300+ Club - 300+ And Getting Fit after 40 #145

This thread is a sub-set of the 300+ thread.

This group is for those dealing with the challenges of having a significant amount of weight to lose and being fit which becomes harder after age 40. If you're an old or new friend and not over 40 and feel this is the place to post, jump right in.

Good morning ladies!

Good morning,

Well, the weigh in was disappointing this morning, but not really a surprise. I'm up about .6 of a pound, but I've basically been bouncing between 335.4 and 336.4 for 13 days. I've been completely on plan so I'm just going to continue on with what I'm doing for at least a couple of weeks before I panic.

I had kind of a non-scale victory this morning. I put in the DVD I tend to avoid (it's the sculpt one from a sculpt/cardio set). It's actually a very good set, even though I know my form isn't as good as the people demonstrating it. It's the Beach Body set, and Tony Horton (the one doing the talking) keeps reminding you to hit pause if you need to, and not to overdo it. On the cardio especially he shows alternate moves as well. Okay, that's a long way to go explaining that I don't think I've ever done the push-ups. I usually just switch to something else, just to keep moving. This morning I managed to do 8 push-ups (8-15 is what you're aiming for) in both of the first sets. That's 16 total, most full push-ups. In the last section you're supposed to do 7-7-7, which I also managed, although in all cases I had to pause the DVD since I wasn't doing them as fast as the pretty guys and gal on the screen.

So I guess that means that the work with the hand weights has strengthened my arms a bit. In the past (even when lighter) I could barely manage the ones on my knees, usually quitting because my knees would hurt. Today I did at least half of them on my toes (although I'm sure with horrible form). I was too busy trying to count them to keep track of which were which. And of course the cat had to watch carefully. I'm actually surprised he didn't do something stupid like crawl on my back!

Hello, is anybody out there? Our thread seems to be losing more people than lbs. :p I posted yesterday, but forgot it was Mon. so it was on the old thread....go look if you are curious about my ramblings. :D Nothing profound there!

How is the stress level ladies? Lilion, Heather and terri, Hope things are getting better for all of you, also Angela. All of you are so busy it makes me feel like a slug by comparison. Not that I would want to trade places with you or anything. :)

Nothing much going on here. Talk to you later....Ruth

Good morning ladies,

I had my doctor's appt yesterday. I complained about my weight and lack of success with the scale. She listened patiently and will support lap-band which is the main reason I went. Thought I needed to document it for insurance purposes. I am going to try once again, a doctor supervised plan. Which basically means that I go in once a month, weigh-in and chat about what I've done in the last month. So.....one more time, I'm back at journalling and checking portion sizes. I really feel that is my downfall. We also discussed how getting lax on the weekends can be undoing all the good I've done during the week. And she is probably right because that is when I tend to not pay attention to portions; especially if we're eating only two meals on those days.

The thing I liked about her is that while she's young and in shape, she didn't make me feel like its my fault. Well, basically it is, but I didn't feel that from her. It was just an honest conversation about there is something going on that I'm not thinking about. Somewhere, I'm doing just enough sabotage to myself to keep the scale stuff and me feeling like once again, I've failed.

And the exercise is well...as suspected...I have to get myself doing more. I have to mind over matter and quit thinking about being tired all the time. She said that is a catch-22 and it takes effort to find ways to get more movement in during the day. I liked that she didn't say...its 90 mins of cardio per day or else you won't lose as other doctors say.

Better run. Work awaits. I am so ready for some spring days and some time away from work.

:wave: to all!

Ruth - there are two things I haven't even tried to work into what I eat. They are BBQ ribs and chicken wings. Maybe in the summer I'll have to work on that. I know it's all about portions, but, some things are pretty tough to work in.

Terri - I know that plenty of people have used different types of weight loss surgery (to great success). I don't know why, but it scares the heck out of me. I think it's my general dislike of doctors though, which isn't rational. If it's what you decide, I wish you well. The GP I have now is a nice man, even though I haven't seen him as much as I should have. A couple of years ago, after my illness, the specialist who treated me offered to include me in a trial they were running. It was a drug that suppressed the urge to snack - ie. the munchies (I wish I could remember the name, I'm pretty sure it's on the market). He gave me the info, and a little bit of a hard sell, until I saw the potential side effects. Temporary (ie. while taking the drug) memory loss was pretty high with the possibility that it would affect memory long term being slight. It was enough to stop me from even considering it.

