Women over 40- Let's lose 20 pounds!

Pedmom Jill - I went slightly over about 30 calories. My attack plan did work! I had a slice, ate a salad, drank a full glass of unsweet tea, and then munched on my youngest daughter's crust, as opposed to eating that and another slice. I like your idea of putting that big meal into your diary at the beginning of the day - I could have skipped my coffee creamer and been on point. Thanks for that! I hope your day went well!

I hope everyone else had an achievement of their own today!

This is the first time being on MFP that I feel like I have found my people! I will turn 43 next month and like many of you, the pounds don't melt off nearly as easily as they used to, but there are a lot of things I have not taken full advantage of recently. I am lucky enough to get to go to work every day right now so that does get me moving, and out weather here in Alberta has just turned into walking weather so yay! Like the lady who started this thread, I also have access to Les Mills (Body Combat is the best) videos but it is so much harder to get motivated when I am not attending the actual classes at my gym. I just rejoined MFP yesterday and would live to have more accountability buddies. I am at 146 lbs (only 5'3") and want to be at 126. Anyone here, please feel free to add me!

@sweetstevens Yay! Good job. I love that we can have a treat and still be faithful to our long term goals! I'm the same way with pizza-it's my favorite and can easily scarf down 3 pieces before I even realize what I've done.

@rubyred427 Welcome! 700 days, wow! I hear you, I've been on and off here for years, and definitely gain when I'm off. I have finally come to the realization that I need to track all the time. Maybe not every single day, but I have to set a limit on how many pounds the scale can add before I diligently track every single thing again. I am 54 and also 5'4" and started at 186.6 when I started on 09/23/19, so I can really understand how you feel. I weighed 140 this morning and am just about to my goal weight. It so hard to stay on track.

@Sundaenia Welcome and again, so many things I can relate to in your post. Motivating yourself is not easy at all. I used to love going to the gym for group classes, but I now have a gym at home and so far, I've exercised almost every day for the last 7 months. It's a bit easier for me to stay motivated when I'm losing; I'm not sure how I'll keep that motivation once I get to my goal weight. It's hard because you get used to all the compliments while you're losing. Then you're thin and everyone gets used to seeing you like that. Personal pride is a good motivator, so when those comments stop, it can get harder.

@rinaid Boy, there are so many of us that share the same experience with our weight. And it's so unfair that the scale can go up 5 pounds in one weekend, and then it takes 2 weeks to get it off again. As far as deprivation, have you looked into any of the recipes here and on other sites? I have found some really good ones on skinnytaste.com and pounddropper.com-there are a lot.

I didn't get my usual noon workout in today. My work is "normal" and although I work from home all the time, some days I just have a time limit on getting things done. Today was one of those days and it's the third day this week! Next week I'm going to work harder on making sure I can take that hour for myself all 5 days of the week.

Today is 80 Day Obsession day #31-AAA. Abs, arms, and *kitten* lol. My quads are sore from yesterday's legs day so that should be fun lol.

@sweetstevens It's great to see your Accountability goals, especially the added Santana music lol. I wouldn't be able to do my treadmill without music. Even if I'm watching tv, I still have my headphones on listening to music. And way to go on conquering your pizza night. I have the same issues with Domino's. I love your added salad idea. I think I will do that too the next time we have pizza.

@foodie4run I envy your 4 mile run. No matter how in shape I am, I just can't run. Also, I love that you are appreciating the little things, so many of us forget to do that.

@PedmomJill Thanks for sharing your workouts with us. I know how hard it can be to get them in sometimes. I do my workouts at night, usually from 8:30 to 9:30 and in bed by 10. So when family things pop up during that time, I have to decide if I should stay up late and lose sleep or work out. It's definitley a balancing act. Good luck next week. I have faith you can get in your 5 workouts.

@ktdoraohara Welcome to our group! Tracking your calories religiously is a great goal. That is what has helped me the most this time around. That with knowing that no food is off limits as long as it fits in your daily budget.

@Helenmarshall5636 Welcome to our group and congratulations on your upcoming marriage! By then you will be a sexy, self-confident bride. You can do this!

@RubyRed427 Welcome to our group! It sounds like you're a pro at this. Logging 700 days in a row is outstanding! I think little reminders help a lot. I have a chart at home with lbs to lose and incentives along the way. And I have a vision board at work right by my computer. I'd be more than happy to share either of them with you if you'd like some inspiration.

@Sundaenia Welcome to our group! I'm also 5'3" and as of today I weigh 144 (181 beginning weight). My goal weight is 130, so we are pretty much on the same track. We got this girl!!

