WOMEN OVER 40 WEEKLY CHALLENGE

Ok, ladies from the women over 40's posting group, here's where we'll start. Everybody put your starting weight, how much water you drink on average per day, and how many minutes and or days per week you exercise and what that exercise is.

ADDED SECTION BELOW:

Then starting Tuesday June 26, post your weight (if you weigh daily, if not just state what day you weigh yourself), how much water you drank for Monday....and your minutes of exercise. BUT>>>>> keep track of it too...b/c on Monday I want you to also post a total for the week. The daily posts will tell the rest of us how much harder we have to work to beat each other, which will help motivate us!!!

(See Anybody wanna have a Women Over 40 group post to see what this is about) Link: http://www.calorie-count.com/calories/communi ty/forums.php?topic=41313&rewind=last& ;count=18#last

WE DESERVE TO BE SKINNY!!!

Bonna

Bonna is on a roll!

I don't know what's more appetizing than sausage made by someone you know.  It's getting to be sausage season where I live.  I wish I could cut pork out of my diet but it's just so good!  ...but it's like cannibalism, physiologically speaking.  And causes red blood cells to lose their color! 

Do you all count calories, or just try to eat right?  I've been counting, to the best of my knowledge, but have really gone off the rails this last week.  After going off the sweets and bar appetizers, I've thrown myself back into the feeding frenzy.  But I'm nipping it in the bud as of today.  At least I've kept up my dog-walking, so the 3000 cals p/day haven't totally killed me.   ciao gang! Nancy

Bonna, well done!  Below 160, that's great!

JJ 

Three cheers for Bonna!!!

My weekend went almost as predicted. I stood at my church's food booth from before 9 AM until after 5 on Saturday. It was pretty chilly and the wind was a bit gusty at times too. I MUST have burned up some cals there! I bought the aforementioned sausage sandwich but it just didn't strike me as yummy enough to be worth it.  I only ate half. I had nothing else, not even water (bad I know) after my AM coffee until 7 PM. Then I had two slices of loaded pizza and a light beer. THAT was worth it! 

Wheehoo! wt=132

(So glad that was LIGHT beer! lol)

That's my lowest so far. I'm sure it will bounce around there before going lower but it sure is good to see. The best part was seeing CC take two weeks OFF of the date I should reach my goal. That's new for me!!

Back to the gym tomorrow. I've taken a week off while I tried to avoid getting actually sick with whatever bug has been working on me. 

Damn the torpedos! Full speed ahead!

Argh, am completely out of it.  I'm walking but my diet has gone to hell and I feel like I have no self-control.  Chris, how do you keep on truckin'???  Nancy

Nancy, I'll answer and then you watch, I'll let my diet totally go to heck myself. lol. Nothing like dieting to keep you humble over the long haul! I have certainly felt exactly as you do.

Whenever I've not eaten according to plan, I take triple measures to be sure I'm drinking loads of water and getting plenty of fiber. Without being indelicate, that at least makes me feel cleaned out until the scale starts responding to better habits. It also gets rid of extra water (and I go for sweets AND salty stuff so there's always plenty!)

I have been trying very hard to limit my portions when I have treats. We're going to be facing this stuff for the rest of our lives; there's no use pretending I'm never going to touch it. Portion control is difficult for me because I was raised by two wonderful people who grew up during the depression. It's really hard to 'waste food'. I need a poster or something that reminds me that eating more than I need is just as wasteful as putting it in the garbage!

Hi Chris, thanks for the message, I've added you as a friend!  If there are any of you guys on our threads who I haven't added, it's not because I'm feeling unfriendly, it's just getting down to it.  I consider our group of 40+ as comrades in arms (and I do tend to be arm-y).

You're right on the money, Chris - I'm super, SUPER constipated (you see, that's exactly the thing I wouldn't want to mention if we had men on here) and I will have fiber cereal for dinner today.  I feel simply rotten from it.  I did drink over 2 liters yesterday because I had to wash my chocolate chip cookies I made down with something.  I do good portion wise generally, but these last couple weeks I've basically gone hog-wild and cannot consume enough.  And it shows. 

The Activia yogurt stopped working for me, that used to be like automatic bathroom trip, same with green tea.  Too much info, sorry, girls!  I wish it was only us who could read this!  Oh well, I'm not proud :)  Nancy

"The cheese stands alone!"  ...and I am that cheese.  Reporting to self: self, you did good yesterday.  Instead of becoming one of the millions to buy a treadmill and let it stand idle and collect dust, you hopped on after dinner and marched around for 20 minutes (100 calories).  True enough you aren't drinking enough water, and what are we but bags of mostly water, but the tide is turning and you WILL be healthy and strong, hydrated and relaxed, exfoliated, depilated and sweet smelling.

I'll start (again) today with the "hydration" thing.  My only real hydration last week was wine and coffee.

My excuse:  we're suffering from a major drought in NC.  My motivation: it has been raining for 2 days!!

Bring on the H2O.