Well, my joy at finishing the sculpt DVD yesterday caught up with me (and perhaps reminds me of why I stopped doing it). Today I hurt in places I didn't know I had muscles. Well, not really, but it's caught up with me. It would have been so easy to not workout today, but I shook myself and did it anyway. Other than making a big pot of lentil soup that was it for today. It's snowing again, but only the light stuff, so that's okay.

Hope everyone is doing well. :carrot:

Hi gals,

I was a good girl today. I journalled everything I ate and spent time checking out the calorie count. And I thought several times that I wanted something to snack on in the afternoon, but I reminded myself that I already had enough calories eaten and didn't need more. I ended the day under 1500 calories and didn't starve to death either. :D

DH made a wonderful barley vegetable soup. It is a WW recipe that I got from the magazine. Because DH wants meat, he added some stew meat to make it a more complete meal. Loved it and it was a healthy dish.

This evening, I left work at a reasonable time. I am trying to get back in the mode of doing exercise between 6:30 and 7:00 each night. I did 20 minutes on the stationary bike. My knees are really stiff. I talked to the doc about it and she said that I have a baker's cyst behind one knee. I think that I have been so tied to my desk at work that all that sitting with my legs bent is a culprit. Today, I made a conscious effort to make sure I was sitting with my legs stretched out. Which was okay until I was sitting there with my legs stretched out, talking on the phone and reading email and almost slipped out of the damn chair because of the slick leather. Geez, good thing no one saw me. :dizzy:

Anne - That was awesome about the pushups. Even if you were sore today, that is still a pretty cool accomplishment. I hear you about the side effects of meds that are used to help with weight loss. There is one commercial that makes the meds sound so wonderful until they list the "uncommon" but could happen uncontrollable stools. Just what a person needs. I'd stay fat if that is what I had to face. :P

Ruth - You are an early bird! Oh come on, trade places with me for a couple of weeks. I could use some home time. My stress level isn't too bad these days. I have too much to do and could work until 10 pm every night but I can handle overworked compared to what work has been like for the last few years.

I have a dog staring me down wanting in my chair and three dogs are trying to share the couch amonst themselves. So I am going to post this and get a little dog snuggle while watching the rest of American Idol.

:wave: to all!

I just wanted to poke in and say hi. I feel like I'm running a bit on fumes lately. Some extra stuff got dumped on me this week in the form of two additional job candidates (because 2 others turned us down!) Each candidate involves 4-6 hours of extra time (for meals and meetings and such) and so suddenly I'm drowning!

And I'm skipping workouts because it's snowing AND I'm tired AND too busy (and fully know that catch-22 terri's talking about) and the scale is creeping up.

Calgon, take me away!

Good Morning Ladies!

Heather, Drowning here too! :swim: Heh! The little smilie guy needs to be bobbing under the surface waving his hands! :lol:

I know, I've been MIA all week. Work is the same, it never changes, too much to do and not enough hours in the day. It was a holiday yesterday and I still came in for four hours. I'll be in on the weekend and on Monday too. And so on and so forth. :rolleyes:

Terri, every day I feel for you more. It's so annoying and frustrating when the scale doesn't budge and you think you are doing everything right. I know I'm not overeating - honestly - that's WHY WW gives you the flex points, so you can use them - and even though I ate a big old cinnamon roll yesterday, I accounted for it. Scale is back up 2 lbs today. :mad: We'll see what it says on Friday I guess, but I'm not expecting a loss this week even though I'm OP and working out and not expecting a loss is just so disheartening.

