WOMEN AGES 50+ FOR FEBRUARY 2105

Hello, everyone. I'm a "two steps forward, one-and-a-half-steps back" type. In the first few months of last year, I lost 27 pounds, and have gained back 25. Better than gaining back 30, right?

At the beginning of the year I resumed doing Bikram yoga 3 times a week. That habit is now pretty firmly (re)established and now I'm ready to start daily food diaries. Today was a yoga day, and I managed to keep the calories at a level where MFP said, "If every day was like today, in 5 weeks you'd weigh 191 pounds." That's pretty good for me--I'm tall and built like a pack mule.

I'm happy to offer support, so feel free to friend me and we'll chat or whatever helps. I'll be here every day, reporting progress.

And to the person who started the thread--thank you! I have two standard poodles too. Aren't they a riot?

Wednesday and BIG shopping day with fish and chips on the wharf at Wynyard. Then Bunnings for grout and sealant,
Stan is cooking dinner
Stan is going to fix the shower tomorrow.
We are babysitting a puppy tomorrow whilst neighbours go to Launceston. Drop off at 8am and pick up around 5pm. So will have to get up and do a 2Km racewlak round my 400 M track before they arrive.
Stan is going to empty book shelf of all books and polish it. Need to get rid of dog hairs and less coughing for me ion the long run
Walking only today, mini rest day
Lesley in Tasmania

Any women in Lake Worth, FL area. Would love to start walking group 50+

Welcome dccnm, I was going to tell you that Meg is a professor of nursing but I see she already chimed in. If I am correct, my husband often tells me I'm not, she is a clinical professor and has written some clinical books. I am a lowly RN!!! But you guys need us and it was the most wonderful time in my life. There are a couple of other nurses here also. Like some one else said, you seem to be doing everything right but dear menopause arrived in your life and took over. Yep, that's why we have a group for us people. Just keep on doing what you are doing and it will happen.

Pipcd34 you ask about a resting heart rate. If anyone is taking a beta blocker for their heart or for blood pressure, using the resting heart rate to judge your exercise won't work. You have to use an exertion scale. Now my MS can't tell you what all that is but it has to do with how your body is feeling as far an exertion, how well you can easily have a conversation while exercising, etc.

Michele, do you do counted cross stitch? I made a tree scirt for my sister a couple of years ago. Most craft stores sell pre-quilted fabric. I bought a pretty color for Christmas, cut it in the size she wanted for the size tree she has and then did my cross stitch on it. You have to buy this kind of fabric you baste onto it. Please don't ask me what it is called, maybe waste fabric???? You do your cross stitch on it then wet the waste fabric until it is really wet and then start pulling it off. You have to do strand by strand. One year for Christmas I did 13 sweatshirts. That kind of burned me out for cross stitch for awhile. I didn't learn my lesson though because another year I made every couple a cross stitch 8x10 picture.

Well the time has changed again for grand daughter's musical. It is now 2 PM on Saturday which will be much easier for us to make the drive.

Joyce, Indiana

Good morning everyone,

Going to my "coach" in a few minutes.

Michele: thanks for the tidbit about the cats!

Lifting heavy: "heavy" will vary from person to person, but I lift reasonably heavy for me at the moment. A few examples: chest press about 45 pounds (per hand, with dumbbells), overhead press about 35 pounds per hand, leg press (machine, semi lying down) about 70 pounds per leg. Don't know if that's what you mean or if this helps you. I do know that getting stronger helps me mentally.

Hope we all have a good day.

Cynthia :flowerforyou:

Good news ... down 2.5 pounds.

Bad news ... the gi bug won.

Good morning,

Another day - another work out - another day of accounting for calories. Reading everyone's posts help me to stay on my journey. One of my goals is to be lifting heavier weights. The trick is to be consistent - 3 days a week doing weights - and slowly increasing over time.

More snow in the forecast for Baltimore. No more, I'm ready for Spring!

Snowdoggy
Baltimore, MD

Dreamwritet - sending you hugs during these stressful times. I bet you just want yo wave a magic wand! :flowerforyou:

Alison - more snow! Oh my word! :sad:

I have never tried heavy lifting as I hate gyms, but I hear it can work miracles. I mean real big weights. :laugh: Cynthia - you are lifting a whole lotta dumbbell! ! ! ! ! ! ! My heaviest are 20 lbs each and I do bicep curls with them. I use one of them for squats. I use one for overhead tricep with two hands and I use one for tricep curls with one foot up on the bed and leaning forward. Sorry don't know any of the names.
For side arm raises I use 5lb ones and for rows I use 15 lb ones.
My body shape is the best it has ever been! :blushing: Wish I could say the same for the texture! :ohwell:

I was going yo get bigger dumbbells for DH, but he developed a hernia just before we went on holiday, so the 9 kg ones are enough for now.

DH didn't get back from football until 1 pm last night as the turnings off the motorway had been blocked. He had to come a very long way round! Luckily his team won! He had a good meet up with his daughter.

