I'm beginning to think that I must decrease calories slightly with every passing year to do any kind of maintaining.
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Saef, i'm going through the throes of perimenopause (54, periods becoming irregular, etc.) and methinks that is what's in store for me now, also.
I lost over 100 lbs at age 49 and have maintained successfully until about a year or so ago when i really felt i was battling, i thought it was Zoloft and am still not sure it WASN'T but i'm off it now and now the periods are becoming weird, along with bloating, etc. and BREAST tenderness which i really never had before.. (GYN checked out everything, all is normal). i was able to eat THOUSANDSSSS of calories on my "free Friday" and i haven't done that in probably 6 months or so and i am still up 5-7 unexplained pounds.
What's weird is i'm having a period now every 2 wks (it's always a light flow) and this period came with the most intense food cravings, bloat and almost a stoned feeling. I managed to not drive to the store to pick up huge PB chocolate chip cookies from the bakery at Safeway but, holy cow, i hope this isn't what's in store for me in the coming months.
I have successfully dealt with the binge Friday which i never thought i'd be able to (and i still kept off those 5-7 lbs! i eat the same diet on the other days and i still do, now) so i'm proud of that but i i guess it's true that you have to watch every calorie as you get older.
ReillyJ I went through menopause at the age of 47 and had many of the issues you are describing. I gained the 22 lbs. which led me to 3FC 10 years ago for help in getting it off.
I'm not a big fan of "natural" and "homeopathic" stuff as the scientific alternate seems to work better for me. That said I did go to a "natural" food store near me as "black cohosh' was very much in vogue for perimenopause and menopausal side effects. The owner suggested I take additional vitamins B12 and C instead.
They worked for me. A lot of the food cravings I had were alleviated, as were some of the violent mood swings and the bloating.
I had to tinker with the dosage and can't remember what the numbers were.
ReillyJ
I'm not a big fan of "natural" and "homeopathic" stuff as the scientific alternate seems to work better for me. That said I did go to a "natural" food store near me as "black cohosh' was very much in vogue for perimenopause and menopausal side effects. The owner suggested I take additional vitamins B12 and C instead.
They worked for me. A lot of the food cravings I had were alleviated, as were some of the violent mood swings and the bloating.
:
Thanks, Dagmar!
Are you saying you passed on the black cohosh and just did the B12 and C? RATS, i already do all of that. Maybe i will try the "menopause" herbals just to see, i can always drop them if they don't work.
I tried black cohosh when I was first getting hot flashes. I remember it working for a couple of months and then nothing after that. I eventually went to my doctor and started on generic hormones and they seem to work well. I've been on .5 mg of estriadol (sp?) for almost 2 years. It costs a whole lot less than the supplements with black cohosh, too. I really don't have any type of food cravings or mood swings or any of the other stuff associated with menopause, but dang I wish I could lose weight!
Flashing in quickly. I must go to bed and turn out the light. (22:07 here and I've decided to have early nights all week as I keep getting headaches associated with poor sleep.)
Are you saying you passed on the black cohosh and just did the B12 and C? RATS, i already do all of that. Maybe i will try the "menopause" herbals just to see, i can always drop them if they don't work.
Good news: I got up at 4:30 to exercise.
Bad news: The front door was wide open.
Good news: It appeared that it had only recently been opened and there was no intruder in the house:
Bad news: Waffles ran out (she's NEVER been outside since we got her over a year ago). And a quick inventory of the rest of the animals determined that Louie was also missing.
Good news: Waffles gave up the fight easily and was carried back inside. The door was then closed as I did that inventory. When Louie was determined to be missing, I grabbed a bag of treats, opened the door and was about to step out when a puffed up ball of orange fur ran into the house.
I can only surmise what happened. It was raining heavily all day yesterday and evening. When I got home, my Chewy order was outside the door, so I opened the door to pull the boxes into the entry. I must not have locked it knowing I needed to go out and get the mail, but then DH came home and I sent him to get the mail and he went out by the garage (shorter distance to the mail box, so less getting wet). Usually I check the lock when I go to bed, and obviously I didn't. Thankfully all is well AND I won't make the mistake of not checking the lock ever again! Lesson learned.
