WOMEN AGES 50+ FOR JANUARY 2017

Pip- you two should get the Cutest Couple Award

Someone asked me what Reiki is (TNToni?). It's healing with energy. I took a course last year and want to continue to practice. I've used it on myself for sore joints, headaches and stress relief. I've sent it over long distances to friends in need. PM me if you ever want me to send Reiki to you. I'd be honored. For more information: reiki.org/faq/whatisreiki.html

Rita and Katie: Wowzers!!! Keep it up ladies. You look fantastic.

Rori
Colorado Foothills

Pip – You are definitely a ‘machine’ … you run, ride, and swim circles around any of us (probably together); I just get ‘winded’ reading your daily posts about what you’ve already done that day. Does your mind ever take a rest from what kind of exercise you are going to do the next day? I wish I had ½ that much exercising ambition. I used to ride a bike; but, that was when I was in my ‘late 30's/early 40's' and I had company doing it’. Riding 10 miles after work and at least 50 over the weekend. My boss out outshone me ‘on the bike’; but, I got even with him on the racquetball courts.

Penny – We called our sons to wish them a “Happy New Year” and Will sounded like death warmed over. Didn’t keep him on the phone, sounded like I had awoken him from a much needed period of sleep and I don’t think he appreciated it … had been sick all weekend long.

Either repost your picture of you veggies, or post a list of what you ate. I’m pretty sure that if I did that I would ‘jump off the plateau’ that I seem to be stuck on. Thanks!

Katie – Looking great! Your avatar shows the additional weight you've lost. I have not posted my ‘before’ picture; but, did post a current picture. Where in North Georgia do you live? You might have already told me; but, apparently I have forgotten. My DOGD goes to UWG in Carrollton and now she and her boyfriend are looking for another place to live. Their roommates told them, today, that they had invited someone else to come live in the house with them. She and her boyfriend are most upset because apparently this person or persons are either not going to pay rent or are going to be helping them pay theirs. She doesn’t think this is fair as she thinks that all should pay 1/3rd or it be divided among however many that are living there … 5 or 6 in a 3-bedroom house.

She's very neat and we laugh that it borders on being a bit towards the OCD side. She’d going for the angle that their lease is being broken by the party or parties moving in and she emailed the owner that and wants out of the lease. I hope he lets them ‘out of it’. Now to start looking for another place that is ‘pet friendly’. She really did not need this ‘stressor’ on her at the beginning of the school year.

Yvonne – Growing up our Daddy forbade up from riding “killer-machines’ as he called them; that summer my middle sister burnt her leg very badly on her boyfriend’s Vesper and wore long pants all summer long to keep it hidden. I’ve only been on one, and that was a ‘big’ one that my DBnL had and he scared the living *kitten* out of me. All I wanted to do was ‘get off and get back to my babies’. He kept screaming at me to ‘lean with him’. That just did not make any sense to me; to lean over at a 45° angel; and it was in Florida that does not require the wearing of a helmet.

I used to wear my hair short and spikey and got so tired of it; then let it grow out below my shoulders; but, it was so find and thin that it looked horrible on me and my ponytails looked pitiful; so last August my DDnL#2 and one of her co-workers cut it in a bob. I have really liked it much better; but, it will take at least one more ‘cut’ to get it all one length. My skin is pretty olive (especially in the summer). I don’t wear foundation; but, I do have to put my ‘eyes’, eyebrows’, ‘lips’, and ‘cheeks’ on. My gray is pretty white so I don’t mind it.

Becca – When you get finished there – take a long trip to Georgia and help me. I’ve got a ‘lot’ of projects.

Sue – I agree – every day that I wake up, I feel blessed that I am not on the other side, taking a ‘dirt nap’. While I am not afraid of dying; there are too many things I still want to do here. I’m ‘prepared’; I’m just not ‘ready’. But, I don’t think it is anything that you really can plan for.

Mary from Minnesota – I’ve gone to that website; but, I am not sure I’ll be able to follow it, I like things that are ‘simple’ and I am not so sure that I see, so far, that it is simple enough for me. I will still try.

Lenora

Janet and NYKaren, you are too sweet, but let's don't scare the newbs with my leggings just yet. LOL.

I'm easing into the anti-inflammatory thing with cutting out obvious sweets, added sugar, and stuff like that. As I buy new food I will choose items with no added sugar when possible and work toward a cleaner diet. For example, I will buy natural nut butter from here on out, but I'm not throwing out my Peter Pan. I'll eat it until it's gone. I will begin to make my own salad dressings, but will use up what I have first. I don't think I'm ready to give up rice and pasta altogether, but I will eat it less often and choose brown over white,

I have started drinking a lemon drink before breakfast that is quite yummy. You throw a quartered lemon in 4 cups of water and two tablespoons of olive oil and two tablespoons of stevia in a blender with a few ice cubes, blend and strain. It makes enough for three days. I'm not sure how it helps, but I like it.