Kathy we brought the rain with us started raining as we came out of the mountains and rained for 3 days we were in Winston Salem, got home to Fl. and we have had rain almost every day. My inlaws are in N.C. sort of scattered around. We went gem mining, I did my mother-in-laws hair, we went to the old homestead in Denton on Jackson Hill. Was a great time dispite the rain

Ah, company!  Thought everyone jumped ship :)  Okay, water it is.  At the start of this challenge I was really knocking back the glasses of H2O, and using my treadmill faithfully.  It's hard to carry on without others slogging it out with me though.  Things got out of control and I was eating 3000+ cals p/day.  I think I need a project.  It's raining here, too, and I'm in Italy.  This area really needs it right now.

I've been a real skeptic about water but I've sure come around. My weight was bouncing all over the place (4 pounds up & down when you're looking to loose 10 is pretty confounding!) I've been drinking consistantly the last month+ and my chart has really smoothed down. The end result may be the same but it feels a lot better mentally.

I'm not doing nearly as well at getting to the gym for some real exercise.  [Feel free to throw a little motivation my way!]

I've redone my goal, just a couple of pounds less, and hope to make it by my 49th birthday on December 12th. That's about six and a half pounds in six weeks. I really think I can do it if I exercise consistantly. I'd really like to head into my 50's with a year of maintaining under my belt.

Hello!  Am nursing a liter and a half of sparkling water as I check CC threads, hope I can get back on the drinking water thing.  Teas, coffees and wines are so much more tempting and tasty.

Motivation for Chris... I think sheer vanity works, right?  And you want to look your best for your B-Day.... and beyond!  Vanity does it for me: we're supposed to go to a fancy birthday party later this month and I'd like to be looking my best so am buckling down on my calories this month.  It's superficial but if it works, I'm down with that.  Your hydrated friend, Nancy

Massive depression today - I just can't seem to break 200, I get down there (actually got to 199) and then popped back up.  I don't think I am eating badly at all, in fact, I'm getting the hang of this portion size thing.  I have gotten my diet sodas down to 1 a day and am drinking water instead.  I haven't been able to exercise much, but have been doing activities that require a lot of walking.  I am so bummed out.  I want to be thin enough to be in front of the camera, not behind it!  What am I doing wrong?!!!!

Try not to get too hung up on numbers.  I haven't been on a scale in two months, it would have freaked me out too much.  Just say "no" to the scale until you feel confident enough to get on, or it will paralyze you and your weight loss really will stall.

Portion size is good.  How are you calories, did you plug in the numbers on the CC tools?  Have you cut back accordingly?  What's your salt intake like?  Can you go hardcore macrobiotic for a week or two?  THat ought to kickstart the cleaning out of your system.

Are you wearing a pedometer to track how much you are walking?  That'll be a reliable indicator of how much you are really expending.  Is that a word?  I don't know any more.  You may not be doing anything wrong - it seems that people's numbers are in stasis then move after a few painful weeks.  Say no to processed foods!  Nancy

Anne,

I'm sorry you're feeling so frustrated. We've all been there but it doesn't make it any more fun. If you persevere I promise you will get there. Just make sure you’re being as honest as possible with your food log, keep getting enough water and fiber, and work at getting exercise. Same old, same old…  Hang in there, girl! To paraphrase Bonna: You deserve to be thin!

Chris

PS: Have a very happy birthday!

 

Hey thanks for all the support guys!  What is hardcore macrobiotic?  

Macrobiotics, from the Greek "macro" (large, long) and "bios" (life), is a dietary regimen that involves eating grains as a staple food supplemented with other local foodstuffs such as vegetables and beans. Although in macrobiotics people may opt to use Japanese ingredients (Japan being the cradle of contemporary Macrobiotics), according to the general guidelines people should use the ingredients that are found locally (e.g. mustard instead of ginger), and avoid the use of sugar and other highly processed or refined foods. Macrobiotics also addresses the manner of eating by recommending against overeating and requiring that food be chewed thoroughly before swallowing.

The above taken from Wikipedia....

[edit] Philosophy Followers of the macrobiotic approach believe that food and food quality powerfully affects health, well being, and happiness. The macrobiotic approach suggests choosing food that is less processed and more natural, and employing more traditional methods of cooking for family, friends, and oneself.

One goal of the macrobiotic philosophy and practice is to become sensitive to the true effects of foods on health and well being. In this way, one goes beyond rules and regulations concerning diet to choosing foods that sustains one's health. In this way, dietary guidelines help one to develop sensitivity and an intuitive sense for what sustains one's health and well-being in diet as well as relationships and activities.

Macrobiotics emphasizes locally grown whole grain cereals, pulses (legumes), vegetables, seaweed, fermented soy products and fruit, combined into meals according to the principle of balance (known as yin and yang). Dietary recommendations include whole grains, such as brown rice, and other whole grain products, such as buckwheat pasta (soba); a variety of cooked and raw vegetables; beans and bean products, such as tofu, tempeh and miso; sea vegetables; mild natural seasonings; fish; nuts and seeds; mild (non-stimulating) beverages, such as bancha twig tea; and fruit.

Certain types of vegetable-fruits, such as tomatoes, peppers and eggplant, are not recommended and are either avoided altogether or used very sparingly.

The above excerpts from Wikipedia give a bare bones explanation of how one eats in this manner.  It makes sense but in the end one would really have to be a bit obsessive or an ascetic to continue eating that way.  But that's how Gwynyth Paltrow stays slim for films.  Too bad it doesn't help her horrendous speaking voice any.