Getting and Staying Healthy After Fifty

You got it. I’m sitting her munching on dark chocolate chips. Hey, at least it’s dark chocolate, right?

I’m not even going to think about dieting until the first of the year. It’s just pointless. There is all that Christmas food, and I want fruitcake! I can’t find a Claxton’s fruitcake anywhere. It’s making me sad. Guess I waited too long.

I didn’t walk today, because I was up until 3 a.m. with leg and foot cramps, and finally had to take a pill to get to sleep. Just didn’t feel like going anywhere today.

I guess the first Christmas without my mom has me down. I really miss her.

I’m going to eat more dark chocolate chips now.

Other than that, the diet is off the table until after Christmas.  Not because I plan to be eating a lot, but because I lost my mother on September 23 of this year, and this Christmas is stressful enough without having to watch what I eat.

 I’m very tired lately, and haven’t been taking my vitamins regularly.  I’m going to try to remember to take them every night.  I don’t know how, but I am.  My memory isn’t what it used to be.

I have been doing more calisthenics, both with weights and the stretch bands, so I’m pretty proud of that.  I watch t.v. on the computer, so I was working out while watching.  At least that keeps it from being wasted time.  My plan is to move my computer and treadmill/exercise stuff into the other room, and have a sort of home office/workout room combo.  Right now the treadmill is in the Living Room, and the computer is in the back room.  I want them both in the smaller front bedroom, and I’m going to rent this room out.

Of course, none of this is going to happen for a few weeks, because I have to get rid of a room full of junk first.  When I say a room full, I LITERALLY mean a 9 x 9 room full of stuff.  Just stuff.  Not even very important stuff, just stuff people have left here over the years. 

It’s all going. I’m going to have so little stuff in my house that it’s going to be absolutely zen.

I didn’t stick to my diet today. Well, it’s not like I’ve been sticking strictly to it anyway, but today was a bust.  First, I didn’t sleep well last night.  I went to bed at 11, got back up at 2:00 after tossing and turning for hours.  I actually got an article written for Bright Hub while I was awake, which was good, I guess. 

I had to get up at 8:15, because I had to go walk with my neighbor.  No fast walking today, I was too tired.  I did do a little raking, but not enough to even call it exercise.  

I don’t remember what all I ate today, but I know not much of it was diet worthy, except maybe the homemade guacamole and homemade tortilla chips, unsalted, friend in canola oil.  I had a couple of pieces of fruit, but no protein.  Oh well, tomorrow’s another day. 

I went walking with my friend this morning, and about halfway in, I told her I was going to “lap her” and I took off walking really fast. It didn’t work, I didn’t lap her. Either she walks faster than I thought, or I walk slower. Anyway, I walked about a two of the two and a half miles really fast, then just petered out and trudged back to her house at a normal pace.

We decided that I should walk a fast lap before I come to her house, then come get her, and we’ll walk her pace as a cool down. The problem with that is that she wants to sit and have coffee, so I won’t actually be maintaining any sort of pace. I hate to say it, but I think I need to not walk with her anymore at all. It’s nice having someone to chat with, but seriously, it’s not doing me any good.

I need to do the 2-1/2 miles really fast, with a shorter warm up and cool down. I don’t want to hurt her feelings, but this just isn’t working for me, and I really don’t have time for two walks, one fast, and one slow.

What should I do? I’m committed to doing this walking, but I need to do it where it helps me, not hurts me or just keeps me where I am.

I’m going grocery shopping tomorrow, and I’ll be looking for more high protein foods to munch on with my fruits and veggies. I’ve added more protein the last couple of days, and good fats. Now if I can just start drinking more water, but I hate water plain! I have been trying to drink more herbal teas without sugar. I want to find the stevia I had somewhere around here, and use that instead of sugar.

I also walked more yesterday, because I knew I wouldn’t today, since I had to sit and wait for UPS to bring the computer. Tomorrow, I’ll double my walk. I walk with my neighbor, who is 71 and sort of slow, so I’ll walk to the corner with her, then take off faster, go around the block and catch back up with her for a cool down. That will be 2.5 miles. That should be a good walk, and if I feel like it isn’t later, I can just jump on the treadmill.

I have started doing a few calisthenics. Nothing big, just some leg lifts, and some arm work with weights. But hey, anything is better than nothing, right?

I have now gained back every pound I lost on my 10 day fast.  I have joined the thousands of “yo-yo” dieters everywhere who lose the same 10 lbs. over and over.

I got a Christmas card today from a friend who came down to visit two years ago.  In it were two pictures, one of each of us on our trip to Selby Gardens.  I was totally shocked when I saw the one of myself.  

I put that picture up on my mirror in the bathroom, where I have to look at it every morning. I’m having a copy made and putting it on the refrigerator.  I’m so ashamed of how I look.  I looked like a butterball turkey with two strings sticking out of the bottom (my skinny legs).  

If it absolutely KILLS me, I AM going to lose these 25 lbs. before I got to visit my sons in March! That’s about 2 lbs. a week, and I CAN and WILL do it!

Wish me luck.

