WOMEN AGES 50+ FOR MAY 2017

Louise, the main "rule" Leigh didn't mention is that we avoid inflammatory subjects such as politics. We disagree widely, but we agree to disagree and focus instead on all we can learn from each other. Stick around and you'll pick up a lot of wisdom!

You'll also start to recognize the players and our rhythms. So far, all the posts you see after yours come from the group's European contingent - that is, those of us who live in European time zones. Are you based in Europe too? The first response from the other side of the pond is likely to be from our early riser Allie. :laugh:

The interchange between Janetr, Barbie, and Heather hit me in just the right place. I'm starting to feel despondent about my back, which is still troubling me. I get dull aches toward the evening and they make me weary and irritable. The reduced opportunities for exercise are making it even harder than before to get a handle on the weight I've gained since January. I suspect the extra 5 kilos I'm lugging around exacerbate the back problem (not to mention making all my clothing tight and uncomfortable). You've inspired me to dig out my little supply of gold stars and start an accountability display on my fridge. :flowerforyou:

Have a great day everyone!

/Penny at the North Pole, who is delighted that it is now possible to use the color codes again!

morning ladies~
fell asleep at 5 pm last night ,I was exsausted... took a nice bath before that..
was wakened by our wacky next door neighbor.. she rolled into her driveway at 9:15 last night and sat in her car for an hour with music on full blast ... needless to say it woke me up and I couldn't get back to sleep until she went in to the house at 10:30 ugggh..
working 9:30 -6 today so long day..

Aw Heather, sorry to hear that! It's those careless moments when we forget our age that do us in. If I'd been thinking straight I would have bent my knees and lifted that darn snowmobile with a neutral back and a strong torso - and I'm sure you would have taken some precautions to align yourself to the washbasin if you'd been thinking straight. So yeah, we're old and we're wise, but not always as wise as we should be. The advantage of the thread is we can learn from each other's mistakes. (Sometimes.)

No, I don't like water. Back when I had a newborn I went swimming twice a week while my mother-in-law looked after her firstborn grandchild. Then 25 years later I did some water aerobics. But now I'm going far from our fantastic community pool. The only water I'll have available will be the fjord fed by the Barents Sea. Not for swimming! The nearest swimming pool will be 2 hours away, so I have a perfectly good excuse not to get wet. :laugh:

Instead, I'll take a leaf from Barbie's book and WALK until I feel I can jog again. Over the next month, I'll be spending a lot of time at our island paradise, where I always enjoy the feeling of freedom when I can walk as far as I want without worrying about polar bears.

/Penny at the North Pole, packing to head south

Lisa - I messaged Kim a day or so ago, but haven't heard back yet.

My back/side still ÷×+= !!!!!!!

Love from grumpy Heather UK xxxxxxx

Morning all, had a nice road trip to Washington DC to pay our respects at Arlington Cemetery, always profound, always.

Feeling out of sorts, probably too much sodium from restaurant foods, found it easy to stay away from gluten, but sodium is soooo ever present in take away food. Lunch is packed and will get me back on track. I am taking a mental heath day tomorrow to attend to this awful itchy rash, hoping to find answers, I am overwhelmed with the changes happening at work and feel a little breathless about my future. Could stress be a part of this, probably!

NYKAREN

Lisa thank you, thank , thank you. This is my exact feeling that I could not put into words.

"I know I'm addicted to the way the actual act of eating makes me feel"

I'm working on replacing the feeling with the realization that I feel so much better physically, being able to get off of all medications I had been on for 10-12 years and not least of all going from a size 24 to a size 12 clothes. Oh yes, I can do this.

