WOMEN AGES 50+ FOR JANUARY 2024

Good morning ladies!

It's 24F here but feels a lot warmer - no wind or wind chill today, unlike what Kylia and Ginny and many more of you are experiencing today. The house is staying warm, a blessing.

Heather - Great news on all of the items your handyman fixed. I have a cast iron/enameled Lodge Dutch Oven. I think it weights 15 # with the lid on, without any food in it. I can't lift it in and out of the oven but I do use it on the stovetop. It really is perfect for stews - if I'm making a huge batch. It's awkward to put in the sink and wash/rinse. What a nice gift for to your son. Your time with Edie sounded great - I love looking at photos of ancestors too. Interesting about your grandfather. Edie has such a good interest in people, she'll make a great psychologist. The red flower painting is awesome.

Michele - I agree, 10# weights are just too heavy anymore.

Beth - glad your mom is back home. I remember having similar weather when I lived in northern Indiana - lake effect snow. Sounds like your siding is paying off!

Barbara - so happy your chiro was able to diagnose your shoulder/arm injury and you have a plan.

Rosemarie - your new car sounds great.

Much, much more I want to comment on but it's another day of running out every hour to give the chickies and the hummingbirds warm water/food. Plus tending the woodstove that has been going since 1:30 this morning. Hope I can catch up later. Sending love and warm wishes to all of you.

Reminder to those of you who want to be included in tomorrow's check-in.

Lanette
SW WA State

ladycopnh1 … I’m sorry you’re dealing with the loss of your mom. You will get back on track … show yourself some grace at this difficult time. However, mouse traps are an interesting dieting technique for sure!🤣

Beth near Buffalo

277277

Today’s gratitude: one set of PT! Relief!
Kylia ((hugs))
Tracey that “bad decisions” meme made me snort my water. :laugh:
Heather love the pic of John and Edie creating. What concentration. the red flower greeting card and pic of your grandfather. What a beautiful casserole no doubt your son will put it to good use.
Michele I’m with Vince about talking to the neighbor, letting him know you plan to take out the tree.
Joy “threat to the power grid…” threatened to turn power off throughout the province? Make me even more thankful for our woodstove. Wishing your nephew’s family safe travels.
@ladycopnh1 so very sorry for your loss. I think giving yourself grace as Beth suggests is the priority. You WILL get back on track, one baby step at a time. ((hugs))
Debbie Happy to hear of your DH’s nice surprise for you.
Hope tracking before eating is the way to plan for success.
Time to snooze. Later, lighter, lovelies!
Barbara, the Southern Oregon Coastie AHMOD
January: Move more: dailyish PT, play with dogs, more steps than yesterday.
Fuel better: less sugar, CI<CO, dailyish vitamins. more AF days than not.
Live NOW: dailyish time with Joe, dogs, readings, Hebrew, meditation.
Open heart and mind before mouth.
2024: Strengthen: body, mind, heart-connections.

Hope - Lots of good advice already. For me, there are two things that help a lot when in weight loss mode. The fact that you didn't eat the way you're trying to at one meal doesn't mean you've "broken" anything. Log your food for the very next meal. Go back and figure out how much the meal was that you didn't log ahead of time. Own it, and then move on. The second part is what someone else said--when you order it, ask them to bring a go-box with the meal, cut it in half before you ever take a bite, and put it in the go-box. Then eat the rest of your meal slowly and put your fork down between bites. You can do this!

LadyCop - Lots of good advice already for you, too. I'm a sugar-addict from way back. I do try to keep my environment clean of sweets, but have found that I WILL bake them if I'm in a full-blown sugar jones... My husband (bless him) brought home sugar cookies from his grocery trip on Saturday, but once I ate one, I knew they wouldn't be a problem--they were that sicky sweet, made from shortening so they coat your tongue and mouth with slime, things. Seriously nasty. Anyway, I'll stick to the candy orange slices that I keep in the freezer. If I'm jonesing for sugar, which I almost always am after the evening meal, I get two of those and chew on them. When I'm logging, I log the 50-calorie pieces before I even eat dinner. It's almost impossible to eat too many of them, because they're hard as a rock. Because that makes them slow to get through, by the time I've chewed up the second one, I'm also satisfied with the sugar and I can go on to something else. One thing I HAVE found is that if I restrict myself from eating anything like sugar or fats or carbs or any other category, it will be all I can think about. But if I find a way to eat something in moderation, I'm satisfied and less likely to spin out into eating everything that isn't nailed down or red hot.

