60 yrs and up

hi, Dawn. Welcome to MFP! I 100% agree with you. Moving is better than sitting. Especially with substantial weight loss lol.

@BCLadybug888 i have the Ninja Creami. You mix your ingredients, freeze them solid in a cup, and then put that cup in the device. I don’t use a lot of butters, oils etc so it usually takes two or three cycles to get a creamy icecream but being able to control my own ingredients is amazing.

Our fave right now is simply a can of pineapple tidbits in juice. It makes a really lovely sorbet and is great with maraschino cherries and a squirt of ready whip.

Today I’ll be peeling some mangos and mixing them with a batch of homemade yogurt I made overnight for a sort of sherbet. I’m hoping they’re sweet enough I don’t have to add any sugar (I’ve been off the sugar free syrups for several months now. Won’t lie. They did make it easier to make a sweet low cal ice cream, but I’m willing to experiment.)

Clawed back to a post-bunco deficit for the week. Weight still up several pounds, but that’s due to joint pain over the past week or ten days. Been tired, achy, not sleeping well because can’t get settled comfortably on my dang hips.

Had a superlative pair of yoga classes this morning. Very little pain, felt awesome, don’t feel run down. Hoping I’ve turned the corner and the temporary weight gain will shed.

I think it’s all pollen related and the air is finally clearing here. What a year for pollen it’s been!!!!!

Tonight’s dinner is Rancho Gordo black beans, simmering now, with smoked chicken left over from last night, with a homemade avocado/tomatillo/lime/chili sauce, in corn tacos.

We’ve scrubbed down one of the balcony’s and the outdoor furniture on it, and I’m so excited about those beans, I invited friends over to partake.

I'm hoping the porch will dry off so we can eat outside. The weather is stupendously nice and I’d like to get out my beautiful hand printed tablecloth from Tblisi to make it special.

Yes, Rancho Gordo beans are that next level. Highly recommend if you’ve never enjoyed them.

Next up is the teensy tiny RG black caviar lentils I got in the same order, in a bowl with some crispy tofu.

I also got black chickpeas and a sampling of other beans. Yum yum yum.

oh and I’m proud of myself for creating alternatives to the tortilla chips in the giant Bowl Of Temptation. . Right before our friends came over, I sprayed some corn tortillas with a wee bit of olive oil (Mister Misto, if you don’t have one, will save you a gazillion calories!), cut them into eighths, and broiled them til crispy.

Half the calories of those pesky chips, and I realized, it’s not that I love tortilla chips, it’s the joy of having something to dip into salsa while yakking with friends.

They were quite tasty. Next time I’ll salt them.

I’d go if I could! It sounds lovely. When I was a kid in the Blue Ridge mountain foothills, I carried my little Golden pocket guide to flowers with me everywhere.

We had trilliums but they were fairly rare. Also Jack in the Pulpit, wild phlox, blue eyed grass, and meadows so full of wild daisies, they looked like a blanket of snow.

We are having a banner year for azaleas here. Big fat heavy blooms, some fragrant. A lot of folks don’t know azaleas are frangant, but when you get a whiff, they are the loveliest, lightest scent. Also a lot of rain lilies this year. Oddly enough, never saw a rain lily til we moved ten miles north to the urban area. Same with bluebirds and brown thrashers (our state bird). Never saw those til we moved to the city. There’s a National Cemetery a block up that is a peaceful refuge from the madness of the courthouse area, and the bluebirds thrive there.

All four porches are now scrubbed and glistening, the freshly spray painted furniture is drying in the pocket park. As soon as the front porch and rugs are dry we can put it back together again and then I’m going to have a shower and enjoy a coffee and a Nugo bar on a porch, probably with a dog and a cat in my lap.

That, and sleeping an extra hour this morning are my idea of a fine R&R day.

Happy Easter or Happy Family Time, both, or whatever you celebrate!

This is how the High Anxiety Dog celebrates. If he had opposable thumbs and car keys, it’d be a daily celebration.

I'm still here, too.

Um, where else would I be? I'm mostly not out on the water yet, though my breast cancer survivors team got in the barge this past Tuesday on the water . . . but we stayed dockside because it was very windy, decent chop in the water.

So I'm mostly going to yammer about that, as usual.

The barge is a giant rectangular thing, super stable, yeah. But the point right now was mostly to give our new members a feel for what the long sweep oars feel like - carry them to the barge, put them in the oarlock, learn about squaring and feathering, which hand does what. (Sweep rowing is one oar per person, 2 hands on the handle, so each hand has a somewhat different job to do.)