@rinaid Welcome to the group! I also did Noom, and one of the biggest take-aways for me was the fact that are no "bad" foods. Now that I know I don't have to deprive myself of what I want as long as I make it fit into my daily calorie budget, I am so much more successful than ANY time I've tried to lose weight in the past. Just make sure you track your calories everyday. Some people on here even enter their meals ahead of time to make sure everything fits in their budget ahead of time. Good luck. You can do this!

@wendyron3 I'm sorry you've been out of work so long. I can't imagine how stressful it must be. I've been lucky to keep doing my job through this craziness. I'm not sure how your salon is set up, but maybe you can get a small stationary bike that won't be in the way and jump on it for 5 min here or there in between clients. I have one in my office, and it is amazing. It would at least be some kind of exercise on those busy days that you can't get in a full workout.

Yesterday was a very stressful and upsetting day for me. I won't bore you with the details, but I did have a win from it. The old me would have gone straight to McDonald's for a caramel frappe to relieve my stress. Then I would have eaten very unhealthy comfort food for dinner. Instead I took a bath to relax and ate rotisserie chicken for dinner and stayed within my budget. Bikini body here I come lol.

Hello New Members! I'm sorry that I post mostly from my phone and I have no idea how to individually respond to everyone. One day, I will take notes and sit at the computer! Lol! Long story short, I am way behind on understanding and working with technology. Thank goodness I have a 16 year old who is teaching the tricks of the trade to his younger brother who can then teach me. Lol!

HealthyTink - Congrats on your win! I know how those cravings can be. I am so happy you drove straight home to a bath!

Pedmom Jill - I think you were the one who mentioned taking the dog on a quick walk and then following up with a run? I love that idea. I love walks with my dog, but it is hard to maintain a steady pace with him because he is older and has to take so many bathroom breaks. I think it's a great idea to do a "warm up" with him and then go hard on my own.

I went slightly over my calories, but I am glad that I am starting to know the calorie calculations in my head. I almost didn't go out to walk because the weather was not nice, but it cleared up, and I went out on a late walk and it was great! Don't you love it when some really great songs come on and it makes moving so much easier?

@healthytink I"m happy you found some positive coping skills to help your stressful day. I am proud of you!

Hi All! I’m so happy to have found this group and hoping I can become a part of it. I am in need of motivation and accountability. Weight has been a struggle my entire life and now that I’m at 45 I’m finding it even tougher.
I have been slowly gaining over the past year following a back injury and lots of work to regain strength after that. I am pretty good with my workouts. Using beach body on demand 4-6 days per week. My downfall is definitely my sweet tooth and mindless snacking.
Right now I am working from home and trying to stay on top of my three teenagers and their school work.
I’m also finding meal planning and prep challenging with kids home grazing through everything and the grocery store stock being a bit unpredictable.
I’m 45yrs old, 5’5” and 169lbs. My goal is somewhere around 140lbs, but I may adjust that as I get closer depending on how my measurements are looking.
It sounds like everyone here is off to a great start. Hoping I can get added to the group, but am also not sure how that works. Is it individual friend requests or is there a group request?

Egg roll in a bowl? I have never tried that but it sounds tasty!

I lost 1.5 pounds since April 16. Baby steps. Trying to do lower carb (lower glycemic ). And I stopped buying snack and gummy bears. If there are here, I will succumb to stress and nibble on them. All the calories have added up. Wishing you a great day!

Hello again! I thought I posted this morning, but don't see it in the thread...that's what I get for trying to be on here while I should be working :-/. Forgive me if it's there somewhere and I am repeating!

@foodie4run Thanks for the add! I have found and added others. It is a crappy feeling when the scale doesn't do what we want it to, but it sounds like you are doing good things for your body anyway! I have long wanted to be a person who liked running and kept trying, but it's just not for me. I do admire those who can do it!

@sweetstevens way to go! Your work is paying off! My name was made up at a time when mothering and decorating cakes was most of my non-work time. I'm just now realizing how old my profile picture is on here. That sweet little blondie is 13 yrs old now...maybe time for an update!

@RubyRed427 Looks like your work is paying off too! Can't wait to be saying that myself

I feel like today was a bit of a crappy start, but turned around. I finally got up the nerve to weigh in after several weeks of letting WFH and work stress be my excuses for evening snacking and treats! I am up 3lbs! So, started out discouraged, but also determined to make my targets. I did a workout and entered it and have just completed my logging for the day and am 1 calorie under my goal! Small victories

I do have a question...how accurate do you find the exercise calorie counts on here? My workout this morning said that I had burned far more calories than I think I actually did.

Hello All...

It has been since last week Wednesday that I posted - much too long. A warm welcome to all the new people who joined this thread since I last posted (@ktdoraohara @Helenmarshall5636 @RubyRed427 @Sundaenia @rinaid @laughingdakini1 @mummiecakes). It is nice to see so much enthusiasm and positive commentary.

