about to ask you when Aaron started school! Have a good week. As far as getting too skinny, what does your doctor say? If you tell them that the doctor says that you aren't too skinny, that should quiet them down. They're probably not used to seeing you looking so good

yanniejannie - thanks so much for your concern. Yes, I'm feeling better today about Bryan. You can mark my words, I'll probably get melancholy again around the holiday time.

Lahdidahdah - welcome. You're more than welcome to come here all the time -- we love having you

Tomorrow we're going to be going to Lexington, VA to meet up with Jess and do a "cat exchange". See, she and Kris are going to Maine for a wedding, so we're going to watch her cats while she's gone. I have these squash cookies for her to take and some of these double chocolate cookies. Cookies can easily be molded to fit in the suitcase because they're going to fly up. I'm also going to give her and Kris a piece of the double chocolate bread pudding for them to try.

kayzoola - I'm so so sorry to read about your mom. Take care of yourself

Donna - welcome and happy birthday to your daughter. You sound like you have such a wonderful attitude.

Anne - I find that especially in the summer my ankles swell. What helps? Well, I wear a compression stocking to bed and I've noticed that when I have my feet up for a time (like in a recliner watching TV), my ankles aren't as swelled. I'm trying to limit my sodium, but I'm not totally convinced that that has much of an impact. But I can tell you that the compression stocking does.

Carol in NC - I remember hearing ads on the radio for companies who will list your house and if it doesn't sell within a certain period of time, they will buy the house. My guess is that they'd price the house so low so that it would sell, but that's only a guess.

Meg - as I anticipated, the mushrooms were watery, probably because they were frozen first. Actually, it had pretty good flavor, but I think it would probably be better if the mushrooms were fresh. Sometimes I worry that Denise won't have a decent future, I'm sure she won't go for her Bachelor's degree (which we are willing to pay for in full). What will happen in 20 years if she were to get sick and doesn't have any benefits? She just can't seem to conceive of the concept of sacrificing today for the good for tomorrow.

DeeDee - which fair do you go to? I sure hope we're not in for a bad winter. Do you know what "ttfn" stands for?

Monika - you're a hoot telling us about losing things!!!!

Went to play mahjongg tonight. The other day I noticed that the bumper in the front of my car wasn't flush with the quarter panel. Vince looked at it and it appears that my constantly bottoming out in the gal who has the mahjongg's driveway apparently broke the clips that hold it in place. So I'm going to get it fixed but I won't be parking in her driveway any more.

Michele in NC

Happy to be back training again. Managed 30 minutes if Jillians BR cardio 1 and 10 minutes Jillian's kettle-bells this morning, dog walk this afternoon.
Managed 16507 steps yesterday. All grocery shopping done and put away. We have a 60 Km round trip to do shopping once a wekk, but love our rural property.
I normally drink 2 lires water every day. We have a rain water tank but I filter into Brita jug and keep in fridge.
Must go and do banking

Lesley in Tasmania

Got to dash off but .....

Michele - ttfn means "ta ta for now". Ta ta means goodbye. It's like see you later. I think it's sn old Britush expression used in the war.

Heather in the UK, going up to London today.

Gloria - I was just about to ask you when Aaron started school! Have a good week. As far as getting too skinny, what does your doctor say? If you tell them that the doctor says that you aren't too skinny, that should quiet them down. They're probably not used to seeing you looking so good

kayzoola - I'm so so sorry to read about your mom. Take care of yourself


Michele in NC

LOL, I'm FAR from being accused of being "too skinny"...and doubt when I get to my goal weight that I'll have that problem either. And, as slow as I do lose, I doubt that I'll ever have to let my skin catch up. That was kayzoola I was "talking to".

In general, I do agree that many people (usually those who have more than several pounds to lose themselves) are quick to start calling others "too thin". I am less concerned about a person's actual weight and more concerned about their health and if I felt someone in my close circle's health was at risk, then I would approach it from that direction.

Anyhow, just scarfing down my Fage and granola. Have to get my hair dried, dressed and out by 8:30.

Have a great day everyone!

xo- Gloria in Metro Detroit

Here I am in London!

DH is playing with DGS. It seems to be Buzz Lightyear, reporting for duty!:laugh:
DGD will be woken up in half an hour - can't wait!
DDIL comes back from work in an hour. I expect she will take the chance of doing a bit of admin while we are in charge.

The nanny, who let us in, has to go into hospital soon for a heart op that will have her out of action for three months. She has other health problems as well. She has been so amazing for the 6 months she has been here so they will find it hard to replace her. DDIL has decided not to have anyone living in again as she found that difficult. She is now looking for a 3 day nanny.:ohwell: I had a long chat with the nanny who was quite tearful.:brokenheart:

Got 569 extra calories to play with today. I added a few onto my machining as we have a bit of walking to get here from the station.

Love to all.
Heather in showery London.UK

Sorry the photo is the wrong way up, but I don't know how to turn it round. DDIL sent it to me upside down and I turned it round in my gallery, but it has reverted!:sad: :huh:

I am so touched by everyone's kindness! It brought tears to my eyes. Thanks to all.

One more thing that is going on, is that some low-life scum has stolen my dad's identity and attempted to have his social security checks deposited into another account. So... on top of everything else, we are running around doing damage control for my 89yo dad, so he doesn't lose the very little he has.

I am off to bodycombat class now. Going to visualize identity thieves and punch them in the nose!

Kayzoola (PNW USA)