Ruth, I'm here! I've just been so busy!!! I'll have to look back and see the old thread to read your pearls of wisdom! ;)

Cdn, :bravo: on that DVD. Some of those are KILLERS! The sore muscles will go away and you'll still have that sense of accomplishment! I can't imagine taking a drug that affects your memory. Age is doing that badly enough! :lol: Maybe you just forget you're hungry? :p

Ah well, I've been trying to get this written and posted for over an hour and a half now, so I best just hit "submit" and be done with it. Work does interfere, huh? :wave:

Well, I got up and I'm more sore today. Not my arms, but the muscles on my inner thighs. I suspect that the 90 mins of walking isn't helping, but I hate not doing it. Then I remind myself that historically I've been very bad at listening to my body (ie. spending about a month doing tons of cardio while I was collecting a ton of fluid on one lung). So, for today I'll take it easy and maybe use the weights only a little in the afternoon. I can always forget about Sunday's rest day instead. I'm also reminded that my 7-day goal is actually 7 hours on the treadmill and I've done 6 in the last 5 days. So as long as I do an hour tomorrow I'm not really behind. And I only need 15 mins of 'other' exercises to be up to my 90 minutes.

It's so tough, trying to decide when to not exercise. Especially when your whole life you've avoided it. I have a marginal left knee, a leftover of my teenage roller skating days. The bad shoulder I had finally got better, and my elbow (injured at work almost two years ago) is pretty good, although sometimes I notice it's slightly weaker when using the weights. How, at 42, I feel sometimes like a wreck. And I also know that I'm a bit of a procrastinator, so how do I know when I really shouldn't exercise? I could be just making excuses. It's a little frustrating. I think once the pool is open it might be a little better, as I can swim laps and take some of the weight off my knee. We normally open the pool in mid-April, although with money tight, it might be mid-May this year. I'm thinking though that a month of non-weight bearing exercise might be worth it. We'll see how it goes. It can always be closed earlier instead.

Terri - I'm doing about the same thing today at the desk. Keeping my leg extended helps my knee but I too feel like I'm about to fall off.

Lilion - My great memory is one of the things at work that helps me. I couldn't even consider taking a drug that might impair it. I found the info on the drug.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rimonabant

and the side effects:

http://www.acompliareport.com/SideEffects.htm

haven't been around for a few days....I got the flu have been in bed since monday! fever chills, sore throat, haking up my lungs.....yummmy I know! Soup & Gatorade have been a main staple for this week! Dh caught it from me and we finally both went to the doctor today doc gave me some meds said mine was more virus than anything else......his was (due to his astma) in his lungs & doc admitted him to the hospital.......now my son is running a temp & coughing grrrrr hope you all are spared this torment!

Good morning ladies, I didn't make it in here yesterday. I went for my eye exam. I couldn't really see well the rest of the day. LOL! Had a fuzzy day!

How is everybody doing this morning. I think I have my eating under control....one more time. I am getting hungry at the most odd time of day lately. The urge to go and eat something has been getting the best of me at times too! No more! I wish saying no more would stop the urge to eat. :p

One of my neighbors died day before yesterday and the church is taking food to the family today. I am baking a beef roast with carrots onions and potatoes to take over. It smells so good cooking! ARGGGH! When my Mom passed away in Aug. we had so much food brought in. Wonderful thing about small towns.

I really should be doing something other than sitting here yakking at you guys this morning, but that is what I wanted to be doing ya know? Time to move on now. Have a wonderful day. Ta! Ruth

Happy Valentine's Day Ladies!:val1:

I skipped the workout in favor of lounging in bed a few more minutes and eating the yummy oatmeal with walnuts breakfast that DH made me. He got me a lovely card and one of those roses that are enamled and dipped in gold. WHY he got me a lovely, expensive, dust-catcher is beyond me. I made it perfectly clear that I wanted real flowers and a new nightgown-something Wal-Mart cheap. Men. :rolleyes: Gotta love 'em, even when they don't listen. For some reason he thought it would be better to give me a rose I can keep forever. :val3: Which is sweet, but the reason I like cut flowers is they smell pretty and then in a few days you throw them away. LOL!

Ruth, so sorry to hear about your neighbor. And WTG on staying on target! We'll get there!:cheer2:

DMPLS,:getwell: the flu is bad in MO right now. My family has, luckily, escaped so far. Lucky, since none of us had flu shots. (We should have a knock-on-wood smiley - but I guess this one will do! :frypan:)

Cdn-Here's hoping you are less sore and more able to work out today!

