Simply walk

Hi,

I am 52 and 35 lbs over weight.  I am limited to certain activity such as running, jumping etc., due to a weak bladder and other, wonderful, medical problems I will not get in too lol. 

Most of us can walk.  I have incorporated 45 minutes of walking and 30 minutes of floor exercises.  It has only been a week but I have lost 5 lbs and my energy level is rising.  In one more week I will up my walk to an hour and my floor exercise to 40 minutes.  I know the key is remaining consistent. 

I wish you the best on your journey.  I for one am thankful we have this site.  Good company.

blessings

April

Hi

I am 54 and 50 pounds overweight.  I hate to exercise and really have to make myself get going.  My favorite activity is walking too.  However I live in northern Michigan and we are up to our eyeballs in snow.  We have an indoor track at our local community college so I plan to walk there after work at least three days a week because if I come home first I know I won't walk. 

Congrats on your weight loss.  Keep up the good work!!

Penny 

Penny didn't you hear???? I invited the word procrastination! I abhor exercise and this comes from a dance teacher of 30 years.  I stopped dancing 4 years ago and am now the P.R. person.  My staff teaches and remains in shape and I allowed myself to fall away from that.  This was due to depression.  Losing my son, dad and mom within a small amount of time.  I used food to fight depression and all I did was added to my depression gaining weight. sooooooo.......

It all comes down to self motivation.  I was always looking for reasons to get in shape but not looking at it to do it for myself.  Once I muddled through the waves of procrastination I began.  So far I look forward to working out and it has helped me with the depression.   I pray I can keep this mindset 99% of the time.

Best to you on your journey,

April

Hello, All:

I lost 35 pounds using C.C., with 20 more to go.  THEN we got a terrific snow storm (which is very unusual for western Washington) and I got snowed in and couldn't go to the gym and I let that be my excuse to just stay home and eat.  Somehow getting out of my routine just messed me all up.  I COULD have walked through the mounds of snow every day, which would have been great exercise, but no...

So I'm recommitting myself today, this morning.  I'm not weighing until tomorrow, just can't face that today, but today I am eating healthy and returning to the gym.

Walking is my mainstay.  I do 4.5 hours on the treadmill at the gym every week, and upper body weights whenever I can do an extra half-hour.  If the weather is pleasant I walk downtown and back up the hill to my house instead of the gym because it is so nice to be outside.

Procrastination, depressed eating, yeah I can relate to all that.  All I know is it is easier to stay on a healthy plan than it is to get on a healthy plan, so today I get back on that horse and ride!

Good luck to all of you! 

Hi everyone,

I'm 51 and I want to lose 100 lbs.  So far I've lost 4.  I am thrilled. I know it's but a drop in a very large bucket but I've started and I feel great about it.  I am trying to take a holistic approach and work on my attitude and my body.  Hopefully one will follow the other and life will become a little lighter all the way around. 

I can so emphathize with the procrastination, avoidance, excuses...whatever you want to call it on the exercise thing. I have dumbells, a gymbar, a bender core ball, and I live in the Ozarks so everywhere you walk is a HILL of a workout. Yet and still I struggle with being active.  But I am working on it and I will conquer the lathargy and get moving.  Good Luck to everyone!

Congratulations on your start, teresamae!  I also am 51 years old.  Two years ago I lost 88 pounds but then a year ago gained 50 of it back (after losing an additional 250 pounds in the form of an ex-husband!).

So now I am in the process of re-losing that 50.  I like your approach of looking at your attitude as well as your body.  For me, I have to focus on how I am going to feel tonight or tomorrow morning rather how I want to feel RIGHT NOW when tempted to eat unhealthily or avoid exercise.  I just got back from my first day at the gym in over 2 weeks, and I feel so much better than I would have if I had spent the last 1.5 hours watching t.v.

So, good luck  to both of us and here's looking at a fit 2009!

Hi!