Tuesday morning, back up to 155.4, though yesterday felt abstemious.
I'll eat dinner out tonight after work, with upper management. I rarely go out to dinner -- I find other ways to spend my money. I am not looking forward to being near my manager, who's been sharp with me, always correcting me, and who's as nervous as a cat because of the ongoing acquisition our company is making. Whenever there's an acquisition, people lose their jobs afterward in the subsequent reorgs due to redundancy. I think my manager is safe, actually, but she has a reputation for paranoia verging on hysteria during these post-acquisition periods. When she's on edge she takes it out on people around her -- it doesn't take much to make her snippy and critical. I need to lay low for a while.
Glad you've found everyone, Allison!
That is scary!
It's happened to us before too.
I now turn on the light by the front door when I feed the dogs their dinner. Then, at night, I turn off the light while double-checking the front door.
Today will be a weird work day for me. I was informed at 1:30 yesterday that the library is being used for picture day so I had to scramble to inform my classes. Now I'll make class visits to read and promote the book fair that comes yet again next week. I got to work before 7 am and the book fair had already been delivered (they arrived at 6:15!) and the picture people are here setting up too. I'll try to stay out of everyone's way but I feel like they're invading "my" space.
Boy Michele the school library certainly has changed its function and expanded its importance to the school.
I vaguely remember being sent there to read when I was in Grade 1 & 2 as reading was taught in class and I already knew how. The only other thing our public school library did was give the space over to the chess club for us to practice.
Nice that the school library has such a larger role nowadays. My mom and I were avid users of both the City public library system and I of the school library. We couldn't really afford to buy many books so borrowing and returning was great for us.
I think I would be very happy to be a kid with access to all the stuff you describe in your posts.
I'd dreaded that dinner but ended up having several good conversations. But I could only hear about one-quarter of what was said because of my deaf left ear and the bad acoustics. This was one of those restaurants that pretends to be a loft, with exposed duct work, reclaimed wood and concrete finishes, an extensive microbrew menu, etc. The food was good. I don't like a crispy skin on my salmon but I do like a bed of quinoa. There was goat cheese. What can I say? It was expensed.
Yum-- sounds delicious Saef! Sorry you couldn't hear well though. That must be frustrating!
Dagmar-- yes, the school library has evolved. A good school library should be the "heart" of the school, though with budget cuts, that isn't always the case. I actually have few memories of my childhood school library so I question how often we went. I think we went if we had to do research. I do remember going during the summer as they were open once in a while during the summer and I'd ride my bike up and fill up my bike basket with books. I also remember a book mobile coming and doing the same. The public library was a couple miles away and I remember walking there too. I was and am an avid reader, but had few books of my own, which were read over and over and over....
I remember my elementary school library. Maybe not so much the first few years, but later, for sure. I do remember going from time to time for someone to read us a story, but not weekly--more like once or twice a year, but we did have weekly visits to pick out books to take home to read.
DH was putting up our new TV in our bedroom and thought he had mapped out all the studs (he was drilling holes in the wall to thread the cords down inside to the electrical and cable boxes). He missed one and ended up having to drill a second hole. Anyway, the painters were supposed to come back at seven this morning to patch and repaint the wrongly drilled hole. I thought that would be fine, they'd be there at seven, I would go to the office for 15 minutes and then go to my dentist appointment. Wrong. The painter arrived at 7:55 (said he had had a flat tire). So I missed my appointment and now my whole day seems messed up. I really hate waiting in the first place, but for the painter to not call was uncalled for. And, being that I was anxious about the wait, I snacked while waiting... Now I'm beating myself up for that. Ugh.
Thursday morning, at 157.1 after waking up at 2 AM and being unable to fall asleep. I had an angry monologue in my head. Problems in the cubicle environment. My manager said she did not want my neighbor coming to her again complaining about my incompetence with the "soft phone" software loaded on my laptop and the headphones.