Rori - Happy birthday, dear friend - hope you are well into your birthday journey and well away from the snows of home and in the sunshine.

Barbie - Happy anniversary! It sounds like you and Jake found exactly what suits you best. I think it's been a year again since Corey and I went to a restaurant. Between budget considerations and just the quality of the food and the service in restaurants these days, it makes SO much more sense for us to eat at home no matter what the celebration...

Annie - Glad you're treating yourself well as you recover from your mom's memorial service. You may well get bits and pieces of the snow we've been getting the last couple of days, as it's headed your way, along with Allie in CT, Karen in VA, and Michele in NC may get rain/snow mixed. Love watching the radar, and we are truly in a winter wonderland here.

More in a minute...
Love,
Lisa in AR

Margaret, condolences on the passing of your husband.

Rosemarie, I like the suggestion to consider knitting as part of your decluttering. You are doing what Dana K White calls “decluttering by using it up.” She considers taking care of unfinished projects as part of the decluttering process, even things like hanging a picture that you’ve had propped against a wall for a while, things like that.

The discussion of onion layers reminded me of her (Dana K White again. In case you can’t tell, she’s my favorite.) “layers of a clean house” philosophy. She says there are 3 layers - the first is daily stuff: dishes, laundry, making the beds, quick pickups to put things away, etc. The second is decluttering - getting rid of the things that are keeping your space from being functional. Then, after you’ve taken care of one and two, you can get to three - the actually “cleaning” - dusting, mopping, scrubbing bathrooms, etc.

Refrigerators - I can’t do clutter on my refrigerator or things under the beds. Both of these cause me great anxiety. At some point in my life I may have to live in a space so small that I will have to utilize under the bed storage, but I will not like it. Consider it my weird quirk. I do, on the other hand, have a command center with a bulletin board, and it can get cluttered similarly to some folks’ refrigerator with things like appointment cards and post it notes.

Rita, I really wanted an Apple watch for Christmas but did not get it. Then my Fitbit started acting up. I found, however, that I could just not pull the trigger on the Apple watch, so I ended up purchasing a Fitbit Versa for considerably less. I’ve been happy with it so far. I do like the fall notification feature of the Apple watch, though. I hope you can figure out how to sync it with MFP.
There must be a way.

Annie, I’m glad the service went well and that your cousin did a good job with the eulogy.

Beth, I do not envy your cold weather. We are experiencing pretty cold 9for Georgia0 weather right now, too, and it is interfering with my movement goals. Dave bought me a really nice winter coat for the extreme cold, but it weighs a ton! I’m just a whiny baby when it comes to the cold.

Ladycopnh1, I’m so sorry for the loss of your adoptive mother. I agree with others to give yourself some grace as you navigate your grief.

Woo! Hola from the winter wonderland of Arkansas...

Corey just called for his good morning call. It was a relief to hear his voice. On days like this, I'm glad the company he works for supplies him with a big 4-wheel drive truck! It looks slicker than owl poo out there, but he assured me that, with no higher temps to thaw the snow and then re-freeze after, the roads stay reasonably dry. Marrying an Alaskan comes with some unexpected knowledge nuggets!

You can see in the background the snow piled up on the rocks around Corey's garden. The temperatures are hovering around zero degrees (about -18C), most unusual for this part of the country. Probably doesn't sound like much to KJ in MI, or Beth in Buffalo and Joy and Tracey in Canada, but here, it's freezing our little bohonkuses off...

No real plans for today except to set my meds up for the week. Laundry, etc., already caught up. Just have to make the bed and get the dishes put away. Then I get to play, unless I can convince myself to vacuum or deep clean the bathroom. The chances of either of those are... slim. 🤪👀🙄😀

Hope it is/was a good day for all,
Love,
Lisa in AR