50+ WOMEN FOR THE MONTH OF MAY

Hello to Everyone,

I have been reading but not posting.

I should be pleased that I was able to buy some summer clothes in a smaller size and that I lost whatever might have reappeared as a result of Memorial Day festivities and went down another lb. besides. I have also had a friend who hadn't seen me in a few weeks comment on the fact that I look smaller. She is a female friend who knew what I had been up to, but she told me I had inspired her to try again, and so far SHE has lost 5 lbs.

On a certain level, these things are gratifying, but my perspective is a bit off track at this time. Yesterday afternoon I received a phone call from my ex-husband informing me that his mother had died.

We were close during the 14 years I was married to her son, and had stayed in touch. Most recently she was in a rehab center recovering from a fall, and the last report I had from my ex was that she was progressing well and other than an increased tendency toward forgetfullness, was ok and should be back in her apartment at the assisted living facility in a few more weeks. Her condition declined over a period of about 10 days, and he didn't get around to letting me know until after the fact.

On a logical level, I don't think it was an intentional omission. My ex has two siblings, but he has been the primary coordinator of care for his mother since she got to a point whre she needed assistance. Another part of me is very upset that I didn't get a chance to see her. The arrangements where she was staying were such that she couldn't talk on the phone, and it was far enough away that a casual trip was not practical. If I had any idea of what was going on, I could have seen her one last time.

She and my late former father in law were good friends of my parents long before her son and I were married, so I had the difficult task of telling them about this yesterday afternoon.

I am thankful I have the weekend to adjust to things because I would not be much good to anyone at work right now.

She was 92 years old. Originally from New York City, she migrated to the west coast in the 40's when her husband was recruited by Kaiser Shipyards during WWII to work in the engineering on liberty ships. There is a picture of her among the family photos, with champaigne bottle in hand, christening a ship. She always put her family first and doted on her husband, who died in 1997. She had a great sense of humor, and on birthdays and other special occasions you could count on receiving a card decorated with some appropriate cartoon or picture she had found that always was just right for the recipient.

She used to refer to my late Shih tzu, Dreyfus, (the dog on the right in my ticker picture) as her "grandson." None of her 3 children every had any kids of their own, so she doted on the 4 footed ones in the family. One Christmas, she ordered a little yellow raincoat from a pet supply catelog and had Dreyfus's name embroidered on it. She was one of a kind.

I will keep reading, but you may not hear much from me over the next few days. I have not walked all week due to my recovering from my bicycle crash of last Sunday. I had planned to walk on Friday, but dealing with this news changed that. It is supposed to be in the mid 80's here today, so I will have to wait til evening now as it is already above 70 and its before noon here.

Welcome to the newcomers who have posted, and everyone keep up their motivation and don't forget to put yourselves first.

Barb

Barb, I am sorry to hear about your former mother-in-law. I also want to say that I think it wonderful that you kept a good relationship with her.

Today my girls had their dress rehearsal for ballet. At the same time my step daughter graduated high school. I had to choose and decided to go with my girls. Afterwards I met up with my husband and his four children to take them to lunch. Here is where I got my shock. The boy ate well. A rather high calorie meal but he is thin. The three girls, however are heavy. Two of them actually obese. One of them ordered a large skill breakfast and French fries. She had four pieces of blueberry bread to go along with it. Another daughter ordered a fried chicken platter and asked for a double order of fries instead of the cole slaw. The third one had a double cheeseburger, fries and four dinner rolls. I do not know how they can eat so much. One of them even took three more dinner rolls home with her.

good grief Marie! I GUESS you got your exercise in today! That's AWESOME! I love it when i have those high energy work out days!:happy:

Barb - so sorry about your ex mil Give yourself all the time you need.

Becky - wow! sounds like those girls really pack away the food. I feel sad for them. Maybe they will see how great you're doing and looking and follow your example. I hope so:indifferent:

I didn't make it to the gym again, mostly because i didn't have time. I started working outside at 8:00 this morning, took an hour break for lunch, went back outside and then the last hour over in the house. i didn't get done 'till 6:30 and i was hungry, beat and FILTHY! I mowed, weed ate, burned tumbleweeds and trimmed some tree branches and hauled them to the dumpster. I FEEL like i worked off a bunch of calories..........

Hope everyone had a great day. Happy Sunday in the morning!

