The Senior Corner - Are You Over 50?

September, 2008 - we now have a group!  It's called 60s 70s and Higher!  There are also age specific groups for all ages.  Please stop in an join, and please do participate.

Time for all of us older members to get to know each other.  All the youngsters have made themselves known so now it's our turn.

I was 65 in April, 2007, and happily retired.

How about you?

Hi all.  I'll be 52 soon.   I've lost 25 pounds since May 2006.  It's been hard but not impossible.  I feel like I'm finally maturing with my relationship with food (thanks to this site).  Better late than never.  :) 

Hi Claire and all others in the senior corner.  I just turned 56 and have been on the sight for maybe 10 months, but have not done well on weight loss.  However, it has been a real eye opener when one logs in their food intake.  I am down 15 lbs. from where I once was, but can't seem to get into 2nd gear. 

I haven't been on the sight in some time, but feel its time to get back with the swing of things.  I try to work at loosing with 10# increments at a time, seems more doable.  So now I have to get busy again. 

Hi, I'm 56 and have been a member since 1/2/07. I really enjoy this site and am thrilled to have found this thread for 'over fifty'.  I, too, am in Alabama, and had to take disability retirement from my beloved career.  I think I'm doing pretty well with food choices, but because of my health problems, I can't really excerise.  I might can ride a recumbant bike and will try to join a gym when I can.  I would love to have some friends here!

Hey, jmmm  you can get into 2nd gear just force the stick in the general direction and you're off.  It's a bumpy ride though and no easy button. 

Scott, remember baby steps will get you there too.  I don't know your health prolems but whatever part of your body you can make move there is an exercise to do. Start small.  Make your goals doable so you don't get frustrated because you can't do the impossible.  I hope you start moving now!  Don't wait until you can join the gym.  If you are like me, that day will never come unless you do now what you can and like everything else, once you start pushing your body it will want more and then the day will come to visit a gym.  

:)

       &nb sp; 

Scott, I have physical limitations too and can't exercise much.  Right now my weight loss is at a standstill because of a family situation that is so demanding I haven't been eating right.  It's my fault for not being more assertive about my needs and it has to change. 

Last year I lost 27 pounds and most of it was while not exercising at all, some of it while chair bound.  I'll give hospital food credit for about 5 pounds loss too.

Right now I'm looking for easy to do exercise at home.  There's a program called Sit and be Fit, and there's Chair Yoga.  I'm going to try those to see if I can get my body moving again.

Welcome!

I just found this site today and am looking forward to having an online community to talk with about this stuff.

My hubby and I are both 56 this month and joined the weekly meeting folks.  At our weigh in we both were in the mid-280s and are now loosing and counting our points.  Many of you have been there, I'm sure.  This is the fourth time for me.  But it's the one method that works for me long term and it has my hubby totally hooked into keeping track of what goes in his mouth, too.  He's new to organized weight loss.

We are "foodies."  We got this way by eating a lot.  In fact, I realized that I was making recipes that said 4 servings and splitting them between the two of us as a regular thing.  If two people eat for four no wonder they weight twice as much as they should.

But push has come to shove.  We are now old enough that we look longingly at things like walking vacations and then think we couldn't do them.  So, time to make the change in a major way.  We've promised each other that we will keep this up for at least a year.  By then it should be a habit, eh?

I'm not giving up my subscriptions to Gourmet and Bon Appetit.  I'm still enjoying planning the weekly meals with a pile of cookbooks around me.  My bedtime reading right now is When French Women Cook: a Gastronomic Memoire by Madeleine Kamman.  But I'm making two servings instead of four, using evaporated skim milk instead of cream or 1/2&1/2, serving things over braised creens instead of rice or pasta ...

But it's only been a couple weeks.  A couple weeks doesn't take off 140 lbs.  This is gonna take years -- but if I want a to have fun when I retire instead of being too fat to travel and have a good time I have to do this.

So, oh wise and mature gang, we will support each other through this, eh?

This is for DuffyGirl and others who are frustrated with plateaus.  The National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases of the US NIH recommends that a healthy rate of weight loss is 1/2 to 2 pounds per week.  You lost 26 points since August.  That's over 1 lb. per week so you are right on schedule for healthy weight loss. 

I'm writing this partly for you and for me who at the beginning of weight losing is doing fine but I know my body.  My 16-25 lb. plateau is coming and it's going to be a frustrating several weeks.  But there really isn't anything you can do sometimes to hurry it along except keep to a healthy level of eating and exercise.