I ran the Boston Marathon in 1979!  Now I can't walk half a mile without my back aching.  Run?!!  I have that leaky bladder thing which inhibits me from doing anything jarring.  There was a time in my early 40s when I was very muscular and had great stamina but over the past 5 years I have literally gone to pot(belly that is.).  I am horrified at my condition and have started walking again.  I hope this group will prove to be a turning point for me. 

Good for you for picking up the shoes and walking again. It is really hard to get started and sticking with it. However, it is the easiest and least expensive exercise available.

Keep it up and keep us posted.

J-mom

Hi Ladies -

You want some good exercise that is fun and great for your body too?  Low impact?  BELLYDANCING.  I started dancing at age 44 and I will be 52 this summer.  Bellydancing is about embracing your body no matter what the size and shape, feeling empowered about feeling female.  There's something very earthy and sensual about the moves, while you are stretching and isolating muscle groups that you didn't even know you had.  I fully credit my belly dancing with keeping my flexibilty.  Check with your local rec centers - the classes are very affordable. 

Happy hips -

Sweeterpea

I love all of the stories.  It seems we are all in the same boat!  Just reading the ideas and suggestions of others helps motivate me.  I sit at my computer and read instead of eating.  This is only my second day so the really hard work is ahead but I feel like I'm a member of a very kind, considerate and determined group of ladies.  Thanks to you all for your wonderful help.

Hey, sweeterpea2002!  In the late 80's I knew an older German lady who was short and *ahem* fluffy.  She took a belly dancing class with another coworker and at first I thought it was so bizarre because I would NEVER have bared any part of my body if I had been her size.

But she loved the class and participated in a recital at the end.  I ended up really admiring her for her spunk.

(Since then I've gained at least as much weight as she was carrying back in the day.  Now I've lost most of it.)

Last summer at a street fair in town there was a belly-dancing troupe and I tell ya, many of those ladies reminded me of my old German friend.  Yeah, they were big and they were SO sexy - it's the movement.

So now you recommend b.d. and I'm thinking, could I?  (Question uttered with a giggle and a hand over the mouth.)

Mad4moon -

Absolutely, you can do it!  I dance with a great bunch of ladies - some just come for the exercise and never perform in our recitals.  Behind those closed doors, we bare our bellies - stretch marks, surgery scars, jelly rolls and all!  We stop being mothers, accountants, lawyers, senior citizens, students, and we all transform into goddesses for that hour.  There is satisfaction is perfecting the moves, making your body move in new ways.  It makes you get back in touch with your body.  Which had been something I had covered up and hidden for years.

I know, for me, when I'm dieting it can be very stressful.  I'm focused on every piece of food I put in my mouth and the numbers on the scale.  Belly dancing helps relieve some of that stress for me.  How can you be in the dumps when you've got a lovely hip scarf on, listening to the coins jingling during a shimmy? And it's exercise. 

Oh, and one more benefit.....it drives my husband absolutely nuts when I'm in the kitchen cooking and I break into some dance moves.

Sweeterpea

mad4moon- if u want something equally as challenging, an international community, to feel good in your body with your eyes closed, while laying yourself (no matter the size) against a total stranger - try my addiction: tango. i am 55, have been running and doing yoga, swimming too. but tango has an element of keeping u in your body and u cant be anywhere but in the moment - not even thinking about how big your butt might look!

i have experienced every type of ED in my life and at 55 i am in the shpae most women would desire. but i also have come to see that even with eating as i do and exercising - if i put on some weight - it sticks like glue!!!

i also beleive in accepting how we are TODAY, treating myself with extremem rediculous self care. i am not on a diet - i am into eating well - what makes my body and eating soul feel best.

at a time when everyone i know in nyc is having surgery to push away the years - i seem to be a solitary voice amongst my friends of being comfy with my wrinkles, grey hair, etc. but i still HATE the extra weight and know i need to work on that daily - maybe forever.

so i do things that connect me with this verbally abused, starved, and rigorously disliked body - BY MOI! i am working on my relationship to my bosy not just what i put into it.

as i write this is see that i sound so together and a bit like i am lecturing - neither is true. my bosy and i have an on and off again relationship and whatever is going on for me in life gets played out on it.

today i will dance tango, eat well, and get off my body's case!

