WOMEN AGES 50+ FOR MARCH

:bigsmile: :bigsmile: thank you for all the birthday wishes......this has been a great day full of the things I love most----I got to teach a new dance at line dance this morning.....after lunch I went for a lovely walk at the dog park......i fixed a great dinner of favorites--turkey, gravy, yam, cauliflower, and opened birthday cards from hubby and few friends....while I was at the dog park, my darling husband waxed my car......:bigsmile: :bigsmile: :bigsmile: life doesn't get any better than this.

Barbie--I am SO sorry I missed your birthday! Sounds like it was a delightful day! I am glad you enjoyed it. :flowerforyou: :flowerforyou: :flowerforyou:

I've come here to search for friends and support in this weight loss endeavor. Reading throught the entries here shows me so much courage, humor, and gutsy determination, I almost shrank from getting on here to whine. Are any of you just plain afraid in this quest? What I fear is my own weakness. I began with MFP January 18, 2011 and had managed to lose 5 pounds. Now, here is the present situation. I just got my house sold (hallaluyah) much more qulickly than I ever expected. Now I have 4 weeks to cull, sell, pack, and move out, pretty much on my own. Can I express how much I hate the prospect of this exhausting ordeal? My husband lives in Florida. I won't say we are separated, just living apart due to work circumstances and his preference for the ocean and his sailboat. He will be able to help with some of the moving, but none of the culling, selling, or packing. He will remain at the condo in Florida. Now that I am retired, I will be setting up for a while in Massachusettes near my daughter and her family. Don't get me wrong. Everything is amiable, but I want to be near my grandson for a while after toughing out 6 years pretty much on my own in order to save enough money to retire. Yes, I know full well there are plenty of folks in the world who would gladly change places . However, I dread when I will be tired and dirty and hungry and will reach for comfort in food. Yes, I am puny in spirit. This is just a challenge I think I need companionship and support to get through, or could get through it much better with that support. Please, somebody write back. I need you.

Barbie, Thanks so much for answering. Your advice is very solid and I appreciate it. You were smart to get going on the packing early in the relocation process. I noticed the dog on your shirt...is it a poodle by any chance? If so, my toy apricot, Coffee, says hello. Thanks again.

Hi kinda new to posting I know its the end of March but need encouragement on my diet. It does help to track calories in diary. But it doesn't help with my cravings.

Good afternoon ladies,
Taking a much needed break. Been working in bathroom most of the day. I am tired. need to go take a shower and wait for hubby to go to gym and get supper.
barnbord: you got advice from the best. what barbie said is true. take it one day at a time. do what you can when you can and rest when needed. being prepared has helped me tremendously. If not I fail and reach for trash. keep posting and griping or whatever. we will listen and respond when needed. welcome aboard.
tryingagain: you have done so good so far. now you just have to prevail and finish. that is the hard part for me. as you read you will find that we do all sorts of different kinds of exercises. I personally love the gym. I have always wanted to do a personal trainer for a while but just not sure of time factor. If you feel that will help and you can do it go for it. A lot of ladies do dvds and Wii and other things. I just am not that self motivated. welcome to the best group of ladies in the world.
tomberg1: I have found that the only way to stop cravings is to cut out that kind of food for a while. It usually takes about 2-3 days for them to go away. for instance if you crave carbs cut out all but good carbs, same for sugar. Hope this helps and welcome to our group.
see you later ladies.
vicki M

Good Evening, Dear Ladies,

Just a minute to say hello and check in. Read quickly through the posts but mostly wanted to comment to

Bombard: Welcome and you have found the perfect place for support. So many of us are in the same place trying to figure out this next stage of life. At least you can pat yourself on the back for trying to do it and also be healthy. It is a struggle but we are all in this together. Don't question yourself- just do what is best for you and I don't blame you for wanting to be near your children. Do what you know is best and put one foot in front of the other. Getting rid of old "stuff" feels good and I think is helpful too. I look forward to getting to know you and also know that this is a safe place to vent. I wish you success on this journey!

