WOMEN AGES 50+ FOR DECEMBER 2011

Whoa...so many posts this time, including sad news, which is such a shame to hear.

It sounds like everyone is very busy with the holiday season, and lots of temptation seems to be around (as it does here in my life). It is quite strange sometimes to read your posts as sometimes the USA sounds like a different world, not just a different country...I am just starting (a little) to understand some of your ways and food and things. It is very enlightening, but it seems to make us Aussies sound a bit boring..we just seem to celebrate Christmas and that's that, even though we are multicultural.

I have been as busy as busy for the last four days getting everything ready for Christmas here (now it's 5.40pm Christmas Eve)...I haven't achieved everything I had wanted to, but what the heck?...Christmas will just be a little different this year. I'm sick of trying to be a perfectionist. There might still be dust on the mantelpiece amongst the decorations, but who will care but me? (and only if I let myself)...certainly not my mum or my two children.

Our Australian Christmas tomorrow .... get up and open presents (we are not great Church-goers in this country), then a festive lunch of cold ham and prawns and salad and antipasto. Icecream for dessert. And to add to all that we have cashews, crisps, a gingerbread house, shortbread, Christmas (fruit) cake, lollies and chocolates. Lots of people here do have a hot turkey dinner and plum pudding, etc, while others have seafood or seafood bbqs, but we have decided to do it differently and also make it as easy as possible this year (no baking except for the cake). There are only the four of us and we can really please ourselves. At 3pm, sadly, my children go to their father's for 24 hours, but I will make the most of that by just relaxing and watching the big "Carols by Candlelight" concert held in Melbourne every year on Christmas Eve, that I will be recording tonight. It always makes me feel Christmassy. Boxing Day I will relax mostly and tidy up a bit as well.

Then I have a week off work until after New Year (so many public holidays here at this time of year that I only needed to take a couple of day's leave, and we have our financial year at the end of June, so no pressure with that). The children have very long holidays here around Christmas to February of about 6 to 8 weeks, so I need to give them some of my time at home. No vacations for us though as it's too expensive at this time of year.

Well, I'd best go and make our dinner...going out to look at Christmas lights on houses tonight (unlike you there a minority of people here actually decorate the outsides of their houses, so we have to drive about 20 minutes to see a street where they all go crazy with them). I have been in the USA for Christmas twice (my brother lives in Washington DC) and the USA is an entirely different experience at Christmas time.....magical! It is much more laid back here, even though it is the big celebration of our year, which is a shame....I'd like us to take a leaf out of your book, but maybe it's just too hot here to be bothered...lol.

It's looking like it's going to be a hot one tomorrow....urk!

All the best to everyone on this thread for the festive season, whatever you may be celebrating. And in case I don't get to it again before then, happy New Year to you all! I hope that 2012 brings you lots of happiness! :happy:

New "here..." Just saw the tread for the first time today.... It's been a difficult December for me because a relationship that began last year at this time has not worked out & I have been letting myself fall apart over it. Can't seem to nurse myself back to health and am turning to food to comfort me.... It doesn't work, by the way, so if any of you are thinking of trying it: I wouldn't recommend it... Am going to try to keep myself from over-indulging over the next week and wll try to drag my depressed little self over to the gym when it is open. Happy Holidays, Everyone. Hope to join you in January.

@michele, i am sorry, i agree with you though maybe a good cry and get it out of your system for now...to resolve later....

@jeneba....welcome.....sorry about your relationship...feel better..

we celebrate tonight(noche buena) and tomorrow Christmas day...tonight its the traditonal cuban fare of pork, rice, black beans, and yuca....along with lots of foods to nibble at and loads of dessert(i make a guava cake)tomorrow its a breakfast with my sons, before one goes to work and the other two are traveling....will try and log my foods(though i will be guessing for the dinner)but i will be going over FOR SURE, i will start to eat healthy on the 26th....

my friends i wish you all a very happy holiday/ Merry Christmas,i hope we all have a great time and enjoy our families...big hug :flowerforyou:

hello women over 50! can i join? i'm 51 and getting back to being active after a bad accident couple of years ago. i joined MFP 2 months ago, the day i was allowed to throw away the horrid crutches.
how does this work? check in once a week or something?

ps. i posted a question in general diet forum which maybe some of you know the answer to? this dieting when over 50 thing is hard.....

Hello ladies

I've been rushing around all day so haven't had time to say hi. I went shopping with my DD#2 and her DH and then visited mother-in-law in the nursing home before coming home to prepare all the food for tomorrow. I then sat on the sofa and pretty much passed out for an hour! I NEVER do that. My DH didn't want to disturb me and was creeping around until the alarm on the cooker went off.