Earlier, we'd used machines called "Swingulators" indoors; those simulate the movement of sweep rowing. The basic stroke cycle is the same for all: Flywheel-type or similar rowing machine, Swingulator, sweep rowing, sculling (the 2 oars per person version). But transitioning from the flywheel rowing machines to on-water adds a lot of complexity, and the new folks will have some challenges putting the stroke cycle mechanics together with those new things. The Swingulators simulate the movement (which has body rotation in it plus the same ol' stroke cycle), the barge is an opportunity to add bladework in a stable craft, then boats add a challenging balance piece to it later. It's a process.

This team is sponsored by the university rowing team (women), and generously supported by the athletics department. Zero charge to participate, just need to be a breast cancer survivor. Athletics has their videographer person making a video about our team, of course good publicity for them but also to help us recruit more members.

On Wednesday, I went for a personal video interview as a long-time beneficiary of this program . . . this team literally changed my life, not sure I'd even be alive today if I hadn't found it, certainly not as healthy. (Note: "Alive" part is because regular activity reduces recurrence risks, not anything more fraught.) Interview was all fancy, with special lights set up, reflectors, videographer and his assistant interviewing. We'll see how that turns out eventually - I just hope some will be useful.

Other than that, I'm taking a weekly "Bulletproof Knees" class at my Y, because my knees are ugh even though I'm reasonably strong (at least one torn meniscus, osteoarthritis). I think it's being useful. I need to do more of the exercises more often at home, too, though. I like the young-guy instructor: Zero hint of patronizing the old folks in his affect. A couple of times now, he's even asked me for help with his machine rowing technique . . . fully sincerely, I believe. I'm thinking about engaging him as a personal trainer.

OK, enough of that stuff. Not much else happening. The Spring flower show in my yard is continuing, first Tommy Crocus popping up all over in garden beds and lawn, a few Winter Aconite amongst them; then an explosion of squills, the blue ones and the white-stripey ones all over. The Tommy Crocus and squills have been naturalizing over the years, now kind of like a delightful invading army, way out in the lawn and marching over into the North neighbors' lawn, too. Also happening: Lots of lovely hellebores in various colors - white, spotted, magenta, pink, near-black - and both singles and doubles; the earliest daffodil varieties, with the mid-early coming on now.

We can't put photos in spoilers any more to manage post length, and this is already too long as usual, but I'll share just one of the double bloodroot going from it's wrapped-up mummy-esque pod people start into full fluffy bloom. They will open further than the fluffiest one here. (Rumor has it that these specific plants descended from some in Fred Case's garden, a Michigan guy who wrote a classic book on Trilliums worldwide - see what I did there? Trilliums.)

The white flower upper left is one of the hellebores, the faint blue dots in the background are squills, and the very distant white dot upper right you might think is more bloodroot is actually Jeffersonia Diphylla, Twinleaf, which holds its blooms only a day or so, but has nice foliage though it can be ephemeral. That's also a cool plant that long-term volunteer-spreads quite a lot: The seeds have this fatty/protein blob on the exterior - called an eliasome - that encourages ants and such to carry them around and spread them that way.

Yes, I haven't done clean-up yet, so there are dead things. It's still getting into sub-freezing temps at night, and I leave things untidy to help nice bugs and stuff over-Winter. Clean-up sometime in the next month, probably, depending on weather.

The activity level multipliers used to generate calorie estimates in MFP were changed semi-recently, in ways that tend to make calorie goal somewhat increase, IMU. I think a person would have to go back through goals to see that reset, but I'm not sure . . . I set my calories manually by typing in my calorie goal, rather than following MFP's estimate. MFP's estimate is wildly far off for me.

For clarity, the double bloodroot weren't stolen from Fred's garden: There were periodic sales of excess plants, and a friend got some there, shared offspring with me. Given who he was, high odds he didn't steal them either: A respecter of wild plants. Expert in many types, nationally known and respected in the botany world. I visited his gardens once - really wonderful collection of many beautiful and unusual things.

Which is not to suggest I'm against theft in cases like the one you describe. One of my co-workers moved into a place with what he described as a giant overgrown mess in the yard, invited folks to come pick out anything they wished before he tore it all out. I didn't go, but my botanist-degreed friend did, and told me it was a beautiful garden, full of wonderful carefully-tended ornamentals that had probably been planted and nurtured over decades.