Everyone else: Take care and look forward to catching up soon. All best, kackie

You know, it is very frustrating when you get on the scale after 3 weeks, and nothing has happened... How many of you did this happen to... granted, I am older, and my metabolism is not there, I am on synthroid, diabetes meds, celebrex... I do ride bike 30 min a day, and started with 5 lb weights to do some arm strenghtening... but 3 weeks, not a lb.... I keep saying, stick with it, I split some beef fahitas with DH, I only ate 1/3 of it, had 1 tortilla, 14 chips with some salsa, lunch I made a salad out of the insides of a burrito (beef), asking for lettuce, no tortilla, need to eat some fruit now, but I am going to stick with it.
anyone have this happen to them, no loss for a long time?

Good morning ladies,
Lynda what a wonderful post. thanks for sharing every tidbit of info is helpful to someone.
grabbit, try going whole foods only--no processed foods--if you cant grow it or feed it or pick it dont eat it. lean meats cooked without frying and fruits and veggies and for breads and pastas eat just whole wheat, nothing white. dont give up--just keep posting. we are here for you.
vicki M

Hello Ladies, welcome to you new ladies, yes you are in the right spot.

Just a quickie today, I did a large discussion piece on the sneakers page if anyone wishes to take a peek.

Had a back spasm last night, so today is a day for some slow exercises to get the abs working again. By the way, the physio doc. said that after my surgery in 2002 I should have had a therapist help me rebuild my abdomon after the surgery. This is the cause of my abs now failing, no communications from the brain, hence the nerves have been damaged, and I didn't know or suspect anything, now it is maybe too late, or it will take a long time to get my conscious to move my abs without much concentration. So this puts a few questions into my future.

Well back to the gym and hope all goes well.

Marilyn

:flowerforyou: Happy springtime, ladies :flowerforyou: I wish I could say I was back to losing weight, however reality stares me in the face that I am not losing. It seems I, me and myself and no one else, can't get my act together. That is not to say I am not eating healthy. I'd say I am eating healthy about 90% of the time, but just too much of it. More importantly I have not been out exercising. :grumble: Struggled with a bad bladder infection recently and am at the tail end of the second round of antibiotics. Boy that drained me of energy! Booo:grumble:

In 3 weeks I am off to Holland to see my mom. Meanwhile, my job is busy though satisfying. My weekends have been taken up by digging into my family tree. Wow, is that ever a great thing to do. I am addicted, I love it so much . Of course, what I should be doing is housework, taxes and other "useful" things, right? Nah.....I can do that when it NEEDS to be done

By the way, you know what struck me the most about my family tree?......wait for it.......here it comes.......everyone dies!! :bigsmile: True. No one appears to survive (this) life. You get born, you live, then you die. Go figure, eh (a little Canadian expression).

Soooo.....go on, love life......live life.....live a healthy life.....live the best life you can while you're here!!

K.....I really better DO do our taxes. Once that is out of the way I can get back to my family tree, yeah!

Hope you all have a wonderful week! Love you all tremendously!
Rebel

Correction. I was in Florida for 10 days not 20!!!

Hi Everyone;
So glad I found this topic. I am 50 and looking for friends to keep each other motivated. Hope to find some of you. My goal for the rest of this month is to stick with MFP. Religiously post my exercise and foods. I love the fact that the program lets you eat more with the exercise you do.

I am going to try WW for awhile, but will continue to post here, and report progress.... I have an android phone, and downloaded the APP for WW, so I will try and follow it. After 20 days, and not an ounce lost on MFP, I am goign to try WW, and see if that works.
Yes, Zoey is a therapy dog, I take her to the hospital 2x a week, to make people happy, and also go to the Cancer Treatment Center with her.... it makes me feel good to help others.
Rode my bike 30 min today, and did some upper body things with the 5 lb weights I bought,
Need to lose the POUNDS, since that is the only thing that is going to bring my blood sugar under control...
and get off pills.