Janetr okc

Louise: Welcome to a great group! Guidelines are not listed anywhere, but they boil down to basic respect and courtesy. We talk about our lives and our families, and try to be courteous and accepting. We have women from all over the world but most of us are from English speaking countries. We work hard at encouraging one another to live healthy lives. Barbie posts a new thread for us at the beginning of each month. There will be a link at the bottom of this thread tomorrow night. :flowerforyou:

Penny: I am sorry that your back is bothering you. There are so many possible causes from over use injuries to arthritis, to poor posture. Your accountability display is a good idea & you might want to have a visit with your doctor if you have a good relationship. My basic self-talk is move more in ways that don't aggravate the back. I'm thinking of yoga, cycling, and walking as three good choices. Swimming works for some but I don't like to be cold and wet at the same time, so it is not a first choice for me until mid-summer. I think we have a similar pov regarding swimming. (((HUGS)))


DH & I went for a lovely walk/bike ride yesterday. I walked and he rode his trike. Today he is feeling the impact of the unusual exercise. I hope to get him out and moving again today, for a shorter stint. The gym was closed over the weekend & I need to stretch out and move more. I'm considering whether to go today. I've been a Monday, Wednesday, Friday yoga student, but I know they're now also having classes Tuesdays and Thursdays so I may go and give it a try today.

Katla in beautiful NW Oregon

“Our greatest weakness lies in giving up. The most certain way to succeed is always to try just one more time.” Thomas A. Edison

Just realized I didn't put my name below the previous post!

Rhonda in Tennessee

Re closet eating. I've been there done that, wore the 2x tee-shirt to prove it. One sentence from the TOPS pledge that always stood out for me, "even though I overeat in private, my excess poundage is there for all the world to see." And it's been probably fifteen years since I've been to TOPS.

I can remember just waiting for my DH to go somewhere so that I could hit the cabinets. He would sometimes comment on my excess snacking, which annoyed me to no end. The food boundary that works best for me is no unplanned snacking. None, nada, zilch. I don't always keep my boundaries, but I do have them and a plan in place if I break them.

Luckily drinking has never been my problem. I'd much rather eat my calories.

Rhonda in TN: Welcome to a great group!

Rita: Are you taking Vitamin D3? I recommend it. One of its nicknames is "the sunshine vitamin." It really helps my mood during the long winters here and I take it year round, although I adjust my dose upward in the darker months. (((HUGS)))

Mia: I'm happy that your surgery is behind you. I hope the Dr. appt goes well. :flowerforyou:


We have an overcast day today and my mood seems to match it. I thought about going into the gym and trying out Tuesday Yoga, but I'm grumpy & have a bit of a headache so I decided to stay home.

Katla in beautiful NW Oregon

"The greatest weapon against stress is our ability to choose one thought over another." - William James

Janet. I empathize with you on the frustration of closet eating or just plain sneaking food. Everyone has remedies on how to handle it, and I suppose all you can do is pick and choose a path that will get you thru the habit. I will say how proud I was that you expressed it to us. That alone speaks volumes of your character!

So, something that I have realized is that when I find myself thinking guilty thoughts, wishing to buy things and just inhale them in the car, it comes from a place of control. When I lack control, it is a non feeling, zoned out, numbness, that takes the word of control right out of the situation. Its effects are fleeting, and short lived. The after affects are self loathing, and guilt ridden.

So what to do? Like anything that achieves a loss of control within yourself, you have choices. Submit and throw in the towel, or stop and persevere. For me I learned that I am in the drivers seat of my own life. I control my actions. When I feel stressed I do have thoughts of self pity, and what helps me is writing down my stresses in a journal. When you put them down on paper you release the hold it had on your life. I have held onto some doozies when it comes to stresses, but I realize that all my energies cultivating that stress will have power over you. Soon you are just riding shotgun and not being the driver of your oiwn life!

I am not that same person that made decisions haphazardly. Each day is a victory and not a day to wallow in a sad disposition. So I remember and feel grateful I woke up. I woke up from living my life unfeeling, fuzzy numb. No passion in food, myself, or my life. The days of walking around my city, eating fast food meals, and buying sweet bags of garbage is over.

We are smart, intelligent ladies, with issues as most have. Its how we face them head on that is the difference. I feel powerful by being a part of you all.

Becca
Oregon

Oooh marinated pickled veggies!!!!