And to all my lovely ladies...Happy Valentine's Day and may it be truly lovely!!! :val2:

OOPS, I forgot it was valentines day! Happy valentines day ! Thanks for reminding me Lilion. I got a lovely card from my DH. I asked where is the box of chocolates? He said he didn't think he wanted the flack that would have brought on. LOL! He made that mistake once when I was on WW, and said never again. LOL! Well, at least he got to eat them. :)

Hi gals,

Happy Valentine's Day!

I'm here. Just been crazy busy again this week.

DH sent me beautiful roses at work yesterday. He said that way I get to enjoy them at work more days. He forgot that I had said a few days ago, "Its February, and tulips are my favorite flowers and I've seen some beautiful arrangements made of red tulips". I also showed him a ring that I wanted to wear on my little finger. I liked it and he thought it was too cheap. Sigh. So he drove me to work instead. Works for me. :D

The doc's office called yesterday and I have to go on a low dose of cholesterol meds because my LDLs are too high and even increased from the last time. :mad:

I've been keeping at my food journal this week. After my talk with the doc about how we're following South Beach phase 2 and how there is something that I'm not recognizing as the culprit, I've been checking calorie counts. I also have gone back and am looking up the sugar grams. I'm not quite as good on SB as I thought I had been. While I'm not eating starchy carbs as much, I'm still getting a lot of sugar each day. Since the doc's call, I'm also checking the saturated fat grams per day as well. What a hassle but I figure that's the only way I'm going to find out why this is not working. Now I need to go research how many sugar grams a person should be targeting - if I can find that.

Toodles for now!

I've been out browsing the food pyramid guidelines. The only thing I can say is HOLY COW! No wonder I haven't been losing anything. Way too much unrecognized added sugar. So now I'm tracking natural vs. added sugar.

DH bought me the wrong kind of yogurt this week. Based on the pyramid, a 1600 calorie plan should limit added sugar to 22 g per day. The yogurt he bought was lowfat and it screamed it on the label. He didn't look at the nutritional part of the label and it has 250 calories and 36 g of sugar. Guess I may be giving up my instant cappuccino after all.

HOLY FREAKIN' COW!

Not much going to today, so it left me plenty of time to become slightly obsessive about my recent slowdown. ;)

Dmpls - I hope you're feeling better, and that the family members are doing better. That's perhaps the only positive thing about being in the house so much this winter - not being around sick people who drag themselves to work. Okay, I admit I was probably one of them.

Iwillbe - one of our neighbours lost her husband in the fall. Her husband was the one who did most of the cooking, and the only driver. Now, any time I make a big pot of soup, or a large batch to freeze, I make a point to put some aside for her. I know at least one of the other neighbours is doing the same. As well, both my mother and a couple of other people are making sure she gets a drive to do her banking and shopping. It's nice to see that we're still like this in bigger cities.

Lilion - the pain is mostly gone so I was back to the usual today. I've decided that I'm going to try the DVD next on Saturday, since Sunday is my rest day. I figure that way I'll have the built in day to recover.

Terri - trying to figure out what you should do will drive you insane. I found that today when trying to decide my next plan of attack. Best of luck!

Sounds like several of us are re-evaluating. I've been losing slowly, but not because I've been working very consciously. I'm getting close to 299, which gives me a little motivation, but I know I need to start THINKING before DOING.... and then do what I think I should do.

Terri--International coffees makes some sugar-free instants that aren't terrible.

Heather--Two more candidates! So sorry. We have an additional one this coming Monday. We haven't been turned down, but of the three we invited for the second position we were interviewing for, #1 was COMPLETELY unacceptable, #2 was a mixed bag, and #3 cancelled her interview cause she'd taken another position. So we've invited #4... on the same day we have an open house... arrrrgg. I cancelled my morning class for Monday so I could do all this stuff!

Ruth--Thanks for the good thoughts. You aren't a slug! You're a point of calm in this swirling eddy of craziness! Wish I could be the same.

