55-65 year old women's success?

I am 65, still here, still plugging along and refusing to give up. This has been a slow go for me losing 50+pounds over 5 years. For whatever reasons, despite multiple changes in eating/exercising, it just will NOT speed up. I am happy with my NSVs, though, as my 182 pound body is wearing a size 12 jeans! Nevertheless, I am still chipping away at the 30ish pounds I have left. Once I decided that health was the driving factor for my lifestyle and weight loss a by-product, I stopped letting the scale dictate my day. Like, Trina, I work hard at retirement which includes strength training, Zumba, Body Pump, walking, reading, and an occasional Netflix binge day!

started weight one month. 63y.o., I am lost 9 pounds. I walk briskly about 6 to 8 miles a day.
I had bladder cancer 2 years ago. NO MORE CANCER. walking is my therapy. I have 29 more pounds to go.
doctors told my that exercise will help with metabolism.

May I be a jr member of this group as I’m only 53? 😂. I have enjoyed all of the inspirational posts. I’ve been part of MFP for 18 days and I’m 9 lbs down. 33 more to go to hit my initial goal. MFP is just what I needed, help with portion control. Again I have really enjoyed all of the posts on this board.

luluinca wrote: »

Thanks for the response @SummerSkier, I think age and flexibility have something to do with our injuries but I refuse to just give in............LOL I have learned however, how important it is to be a little more careful and to give my body time to recuperate.

@SummerSkier I'd like to add that you're both so right about rest days, flexibility, and age all playing an important part in losing/maintaining our weight. I think we need to look at our weight loss from a whole mind/body perspective. Adding yoga, tai chi, and rest days to our routines gives us the best balance (pun intended) for a new healthy lifestyle. Cardio and weights are not the only paths to success. Staying flexible and maintaining good balance well into our 70s, 80s and beyond is equally as important as maintaining a good weight.

Trina, I love your illustration!
I have definitely become a proponent of the “use it or lose it” premise. I have been listening to music I have down loaded to my iPad this morning while I crocheted and a song I love with a little beat came on, I decided nothing was preventing me from getting up and dancing to the tune. I keep seeing this video advertisement for a dance-based exercise routine on Facebook and thought what the heck I can do that to music I already have and nothing says I can’t turn it into a stretching and movement improving event. My husband just finished a round of physical therapy for a pulled muscle that really opened his eyes to how much he has been limiting his range of movement without realizing it while being quite active on and off the job. There is no doubt that weight-bearing exercises help with bone density way more than a calcium supplement can, but there are many ways to get weight lifting into our day and we just have to do it. One of the exercises the therapist had my husband do was simply putting his hands up on a door entry at different levels and walk through the door past where his arm was, gently stretching his shoulder to extend his range of movement. I was looking at YouTube and found Bob and Brad by searching for Physical Therapy and you can learn a lot of simple moves to keep or get your body into a better place if you have been sedentary for a little too long. Many people use YouTube for exercise videos. I don’t foresee myself being a person who goes to the gym, mostly because I live far enough away that I know my motivation would lag much too quickly to make paying the membership a good investment so I feel the need to do something right here at home that I will repeat regularly.

Just know this: doing something regularly is better than doing nothing. There is no reason we in this age range have to accept every ache and pain as just another symptom of our growing older. I used to joke that I had to die of something, but what really motivated me to do something was when I thought I was teetering on the edge of that something, I realized I didn’t really want to find out what it was like to actually live with the consequences of that something.

I committed to logging my food daily and it made a huge difference for me. I started at 244.7 pounds and I logged every day for over 500 days until I was down to 159 pounds which was my personal goal. In recent months I had thought I was going to try logging on a different site and life happened and I just didn’t get going there. I had a very emotionally stressful summer and went off the rails with my diet. Now I am back here realizing that to achieve my goals I HAVE to log and MFP is where I do it the best.

My best advice: value yourself enough to know that you are worth this effort! Start every single day as if it is a new day no matter how well or how bad you did yesterday. Log every single bite, every sip, every single day and be honest with yourself about the amounts you are eating, if you’re not, who are you lying to? No one else has to see your food diary. It is a tool for you to use to evaluate what your food intake is. You will see what things you are eating are raising your calorie count rather quickly. It gets easier every single day, but the first couple weeks are tough...do it anyway. YOU ARE WORTH IT!!!

I'm another one who has to log everyday without fail. The only reason I've stayed in maintenance these last 3+ years is because of logging, wearing my Fitbit, moderate exercise, and portion control. I was out of the gym for several months due to some health reasons (damaged my pelvic floor lifting weights) resulting in two operations.
While recovering I began trending up slightly (though still within my maintenance range).

I adjusted my workouts to all low impact exercising at the gym and hit 20,000 steps per day no matter how I do it: gym, walking, moving, cleaning, whatever. Every day I just make sure I hit that number. I can't get to the gym everyday and I don't want to, I just want to keep active. It took me 15 months to lose close to 50 lbs and I don't ever want to gain it back. The food dosen't control me; I control the food. I won't let the food ever control me again. It's not worth the crappy feeling of being so overweight.

@SummerSkier love your picture!
@1Nana2many always love your posts!

debtay123 wrote: »

Trina2040- I love how you say that you need to log your food- sometimes others make it seem like it is so weird to do it- but for me- just seeing and knowing what I will be eating most of the time hels me. Even when I eat out if possible I go to the restaurant website and look at what I might possibly order(usually i will have 2 or 3 meals in mind) which fit my goals. PS I also love my fitbit as well-

Logging is not weird -- for me it's like balancing my checkbook. I have to keep track of my money and my calories. Checking restaurant websites to scope out the calorie counts is totally forward thinking. I also have to watch the sodium content and realized that most restaurant foods are evil sodium bombs. Bummer.

PS: I live and die by my Fitbit.

Cheers!

turned 60 last week. That was an eye opener. I did not think it would be such a traumatic event but that # is a little scary. In celebration tho I decided that I needed to start wearing my stash of bikinis (hey summer skier is my name!) so yesterday I started with this little #. Yeah - there are quite a few "age" related things which I can point out about my body but overall it's nice to be able to get my 15 minutes of private sunbathing in and not feel like a whale. Just proof that us older gals CAN DO IT!!!!! And no - I probably would not wear this out in public but I feel ok posting it to our little group. I love how supportive everyone is here. Logging and weighing frequently and checking out menus. Yup - I am exactly with you. Maybe because of our age and experience we know what works for us best!