A-Weigh We Go!

I realize I am beginning to sound very "fifty-ish" in my recent blog posts. I can't help it! My concerns during recent months have been mostly about finances, sleepless nights and weight gain!

I'm happy to report some progress in regard to my weight! I found a website that has so un-complicated things, I can't believe how easily I've begun to lose weight. I started the diet (although I can't even honestly call it a diet)less than a week ago and my shorts are already beginning to feel loose.

The website is http://www.caloriecount.about.com

It's approach is exactly as the name implies. I joined for FREE, then set up my profile with information like how much weight I want to lose (20 lbs) and when I want it all to be gone.

Each day I keep a log of what I've had to eat and enter it onto the site. Voila'! It calculates how many calories, and other nutritional information my food intake contains. Also, based on my answers to some questions it prompted me to answer, it tells me how many calories I am taking in versus how many calories I am burning each day.

But wait! There's more!

There's also a place to log activities, not just exercise but every day household activities like putting away laundry and even bathing, and calculates how many calories I've burned.

After all this time I've been fretting over trying to drop a few pounds, attempting to exercise, cut back on sweets, etc. Who would've thought success could be so simple as watching my calories every day.

Did I mention I've not been hungry even once since I started? Well, I haven't! That's the beauty of it. Because I'm conscious of my calorie intake, I keep track of it all day long and pace myself accordingly. So far I am averaging less than 1400 calories a day. YAY!

Oh yeah! I'm pumped! I may be back in one of those cute little bathing suits by my birthday after all.

I guess I should also mention that the site did burst my bubble a little by telling me I couldn't possibly lose 20lbs by August 13th. It suggested that mid September might be a more realistic goal. Oh well. We'll see how that goes. Even if I've only lost 10 lbs by my birthday I'll be ecstatic.

So here I go! Success at last. I'm losing weight the old fashioned way and I like it!

Becky J. Taylor
July 16, 2010

http://www.beckyjtaylor.com

Tunic Tops and Tummy Troubles

I had my yearly checkup at the GYN yesterday.

Yes ladies, I can sense your sympathies oozing through cyberspace!

The good news is, I came home with a clean bill of health (gynecologically speaking.)

The bad news is, the doctor informed me there is no "magic pill" available to reverse these mid-life weight gaining issues.

I told him I'd packed on about fifteen pounds since last summer and he nodded,then confirmed that fifteen pounds was about what would be expected. He said the average reported weight gain for my "age" is around one-two lbs per month!

And there's very little I can do about it.

Grrrr!

OK, so there is actually something I can do. I can eat less AND increase my exercise.

Excuse me? I don't eat much as it is. Typically, I lose weight in the summer because I often "forget" to eat and I am generally more active.

Yet, this summer has been the exception to the rule. I've done all the above, in addition to placing more emphasis on diet and I continue to gain.

I asked the doc if the "gaining one-two pounds a month" would go on for the rest of my life, and he assured me it should "plateau" at some point. So, depending on when/if it plateaus, I could weigh fifteen more pounds by next summer!

I just don't want to think about it. This was suppose to be my summer of liberation...the year I turn fifty, not the year I gain fifty!

Mother Nature is a cruel prankster for sure. Just about the time I was getting comfortable in my own skin and not worrying about my figure being less than super-model perfect, she throws me this curve ball. I am now filling out the aforementioned skin, stretching it to it's limits like never before.

Who knew midlife would be such a challenge?

Who ever suspected it would strike such a blow to my ego?

Certainly not this die-hard optimist!

I suppose I'll adjust ... eventually. I realize a little weight gain is nothing compared to the more serious issues I could be facing right now. I am healthy and for that I am very thankful!

My celebration of Summer 2010 shall continue despite the ever increasing size of my mid-section. Thank goodness empire waistlines and tunic tops are in this year! Happy 50th Birthday to me!

Becky Taylor
June 25, 2010
Bold New Day! LLC
Personal Development Coaching for Women
http://www.boldnewday.com
http://www.beckyjtaylor.com

Grandma Buys A Bathing Suit .. (The Sequel)

After buying the new bathing suit with more "coverage" a few weeks ago and discovering I felt pretty much miserable (and old) in it, I bit the bullet and went bathing suit shopping again last Thursday.

I was feeling a bit brave when I dug out my old favorite two piece and tried it on last week. You know what? It really doesn't look that bad. I officially brought it out of retirement and started wearing it to the pool.

Feeling secure in my old two piece once again, I returned to the store on Friday and bought not one, but three new two piece suits. The first one, a bit more revealing than my old favorite, and the other two a lot more revealing than any I've worn in recent history.

Do I look like a nineteen year old in any of the suits? Of course not!

Do I really care? Nope!

I don't go to the pool to compete with anyone, neither am I trying to attract the attention of any members of the opposite sex. I don't crave positive re-enforcement or wolf whistles (except from my husband, of course) I just want to be comfortable and cool. It's that simple.

