60 yrs and up

@BCLadybug888

Hi. Nice to hear from you too! :-)

Hi all,
Steve, I’m also looking forward to cooler, fall weather. Costco had snowsuits for sale last week!
Ladybug,
Congratulations on your weight loss for this last year. I think my body or my behaviour must be similar to yours. I’m slow at weight loss, but won’t give up. It’s now or never. I’m proud of myself as I went away for a couple of days, saw a musical, out for meals, and came home without gaining weight.
I’m not counting every calorie or weighing food. At this point, considering all the diets I’ve been on, and all the weight I’ve successfully lost in the past, I know what I’m eating as far as nutrition goes.
Ann, I wish I had the energy, and discipline you have. Still working on getting off some drugs which I think will help. I’ve definitely managed to increase my activity, even just walking.
Welcome to the new people on here.

Hi, @alteredsteve175 - always good to hear from you. Hang in there, you've proven yourself strong, kind, and capable, but I understand (somewhat) how difficult such a lifestyle-marathon effort can be, as time rolls on. Sending strength!

BlessedGmaof4 wrote: »

(snip for length)
With all the heat going on here I try not to turn on the stove as much as possible so been having a lot of sandwiches and salads. The sandwiches I could do without because of the bread and such. I used to buy the Sara Lee Delightful bread at 45 calories per serving but I haven’t been able to find any down here in a while. I love salads but kind of burned out on them at the moment. I just need to come up with some new meal ideas that I can afford.

Hi, @BlessedGmaof4 -

Have you considered "lettuce wraps" as a sandwich alternative? Basically, you just roll up your sandwich fillings in a lettuce leaf.

Something that's veggie centric, but maybe a little easier than salads, is to have some cut-up raw veggies. They can be cut up (prepped) a couple or so days in advance in bigger batches, ready to eat. Some things keep better in water in the fridge than just in a container. I don't know where you are, but here this is a great time of year for that sort of thing here: Prime garden/farmers market/farmstand season. There are even some, like cherry tomatoes or edible-pod peas, that take nearly zero prep work - just a quick wash.

There are also veggies that can be lightly steamed (like green beans) or roasted (like sweet potatoes, baby eggplant, beets etc.) in bigger batches and eaten cold as an alternative (or addition) to leafy salads. (I will often do the roasting in the later evening or earlier morning here in summer, when it's usually cooler.) I assume you're already including slaws and non-leafy salads (like cucumber in yogurt with herbs, beets with a little feta cheese, watermelon or other fruit salads, bean salads using canned beans) in the mix for variety. So tasty!

Cold soups are also good, and so easy: Just throw some good stuff in a blender, chill and eat. Cucumber or zucchini with yogurt and herbs, gazpacho, etc.

This may not work for you, but something that works well for me is a small portion of the higher-protein pastas (like red lentil or chickpea) with a quick sauce (marinara from a jar, even), and a big portion of veggies. Frozen veggies, microwaved, are great. Here, it's zucchini season, so a good lot of some grated fresh zukes, some seasonings, finely chopped onion or garlic, stir-heated quickly in a stovetop pan (or briefly in the microwave) is a nice thing to mix with spaghetti or other pasta.

(The high-protein pastas are admittedly a little more expensive than regular white pasta, but also have more nutrition - a tradeoff that might or might not work for you. I also like soy pasta but those tend to be a more chewy texture, so I prefer them in a pseudo-Asian format, i.e., cooked then mixed into a veggie-heavy stir fry with Asian seasonings.)

Another option I like is soft tacos or tostadas on the small corn tortillas. They're easy to eat, usually only about 60 calories each (for the tortilla) with some decent nutrients, and don't need to be fried in oil. I just make sure they're not too dry (quick run under the faucet (!) if they're frozen or dry), then heat gently in a cast-iron pan until soft (stove's not on long), then fill (for tacos) or top/bake (for tostadas) if the weather is cooler.

(more snip for length)
I really like the CICO idea and am leaning that direction. I’ve tried the keto and most others out there but have learned if I restrict myself from eating certain foods that’s the foods I start craving then end up over eating the foods I’m allowed to have. Such a vicious cycle! I’ve been around long enough to know what’s healthy
and what’s not, why is it such a struggle to do what’s right and just eat healthy!?!

For most of us, if we have a material amount of weight to lose, just getting to a healthier weight is a health improvement in itself. In that light, it makes sense to me to keep things simple, and try to come up with practical but lower-calorie ways of eating what we like and enjoy eating, to lose weight - sure, with a little good attention to nutrition, but no need to obsess. Along the way, there'll be plenty of chances to experiment with new foods or ways of prepping them, gradually, to find more things we enjoy eating, that gradually improve nutrition over time.