I need structure if I’m going to make this weight loss/get in shape thing work. So this will be the regimen from now on:

Morning:
1 cup of coffee
Morning walk (1.3 mi.) with neighbor, which is more of a stroll for me, but better than nothing I guess.
Come home, drink a 12 oz. glass of mixed veggie and fruit juice and walk on treadmill for 30 minutes fast enough to actually burn some calories
Drink one 8 oz. glass of water

After that, I will alternate one 8 oz. glass of juice with one 8 oz. glass of water every hour. Every two hours, I will have one fruit or veggie, such as an apple or a couple of celery sticks.

At dinner time, I will eat a nice salad and drink another 8 oz. glass of juice.   I won’t eat or drink anything after 7:30 p.m.  It will probably be 7 p.m., but I’m giving myself an extra half hour just in case I get tied up and have to eat late.

I feel like if I have this structure, it will become habit.  After a month, I’ll add a small midday meal.  I’ll stick with this for 6 months and see how I do. 

It’s bad enough when you suffer from depression anyway, but what is the simple act of trying to lose weight makes you even more depressed? Can doing something that is good for you bring you down? I’m here to tell you, yes it can.

My friends wanted me to go to the local Chinese buffet with them tonight. They were going to pay. I love that buffet. It has all-you-can-eat crablegs, boiled, fried, and coconut shrimp. For a seafood lover like me, it’s pure heaven! I don’t even eat veggies, I just eat the seafood.

I couldn’t go, because I’m on this stupid diet. They promised to take me when I got off of it, but that’s not the point. The point is, I’ve had a horrendous day and I want to go eat seafood! If I do, I literally will have to drink water for three days to make up for it. That’s how much I eat when I go to this buffet. Add to that that seafood is loaded with cholesterol…well, you get my point.

This is depressing. VERY depressing. I’ve only been dieting for a couple of weeks, and I’m already getting sick to death of it. There has to be a better way to lose weight. I know, more exercise. That just isn’t going to happen.

Maybe I should just consign myself to being fat, like my mother finally did. She wasn’t so unhappy. Yeah, maybe that’s the answer.

O.K., so I was supposed to already have started this, but I didn’t.  I needed to get to the supermarket, and since I don’t have a car, and I’m pretty much dependent on my neighbor to get me there, I had to wait.

I went yesterday and bought juice, fruits and veggies.  I have a 5 lb. bag of carrots, celery and some beets, so I’ll  be juicing those and mixing with the fruit juices to drink during the day.  For dinner, I’ll have a nice salad with balsamic vinaigrette dressing.  

I know bottled juice isn’t that good, but I couldn’t afford enough fruits to juice properly, nor could I afford organic juices.  I bought Juicy Juice, which is, I hear, the best of the processed juices.  Anyway, that’s what I have, and that’s what I’m using.

Hopefully, this will keep me healthier than the other fast, while still helping me lose weight.  I need to get my vitamins daily, especially potassium, so I don’t have symptoms, and the lemonade dieting just wasn’t giving them to me.

I’ll be doing a lot of walking today, because I have to go pay a bill, and the bus stop is a mile away.  I’ll get at least two miles in, maybe more, depending on where the bus stops.

More tomorrow on this ongoing struggle to lose weight after fifty.   

I won’t even finish that sentence. This is a rant, because I feel like I was screwed.

I suffered for 12 of the 14 days I was trying to get through the master cleanse, and I can’t see any results other than losing 5 lbs. I’m already starting to gain back. I don’t feel healthier, have more energy, or any of the other stuff they claim. I wish I had never done it.

Plus, my bowels are now so messed up, I can’t even have a BM! I’m glad I didn’t take the laxative every day, or they’d be worse. 

I feel like I wasted two weeks on something totally worthless, when Icould have been doing the juice/raw food diet, been healthier, and lost more weight.

Of course you’ll lose weight if you don’t eat, but let me tell you the downside.  No matter how dedicated you are, when you start eating solid food again, you WILL have all the same cravings that you had before.

Today, I went to buy carrots for my juice fast, and guess what?  I bought candy. I still have the same sugar cravings, and if possible, they are worse than before.

So don’t torture yourself on the Master Cleanse. It’s not going to do you any good for losing weight, and may actually be bad for you.

I’ll never do it again, that’s for sure!  And now I’m stuck with four jars of molasses. Guess I’ll be drinking molasses in my coffee for awhile. Yep, I’m drinking coffee, and loving every single cup. 

Am I still going to try to lose weight? Yes, but with something that won’t almost kill me, and will actually work. I’m doing juicing and raw food for the next six months.  I’ll actually be healthier and thinner without putting my body through what I had to put it through with this. 

I know some of you people who are addicted to this MC thing will say “Well, you cheated, and you didn’t follow it exactly, blah, blah, blah.”  I don’t care what you say, this thing is just something to take advantage of desperate people like myself.  I knew when I had the horrendous leg cramps that this thing wasn’t giving me the right nutrition, like it claims.

No more. No fads, no starvation, just food that is actually healthy for me and lots of exercise.   I’ll lose the weight I want to, but when I do, my system will not be this screwed up.

Wonder how long it will be before it gets straightened out?