I feel good about my decision. Better yet, I feel downright liberated!

I will wear my new bathing suits with my head held high. Anyone who doesn't like it ... feel free to look the other way!


Becky J. Taylor
June 21, 2010

http://www.boldnewday.com

http://www.beckyjtaylor.com

Grandma Buys a Bathing Suit

I've outgrown my old bathing suits.

Since we've lived near the lake I've acquired several. My most recent favorite has been a cute little two piece (no, I'm not talking "bikini") that shows not too much and not too little. I've worn it when Walt and I were out on the lake alone, or when we've been on vacation.

I have another suit I like a lot as well. It's also a two piece, but the bottom is made like a pair of shorts with a little skirt over it. It isn't made out of that awful stretchy material a lot of skirted bottoms have. It's more like the regular stuff you'd expect shorts to be made of.

The top covers all the way down to the waistband of the shorts, so this suit provides more coverage than the first one. I wore it when I was planning to be more active, like when the grand kids were with us, or I thought I might be riding on the tube behind the boat. It's the one I wore when we went white water rafting too, so obviously I've felt fairly secure in it.

The rest of my swimsuits are pretty much mix and match. I bought one that has the regular "granny" style skirt on it. I don't care much for that one and have used it mostly only as a spare.

I own another two piece suit but I've only worn the top with the bottoms of the second suit I mentioned. It wasn't ideal, but it worked.

I tried my favorite suit on late last summer and realized it wasn't fitting quite like it use to. I knew I'd picked up a few pounds, but didn't think it was enough to make a difference in the way my clothes looked on me.

I was wrong. The cute little two piece "vacation" suit went back in the drawer and I pulled out suit number two. It still fit (pretty much). Thank God!

Earlier this spring, I tried my second favorite suit on again and noticed the bottoms were difficult to zip. I managed to get into it, but I didn't feel nearly as comfortable as I'd felt in the past. That's when I had to admit I was going to have to buy a new suit.

I suppose all women come to a similar moment of realization somewhere around the age of fifty. Even when we can get into the same size clothing as before, it fits differently. Suddenly all our flesh (and flab) moves to a new location on our bodies and apparently there isn't a darn thing we can do about it!

Except buy a new bathing suit.

I looked at bathing suits online last night just to get a feel for what was out there. I searched for suits that would slim the areas that need slimming and enhance the areas I'd like to enhance. It turns out they do make those suits, but not in my price range!

I had to compromise.

I settled on one I found on a nationwide department store website and went in search of it at the local store this morning. It's very similar to my second favorite suit, except the bottoms have regular bathing suit pants under the skirt instead of shorts.

And it covers a lot more.

Oh, and it's made out of that horrible stretchy material I associate with the "granny" skirts. Grr!

The one I bought wasn't the only one I tried on while I was there. I tried to find one I thought I'd like better.

That didn't happen. I noticed that every one I tried on seemed to cover more and more of my body. I came to the very sad realization that unless things turn around for me real soon, I'll be looking for a suit fashioned after those worn by women in the 1800's. (Remember the ones with the sleeves and knee length bloomers?)

I settled on the suit I'd found online. Obviously I'm not exactly in love with it but it will have to do for now.

It's a very "safe" suit. I won't have to worry about playing with the grand kids, riding the tube behind the boat, or white water rafting in it.

For that matter I probably won't feel out of place if I need to wear it while grocery shopping or going to a doctor's appointment. I've seen plenty of women out in public wearing a lot less and thought nothing of it!

Well, maybe not fifty year old women, but you know what I mean.

I suppose you might say I am at an awkward stage of life. It's the stage between trying to camouflage the tricks Mother Nature is playing with my body, and that where I truly just don't care what other people think anymore.

In the meantime it's just what I said ... awkward. In some ways I don't want to move on to the "I truly don't care" stage, while in others I wish I'd just hurry up and stop giving a darn!

Not giving a darn would make it much easier for me when I show up at the neighborhood pool in my 1800'style suit complete with sleeves and bloomers!

Until I make the transition, here's a picture of me taken in my previously favorite swim suit. Walt and I were on vacation year before last. I was waving to him from the beach in Bucerias, Mexico.

Or so I thought.

How was I to know I was actually waving good-bye to the days when I could wear a suit like that and get by with it?

Bye-bye cute little two piece suit. I hate to see you go ...



June 1, 2010
Becky J. Taylor
Bold New Day! LLC
Personal Development Coaching for Women
http://www.boldnewday.com

http://www.beckyjtaylor.com

Liar! Liar!

... well, my pants are definitely not on fire!

When I went to the Emergency Room last week, they did not weigh me. Instead, they asked me how much I weighed.

And I told them the truth.

It happened again this morning. I was asked the same question at my follow up appointment with the spinal specialist.