The less the struggle, by definition the easier the results. I'm lazy, I like "easy"!

Just my wordy opinions, as always! 😉

@AnnPT77 Thank you Anne! This is the most consistent I have ever been. It feels good. And I feel good.

Thanks @swimmom_1 and @BCLadybug888. I appreciate your comments. It means a lot to me.

MRaye803 wrote: »

Hi everyone! I have been on MFP before. I fell off the wagon so to say! But I’m back! I’m 66 and retired. Had some medical issues (gaining weight from my Meds). Thought tracking my food and getting active couldn’t hurt! Reading about other successes help so much! Hope everyone has a great week!

Welcome (back), @MRaye803!

I'm betting food tracking and increasing movement will indeed lead to positive things for you. Stop in here now and then, let us know how you're doing, if you feel like it, OK? And if you run into any challenges, this is a good place to chat about them, get ideas to try. Wishing you much success!

@ridiculous59. Thank you!!

@alteredsteve175 Thank you so much, Steve!

ridiculous59 wrote: »

I had a bit of an NSV (non-scale victory) last week. I went horse back riding! The one and only time I've ever been on a horse before was about 1978 haha. At that time the horse got spooked and I went sailing off the back of it. A friend of my daughter's heard that I loved horses but was quite nervous around them. She has two horses and decided that she needed to take me out one evening. It was wonderful. But here's the NSV.....I was able to haul myself up into the saddle without any kind of help. That might not sound like a big deal, but for this previously obese 63 year old, it is a BIG deal 🙂🙂

ridiculous59 wrote: »

I had a bit of an NSV (non-scale victory) last week. I went horse back riding! The one and only time I've ever been on a horse before was about 1978 haha. At that time the horse got spooked and I went sailing off the back of it. A friend of my daughter's heard that I loved horses but was quite nervous around them. She has two horses and decided that she needed to take me out one evening. It was wonderful. But here's the NSV.....I was able to haul myself up into the saddle without any kind of help. That might not sound like a big deal, but for this previously obese 63 year old, it is a BIG deal 🙂🙂

ridiculous59 wrote: »

I had a bit of an NSV (non-scale victory) last week. I went horse back riding! The one and only time I've ever been on a horse before was about 1978 haha. At that time the horse got spooked and I went sailing off the back of it. A friend of my daughter's heard that I loved horses but was quite nervous around them. She has two horses and decided that she needed to take me out one evening. It was wonderful. But here's the NSV.....I was able to haul myself up into the saddle without any kind of help. That might not sound like a big deal, but for this previously obese 63 year old, it is a BIG deal 🙂🙂

ridiculous59 wrote: »

I had a bit of an NSV (non-scale victory) last week. I went horse back riding! The one and only time I've ever been on a horse before was about 1978 haha. At that time the horse got spooked and I went sailing off the back of it. A friend of my daughter's heard that I loved horses but was quite nervous around them. She has two horses and decided that she needed to take me out one evening. It was wonderful. But here's the NSV.....I was able to haul myself up into the saddle without any kind of help. That might not sound like a big deal, but for this previously obese 63 year old, it is a BIG deal 🙂🙂

ridiculous59 wrote: »

I had a bit of an NSV (non-scale victory) last week. I went horse back riding! The one and only time I've ever been on a horse before was about 1978 haha. At that time the horse got spooked and I went sailing off the back of it. A friend of my daughter's heard that I loved horses but was quite nervous around them. She has two horses and decided that she needed to take me out one evening. It was wonderful. But here's the NSV.....I was able to haul myself up into the saddle without any kind of help. That might not sound like a big deal, but for this previously obese 63 year old, it is a BIG deal 🙂🙂

How many of you are significantly shorter than you were in your younger days? I have been 5' 5" all my adult life, or so I thought. I know it's not unusual to lose height as you age, and I figured I may have lost a little. However I was recently measured as part of a medical research study I'm in for a new flu vaccine and I found out that I am now 5' 3.5" !! I couldn't believe it so I had my husband measure me at home. Yep, I have lost 1.5" in height. I'm going to have to rethink my goal weight. My initial goal weight was 140 lb. I had chosen that initially because it was exactly a 100 lb loss, it was in a healthy range, and it was a weight I had reached back in 2014, the last time I had lost weight. I knew I'd probably want to lose a few more lbs after that, but now I think I'll need to lose an additional 14 or 15 lbs. At 126 I would be at 22 BMI which puts me right in the middle of the healthy range. I don't know. Guess I'll re-evaluate when I'm closer.

I kinda knew things were different than last time. I know I have less muscle which accounts for part of it. But I went back and looked up my measurements, and at the same weight 9 years ago my waist was 5" less than it is now. That's a lot of difference. So less muscle mass plus shorter in height probably accounts for it.