Thank you for your input, I hope that the WW will work for me... altho its a new program, points plus, I like the OLD WW much better!!

Peggy - the bad thing about the start of warmer season is that my legs are white. That, and the fact that I have to start shaving again....lol Hope you get nicer weather real soon.

Welcome barmbord! You've come to the right place for friends and encouragement!

tryingagain - of course you can join! We're delighted to have you. I used to work with a personal trainer. I would highly recommend it, at least at first. I, unfortunately, started out exercising just taking classes. Then I went to a personal trainer who told me that all along I'd been doing squats wrong. Now I have to really focus on them when I do them. If I'd gone to a personal trainer in the beginning, I wouldn't have to relearn things. So even if it's expensive, I say go for it. Many times more than one person (like 2 or 3) can train at the same time, so the cost would be much less. You might want to check that out, too.

tornberg1 - I really like logging my food. It's really interesting to see some things. Some that you think are really good are actually high in fats and calories.

Decided to try this "totally toning" class that's right before the yoga on Saturdays. Unfortunately, it's only 1/2 hr long. Honestly, I wasn't that impressed with the instructor. At one point we were doing front raises and she was going above her shoulders. Another time she had us squatting to the step (with two risers) and then standing up while lifting the weights above our heads. Only that puts your knees at more than a 90 degree angle (so it puts more stress on the knee).

Oh, remember the guy at the Y that I wasn't impressed with and then he got transferred to the branch that I really liked and I hoped he wouldn't mess it up like he did the other branch. Well, he did mess it up. But the good news is that (and I don't know the specifics) he's no longer there. Yippee!!!

Tomorrow I'll probably do some hula hooping on the Wii.

Clyde really wants to play. Last night was the first night he was with the rest of the household, he slept on our bed. We were expecting that there might be a problem, but there really wasn't. Bonnie is still in her room.

They had a special yesterday and today at the Humane Society (Fri and Sat). For the price of a large bag of cat food, you can adopt one of the older cats (subject to approval). About 10 cats got adopted. Vince and I went both days. Now I just hope that some of the cats don't get returned.

ldspill - so glad that you're feeling better. It'll be all uphill from here! Only better and better. woohoo! You've been cancer free for such a long time, that's truly something to be very proud of. I had an aerobics teacher who had breast cancer, she was one of the first to use tamixofen. That was when it was still in trial stages. She was cancer free for 18 years. Unfortunately, it came back and took her life. However, even thru her chemo, she taught aerobics classes. She was a true inspiration. Here she was, in front of the class, no hair, her biggest complaint was that her sweaty head would stick to the mat....lol Yes, there were days when I didn't feel at all like exercising, but when I saw her I'd just feel "hey, if she can do it going thru chemo, then by golly I can do it"

I made these spinach manicotti. Vince won't eat it with the spinach so I had to make some for him with meat. I admit that I tried some with the meat. Do you know that I preferred the spinach ones? It's weird, my tastes are going to more veggies and less red meat. Not that I'm complaining, mind you.

I met one of my neighbors the other day while she was walking. We stopped and talked, she asked me where I went walking, I told her the Y. You know, I know me and if I have to depend on myself to get up and out the door, it won't get done. But if I have someone that is counting on me to be there at an appointed time, I'll do it. Really, the next time I see her, I think I'll ask her if she'd like a walking buddy.

smwert - welcome back! Glad you had a good trip. Even just one pound lost is good, especially seeing how you weren't home.

welcome R222. You've come to the right place!

Did an hour of hula hoop on the Wii today (Sun). Tomorrow I'll do a 45 min DVD of step and then take a weight class.

Slept with Bonnie last night. She slept in the bed with me. I also made up the bed in the other back bedroom, so now she has the run of two bedrooms and the bath that joins them. I'll probably sleep with Clyde tonight.

Here's hoping everyone has a great evening.

Michele