I got through the day, but only just. Went 200 over, which is ok. I resisted the lure of alcohol until 10 pm and then had one small, measured drink. Phew! I felt all day as if I was bingeing, but it was all no cal/low cal stuff. I was stuffed though. I really take my hat off to those of you who live alone and are sticking to your diet. :flowerforyou: DH is the most enormous help to me. The minute he is out of the door the urge comes over me to binge. Luckily I now have the resources to cope with that and the techniques to get through it, but the feelings are still there. Once upon a time I would have cleaned out the cheese box and eaten a huge plate of rice and hard boiled eggs with lots of ground black pepper. That was my go to binge food!
I also take my hat off to those with stressful full time jobs. :flowerforyou: like the new lady from Chester UK and many others. Planning is essential. Batch cooking, slow cookers, careful, planned shopping and having a go to healthy food snack for "those moments".
I also take my hat off to those of you who still have youngish children at home. :flowerforyou: Having food fit for growing teenagers around the house is a challenge I'm sure. I was lucky in that I didn't really like that kind of food and was able to think of it as "their" food and nothing to do with me. In Britain parents often eat separately from children and often different food. I got round all this by buying very good quality preprepared food which the boys could heat up or cook themselves when they got in so I wasn't doing lots of different dishes. This was expensive, but worked fine. Both my boys are excellent cooks and one was a professional for a while at uni. :bigsmile:

I've got a big pot of "passata" on the stove at the moment, which I will divide into four lots. Three I will freeze. The other one I will add some chilli flakes to and some peas and make a king prawn and tomato sauce for pasta for DH and shiritaki noodles for me.
With the shiritski, I prefer the ones that have about 50 cals per packet, rather than the 14. I think they are less rubbery. I eat the whole packet. Rinse them well, then toss them for a few minutes in a dry, non stick frying pan. That seems to reduce the rubberiness. If I am having them in soup then I don't bother with that.
We will also have snow peas with the dinner.

Love to all. I am sticking to my typing despite my "monkey mind" trying to distract me with every other task I can think of. :bigsmile: The book "Level Up Your Day" has been a grest help in organising my day for peak efficiency. I got it on my Kindle for £1.99 . Anyone who feels a bit disorganized and distracted and can't prioritise sould find it helpful.
Barbie - I too am looking forrward to Gretchen Rubin's new book. Out in March, I think.

Heather in flowery and mild Hampshire UK

Mary - I think that 'lifting heavy' sometimes refers to fewer reps at significant weight per rep. I've never done that, but when you use the Y's weight machines and the FitLinxx system it tracks everything for you. In 2013 I lifted 2 million pounds in 86 sessions during the year, averaging 22388 pounds per session, and was able to maintain 168 pounds, size 12, and felt great. Here are the weights/rep I was at: leg press - 250, leg extension/curl - 75, abductor/adductor (legs in/out) - 85, lat pull down - 65, chest press - 50, bicep curls - 45, tricep - 45, back extension - 150, ab machine - 60, seated row - 75. Unfortunately I had to stop doing the weights in mid-2014 due to an injury and another situation, but now that I've had my surgery am looking forward to getting back to the weights in a week or two. I'll be starting at lower weights again, of course. It made a huge difference for me.

Heather - your comment about 'monkey brain' made me laugh. Our DS#1, when he was recovering from his brain injury, used to say that!

Need to get on to some chores for now -
Gail, metro ATL

I'm off to the gym this morning, and DH will come along a bit later to join. I hope he can get a tenth the good out of it that I do. It is doing good things for me, because I work at it.

Wow - you ladies have been busy here! Nice work.

The temps are in the double digits today so it’s balmy outside!! Yesterday was so cold that one of the sprinkler system pipes in our lobby burst and the alarms all went off. My office is just above the lobby and it sounded like a bomb went off! Luckily it happened during the day. Within 5 minutes we had 4 inches of water in the lobby. They said that those pipes pump out 300 gallons a minute. Of course when they opened the doors to push the water outside it started to freeze. What a mess. Things are cleaned up today but I didn’t know whether to wear my boots and parka or my rain coat and ice skates today. LOL

Time to go fill up those water bottles!!

Here's today's joke of the day:



A man gets pulled over by the police for speeding.

The cop walks up to the car and says to the driver, "Sir, did you know that you were going 60 miles an hour?"

The driver says, "Officer, there is no way I could have been going 60 miles an hour!"

The cop says, "Really! Why is that?"

The driver replies, "I could not have been going 60 miles an hour because I've only been out driving for 25 minutes."

that thread about heavy lifting is on the 3rd or 4th page of success stories if anyone is interested in looking at that.

Mary from Minnesota

I need to read this daily..

Life isn't fair, but it's still good. Life is too short-- enjoy it. Cry with someone. It's more healing than crying alone. Make peace with your past so it won't screw up the present and the future. It's OK to let your children see you cry.
Don't compare your life to others. You have no idea what their journey is all about. If a relationship has to be secret, you shouldn't be in it.
Take a deep breath, it calms the mind. Everything can change in the blink of an eye. It's never too late to be happy. But it's all up to you and no one else. When it comes time to go after what you love in life, don't take no for an answer. Burn the nice candles, use the nice sheets, wear the nice lingerie, wear the nice clothes. Don't save it for a special occasion. Today is special.
Over prepare, then go with the flow. No one is in charge of your happiness but you. Frame every so-called disaster with these words: 'In five years will this matter?' Always choose life. Forgive but don't forget. Time heals almost everything. Give time, time. However good or bad a situation is, it will change. All that truly matters in the end is that you loved.
If we all threw our problems in a pile and we saw everyone else's, we'd grab ours back. Envy is a waste of time. Accept what you already have, not what you need. Yield. Friends are the family we choose. Life isn't tied with a bow, but it's still a gift.*

Had an update on my ex from DS#2 . It was liver problems, not kidneys. May have been caused by an infection plus the meds he is on for his stent. He is going home tomorrow and damage should heal. I hope he continues to improve. We married when I was 20, having met on the first day at uni. We were together 27 years. In my dreams he is still my husband and my children are young. His parents often figure in my dreams. I rarely dream of my DH or my grown up children. :ohwell:

DH said I was a genius tonight for my pasta recipe. He said he could have eaten it all again!

Big shop tomorrow. We need to replenish the freezer with meat, fish and seafood. Buy fresh veg. Fruit. Bread. I do not like the big supermarket, but I will go with DH. It is just too big. :ohwell:

Bye for now!

Heather UK