BLESSED SUNDAY MORNING ALL,:flowerforyou:

Z. I AM RELATIVELY NEW SO I DON'T KNOW YOU. WELCOME BACK. I AM VERY GLAD YOU ARE FEELING BETTER EVERY DAY. WISH YOU THE BEST WITH YOUR WEIGHT LOSS EFFORTS AND CONTINUED GOOD HEALTH.

HI ELLI, GLAD YOU ARE OK. THE LAST POUNDS ARE THE HARDEST TO LOSE, THAT'S FOR SURE. ALL THE WORK YOU ARE DOING ON THE HOUSE, YOU WOULD THINK THAT ALONE WOULD MELT THOSE POUNDS OFF. I HOPE WHEN THE HOUSE IS COMPLETED, WE WILL GET TO SEE A PICTURE.
KEEP ON GOING ELLI. ALL OF A SUDDEN YOU WILL BE AT GOAL. :drinker:

NANCY, OH GOSH! YOUR VEGETABLE GARDEN SOUNDS WONDERFUL. YESTERDAY MY FRIEND AND I WENT TO A GREAT PRODUCE PLACE. EVERYTHING WAS FRESH FROM THE FARM. I HAD A BALL. IT WAS LIKE GOING TO THE CANDY STORE AS A CHILD. I AM SO SICK OF THE SUPERMARKET PRODUCE. THE VEGGIES HAVE NO TASTE COMPARED TO THE FARMS. IT SURE MAKES STICKING TO A GOOD EATING PLAN EASIER IF YOU REALLY ENJOY THE FRUITS AND VEGGIES.:happy:

BARB, SO SORRY TO HEAR ABOUT YOUR FORMER MOTHER IN LAW. I KNOW IT IS HARD THAT YOU DID NOT GET TO SEE HER ONE LAST TIME. WRITE US WHEN YOU ARE UP TO IT. YOU HAVE DONE SO WELL WITH YOUR EATING AND EXERCISE.:flowerforyou: IT IS NO WONDER YOU HAVE INSPIRED YOUR FRIEND. TAKE CARE.

BECKY, I DON'T KNOW HOW OFTEN YOU SEE THOSE GIRLS, BUT THEY CAN BE INSPIRED BY YOU AND HOW YOU EAT. I FEEL SORRY FOR ANYONE WHO PUTS FOOD IN FRONT OF THEIR OWN HEALTH AND HAPPINESS. WHO KNOWS, MAYBE THEY WILL WAKE UP AND REALIZE WHAT THEY ARE DOING TO THEMSELVES. I HOPE SO. WE ALL HAVE THAT WAKE UP MOMENT AND THEN THINGS CAN REALLY TURN AROUND.

MARIE, ONCE AGAIN I HAVE TO SAY HOW GREAT YOU ARE DOING.:flowerforyou: I LOVE YOUR UPLIFTING POSTS. WHAT A GOOD ATTITUDE YOU HAVE. THEY ALWAYS SAY, LIFE IS WHAT YOU MAKE IT.
THE COMPLIMENTS ARE NICE TO RECEIVE AREN'T THEY? YOU DESERVE EVERY ONE OF THEM.

ENJOY THE DAY GIRLS, ENJOY LIFE,
ANNE

:flowerforyou: :flowerforyou: :flowerforyou: :flowerforyou: :flowerforyou: :flowerforyou: :flowerforyou: :flowerforyou:

Here it is May 31 and time to reflect on my goals for the month.

:flowerforyou: lose 4 pounds

---

:bigsmile: :bigsmile: :bigsmile: I did this and am thrilled because I had no idea that I could lose weight while traveling

:flowerforyou: :flowerforyou: walk 10,000 steps a day---I think I did that every day except two----some days I had to go out in front of the motorhome and walk back and forth until I reached my goal

:sad: yoga in the motorhome---I think I did this about 4 days on the trip----it's a goal that's achievable but I have to change my thinking to make work


my goals for June:

lose 4 pounds

yoga in the motorhome

drink all my water


I look forward to hearing about how all of you have done with your goals for May and what your plans are for June.

Happy Sunday
Big hugs,
Barbie

Can anyone explain to me why when I watched my diet carefully, started exercising again and began to walk more that I would gain 1 and 1/2 pounds?