That wasn't theft, either, but the point is non-plant people don't recognize things and will destroy them sometimes. Stealing amazing irises bound for destruction isn't real theft, it's preservation - a noble enterprise.

and, Ann, one of us dug up a rare native azalea bush and replanted it in her yard, where it was thriving last time I saw it. It would have been a crime to let that one be dozed under.

seems like “75 Hard” is making a comeback. Lots of “let’s do this!” posts, and then the users disappear within a week or two. 🙄

and today some is talking about “skinnytok”.

Just shoot me now.

Anyway, a new find: Naked Chocolate PB Powder.

7 grams (30caloriea) mixed with a little boiling water from the coffee kettle makes an outstanding spread. Absolutely delicious. Even better than my previous Hersheys syrup and PB powder.

Very satisfying, and at 7gr a day, that huge jar is going to last a looooong time.

Have also tweaked my chocolate protein pancake recipe yet again, and am over the moon with the results. Brushed with the PB mix above, sprinkled with hagel and some pecan meal I’ve been trying to use up, and it’s like having delicious, super moist chocolate frosted cupcakes for breakfast. With coffee and collagen, 40gr protein.

@AnnPT77 agree that the “make this hard, suffer, grit your teeth” thing seems to be pervasive, so unnecessary, and causes so much anguish and, ultimately, giving up-ed-ness. Why make things so much harder than they need to be.

Yet, we continue to punish ourselves for our weight.

Also agree on the learning new, complex things. Seeing a slew of articles led lately that continuing to learn staves off dementia. Right now I’m stalking Hispanic acquaintances to see if anyone knows someone who knows someone I can pay to teach me backstrap weaving. I don’t care if we have to sign and use Google translate. I’m desperate to learn.

I finally got around to teaching myself filet crochet. Once this project is done in a couple days, I’m going to try non-loom beading.

Have been experimenting with braided friendship bracelets. Props to the tweens who can do this, and I mean this in all sincerity. It’s easy to start, hard to do well, harder to move on to better techniques. I hope they take these techniques and carry on with fiber, threads, yarns, whatever. We are losing crafters. Very sad.

But then again, what does one do with a drawer full of doilies and filet pieces.? sigh

Hi! My name is Noah. i am 57. i do not have a friends as i just joined.. May i join your friend list? i am harmless and kinda humorous. Thank you. Best Wishes! -Noah Tomas

Sure, you can participate in this thread. Jump right in. We don't check IDs at the door to verify age, AFAIK.

I think many of us no longer participate in the friend-request part of MFP because all it does is enable DMs, and let people look at friend-shared diaries. Sadly, the DM part of it is rife with creeps and scammers, catfishers, MLM marketers, dudes who want naughty chat, and that kind of thing. Nobody needs that kind of nonsense, right?

If you post here or on other threads in the Community, right out in the open in the nice fresh (virtual) air, support and virtual friendship are available.

Best wishes!

it's nice to meet you! 😊

Sure, growth can happen outside our comfort zone. The thesis in the other thread was literally that growth can ONLY happen outside our comfort zone, which I think is ridiculous.

Certainly I've done some things I was afraid to do, that were difficult to do, that I knew I wouldn't like doing but wanted to do anyway, that I wasn't sure I could actually accomplish, or that I approached with trepidation. Sometimes, maybe often, I was glad I did them, or was a better person because I did them.

If a person has goals - ones that aren't stupidly life-threatening, or that are SO important that life-threatening is merited - sometimes there'll be fear, discomfort, etc., even pain and real risk. It's incidental, though. It's not the point. Discomfort is OK. Sometimes it's even essential . . . but it's not essential for all types of growth in all domains, IMO.

There was also a flavor in some posts that people ought to do things that were uncomfortable just because. I guess it was supposed to be character building? Some of the pop self-help literature along these lines just seems chest-thumpy and self-aggrandizing to me.

@mtaratoot, I have to admit I'm scratching my head over one sentence in your post: "This doesn't mean those things outside of the comfort zone have to be uncomfortable or painful." I don't understand how things outside my comfort zone aren't uncomfortable, kind of by definition. 🤷‍♀️ Not necessarily painful, sure.

@springlering62 I would like to know more about your perfected protein pancakes lol.

I have PB powder, a recent purchase, rather a large container for a whim experiment. There is not a chocolate version around here - perhaps I could mix some cocoa powder with it?

Anyways, do share!

@AnnPT77 I don't know anything about Hard75 nor am I googling it either, but from what you've reported I am reminded of monks in the middle ages (or even earlier) wearing horse hair shirts and whipping themselves for enlightenment…no thanks 🤣