Congratulations on your good numbers, Snooozie! And great attitude about your A1C. I'm thinking about what you said about it being a positive. I need to get some of your attitude - it's so easy to lose focus and not have the motivation for doing this and I can see how it would be helpful to have a reminder, and a clear goal from that.

I think the trouble for me is that doing nothing means a deterioration and sometimes it's difficult to see progress when I feel I'm working at it. But in fact, I'm maybe doing little bits to prevent further deteroriation, and things would be worse if I didn't do it. In fact, I know they would be worse and I would be morbidly obese if I just relaxed and didn't do something about it.

Welcome back! I'm so sorry about your mother. I know how I felt when I lost my own mother, so I understand - it does completely change your focus, and everything seems touched by the loss. *hugs*

You mentioned having a shape change - I don't know if that was after you lost your mother, but I remember when I lost mine I had some strange things going on and my doctor said that grief can affect your hormones in strange ways. I had a shape change too recently (waist expanding without actually gaining weight), which I think is hormone related. I was talking to a friend yesterday and we've both being going through various investigations and tests to rule out serious stuff, when it seems that most of our list of symptoms are menopause related! It's good that they investigate, of course. And of course, bearing in mind that swelling and bloating can be signs of serious things, so worth getting checked out.

It's great that you have a friend to go to weight watchers with! Especially if it is somebody you can laugh with!

I just looked up middle age spread, , although mine is more like senior spread , and found an interesting article which supports your doctor’s theory Vail. I copied and pasted part of it below ,


However where we gain weight is governed by our hormones and imbalance can lead to an increase in belly fat. To lose this stubborn fat you need optimal hormone balance in addition to diet and exercise. Menopausal women are a good example. They may not gain weight, but their bodily proportions change. This is due to the influence of estrogen, testosterone and progesterone. As these hormones fall cortisol, and insulin rise leading to change in the bodily proportions.

Estrogen is protective against belly fat gain contributing to the lower risk of heart disease in females which rises after menopause. Estrogen and progesterone balance prior to menopause are also important and estrogen is the biggest factor in increasing fat storage at the hips and thighs providing the classic female shape. Progesterone balancing estrogen reduces the storage of fat around the waist. High stress has been shown to negatively impact progesterone, so a woman who sees fat accumulating around the waist may want to work to reduce stress and raise progesterone. Another important hormone impacting belly fat is cortisol, this is the hormone that is produced during stress, and can be in the form of any stress on the body such as dieting, over exercise, psychological stress and lack of sleep.

Excess insulin and insulin resistance lead to an increase in intra abdominal fat which in turn increases insulin resistance and then further weight gain.

Thyroid disorders become more common as we age and 1 in 8 women will develop a thyroid disorder and more have a borderline issue which can still impact weight.

Hello, ladies, I have been missing in action However, I have been reading comments on here on and off without commenting.
I had a lot of changes on my job that I tried to accept, but could not and I ended up quitting without a plan in place. I am a person that acts on feelings. If you get into the color personality scheme I am definitely RED. Anyhow, I have found a new job. At my age all I wanted to do was retired but unfortunately I cannot afford to.
So I am settling back into some type of normalcy and just wanted to say hi and the conversations that I have read are just great. Suzy that bear was just too close for comfort.
My weight is like a yo-yo, but it hasn't gone too far over, but, also I have not loss any pounds that wants to stay loss.

Floating on a raft in the pool sounds like absolute heaven! I’m sorry you’re under the weather though. Sounds unpleasant, I hate stomach issues.

Welcome back, both of you! I feel like we got the band back together!

Milove, so sorry about the job but maybe this one will be so much better...so it could be a silver lining thing. The whole yo-yo thing describes my last three years but I am up more than down.

We decided to just do a day hike yesterday because we have a lot to do around the house and it’s just too darn hot. It was a good decision...the flies were out in mass and would have driven us crazy while camping. We hiked the steepest, tallest incline on the Appalachian Trail in Georgia called Blood Mountain. It wasn’t much compared to Colorado but it was a 1500 foot climb over two miles. Whew! It wasn’t easy but I did it!!! I’m really proud of myself!

Suzy you guys look great and what a beautiful picture of nature behind you. Keep on climbing.

Thanks for the welcoming, it feels nice to be back.