WOMEN AGES 50+ FOR APRIL 2016

KJLaMore wrote: »

My grandmother didn't cook, my mom learned how to cook from my dad.

Joyce- OMG! I laughed out loud when I read about your tree and Christmas deco still up! Every year, I go through the blues taking the deco down. Every year I complain to my dh "I wish we could just leave it up year 'round!" It is a pain to take down, but I love the way my house looks at Christmas. You could have left the tree up and put spring deco on it and told your brother it's an "Easter Tree" or a "Spring Tree".

My mother's parents owned a restaurant. My grandmother was the cook for the place and the family ate all their meals at the restaurant. As a result, my mom did not learn how to cook because Grandma wouldn't allow here to cook for customers. My dad grew up on a farm and his mother was ill for most of his childhood. As a result, all of the kids in his family learned how to cook and shared meal making tasks. Thus, Dad was a fabulous cook. He taught both Mom and me how to cook.

I had a co-worker who left her tree up all year round. She had decorations for all of the major holidays plus some that were more generic for the seasons. It's amazing how many ornaments she found that were specific to a holiday like Halloween or Easter.

Mia in MI

KatlaThe secret to living well and long is: Eat half, walk double, laugh triple and love without measure..." Tibetan proverb Thank you for the quote. I may have to find someone to embroider it on a shirt for me. Kim do you do mail orders?

Pip Congratulations on graduating from PT. Now you will be able to rider in the wind????

Becca It seems that we have very similar foods stored. However, you have given me some ideas for replacing what had to be tossed when the water line broke and leaked into my cabinets. I am lucky to be a member of a natural food coop and there are many organic local farmers. I also have a very large vegetable garden and freeze and can. I planted seeds in pods before I left for my trip and some have sprouted, mostly the beans. However, winter made a reappearance and they can't go outside for another couple of weeks.

Betty I loved the picture of the boulder field. I don't think I am brave enough at this stage to walk through one.

Lisa I hope that you are enjoying your trip to East Texas and that you are able to bring some comfort to your sister and yourself. The mental illness that our soldiers brought back from the Middle East and Viet Nam was far worse that the physical injuries. Perhaps because so few families had active duty service members in either war compared to World War II and Korea and the ending of the draft, there really was not the community support that they needed. That plus the insidious nature of drugs have made it so hard for these fine young people to restart at home. Although shell shock, as it was called after WWI, has probably been around as long as there have been wars. I have lots of family in East Texas including Nacogdoches aka "Nacanowhere". If you are in Tyler, do try to get to the Tyler Rose Garden. You may be able to see the garden at its best ( first bloom - mid-April) depending on what the weather has been.

Michele The dolphin is awesome. I especially loved the changing color of the waves.

Carol Good for you. Learning algebra could come in very handy in all sorts of applications- planning gardening beds, figuring out how much paint will cover a wall, or how much material to use when you don't have the exact 45" or 60" wide fabric called for in the pattern. I taught college algebra at one time. The hardest part of algebra is that the terminology can be scary, not the maths.


For those who like turkey recipes. I split mine in half and lay them breast side down on top of the stuffing made up of lots of vegetables and some bread. It cooks in less than half the time. I arrange the halves on a place surrounded by the completely drained stuffing and roasted vegetables and no one misses the ceremony of displaying the entire bird. The meat stays really moist and the skin gets really crispy and pretty. I do the same with large chickens.

These turkeys hang out a friend's home.



I am keeping up with my goals quite well. However, MFP website has not been as responsive as I would like. Although I posted every meal, due to internet connections, I could not post on the exact day so MFP started my back a Day 1. GRRRRRR. And this after posting every day since December.

My goals are:
1. Read/post everyday. I did this every day but since I had to enter some days late because of no internet, MFP put me back to Day 1 - this after posting every day since in December. GRRRR
2. Year long shopping ban with the exception of food, necessities, replacement when absolutely needed, and gifts for others. I have done very well on this until yesterday when I bought 2 replacement good dresses for work instead of the one I had to toss because they are too big. Yippee. They were on clearance plus I had a coupon for an extra 20%.
3. No electronics in bedroom. Well- I got up in the middle of the night and brought in cell phone to find a picture and send to someone since for someone, it popped in my mind and I just had to send it immediately. Won't happen again.
4. Exercise everyday. Yup with recovery days after 48 hours traveling.
5. Foreign language practice 30 minutes per day. It goes without saying that I more than exceeded this the entire time in Peru. The only problem is that I have been refreshing French, not Spanish.

Gripe time. Will someone please explain why I have lost several inches from both the bust and waist and only one inch in the hips and NOTHING in my thighs?????? ::s

Carol, I'm proud of you for tackling algebra.

CSSJ, I have the opposite problem. It comes off my hips and thighs and lingers in the bust and waist.

