Good morning! I thought it was about time to start a new thread.

Active Folks Over Fifty is a place to talk about fitness, exercise, and healthy eating information as it relates to weight loss and/or maintenance--and also about any work, fun, hobby, or volunteer activites you're engaged in. In other words, the active part of your life!

Just a few guidelines for this thread:

- Raves about grandkids or ranting about your kids is out of bounds.

- Discussion of your illnesses, conditions, treatments, and medical procedures in general is also out of bounds on this thread. So is whining about old age!

- Positive stories of vacations taken, volunteer activities, or achievements at work or elsewhere are highly encouraged! As are recommendations for books, movies, etc.

Join in!

Hey Maryblu, welcome to the thread!

Gail, gosh, I don't always *want* to go for my walk--but it's a habit now, and I enjoy being out. I need new shoes, though.

We watched the first half of the Dallas-Buffalo game, but alas, got too tired and went to bed before the amazing second half! Luckily there is the NFL channel on DirecTV, so we got lots of highlights, including the kicker for Dallas having to kick a 53 yard field goal TWICE because of a timeout.

Today I have lots of work to do--and I'm on my weight loss program again, so have to think about food more carefully.

How's everyone doing?

Jay

This is in response to Spinymouse on thread #1, before I closed it.

I have the video of The Secret and have found it very interesting. I think the point of it is, your beliefs can affect outcomes. If you think "Oh, I've failed at losing weight, and I probably will again," guess what? But if you think, "This time I'm going to succeed," guess what? This is what they mean when they show the universe as a Genie who says "Your wish is my command."

That said, it would be easy to confuse the principles with "magical thinking." Just thinking positive thoughts isn't enough. The Secret was featured on Oprah on one program, and some of the people from the book/video were on. One made it very clear that action is needed. He said (and I'm paraphrasing), "If your home is about to be foreclosed on, and all you do is tell yourself it's not going to happen, and you don't take some action--you'll find yourself sitting on the curb with all your stuff."

The point is also that many people already "know" The Secret, and these people are often successful already.

A recent example from my own experience: We wanted to move, so we put money down on a new home--one we'd had in mind for about a year of looking. We were told the owner didn't really want to move and had turned down other offers. We made our offer anyway, thinking, Well, you never know! Our offer was accepted.

Then we needed to sell our old home. We owned it free and clear, but if we couldn't sell it right away, we'd have additional upkeep expenses that would make things pretty tight. So, we wrote up our listing (and we weren't going through a realty co.), and we looked at it, and said to ourselves, This is a lovely home and someone is going to want it! Within two months our next-door neighbor made us an acceptable offer. This, in the worst housing market in decades, but as I said to a number of people, all you need is one buyer.

So we have our new home, we sold our old home, and we were able to pay off the mortgage with the proceeds. We're now debt free again.

Some would call this luck, and would say it didn't matter what we thought. Maybe not--but I'm just as happy to have been thinking Yes than thinking No.

Jay

Quick . . . computer is suffering from that "toilet-seat-disease" today

I had this idea to add quality control to portion control. If something doesn't meet my standards, don't eat it. Think how much extra eating that eliminates. I certainly have cooking disasters, and I have to eat it anyway. I am talking about eating stuff like kandy korn at halloween - do I want that, or do I want a square or two of good chocolate? I don't know that it is practical to apply quality control 100% of the time, but it is something to think about.

I agree, Gail. You couldn't pay me to eat candy corn! (Isn't that spelled with a K?? ) I decided awhile back that lousy french fries were a complete waste of everything. I know of only one place that serves fresh-cooked, skin-on french fried potatoes, and those are the only ones I would think of eating. Problem is, I moved 90 miles away.

If I eat chocolate, which isn't often because I'm not addicted to it, it's Ghirardelli 60% cocoa. Now that's chocolate. The last time I ate Hershey's chocolate it was just like eating wax!

Jay

I actually like candy korn, but it definitely is lacking in snob appeal. I agree about the chocolate. I got some 71% at Trader Joe's.

The only thing that I know I am addicted to is cheese. Since my DH doesn't like it, I just avoid buying it. If I get something good, I seem to have to eat it all at once. I keep a little crumbled Feta and blue cheese in the freezer for salads or garnishes.

Don't think I've ever even tasted Candy C/Korn (does that mean I'm a snob? ) . . . and I agree wholeheartedly about French Fries -- they always smell better than they taste anyway.

I do have a weakness for Cote d'Or 86% cocoa chocolate.

I'm also addicted to cheese, but luckily I don't have to provide it for anyone else, so the only thing I keep in the house is some crumbled Feta for putting on a spinach salad once in a while.

Meowee, in this case, being a snob is a good thing.

Yesterday and today I am weighing two pounds higher than I was. That would mean something like 7200 calories extra. Hmm...that would be about 70oz of montery jack cheese. Yikes!

Yesterday I started working the morning shift - (7am-1pm). I was exhausted when I got home, but I managed to force myself to take a short walk. Today, I will force myself to do it right after I get home. I put it off yesterday, and I didn't get any less tired later in the day .

I haven't been drinking enough water. When it isn't actually hot, I don't think about drinking. I think I should drink even more than usual when I am walking.

Hey Gail,

Retaining water can easily cause a 2-pound difference. You really do need to drink more water. Sounds wrong, but it's right. Water retention is caused by salty foods, and to flush the salt out, you need to drink water.

Don't let that scale push you around!

I'm taking a day off all but my walking today.

We went to Sweet Tomatoes for lunch. Does anyone else out there know of Sweet Tomatoes? It's a buffet-style place that features lots of vegetables... but one does have to watch one's choices there. Very yummy, though!

Jay

I am sitting here at work swilling water!

The very name, Sweet Tomatoes, sounds wonderful! We go to the Sizzler for the buffet every so often. I don't have too much trouble leaving the bad stuff alone, and they have lots of veggies on their salad bar.

A NSV: I was able to stop myself before eating a piece of candy. I thought, "Do I really want this?", the answer was "No". My usual thing is to eat first, ask questions later.

I can relate!

Jay

Me too . . .

Bumped into a couple of old friends at the doctor's office (of all places) and they kidnapped me and tied me up and force fed me both lunch and dinner before releasing me again . . . I stopped counting when I got to 2500 calories. Definitely climbing back on the wagon today.

Hope everybody has a great moving and shaking kind of day planned. See you all later . . .

Hey! I went for a long walk today. I discovered some back trails around the community where I live. The property is along an old canal, and I found that you can get onto the grassy levy from a trail at the end of one part of the property, walk along the levy, and find another trail that leads back into the community. Neat!

The canal is an older one, so it has trees and bushes along the sides. It's quite wide--it's actually the outflow from a lake into the bay.

How is everyone? Any interesting sights and sounds on your outings?

Jay

Our dogs love it when I walk, however, they are only interested in the part of the walk that takes place on the road, rather than the part on our own property. It is fun to watch them try to figure out when I am going to do the part in which they wish to particpate.

When I walk on the road, the topology is such that as I walk, the view opens up so that I can see the next mountain range through the canyon. Even though I know it's there, I am always amazed. The desert is really very pretty and full of things to see.

Good Morning . . .

That view sounds wonderful, Gail . . . I live at the top of a hill and as soon as I cover about half a block, I get a clear view of the harbour lying at the bottom of the hill . . . always a nice treat, too.

Have a good day, gang . . . try to keep everything moving and shaking.