Still quite a bit to do, but I want an early night if possible. As it is now 7pm, I'd better get a move on!

Have a fantastic time whatever you are doing. You are my favourite bunch of ladies, even though I've met not a one of you.

Love to you all.
Amanda x

Hi Ladies:

I am only stopping in for a moment to wish you all a very Merry Christmas and all the best wishes for you all.

I will be back soon, family will be here soon so I have to run.

Love, Cathy xx

Merry Christmas to all!

http://www.flickr.com/photos/jipsyjudy/6567041675

OK. I haven't figured out how to post pictures here yet.

Happy holidays everyone!

Our Christmas day is almost over now. A beautiful day...warm and sunny and 27 degrees (81 F)....perfect for Christmas and not too hot, thank goodness.

A very successful day at home here with Mum and the children, and now I have the evening to myself. I ate way to much...my meals were healthy but funnily enough it was those darn licorice allsorts that did me in Never mind, tomorrow is a new day!

Fortunately there was no bad news today, although there is a cyclone (hurricane) approaching Darwin (right up North of the country) as I type, so hopefully that will be OK. In 1974 that city was completely wiped out by Cyclone Tracey on Christmas Eve. But we'll have none of that this year thank you :laugh: Just a lovely season for all

Merry Christmas and happy Holidays!:flowerforyou:

Hi! I think I found the right board for me. I am 53. I am a teacher of preschool children with special needs. My job is very stressful as demands relating to paperwork and evaluations for teachers have increased tremendously in recent years. Often, I think I would like to leave the profession, but eventhough I have 30+ years in, I need to be 62 before I can retire with benefits. The children and collegues bring joy to my life, but I have been dealing with the stress by constant eating, habitually fluctuating between coffee and sweets, not to mention the weekend wine and pastas.

I have a husband who is thin and eats healthy food. I have now shared my goal with a few women at church and a few siblings. I am determined once again to lose this weight. Like most of you, probably, I have lost several pounds many times only to gain it again. I really have never worked on maintaining weight and keeping good habits.

My recent bloodwork results showed cholesterol and triglycerides high. I cannot wear most of my clothes. I cannot stand looking at this person in the mirror knowing it is me.

So...I will appreciate the "motivation and support" here! Hope I can help others as well.

Thank you Barbie! I finally go it right.

Happy holidays, everyone!

I've been missing-in-action on the board for nearly two weeks. I think the last thing I posted about was my friend having a 4-day relapse on alcohol after four years of sobriety. She's doing quite well now. The good news is that I still haven't smoked. Ten-and-a-half months! It was tough the first two days with my friend since she smokes and there was no way I was going to ask her to not smoke. But I got through it.

What I didn't do was stick to tracking my food and sticking close to this board. I went to a lot of AA and Nicotine Anonymous meetings, but my attention to healthy eating went right out the window. I'll confess: since I didn't want my "days logged on" to stop, (although I think it did), I was coming in a putting a quick add calories for the day, just to log in. I was guesstimating either 2500 or 3000 calories! I have definitely gained weight. I'm hoping it won't be the whole 8 pounds I'd lost. I'll get honest tomorrow and get back on track. But there's another party tonight and I already had two Christmas dinners today.

I'll admit I'm disappointed in myself since I was doing so well. I'd consistently logged my food HONESTLY for something like 60 days. That was somewhat of a miracle for me. My "healthy" habits generally don't last much longer than 2 or 3 weeks. I have 15-and-a-half years of sobriety from marijuana and alcohol. As I've mentioned, I hope to be celebrating a year of being nicotine free on February 8th. The cigarettes were a ten-year struggle to quit. I'd had 2 years and 10 months. I was a cigarette smoke for 40 years. Hardest thing I've ever done.

Well, maybe the second hardest. We don't have a choice about eating. It's something we have to do to live. We have a choice about what, when, and how we eat. But I'm a firm believer in the concept of addiction as a disease of the brain. For me, it's one disease, many manifestations. The two remaining "compulsions" are overeating and overspending. My credit cards are now safe in blocks of ice in my freezer!

I'm choosing to NOT participate in Overeaters Anonymous be two 12-step programs at a time is plenty! Weight Watchers is too expensive. Also, I have a big problem with feeling deprived on a strict diet. It just sets me up for failure and we know where that can take us. MFP was appealing to me because it would get me in the habit of a food journal and my "techie" nature liked being able to do it on my phone or PC. The "free" part was attractive, too, along with the community.

