New Again Over 60

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Mikedeb839
Mikedeb839 Posts: 2 Member
in Introduce Yourself
After an emergency appendectomy at age 69 and impending knee replacement I am trying once again to get serious about my health and weight. I have 17 grandkids and 3 great grandkids and really would like to be around for a few more years. Emotional eating is definitely one of my major triggers. Here is to new beginnings again.

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  • GinLee61
    GinLee61 Posts: 1,190 Member
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    The older we get the harder it gets to lose. I lost a lot of weight twice by the time I was 40 but was not able to keep it off for more than a few years before starting to regain. Last January at the age of 60 something clicked and I have finally been able to make a lifestyle change that I am determined to maintain permanently. I was sick of having no energy, being out of breath just walking upstairs, and having pain in my knees and hips. I was also worried about starting to have some of the health problems that plagued my mom and a couple of my siblings (diabetes, high blood pressure, heart disease). I changed the way I eat and started exercising every day. Just 10 or 15 minutes of seated cardio exercise at first but it didn't take long before the weight started coming off and my stamina improved enough to start doing more traditional aerobic exercises and lifting light weights.

    I'm down 67 lbs so far and have another 28 to go. It's been over 13 months and it may take me another year since my rate of loss slowed down considerably once I had lost 50 lbs. However, since I want it to be permanent, I don't really care how long it takes.

    My main trigger is boredom. I have to find things to keep busy so that I don't think about food all the time. I've been trying to change my mindset but it's been so difficult to change a lifelong obsession.

    Cheers to new beginnings at any age!!
  • AnnPT77
    AnnPT77 Posts: 32,155 Member
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    Hello, and welcome (back?)!

    There are quite a few 60+ folks here, some of them still regularly participating in this thread:

    https://community.myfitnesspal.com/en/discussion/10718336/60-yrs-and-up#latest

    If that interests you, don't be surprised if you open it up and see old posts. Like all long-running threads in the Community here, the newest posts are at the end, on the high-numbered pages. You can jump straight there with the number/arrow clicks near the bottom of the page. There are quite a few people posting there, at all stages of loss from beginners to long-term maintainers.

    I'm a long-timer, lost 50-some pounds at age 59-60 starting in 2015, hanging around since to stay in a healthy weight range. I don't want to go back to the decades of overweight/obesity that preceded loss: Quality of life is So. Much. Better. Now.

    Honestly, I think I'm lucky that my main reason for over-eating is pure undisciplined hedonism. Food tastes good! I've been able to puzzle out some ways to game that inclination, stay within calorie goal . . . most of the time, so far.

    Wishing you success!
  • 1poundatax
    1poundatax Posts: 230 Member
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    Welcome, I am 65 years old. I have 3 grandchildren 4, 13 mos, and 11 mos. Like you I want to be around to see them grow up. I have some health issues that are made worse by my weight. During COVID I was very diligent about making lifestyle changes, and then I began to let it slide. Fortunately I caught the slide before I gained everything back and I am working on incorporating the changes back into my life. My biggest thing is needing to increase my exercise. I go to the gym 3 x's a week, but I am working out at home in between. The other thing I need to do is stop mindless snacking. I feel so much better when I am living this way- I don't know why I allow myself to slide.
  • nsk1951
    nsk1951 Posts: 1,295 Member
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    Welcome Aboard the TM-Train (Thinner Me) ... Sometimes it does take a health crisis of one sort or another to make us wake-up to the fact that we have to do something very different than we have been doing! I am 78 and still on my own train ride as it's a rusty old train on a track that's broken in many places, with a lot of pit-stops and pick-ups/drop-offs along the way. But still ... I have lost 52 pounds using MFP since I first started using it back in 2012 and have been able to keep it off by coming back to it often. I'm still working on losing more, as I had a lot of it to shed at the time I started my own journey. For me, it was the death of my very overweight and much younger brother that prompted me to start it. I knew if I didn't get a handle on the ever-creeping-up number on the scale that I could have the same thing happen to me as happened to my much beloved sibling. ... And so, yes ... if you haven't been able to do it before for your own self, do it now for those great-grand kids!

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