WOMEN AGES 50+ FOR OCTOBER 2023

Another busy day with Annie, the active puppy. She is so much fun but takes a lot of time. We did our training homework with her. Even so, she managed to chew trough the power cord to Jake's blood pressure monitor.

Katewelcome. I found this thread and MFP when I was 62 and the veteran of years of failed weight loss attempts. I lost the 50 pounds I needed to lose and have kept it off. I learned so much by coming back to this thread every day.

If there were exercise points for getting out of your chair to check to see where the puppy is and what's she's doing, I'd be the point leader.

Barbie in NW WA

Jake loves building a fire in our woodstove. This colder weather in the morning has given him permission to build a fire as soon as he prepares and serves breakfast to the dogs. I take the dogs out to do their business as soon as we get up (5 AM yesterday, 3:30 AM today, there is no consistency yet), Jake makes dog breakfast and I supervise the eating while he fixes the fire. In typical puppy style, Annie gobbles her breakfast and stays available to eat Bessie's breakfast so I have to be there to give Bessie a chance to eat. Annie has a dog bed in front of the fire so she can lie there and stay warm.

Our midday meal is the only one we eat together at the table. It is a prepared meal that we've chosen. The rest of our eating is self selected for time, content, and location for eating.

Jake got a jury summons in the mail yesterday. This is the first one he's gotten since we moved here (2004). It's for the last two weeks in December so there's a good chance he won't even have to show up, and he has enough professional law enforcement in his work history that they are unlikely to choose him for a jury but it still requires being available to two weeks. He has an an appointment with the oncologist during that time that he'll have to change, but fortunately for us, the holiday season is meaningless so it won't disrupt any family traditions.

Because we eat and dress so simply and use the same things over and over, we are less likely to have food or clothing that we have forgotten. The less we have, the less there is to keep track of.

I grew up in a home where my mother did the cooking and my dad could fix lunch and breakfast for himself when he wanted to. My mother loved to cook and for her it was a creative outlet. I learned to cook from her but found that the older I got, the less interested I was in creating through food. Now I make a few things and we rotate them. When Jake yearned for some more interesting things to eat, he tried cooking and with the help of cookbooks and YouTube videos taught himself to make a few specialties. We have thinned down the dishes, pots and pans and utensils to only what we use regularly. This simple life suits us. We don't invite people over to eat and we don't eat at other people's houses.

A couple we know have complicated eating needs (he is diabetic and she follows a 12 step program related to eating disorders). She told us "We won't invite you to eat at our house. You wouldn't like what we eat." That made perfect sense to me.

We go to a meeting Sunday mornings on Zoom that originates in Scotland. This week we had to adjust ourselves to the time change in the UK so we didn't go to the meeting at the wrong time.

I like to walk alone listening to something thought provoking. Having something to listen to helps me walk longer. I enjoy walking with a friend, but I run out of things to talk about very easily. I walk for an hour six mornings a week with my friend in the neighborhood who meets the dogs and me at 6AM. She takes Sunday off. I meet on Sundays at 9:30 with another friend who walks just with me, no dogs. Sunday evenings at 6PM I get a phone call from an out of state friend and I walk while I talk to her on the phone. We've been doing this since I moved up here in 2004. My Sunday morning friend travels often (she's in the UK right now) so this doesn't happen every week. Otherwise I am listening to podcasts on happiness, meditation, food, or
health.


My favorite book about habits recommends the strategy of convenience as a way to keep a good habit....thus the plan of setting out exercise clothing the night before or wearing your exercise clothing to bed. Having the things you need for a good habit at the ready, will increase the likelihood that it will happen. Conversely the strategy of inconvenience suggests things like keeping the snacks you don't want to eat, on a high shelf or locked up or, better yet, at the store.

Barbie in NW WA