My new life starts here

Hi, @heather11tg - welcome to the MFP Community!

I joined MFP at about your age (59), in menopause, at an obese bodyweight. I was able to lose weight without materially increasing my activity level, just by managing better on the eating side of things. While I'm lucky not to have all the physical challenges you face, I did have high blood pressure, high cholesterol/triglycerides, osteoarthritis, hypothyroidism (treated), and at least one torn meniscus. I'd started being more active a few years before, and kind of picked my way through figuring out what I could do without aggravating any of those issues.

It sounds like swimming may be that sweet spot for you, as a thing you can do without increasing current problems. That's a great exercise!

I did find that weight loss alone made some big improvements for me: It got my BP and lipids solidly into the normal range, and carrying less weight improved joint pain and such by a surprising amount. Conditions that were (probably) aggravated by systemic inflammation also improved.

I do think there's hope at any age, even with some health conditions in the picture. Your approach of taking the reins and using things you can control to make improvements, that's pretty perfect IMO. I'm over here cheering for you from the sidelines: I hope you find much success!

And dont discount stuff like other water based exercise like water aerobics/calesthenics especially with resistance added in and done in the deep end. It is not just for little old ladies anymore, although i will say that the little old ladies who do any kind of exercise must be doing something right so they are not to be scoffed at !

In reality though, you will lose weight mostly by moderating your eating and drinking. If you drink a lot of calories, cutting back there is a great place to start because it will also reduce your cholesterol, triglycerides, blood pressure and improve liver function, besides reducing inflammation and helping with nerve damage to quit alcohol in particular. I stopped drinking a while back after cancer recovery and nerve damage from chemo and a variety of other medical contraindications. I was initially resistant to the idea because I loved cooking and drinking wine with meals, but it ultimately didn’t work with the medicines I was on. Now, a few years later more and more reports are coming out saying that alcohol consumption is harmful even at the super low levels previously stated as OK for adults.
I am glad I quit because It helped immeasurably with weight loss, and I don’t miss it at all now, mostly because there are so many sober curious people who choose not to drink these days for various health reasons that there are lots of fun and interesting options when I want to celebrate or unwind that are low calorie and alcohol free. If you don’t plan to quit, make sure you are honestly counting all the calories in the alcohol and any mixers you consume (that you plan for the drinks in your calorie count, that you don’t forget to write down drinks, or overpour, and that you remember to write down any snacks you have with the drinks - it is easy to lose discipline when drinking too),
Good luck - you can definitely do it!

Afterthought: If alcohol consumption is something you want to manage better, there are a couple of threads here where people focus on that. One is more sobriety oriented, the other more moderating oriented. It's a thing to consider.

https://community.myfitnesspal.com/en/discussion/10846412/sobriety-matters#latest
https://community.myfitnesspal.com/en/discussion/10872772/less-alcohol-september-2022-one-day-at-a-time#latest

There may be some private groups in the Groups part of the Community, too, but I haven't researched that. Truth in advertising: From time to time during the pandemic, I've drunk more alcohol than I'd prefer, but so far have been able to pull back to a reasonable level, haven't used those resources here. They're on my radar, though.

Best wishes!