You don't sound like you're lecturing at all, akcount - you are very inspiring!  After I responded to this thread last night, I told my husband I was considering belly-dancing.  He said he was at a stoplight yesterday, glanced over at a building that has had a number of businesses in it over the years, and in a window saw 15-20 women belly-dancing!  I'm gonna check it out!  This is SO not like me so I know it is totally what I should do...

i love the name  " belly" dancing - dancing WITH YOUR BELLY,  not hating it the belly flesh, but taking it out for a dance!!!

very sexy as well - bellies need that too!

please report back!

Mad4moon - go for it!!!  trying new things is what gives life "juice".   And if it's outside your comfort zone - all the better.  I bellydanced on a float in a parade - me...belly and all.  I was TERRIFIED the night before.  After the first couple of blocks, I LOVED it.  I played with the crowd and it was a blast to see them try to mimic my moves.  I wouldn't trade the experience for anything. 

Like AK wrote:  please report back! 

My apologies to the other ladies - I didn't mean to hijack the thread. 

How great to find another belly dancer. I love it. Through dancing, I am finally beginning to accept my body. In a class of women of all sizes and ages, no one is criticized, everyone is embraced and we all are having fun. I do lots of exercise classes but this is pure joy.

Just had to jump on the dance thread, but let me introduce myself. I’m 59,  have always been within a normal BMI, but was getting real close to overweight when I discovered I had high blood pressure. I cut salt and dropped 17 lb. but while “maintaining” regained 7. So I’ve spent the last year trying to drop those 7. Meanwhile, I’ve been exercising and dancing, so it certainly wasn’t a wasted year. Glad to meet this group.

Original Post by akcount:

i love the name  " belly" dancing - dancing WITH YOUR BELLY,  not hating it the belly flesh, but taking it out for a dance!!!

very sexy as well - bellies need that too!

please report back!

 Great thought akcount!

I took belly dancing for two years, not too long ago.  I was 45, the lady I went with was 60.  It was so much fun; the music, the colour, the jingly belly scarfs, ankle bracelets with bells, finger cymbals, laughing.  It was a celebration of femininity.  Our instructor told us that many of the dances were done when the ladies got together and were not performed for the pleasure of males. Though they do enjoy when you bring your homework home.

Sweeterpea - "we all transform into goddesses for that hour" so true.

Edited to add: I loved when we learned how to do that traditional yell, what was that called again? Huzzah?

it is so interesting that we who have disordered thinking around our bodies, and are old enough to realize we want to be healthy and feel good in our bodies, are doing dances (tango and belly dancing) that on the surface look like they are macho oriented, for the enjoyment of men.

i guess the joke is on men. i just came back from several hours of tango and for two hours i felt light and lived in the moment unselfconsciuosly. as with belly dancing, many believe these dances are about seduction, which they might have been in the past.  but done through our own agency- like katonick wrote - we celebrate our femininity IN our bodies whatever size and shape they are. not for the approving male gaze, but for the joy of being in our feminine, round, fleshy, and sensuous woman's body.

something a guy can never do...

Katonik -  the yell that I learned is called a zaghareet.  It's putting your tongue to the roof of your mouth and vibrating your tongue.  Since it's not very attractive, it's usually done with your hand raised to cover your mouth.  It's very shrill and the noise carries.  It's also a great way to know that you've got bellydancers in your audience!  Is that the yell you learned?

Akcount - isn't it a shame that we couldn't be more accepting of our bodies when we were younger?  It's very empowering - and the one thing I wish I could give to the young women today that are struggling with self acceptance under the pressure of the Hollywood and model thin stereotypes.

Phox50 - hello, hello, hello!  We'll have to chat and discuss our dancing.  I knew I couldn't be the only one!!!  Maybe we need to start a thread on belly dancing to see how many people will chime in....... 

Great responses all!  Belly Dancing sounds great.  I know you dont have to be thin but what about fitness?  Is it ok to just get started doing it or do you have to be at a certain level of fitness?  I think I'll lose a few more pounds first but it sounds fun!