Janet okc and Lenora: My son is 40 and my daughter is 36. My oldest grandchild is 5. I wish that they lived close enough for frequent short visits. :flowerforyou:

Meg: I'm sorry you have the flu. We had it last year and it had us miserable for weeks. We are lucky so far this year.

Toni & Lenora: I injured my left shoulder a year ago in November while saddling a horse. I was diagnosed with frozen shoulder & told it would take a year to heal, and it did. It is fine now. I feel lucky to have the pain gone and my full range of motion back. I kept doing yoga and that helped keep me strong.

Toni & Heather & Janetr: Add me to the 67 group. I tell people I'm a 49er. It was a very good year. I have a 40 year-old son and a 36 year-old daughter. I also feel younger, more confident and happier than when I was younger. Getting older has some very nice perks. :bigsmile:

Pip: The matrix machine looks like a huge challenge. I applaud your determination & grit. I love the photo of you and Kirby.

Lenora & Toni: Back in the beginning of our marriage, DH borrowed a motorcycle from a friend to take me for a ride. When he kick started that machine his rational mind shut off. We had a ride that we'll never forget and I've never been on a motorcycle again. :noway: People think horses are dangerous, but they're not in the same league as a man on a motorcycle. :noway:


We got some shopping done and the house cleaned up today. Yay us! One of our cars has a dead battery and we'll see to it tomorrow. Our local Les Schwab Tire Center was closed for the holiday today.


Katla in Beautiful NW Oregon

"Normally I'm quite normal . . ." The Gods Must be Crazy

We had a big thunder storm last nite so I didn't get a lot of sleep. Spent the day taking down and storing the decorations. House looks so bare. One of our friends from our Sunday School class has been put on hospice. We didn't even know he was ill. We went over to see him this morning so we've been sad all day.
Michele-you eat more fruits and veggies than anyone I know. Whatever you're doing, keep it up.
Heather- Bea is so beautiful. Love to see pics of her.
So tired I can't think straight. Going to bed early.

SueBDew in TX

Toni – My parents believed that ‘if’ you were not allowed to ‘occasionally face-plant yourself’ and get up and ‘learn a lesson’ … they were failures as parents. But, we were not given choices on some things; and, some things we did ... they had 'no clue' about. Thankfully we never got hurt doing some of the things. We had some rules; but, we also knew the consequences of breaking them. You did NOT break curfew, even 'if' you had actually had a 'flat tire' on the way home. Your friends, when at our house, also had to follow 'house rules' or they would be told 'go home'. I remember once having another girl spend the night with me (her Daddy did not want her dating; so the only way was to not be home). She made 2 dates for the same night; then, left with the first one to show up. I got restricted for it for a week. She never spent another night with me after that.

We had heard enough stories about people dying or in some cases … being totally paralyzed in wrecks on them. My DOS’s boss was killed on one when a woman pulled out in front of him. Couldn’t stop, couldn’t maneuverer around her. In fact, he was pretty sure of it before they notified his son because it had been his son’s motorcycle and when the business went tits up; he got his Dad to exchange it for his car, since he had a new family. When the son called him at 3:00 in the morning, DOS told him that he ‘thought that had been his motorcycle’. One of DH’s dear friends was crippled by a wreck on one. I’ve never had any desire to ride one, and only did so thinking my BnL would be slow and gentle. WRONG! We were on the highway and I was about to scream his ears off; but, he really could not hear me. Got off and never got back on another one. Told my sons they were not to ever get on one and let me ‘hear’ about it. They both had the same descriptive word for them. I’m not looking to have to survive in a zombie apocalypse either! LOL!

I think I was way too concerned about ‘embarrassing my parents’ more than anything since they allowed us to learn to make decisions early in our lives. We did not have carte blanc; but, we knew that we had choices to make. Daddy was an attorney and mother was a HS English/Lit/Grammar teacher. To them, it was important for us to learn that we could be anything we wanted to be and we had 'great teachers'.

Katie – I’ve tried some of the natural peanut butter; the only thing that I question is how much ‘oil’ they must have because you have to stir it up a long time to be able to get the consistency right for spreading. I would have to buy 2 jars; because I love "chunky" but hubby can eat it. It’s more of an acquired taste if you are used to Peter Pan or JIF. I like peanut butter with apples or bananas. I just have to make sure I measure the 2 tbsp. that make up a serving … level, not heaping. Is stevia some sort of sugar substitute? I haven’t found too many that I like. I have used brown sugar in coffee and found that it takes more packets of it to sweeten my coffee the way I like it; but, I don’t even put that much sugar in my coffee. I do have to have sugar in it, I can go black otherwise … no cream. When Louis makes it up in the thermos, he puts Coffee Mate into it and it is way too sweet for my liking. Do you put the rinds and all in it?