Just a quickie! I love valium. Doctor said muscle strain and prescribed a very low dose. I haven't even taken any today and I feel SO much better! Even got in 20 on the IM this morning. Time to get moving now and start my day! Hope you all are having a good weekend!

:cheer2::cheer2:GO ANGELA GO ANGELA!!:cheer2::cheer2:
HOPING YOU MAKE YOUR GOAL OF GETTING INTO THE 2'SIES!
Good luck to you, and just go for it...YOU CAN DO IT!:woohoo:
woohooooooooooo

Good afternoon,

Well, I did use the DVD again today, including the push-ups. I even managed most of them on my toes. Although I'm sure that my poor form is what leads to the lower back pain the next day. I'm trying to be more reasonable today, either that or I'm just using it as an excuse not to get back on the treadmill this afternoon. (Probably the latter, but I'll take it.)

Vortex - plateaus are horrible things, just obstacles put in our way. Although I'm sure that the thinking you're going to do will help you get past that obstacle.

Lilion - pills are great. I can't say that I've ever been on that one, but I've suffered from migraines forever. Years ago someone turned me on to Advil Liqui-Gels, and I will now never be anywhere without them.

To everyone else, just a general hello and a big wave. :wave:

Tomorrow is my 'no exercise' day so I'm put the following aside to be done - colour hair, clean family room (including moving some furniture), doing some reorganization of the crawl space, plant some seeds... I think that's enough.

Angela -- Wow, that's a frustrating search!!
Of our two candidates, we really liked one and will be making an offer Monday. I think she liked us, but I don't know if she'll accept the job. :crossed:

Good luck with yours!

Hi ladies,

Its a quiet Saturday evening.

Did I tell you all about Zeke? He's a 2 yo coonhound that we just took in to foster. He was dropped off at a kill shelter down in Louisiana because he and his brother wouldn't hunt. We volunteered for Zeke and his brother went to Florida for foster. We had to go to the airport last night to pick him up. Since flights are very limited that dogs can travel on, it was after 10 pm when we could get him. Long day yesterday. He's a pretty boy but very underweight. We've got him in a kennel out in the barn. He is not housebroken and needs lots of manners training. He is a sweetheart though. It will be fun to rehab him and get him more adoptable. Ruby is still up for adoption and there has been one family asking lots of questions about her.

Today, I drug my butt out of bed and headed in for work. I was tired and only mildly productive. I did get a few things done and am more organized for the week ahead.

I stopped by the grocery store on the way home. With DH doing most of the grocery shopping, sometimes its fun for me to go and shop. I stocked up on fruit, veggies, etc. I am going to try the international coffee with no sugar added. I also got a different Kashi cereal that has less added sugar as well. I've done very well this week of getting a grip and making changes now that I'm aware of all the sugar I was consuming. And the scale is down 3 pounds. But its not official until I do my weigh-in next month at the doc's office. I've also been doing well about bypassing snacks in the afternoon that are not fruit oriented. I even passed on the goodies yesterday at a department meeting. Just got a bottle of water and ignored the brownies & cookies.

I was really tired when I got home this afternoon and had a two hour nap. I kind of feel weird - not sure if its a cold, the beginning of the flu or just allergies. I hope its just allergies. There are several people at work that have been out for 2-3 days with the flu.

I took a zyrtec and its making me sleeping. I better post this tonight and attempt personals tomorrow.

:wave:

Good Sunday morning ladies, How are you today?

We have bad weather forecast for today. I always hate to hear that. Maybe it won't be as bad as the last weather system that came through and did so much damage to Tn and other states.

Terri, you brave girl. How do you manage with all the animals you have to look after? I am sure you have about 100% more energy than I do! :hug: Those foster dogs have really lucked out when they got you and your DH for foster care.

Lilion, I am glad you are feeling better, but be careful of the valium. My BIL got so hooked on those things he had to spend three months in rehab getting it out of his system. Poor fellow was always sick with something and passed away with lukemia about 6 years ago.