My scale is so close yet so far away from Onederland: 201.0. I should be excited, but instead am apprehensive. I was here once before 3 years ago and then just did an absolute u-turn.

I am off to Dillard's on Mission Impossible (finding a sports bra that is both cute and fits). Wish me luck!

Not sure why I'm so down today, but I am. Trying to shake it off with some retail therapy. Talk to you all later,
K

Hi. I'm on my phone! Grrrrrrrr for Internet connection.
We've just been sent an itinerary for our 2017 trip. Yucatan Peninsula. But DH wants to drive himself. I want the more expensive option of a driver and guide. Fully escorted. I will not be able to relax if he is driving, asking me for directions and looking for places to park. Normally on our holidays with this company we are fully escorted. I have given him a while to get used to the idea. Will talk about it tomorrow.

Love Heather UK

P S Just got an email from BT. they will ring tomorrow. It's a senior person.

Hi Ladies,

I'm 54 and new to the group. I've been on MFP for 2 years. Last year was a struggle, but I'm back on track. I've been trying to lose 10 pounds since my 40s. It's not the weight so much as it is my overall fitness and getting rid of that belly bulge! Love my boys (husband, and 2 teenage sons). All very supportive.

March Accomplishments - 1 quart of water daily, Exercise 10 min daily (I use Prevention's Fit in 10 Series), getting back into running 3x week, added strength training.
April Goals - Add protein to each meal, find satisfying snacks for the 3-5pm hour (I'm such a snacker!)

Recovering from shoulder/neck tension the last 3 days. No exercise. My neck and shoulder freezes and I experience lot of pain. Hard to move, sleep and work at my desk. I usually take an anti-inflammatory and work on the trigger points in my shoulder and neck. I'm sore but okay today. I forced myself to run last night and it helped. (I've experienced a frozen shoulder in each shoulder in 2006 and 2011). I'm finally able to do a decent push up and a plank just this past month. I lost my dad a year ago and I think my sadness added to my overall stress.

My quote for myself: A promise to myself is just as important as the promises I keep to others.

Love reading the encouragement on this discussion!

Brenda, Austin, TX

Only one teaching day left of this course. Good thing too because I have almost no voice left. I'm still fighting that darn cold or flu or whatever it was. I talked a bit extra today because I was covering for my teaching partner during a practical exercise in shortening a text. We usually circulate among the students and discuss their changes with them. However, my teaching partner's ex-wife has a brain tumor and was scheduled to hear the results of the MR scan taken after radiation and chemo. He wanted to go along as moral support, and I was happy to let him off the teaching hook. Still, it meant I had twice as many students to talk to.

Something unexpected happened the other day that made me wonder about my own prejudices. I was walking along a road when two young women in hijabs came running toward me. My immediate conclusion was that they were running away from something or someone and I looked to see if they were being chased. But then I noticed that their faces were entirely neutral. They had that blank expression you typically see on a fit person who has been running for a while and still has some distance to go.

Yet my brain refused to process it. Why was it so difficult for me to reach the obvious conclusion that they were out jogging?

I'd like to get back to jogging myself soon. What with this virus -- and the cough and exhaustion it caused -- I haven't dared do much of anything for a long time. Unfortunately, my inactivity shows clearly on the scale. I'm an entire 6 pounds over what I weighed in early February, when I was at my lowest weight in decades. Grrr... (Sorry to be b*ing about a trivial virus when others face much more dire health issues.)


Teaching will cramp my eating style for one more day, and on Saturday I'll have to steer clear of the cakes and cookies at my granddaughter's fourth birthday party. After that I'll have greater opportunities to take control over what food I have available.

One small triumph today: in mid-evening when I heard cheese and crackers calling my name, I reminded myself that I still hadn't eaten my daily pound of veggies. I pulled them out and binged on them instead. It was about 150 kcal, but that's no more than I would have gotten from just ONE cracker with cheese -- and I probably would have eaten several. Go ME!
/Penny at the - NOT!

.

Wow! So many new faces, welcome all!!

It's funny, one of the new ladies (forgive me for not remembering who) did want to be vilified because she weighed only 150.8 and wanted to lose 20 lbs. I say to you, and I'm sure many will agree, it is not up to us or anyone else to dictate what you want to weigh or your reasons for losing. You do what is comfortable for you and we are all here to support you. You may be amused to know that my goal was 150 lbs. (I'm about the same height at 5'3-3/4"), I had to lose almost 45 lbs. to get there. I'm thrilled with my smaller body which may appear to be too heavy for you, but for me it's awesome. I could stand to lose another 20, and I will work on it, but for right now it's my goal weight. What I am struggling to say is that what is right for one woman may not fit for another. Go on your own path and the best of luck to you.