There was a "discussion/debate" on this board a few weeks ago about people keeping their food diaries public or private. I'm thinking about the idea of making mine public, just so I'll have some accountability. But that means overcoming my history of shame and guilt from my mother about whatever food I put into my mouth and about being overweight. And I wasn't even grossly overweight as a child and teenager. Just about 20 pounds overweight. Boy, to have just 20 pounds to lose now!!! It's more like 80 pounds for me.

I just need to get back to the "one day at a time" mentality with my eating and making wiser choices. I can still treat myself occasionally, but I can do that with just a taste or two instead of the whole, giant piece, and I can make it fit into my daily goals. I'm pretty generous with myself right now with a daily calorie goal of 1800. I still need to bring exercise into the mix. But I was loosing up to a pound a week, which my doctor said was the way to do it.

OK, I know I have a tendency to do long posts, and who has time to do all that reading? But I appreciate being able to express myself in the company of women who understand me! Thanks for listening!!

Beth

It's been a difficult December for me because a relationship that began last year at this time has not worked out & I have been letting myself fall apart over it. Can't seem to nurse myself back to health and am turning to food to comfort me.... It doesn't work, by the way, so if any of you are thinking of trying it: I wouldn't recommend it... .

Hi Jeneba -thanks for your post - I am new here both on the site and to this thread and I can sure relate to your comment - and completely agree - turning to food really doesn't cut it - although I too have been giving it a good run these past several days Thanks to reading your comment - my treadmill has been beckoning to me and I got the strength up to throw out the chocolates, so I send wishes back to you that you make it to the gym like you want to - here's to a new day and new resolve to move forward !!

PS - I am grateful to have found this thread - it seems like just what I need My goals right now are just to take it moment by moment, recover from my grief over my relationship ending, and not eat myself into oblivion - and especially to not scream at the contradiction that this is all happening at a time of year when social convention says we are supposed to be joyful and celebrating !!

Pam - I'm with you. I KNOW that I went over today and I will tomorrow. I'll try to watch it, but I'll go over just the same, I know it now. But....the good thing is that I'll give Jessica, Zac, and Denise leftovers, send cookie leftovers to Bryan, and then I'm DONE, as in no more for a while at least. Had 2 glasses of wine, you know, wish I had another right about now. But I don't think we have any more of that wine left over (which is probably a good thing)

Does anyone make pies from scratch? I will make one at Christmas time. Seems the Stayman (Wine Sap) apples I tried this time didn't get "mushy". Now for my question: How do you prevent "juice"? (which reminds me that we have apple cider, think I'll have some)

anyonebutme - jump right on in! Post as often as you can.

jesuslover - welcome!

Yes, Kathy, thanks for sharing. I have a hard time imagining a christmas dinner being a barbecue. Interesting, tho..

Welcome praisinggod...you've come to the right place for support

Between Christmas Eve and today, I've been WAAAYYYY off on my eating. There is that little voice that is wispering over my shoulder "oh, you don't have to worry tomorrow". But I know that if I don't get right back on track, I'm doomed. I can't go to the gym since I need to be home because my oldest daughter ripped her contact. Fortunately, her eye MD is down here so she needs to go early tomorrow and hopefully, they can give her a sample contact. That's what she had, they just never sent her the prescription. Denise is anxious to leave, what else is new??? So I'm going to do a new Jari Love DVD that I got for Christmas tomorrow a.m., and I'm determined to get back to healthy eating, I've wrapped up a lot of the cookies for Jess, Zac, and Denise to take back with them. What's left is very little, along with some cookies that Vince likes that really don't appeal to me (unless I'm really stressed).

beth - you are a real good friend, and a strong person. Long posts are just fine.

Remember I said the other day that I was dizzy? Well, Vince mentioned that he thought it might be sinuses. I didn't feel any sinus pain, but I decided to take some Sudafed anyway. Today I'm not dizzy. Are the two related? I don't know.

Haramony - we are so glad to have you.

Here's hoping everyone has a great evening. Gotta take a shower. I'm determined that I'm going to get back on track starting tomorrow.

Michele

Wow - I just have to say this - I have been taking a few minutes throughout the past day or so to read some of the back posts on this thread. It makes me even more grateful to have found it. You are all so amazingly supportive of one another and encouraging. And thanks to everyone who has taken a minute to be so welcoming to me. I hope I can be as supportive and motivational for you.