Joyce – I hope you get to feeling much better real soon. Maybe he will take you off that medication since it has made you nose bleed so badly.

Katla – I’d take riding a horse, any day, over riding another motorcycle. I rode horses during my teens. A friend’s father stabled horses and we could ride them and groom them so he did not have to do it all. My BF rode a beautiful black one; and, she really was the only one other than the owner and his daughter that he liked. One of her cousins would come visit and want to ride him, she always go stuck with an old mare that only wanted to ride the trails she wanted to - mostly in a circle and flat land. We'd rides our down the other trails through the woods, up and down hills. So one day she tried to get up on him and could not put her left foot in the stirrup, much less jump up and sling her right leg over him. He’d turn in circles almost like he wanted to bite at her. She finally gave up even ‘asking’.

BF's parents used to keep the donkey for the live Nativity Scene at the Church they attended. She’d want to come over a ride him, too. She wasn’t a lot of fun to hang around with because you was a year younger than I was. Her grandmother was really strict and she was an ‘only’ spoiled brat/child. One day she came over wanting to ride the donkey and we had made other plans. The donkey walked around the fenced-in yard’s perimeter and he’d have to be guided around certain things, around the back of the house, around a couple of bushes. Susan was pretty brazen and wanted to ‘do it herself’. We led her around and then said, ‘ok, go for it’. The donkey went around the yard once; then he trotted under the big bush trapping her on his back with her laying back with her head towards his tail. We both got a whooping when we got home. No telling how long she had been out there when Karen’s Dad came home at lunch. She told on us. We both got restricted for doing it. That was back in the time that your friends’ parents could whoop you and you’d, later on, my roommate, growing up and we had a lot of fun doing things together. Lived in a small town where ‘everybody’ knew one another or, at least, knew of them.
I’m glad that your frozen shoulder was resolved without surgery; but, I had no choice.

Sue – We’ve had heavy rains for the past 2 nights; bad thunder storms around; but, no tornado warning in our immediate area. Thankfully; but, it make the dirt road a real mess.

Michele – Let me ‘clarify’ … I’m just in the early stages of ‘thinking’ I need to be in a ‘cleaning frenzy’. That will happen when the rest of the Christmas boxes are ‘out of the house’. Right now, they are just ‘in the way’

Jana – Glad you are back on MFP and tracking everything. Just don’t lose too much, too quickly. Are you on a special meal plan? I’m with you about exercising … I get at least 15 to 20 minutes in on the treadmill every day. I prefer summer exercising when it is a lot warmer out.

Lenora

Morning, all,

Allie, my dear heart, I know it feels like you're a failure, but you are NOT. Something I learned watching my parent's marriage, and looking back at my own first marriage of 27 years - one person who's trying to make it work is not a marriage. While the 50-50 effort thing is not always true, it does take two people to make a marriage. Sometimes it's 90-10, with you taking most of the effort, sometimes it's 20 percent on your part, 80 percent on theirs--but both people must want to be married, and must work at it for marriage to succeed. Tom dropped out of that long before I met you, honey, and that was three years ago now.

I went through all the stages of grief, some before I walked out, some after--denial, anger, bargaining, depression and acceptance, not necessarily in that order, but over and over again. You're on a rollercoaster ride of emotion, and will be for a while, but always remember, you didn't give up on your marriage, Tom did. You deserve better. You always did. And you always will.

___________________________________

Back to work this morning for the first time in nearly two weeks, looking forward to it and dreading it at the same time. While the prognosis of HT-H gave me some mental relief, the fact is I still have it and always will, so I've been reaching for a way to make my peace with that--I won't start on the Synthroid until later this week, when the meds arrive, but it could take months or even years to get back to "normal."

I am still exhausted, and have to cope with that somehow.

So, all things considered, my January word is "peace."

Love y'all!
Lisa in West Texas

My January goal is: "be lighter."
The actions I'll take to achieve that are:

• Log every day, every bite
• Get my happy hiney on the medication
• Work with my DH to eat healthier foods to get my LDL numbers down (wouldn't hurt his, either, I'm sure)
• Pay attention, be present at all times in my life
• Write every day
• Work out four times a week, two cardio-focused, two flexibility/resistance focused

Gloria love it!

Lenora I like a brand of crunchy peanut butter called Old Home. You find it in the refrigerator section at the grocery store. It is just peanuts and salt. No added oil or sugar. It does not have an oily layer on the top. It is a bit more pricey about $6 for 24 oz., but it has no fillers. You are right about the measurement piece. It is easy to take too large a serving. I have peanut butter with a banana almost everyday for breakfast.

When I was 17 a motorcycle drove right in front of me I was turning left on a two lane road. He did this so he wouldn't slam into me from behind. Unfortunately I was struck by another car from behind. I shudder to think if I had hit that motorcycle. I have never liked them since.

2017: Kindness

Margaret