I have to exercise more than I have been to counteract the wonderful dinners I have been enjoying since putting my toe back in the dating pool. When I was losing, I would go out only once or twice a month and now it's once or twice a week! My jeans are feeling tight today, oh no!!

The second date with the latest man with whom I had the perfect first date with on Friday was just as perfect. I did tell him that it was always my fantasy to have a man greet me on a first date with a rose and he fulfilled that fantasy. He was very pleased. I had been to the restaurant we went to last night once before and was looking forward to the fire roasted calimairi appitizer, a tasty alternative to the usual fried calimairi. I was disappointment it was not on the menu and asked our server about it. He spoke to the chef who prepared and presented it to us. Did I feel like a celebrity!! It was as wonderful as I remembered. We ate, we talked, we drank, we laughed and we made plans for our next date. I had to pinch myself when I got home because it's like a romantic movie. It's ironic that I went on the world wide web to find a man who lives less than 3-1/2 miles away from me!

Thank you Heather for introducing me to Duolingo. I had wanted to relearn French many years ago but never got beyond the thinking about it stage. I downloaded the app a few weeks ago but didn't do anything, then when I met this man (we'll call him PB (Potential Boyfriend) for now) I began the lessons in earnest because he is a native French speaker. On our first phone conversation PB said he was using Duolingo to learn German which is my first language, what are the chances of that occuring? I have to brush up on my German, you lose it if you don't use it.

I have to get up and move to burn those calories!
Everyone have a great day!

Chris in sunny but only 46F MA

Beth in NY....Hooray for your son!!! I hope this school is everything he hopes it will be.
Beans are healthy!

Chris in MA

bwcetc wrote: »

Well ladies I can finally report that my younger son received his acceptance into the music department of his first (and only) choice school in Nashville. He also received a nice four year music scholarship ... Not as much as we were hoping for ... But then we don't know what is customary for this school. Depending on performance while in school, the award has the potential to increase. He's just thrilled to have been accepted as the competition was fierce. So, it looks like beans will be a staple in my kitchen for the next few years!

Beth near buffalo

That is terrific news!!! I know you are all thrilled.

Janetr OKC

Beth Congrats on the music school acceptance for your son. My daughter got a degree in vocal performance. I always laughed at people who said a music degree was an "easy" degree. They had no idea. She often put in six hours a week in class plus private lessons, plus performance, plus practice time and got 1 credit hour for her efforts while her math class was 6 hours a week and her homework usually took her 30 minutes and she'd get 3 hours credit for it.... go figure. Music majors have MAJOR time invested in their degrees.
Chris I have to say that you are much stronger than I would be if I was faced with the dating world. I think I'd just crumble and be a hermit. lol The thought of going out and dating just sounds terrifying to me. I pray for my husband's health daily as a result. I am so glad it is going well for you though, it does sound quite fun for you.
COL55EUS Well I'll just send another one. No harm no foul.

Does everyone eat back their exercise calories? I am struggling with that. If I eat them all back I end up with no loss. If I don't eat at least some of them back I end up terribly over-eating the next day, a definite by-product of not refueling after a hard workout. It's so frustrating to find that sweet spot of how much to eat back and how much to be in deficit. Oh shoot let's admit it, I haven't had a loss in over a year. I'm STUCK. I workout almost every day. Either with my trainer for 45 minutes or I run/walk. I just can't lose that last 10 pounds! AUGH!!!!!!!! (and I'm sure the binge day yesterday didn't help..... still working on emotional eating.) But... back to the original thought, how many/much of the exercise calories do you eat back?

Marcelyn in Houston (which is now land of sunshine)

Fixed tacos for lunch for myself. I was SOO hungry for them. Went over a bit in my sodium so I will drink water the rest of the day. I am happy full right now. In my tacos I put a triangle of wee brie (from President) smeared over the warm taco meat. 20 less calories than regular Daisy sour cream. Wee brie has 3.5 g of fat, and sour cream is 5 g. The downside is that sodium is 190 mg in the Wee Brie, but sour cream is 15 mg. I have tried the fat free sour cream and I didn't care for it, so its the real stuff or nothing. I already had a container in the frig of stewed tomatoes, so I put that on top of the smeared brie (that was melting) then shredded lettuce and taco sauce. My husband was nibbling on his ucky looking pizza and then stopped to stare at me GOBBLING down my tacos.....WHAT??? I said, with bits going on the kitchen towel I had draped over myself..... Oh and I had a flour tortilla with all the leftover stuff that didn't fit in my tacos!!!!! OK I was excited with that....like a BURRITO SUPREME at Taco Bell I TELLS YOU!!! (no wee brie in it though)

No you guys are special.... I am here for your comic relief, and to make you roll your eyes at me when you type. Me and PIP will saute', cook and bake and you all can ooooh and aaaah, when she flexes her muscles at us...... hahahahaha (((((hugs PIP))))))

You ladies paying me compliments about my journey, well thanks, but I am not doing anything special, just having fun tell you all about it. My journey is like your journey. And some of you are at the beginning, and some of you are near the end. but the great thing is that we can share information. These past couple of days I have definitely felt more on track and focused.