I hit a major milestone on Saturday - down 50 lbs!!! Unfortunately, work has kept me far too busy from early in the morning until late at night and this is the first time I have had to take a few moments to post. With my schedule, I have not had the time to commit to daily workout routines, so for now I plan to focus upon the modifications I have implemented in my eating paradigm and try to maintain the walking/jogging to reach my daily step goal. I did fulfill my goals for the day today.

@wendyron3 I would think you may lose weight a bit faster and more consistently if you did not consume the calories that you expend during exercise, but that is a decision you will need to make depending on how you are feeling and if you can do without consuming those additional calories. I always stay well within the caloric budget determined by MFP.

@mummiecakes Welcome and great moniker! I can't comment on the accuracy of the exercise calorie counts on MFP since I have not used them, but I am sure others may be able to provide some insight.

@sweetstevens Glad to see your progress! Keep up the good work!

@RubyRed427 Great to see your progress as well. Sounds like a good plan to lower the carbohydrates - elimination of the Gummy Bears (which sound really good about now) was a great idea. I am glad I don't have any around here either... they may have started calling my name from the pantry.

@foodie4run Egg roll in a bowl - it sounds and looks great. Thanks for sharing the link and idea. I will probably make it over the weekend. I have been eating primarily spinach salads (at least 50% of the time) with a cornucopia of different accouterments - hard boiled eggs, milled flax seed, carrots, cucumber, chicken breast slices, avocado, all kinds of berries, etc... This sounds like a delightful change.

@laughingdakini1 Welcome... I also do not have any "friends" yet... I have only been using the MFP forum feature for a few weeks now. I would be delighted to be your friend. i think there are substantial health benefits to a vegetarian diet - I have tried to steer my eating paradigm in that direction, but it requires a significant relearning of what to purchase when grocery shopping as well as learning new repertoire of dishes to prepare. Do you have any favorite recipes/dishes you could share. I need to expand my experience in this arena, but it is a slow process.

@healthytink It is great to see that you were able to deal with the stress and overcome the temptation of veering off track! Your actions are the recipe for success.

@PedmomJill I can relate to your situation - not always having the time for your workout. As a fellow Wisconsinite, hopefully you were able to get out and enjoy some of the beautiful weather we had over the weekend. I did spend some of my weekend outside (with a computer) getting work done instead of at a desk. It is nice to see that winter has lost its grip on Wisconsin and the warm weather is just around the corner. Only thing is that this summer will likely be far different than any of us have experienced in our lifetimes - a summer with some level of social isolation and a very different approach to summertime activities.

@rinaid Welcome. I have also experienced difficulty with just calorie restriction. What I have found to work well for me is the following: 1. When I eat: Intermittent fasting - I eat only in the evenings (5pm-9pm) or thereabouts. I eat one fairly complete meal and may find myself snacking a bit either before or afterwards. I try to eat healthy and also healthy snacks (carrots & hummus, celery, guacamole, etc). 2. What I eat: I try to loosely follow a keto type diet with many vegetables. 3. I am trying to make the change permanent. I do not have a thought in the back of my mind that I can go back to my old eating habits at some time in the future, for I know that those habits were not healthy in the long run. I find I am not usually hungry using this paradigm. One other thing I do - I have eliminated soda during the first half of my day (I would like to eventually eliminate it completely). I found my magic elixir to be coffee. I drink a cup or two of black coffee in the mornings - it quells any slight hunger I may experience in the morning or afternoon.

@Sundaenia Welcome - glad to see you have found this thread a great fit. Alberta, Canada - you definitely need to take advantage of the warm weather when you have it. You likely get less than we do here in Wisconsin. Great to have you here. I would be happy to be one of your accountability buddies. It is often that small nudge or redirection that can make the difference between staying the course and drifting off track.

Just found this group and would like to join! I will be 42 in July and am rapidly approaching 14stone (196lbs) which is the absolute heaviest I have ever been in my life. I am 5'5 tall and carry my weight mainly between my waist and my knees, feel disgusting and sluggish and even my 'big' stretchy clothes no longer fit. I am miserable and keen to turn this around! I would love to be 130-140lbs, but if I could even lose 10lbs right now that would be a great start and the motivation I need. I am interested in giving intermittent fasting a go, has anyone else on here tried it?

Hey peeps! It's been a busy few days, sorry I haven't checked in. Yesterday work was a sh!tshow and I never even got my workout in. So today I'm doing two-80 Day Obsession booty at noon, and then cardio core after work. I don't want to fall behind with the group I'm in on Facebook so I have to do it.

@wendyron3 Welcome to the group. My sister is self-employed doing hair also, so I know it's been really hard. I got desperate enough this weekend to give my son a buzz cut lol. Hopefully you'll be able to figure out a way to keep up the good habits once you start being busy again. I don't eat any of my exercise calories back. I just make sure I'm eating in my goal range.