Healthy eating and, oh, yeah, exercise.  So, should I spend the rest of the afternoon here blogging on my fat bottom or head out somewhere to get some exercise?  I guess we know the answer to that.  Sigh.

A good weekend to you all.

oohh, i'd be very interested in the chair yoga and the sit and be fit......

thanks!

Hi,

50 y/o female here. Battle of weight for past 10 years. I have been on weight watchers, but do not think I was eating enough after reading the info on this site. They had me on 26 pts a day...which averages out to 1300 calories a day when I am supposed to be at around 1600. So I was not losing most of the time and when I did it was in tenths, hardly never pounds. I am going to try this..It makes sense to me.

Scott, take a minute and fill out your profile, and start a journal.  That's the best way to communicate common interests. 

I googled Sit & be Fit and found several videos for sale on Amazon.  As it happens I have an Amazon gift certificate!  I found the program on PBS at 9 am on Fridays.  They do have a website and a lookup for local stations that carry the show.  But once a week isn't going to do me much good.

I haven't gotten to looking up Chair Yoga.  A local senior club has classes twice a week. 

We can do this!  We just have to work around some things.

Hi  I'm almost 68, and have just discovered this site. Great!!!

Are you all in USA?  I am in Australia

Scott, what part of Alabama do you live in?  I live in SW AL. I too have disabilities. I live in a small town where there is no gym.  I am 60

Compared to me most of you elderly people are still in diapers :)
I am getting close to 80. I live in Canada and have a hard time getting my weight down even with only 1300 cal. p/d.
Must be those fat fertilizers aka hypertension pills.

I'm in northwest Alabama in a small rural town, but we do have a gym.  I haven't gone because I'm too embarrassed.  I know it's silly, but that's where I am anyway.  I did set as a goal to join a gym when I lost 25 lbs, and I've lost 15, so I guess I'll have to follow thru, lol....I'm actually doing pretty well with the calorie counting. I've fought weight problems since second grade and I'm 56. But, in the past, I've done ww, diet pills, liquid diets, starvation, you name it. I alway lost, but gained it back plus some. I do believe I can live the rest of my life with this program, which is what it will take.  It's slow go, but as long as the weigh is going down, that's fine.

WHOOOOOOO-RAHHHHHHHHHHHH, lol, it took me 1 month and three days, finally lost 10 lbs. down to 170. I started doing the right things. I was only eating between 600 and 700 cals. a day. then I did a lot of reading about your body going into starvation mode. so I went to 1000 cal. and started drinking the fluids. went up 5 lbs and then dropped 7. hopefully I am off of the dreaded plateau. I had gastric by-pass surgery in 2002 and haven't stretched out my stomach was just eating good old southern food.  It's hard to get the 1000 cal. and fluids in a day. Hey I have a question. This Hoodia. I've been reading about it. The problem is I don't get hungary during the day. In the evening I am hungary. I wonder if you could take it in the afternoon????????? Anyone know? It's from a cactus plant and natrual. I read what CBS had to say.  According to them it is safe. Inquirying minds want to know.

Sharoyn, before you spend big bucks on a hoodia product, have a look at this thread

Ingredients in Diet Pills

We had a long discussion about it.  Turns out it's not all it's cracked up to be.

My appetite suppressant is a glass of cold water.  Works every time.

Thanks, clairelaine for all the links.  

I thought you all might enjoy this article I've been saving

I'm Old and I'm Just Fine with that

Hi I recognize some of you on this site.  It is nice to chat with others who are close to the same age.  I will be 54 in April.  I have one husband, two children, and three grandchildren.  Work full-time and just cancelled my membership to the YMCA.  I thought the Y would be the answer but seem to do better on my own.  My mind says I am thirty but the body definitely knows it is is 50+.

Hey;

I'm a newbie to this site.  I am 49 yrs old and a former member of diet.com which i found successful in dropping 15 lbs last yr. Gained 7 back. Now, I've been on track diligently since 1/22 and have not lost 1 lb! Only 1300-1400 cals./day maximum!  Work out at the gym on elliptical 3x week!  HELLLPP!  I'm disgusted this time. What's the deal?  How can i go 2 solid weeks and not lose an ounce. In fact at one point I gained 2 lbs.  My analysis every day is an "A".  PLease guys, some words of encouragement here!

Lynn