Becky, you are so close to your goal that losing is harder. Right now I'm losing pounds that are truly excess. My BMi still says that I am overweight even though I'm wearing size 10 jeans and small or medium shirts. My friends who have only known me 35 pounds heavier than this tell me that I'm just right now and are astonished that I think I have more weight to lose. I can see and feel the fat and flabby spots so I know that I will keep on going. I learn from you and the others who are fighting with the last 5-10 pounds that it won't always be this easy. In March when my BMI said that I was obese, I was losing three pounds a week. The only thing that I know for sure that I'm doing right is making sure that every calorie I consume is healthy and nutrition dense. I have an Isagenix protein shake as a meal replacement once or twice a day and so far haven't tried to eat very many of my exercise calories. I stay between 1200-1400 calories no matter how much I exercise. As far as I'm concerned, this weight loss is as much a miracle as it is the result of good behavior. Elli and Anne are right to say just keep going with this. Even when you're not losing you're maintaining a lean and healthy body----even if it's not as lean as you want. Sometimes when I'm in a group of people I look around and realize that I'm in the thinner group and I feel better about myself.:flowerforyou: :flowerforyou: :flowerforyou: :flowerforyou: I admire you for how you've bounced back from the surgery and haven't given up even though the results aren't what you had hoped for. When you reach your goal, please stick around and encourage the rest of us and we'll encourage you do stay with your good habits.

Anne---as long as you keep inspiring all of us, the inspiration will rub off on you. You have made enormous progress. June will be an even better month when you join Planet Fitness and start to sculpt and tone your thinner body.

I have been writing my weight on my wall calendar on weigh in day. This morning I had to look back on the calendar to find the date of something a few months back and as I looked at the weights, I realized how far I had come. My tunnel vision sees only today's weight and my goal so I am always "falling short". When I looked at my weights in the last few months I could feel the progress.:bigsmile: :bigsmile:

Elli----I am thinking good thoughts about you losing your last five pounds. I hope you won't leave MFP when you reach your goal. The rest of us with a long way to go would miss you, your encouragement, your house remodeling, and your amazing positive spirit.

Zaza---a line dance friend of mine who is 79 years old just started taking a Zumba class. She said it would be good for keeping her waist trim. Good luck with the house hunting in New York. Is it in the city? My cousin lives in studio apartment condo near Carnegie Hall that was recently appraised at about $600,000.

Jake has a friend coming over for private "boy talk" this morning so I'm going to take the dogs to the dog park and then to the motor home to start getting it ready for our next trip.

Big hugs to all
Barbie

:flowerforyou: Barbie, I could just cry. Not for a bad reason but because you have made me feel so good. I am so blessed to be in this group. You have encouraged me tremendously.:bigsmile: My goal is to reach 145 pounds. Any chart will say that I should weigh less. I was at 139 about ten years ago and I truly looked like I had been ill. I am not tall...5 ft 5 or maybe a fraction of an inch shorter so I don't know why I looked bad at 139. That is the reason the I have set the goal of 145. Even though the charts say differently.

:flowerforyou: elli, from what I gather Zumba is sort of like a Latin dance. My daughter took one lesson and then quit. She felt uncomfortable with all the strange ladies there. I should have gone with her. I have, however, just this morning looked in the YMCA brochure and found that they offer it. I can take the class for free and am planning on doing this when the summer session begins on June 22.

Hi Cheryl!

Just read your note about your move to WA, and I can certainly relate! I am 56, twice divorced with no kids. I was born and raised in CA and lived all up and down the state before moving to AZ in 1994, and fell in love with the Phoenix area right away. My folks moved from CA to join me in AZ in 2003. They quickly fell in love with AZ too.

But in Aug of 2007, we moved from AZ to GA to be closer to my only sibling and his children and grand-children, because he is seriously ill. Unfortunately, we're still experiencing a lot of homesickness for CA and AZ both. I'm convinced it's because of the tumultuous time we've had ever since the move, including the death of my Dad, my Mom getting cancer and then breaking her leg, my brother's on-going health issues, his mother-in-law (who lives with them) falling twice and breaking her pelvis each time, and the fact that I was traveling 100% of the time with my job (coming on the weekends only to do my laundry, re-pack, and go again).

2008 was a terrible year for us all.

But now Mom is doing much better, and I was transferred to another division in my employer's company that allows me to work from home, so we feel really blessed. I'm hoping that we can finally begin to make some friends here and actually finish unpacking, and start to feel settled. We've already met some lovely neighbors on our street, so we just have to make the effort to "get out there" and mingle more! And now that I'm home full-time, I decided it was time to take off about 75 lbs. So on April 6th, I started a food and exercise plan, and have lost 14 lbs so far.

Let me know if you find any sure-fire ways to meet people in your area and lose some of that homesickness! I have to get over mine, that's for sure!

Stay in touch!

Marilyn