@healthytink Sorry you had stress last Friday, hope things are better now. Good for you for not running to the junk food!

@sweetstevens I didn't post about taking my dog running. I do not enjoy running at all lol. I do walk my dogs pretty much every day though. Yay for being 2 pounds down!

@laughingdakini1 Welcome to the group! All you have to do is log in and post and you are in! LOL I've certainly experienced the rolling eyes at my dedication to losing weight and staying in shape. Mostly from very unhappy obese people, like my sister. She makes comments like "Oh, I'm sure YOU wouldn't eat this". I just try to ignore her and like you are doing now, get my motivation from like-minded people.

@mummiecakes I have also struggled with weight my entire adult life. I have been everywhere from 120 to 210! Almost a 100 pound difference, ugh. My issue is I do well at the losing part, but not the maintaining part. Like so many! I feel that this time I've lost the weight for good though; my life is different in that my job is "normal" hours now (instead of 60-70 a week) and my kids are grown and don't rely on my so much. I"m a BOD fan too! I joined last October and that's been a big part of my success. What workouts do you like? I'm on the second week of phase 2 of 80DO right now. I like it but man, Autumn talks and goofs around way too much. I don't know that I'd do it again. Joel is my favorite! As far as calorie counts on here, I don't think they're very accurate. I use a Fitbit and I don't think that's that accurate either. But for me, it gives me a general idea how I'm doing, and if I need to work harder.

@foodie4run Sorry you didn't see the scale drop, but I'm sure you know it's not always the number. Good job food prepping! I like to do that on the weekends sometimes, too. It's just me and my autistic son part-time, so I make full meals and freeze parts so i don't have to do it every weekend.

@RubyRed427 Snacks are the hardest. One good thing about living alone is it's much easier to control what comes into my house. My son's here half the time, but luckily is not picky, so I buy snacks for him that I don't like that much.

@copernicus0001 Congratulations on your milestone! That's awesome! I drove through Lake Geneva on Sunday and was shocked to see how many people were there! The main street (Hwy 50) was busy, and there were at least a hundred people hanging out by Bigfoot State Park and the beach. I don't get it. I thought that was against the shelter in place rules. I am so ready for warmer weather so I can start riding my bike. With our weather, I don't get to ride it every day and I hate that. It's either raining or too windy......so I appreciate the calm days.

@loucr1980 Welcome to the group from Scotland! Have you looked at any online workouts to get you through until your gym opens again? I know a lot of things are free right now online. Maybe one would work for you. I share your sweet tooth-sugar is my devil for sure.

@angelfish257 Welcome! I eat between 10am and 7pm most days. Technically it's IF, but I just don't like early breakfast and try not to eat at night too much. I don't think it's really made any difference in my weight loss, it's just a habit for me. But I know a lot of people swear by it.

@Mountainlove Welcome to the group! I am an ex-WW person too. In fact, my membership is paid through July, but I'm not using it at all since coming back to MFP a couple of weeks ago. I was nearing my (original) goal weight and though I might use MFP and stop paying, so I started putting my food in here. I was shocked at how few calories I was eating. No wonder I was tired all the time-I workout about 45-60 minutes almost every day and some days was only eating 800 calories. That really soured me on them. I am NOT about starvation at all. I'm glad you're encouraged by our little group here. Good job on getting back to exercise you love!

Okay, no more procrastinating. I think I'm caught up here so it's off to do 58 minutes of nothing but booty exercise. Ouch! Have a great day!

@loucr1980 I am in the same boat with trying to juggle kids, work, keeping a house and trying to find time to workout. Because we only have one space that is quiet, my husband and I do shift work. I work from 5h30-13h30 and then he starts working until 20h. Meanwhile, we tag team taking care of the kids. By the time they are in bed at 20h, I am too tired to go for a walk, workout or track my calories.

@angelfish257 We are same weight and height. I hear lots of people lose weight with intermittent fasting. I, however, have not tried it.

@copernicus0001 Congrats on the weight lost! 50 lbs is amazing!

My sister in law is getting married this Sept and I would really like to be 20 lbs lighter.
This a good group - I am sorry that I have not been as active. I try to forgive myself as things are crazy right now with COVID-19.

Good luck all and thank you for the motivation.

Cheers,

C

@tiff0277 I can do the same thing to myself. I have been in a ten pound state of yo-yo for 2 years. Lately, before I get down on myself and eat my feelings I stop and take a breath to think about the positive results of what I do or will do. So, I work hard for a solid week and see no results on the scale, normally I would just say forget it and eat ice cream or whatever I get my hands on. Now I’m stopping to say wait don’t ruin your progress further by doing that. I guess taking the time to be present with your thoughts and emotions helps.