For me, the brunt of the winter is over, and all over I see Spring poking up. Many magazines doing stories on spring cleaning, but I think is as important as cleaning your closet, you should clean your "mental house". For me, it helps me get along in this journey. To re-prioritize important aspects of my life, and let go of stuff that bring me down. I read an article years ago, about this "mental house cleaning". One thing that happens when you open the doors, and windows, and sweep out all the clutter in your brain, you can bring in more emotional baggage. The wind that carries the mental dust, flows both ways. So the article says you have to be firm in your resolve to shut the doors, and protect the pristine look of your house, until you wish to clean again. I know this way of thinking has a lot of metaphors but I love those kind of articles. I think the mind is an awesome thing!

Becca
Oregon

Beth - Terrific news about your son! :flowerforyou: Sorry to hear about your husband's problems. Very frustrating.

Chris - I have a 65 day streak on my Norwegian. It is getting harder and I forget more. I'm still enjoying it though.

I watched a programme tonight about ageing. Learning a new language or any new skill is one of the best ways to keep your brain young. Walking is good, as is table tennis, but dancing is the best. Eat purple fruits and veg. Less meat.

We will see what happens when someone phones us tomorrow. I think they will just talk us through things we have done already in the house. :sad: If we can solve the infernal crackle the internet should resolve itself. At least we have a named person to email now.

DDIL sent me this pic of Bea. One month old today! How she's grown!!!




Love Heather UK

Beth CONGRATULATIONS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! to your son and to the wonderful parents. Sometimes these talented kids really do have it figured out.

Chris I am keeping my fingers crossed that you and PB continue seeing each other and that he stays as wonderful as he appears right now. I have to agree- what are the chances that you would meetig someone wanting to learn the other person's first language?

Thank you Barbie. I will try that.

cityjaneLondon wrote: »

Hi. I'm on my phone! Grrrrrrrr for Internet connection.
We've just been sent an itinerary for our 2017 trip. Yucatan Peninsula. But DH wants to drive himself. I want the more expensive option of a driver and guide. Fully escorted. I will not be able to relax if he is driving, asking me for directions and looking for places to park. Normally on our holidays with this company we are fully escorted. I have given him a while to get used to the idea. Will talk about it tomorrow.

Love Heather UK

P S Just got an email from BT. they will ring tomorrow. It's a senior person.

Heather Good luck with BT. I really hope that this is the end of the drama.

I agree with you about a driver for Yucatan. Driving on my recent trip, particularly in the cities, was excruciating. As you know, the driver did not speak Spanish and I could not always keep up with the poor signage, aggressive driving, traffic and lack of listening to directions. It was very, very stressful. Although many thousands of people drive their cars in Mexico, I am not sure that I would want to unless I had an SUV.

From personal experience- traffic in the Yucatan can be very heavy. Roads, other than the major toll roads, are not well maintained and even toll roads are not up to EU standards. The police can throw both drivers in jail if there is an accident regardless of who is at fault. You need a special permit as well as insurance and international driver's license. If you have any kind of breakdown, you have to report it to the next toll but the toll takers don't always speak any English (of course, our toll takers in the US usually do not speak any foreign language).

Although not on a tour, I traveled by tour buses to archeological sites with children and found it great. I stayed in a hotel that had been an old hacienda or convent dating back well over 300 years, with a private entrance to the archeological park. It was some years ago but could enter the park at 8 a.m. before crowds and heat. I remember that the day trips from Merida or Cancun all start arriving around noon. In the hottest part of the day, we rested and went swimming and through the extensive jungle and park like grounds of this hotel. Lots of birds and reptiles. We stayed a couple of days and really took advantage of taking our time to explore everything.

I was unable to go to Merida, the capital of Yucatan ( despite providing support on a project for an academic institution there) and the coastal ruin at Tulum. Also, on the way to Chichen Itza, in the middle of the jungle is another pyramid, higher than those at Chichen Itza. Only the pyramid was uncovered when I visited and still climbable at the time. I wish that I could remember the name. Lots and lots of iguanas.
CJ

Marcelyn - I don't add my exercise calories on to my daily allowance. I do sometimes go over the allowance and just figure it comes out of the exercise calories. I'm afraid if I added them back on to my daily allowance I'd go over that sometimes too and then really be in a hole. On my weight training days I'm definitely hungrier and eat more calories. I might add I have not lost any weight in many months so at this point, and at doctors advice, I'm working on maintaining. I'm; hoping eventually to lose 10 more pounds.

Janetr OKC