RealCdn, What colour? I used to have mine (hair) frosted until mother nature took care of it for me. LOL! I think that is wonderful that you cook extra for your neighbor. We should all be thoughtful of those in need of a little tlc. :)

Angela, How is your Mom? Hope things are getting a little less hectic for you.

Heather, hang in there. :hug:

rainbowsmiles,:wave:

If I am going to make it to church on time I had better get a move on. Take care, :love: Ruth

Good morning all,

It's raining (or freezing rain) out, so it's a good thing everything I have to do today is taking place indoors. Just a quick hello, or I'd be avoiding cleaning up my desk.

Ruth - the box says deep intense red, although it will be slightly darker. I've had white hairs since I was about 15, so at the moment I'm still colouring it. I'll probably fight it until I can't any longer. It's pretty much 100% white at the moment, with only a bit at the back that isn't.

Okay, that was a quick post... now to work I go!

OMG! :o I just realized I hadn't posted on here about my upper back! I've been having pain for a few days and on Friday it was so bad I literally couldn't take a normal breath. I went to the Dr. and he said it was muscular and prescribed a VERY low dose (2 mg) valium as a muscle relaxer and an equally low dose of darvocet to take when ibuprophine wasn't enough. The idea was to give me relief without knocking me out. I've literally taken three of the valium and two of the darvocet and haven't even needed the ibuprophine since. So no danger of getting hooked here! :lol: I was just amazed at how much better I felt after a couple of pills and a night's sleep!

So anyway, I'm at work on a Sunday and will be again tomorrow! I hate this job and I'm quite sure it's all this desk/computer time that is causing the back pain. And then there's the stress in general.

Hmmmm, maybe I should slip some of those valium to the boss? :p

Later ladies!

Hi,all
I've been out of the loop all week and it sounds like I'm in the same place most of us are. I was so busy with various things to do i couldn't get back here to check in. My doctor's visit was postponed because he called off due to bad weather, so now I'm going in next Tue. to find out if I've lost weight. I've been trying to stay close to the 1000 cal. he wants me on and I've been pretty good except for this weekend. :p I went to an all-girl's weekend with 23 of the teachers from my school and we had a grand time, but diet was not on the menu. LOL:D On the good side, I worked out regularly last week. I have a sore hamstring that I'm trying to stretch and work out so it will get better. It feels better after I do the workout but then it stiffens up later. Walking up and down stairs is painful. Now I won't get back to the fitness center until Tues. b/c they are closed for P. day. Oh, well. And it's turned cold again. I've been sitting on a heating pad, heating my butt!:?:;) Anybody got any better ideas?
It's going to be a salad and Healthy Choice week.
Take care all.
Bearcub

So I'm thinking I need to try setting some weekly goals if I ever want to get into the 2's. All I can handle at this point is simple stuff--in fact I'll be impressed if I can actually handle the simple stuff. But my goal for this week is to do two things: (1) actually PLAN my breakfasts and lunches each day and (2) every day except Monday, do at least 10 minutes of "intentional" exercise. (Since January, all my ex. minutes have been from packing, moving, and etc.... I need to get back to adding in exercise for its own sake.)

So. Tomorrow. Breakfast will be at work, because there will be food at the interview I'm going to first thing in the a.m. Lunch... lunch... ah, yes, I have a plan! I have to be at an open house in the student union. I'll purchase lunch in the union--I can get a non-breaded chicken sandwich and fruit and take it back to the office with me. Wow! I have a plan for breakfast AND lunch tomorrow. That's better than I've done so far in 2008, I do believe.

Thanks for the cheers, Rainbow!

Ruth--Mom is okay, but that's about it. She needs a lot of pushing/nagging/attention if she's going to get much better...and I'm still trying to sort out how much of that I can reasonably do. Just getting settled into the new place and keeping up with work and taking care of her daily needs is pretty much taking up all my time at this point, so I'm not doing all the extra stuff for her that she needs. Anyway... we're ALMOST done with apartment stuff, so perhaps things will slow down soon.

Lilion and Bearcub--Hope that pain gets kicked soon!

Stop! Do not post here! Join us on the next volume of "Gettin' Fit after 40!"