Just like last week in the E.R., I did not lie.

I should also mention that when I got my drivers license renewed I reported my actual weight to them too.

(Do we not pay these people enough money to buy their own scales, or what?)

I realize I've done myself a great injustice here, especially having learned from my medical background that people almost always fudge the numbers on these sorts of things. I've not done any intensive research, but my guess would be that most report their weight to be at least ten pounds less than it really is.

Now,thanks to my "zero tolerance" honesty policy, the people at the hospital, the spinal specialist, and the license bureau all probably assume I weigh ten pounds more than I actually do.

What was I thinking?

As far as the Emergency Room is concerned, I was practically delirious with pain there so that's a fair explanation for spewing out an accurate number. On the other hand, I have absolutely no excuse for being so truthful with the license bureau and the doctor's office.

My regular doctor either makes more money, or is wiser than the others. He has a scale of his own so he doesn't rely on his patients to tell him how much they weigh. (He probably figured out that most people are liars long ago.)

It makes me feel slightly better to remember that the last time I weighed this much (as indicated by my regular doctor's scales)I was immediately told that I definitely didn't look "that heavy".

(I'm fairly certain the medical assistant who made that comment meant it as a compliment.)

A few moments later, I mentioned my weight to my doctor (since he didn't bring it up) and he assured me I was "fine".

Maybe that's why I felt so secure in reporting my real weight to all those other people.

I'm fine. My weight is fine. (Someone should write a book with that title!)

Obviously I was not totally traumatized by the experience. After all that, I still had a chili cheese dog for dinner this evening.

But one thing's for certain, no matter if I gain even more weight before I see the scale-free medical people again, I'm giving them the same number I gave them last time.

And if I manage to lose a few pounds, I am going to tell them I weigh ten less pounds than the actual number really is. I owe it to myself for being so honest with them all these years!

Becky Taylor
Bold New Day! LLC
Personal Development Coaching for Women
http://www.beckyjtaylor.com
http://www.boldnewday.com

Weighting Around ..

I've never had a real weight problem. Through no fault of my own, I inherited my Dad's metabolism which, for the first 40 some years of my life, made it relatively easy to stay thin.

What a cruel trick of Mother Nature to suddenly turn the tables on me (no pun intended)! Dad is ninety years old and still eats anything he wants, most of which is covered in enough sugar to throw a normal person into an instant diabetic crisis. Never-the-less, he's still rail thin and no doubt always will be.

I remember when I use to be rail thin. Throughout my childhood, teen years and twenties I couldn't gain weight if I tried (and I actually did try) Then, when I was in my thirties I gained up to what would have been considered a more "healthy" weight. During my early forties I reached the middle to upper limits of what the medical charts called normal for a woman my age and height.

With the exception of a brief period of time during my Mother's illness when I gained up to my heaviest ever weight, the scales have been generally kind to me. Even then I found it nothing to be alarmed about! I simply cut back on the sugar in my diet and dropped the extra pounds in no time at all.

Now that I am pushing fifty (and within about four pounds of my previously recorded heaviest non-pregnant weight ever ... eeeeek!) I'm finding that nothing ... nothing I try results in the loss of any of these extra pounds.

To the contrary! It almost seems that the more I try to lose it, the more I gain!

What the heck is up with that?

I've never been more health conscious in my life. I've never put more effort into watching what I eat, taking supplements, and exercising.

Not only does it look like I won't be reaching my goal of being in the best shape ever by the time I hit fifty ... the opposite appears to be a real threat. Instead of buying a new bikini to wear to the beach on my birthday, I'll be shopping for a MuMu.

(I really wish I was kidding about that!)

I just don't know if it's worth it anymore. Seriously! If I'm going to gain weight regardless of what I do, why not enjoy it? Why not indulge myself in all those desserts I normally say "no, thanks!" to?

The way I see it, if saying "No" has only been a catalyst to gaining, then maybe ... just maybe saying "YES!" will cause me to LOSE weight.

OK, so maybe it's a bit of a stretch to find the logic in that manner of thinking but at this point I'm ready to test my theory.

What's the worst that can happen ... I'll gain weight? Oh! Wait! I'm already doing that!

I'm going to stop restricting myself and start enjoying food again. If by some odd twist of events, my theory is correct I will actually lose weight by eating more. If the theory proves to be wrong, that's fine too. Either way I intend to celebrate my findings with a nice big piece of hot fudge cake.

Becky J.Taylor
http://www.boldnewday.com

HeavyWeight

So far my quest to be in my best shape ever by my 50th birthday leaves something to be desired. Not only have I not been to the gym since before Christmas, I've also managed to gain a few more pounds from enjoying too much holiday fun and fellowship.

I'm blaming it on the hormones. You, know ... those mid-life hormones everyone makes such a fuss about? I use to think they didn't really exist. How bad could it be, really? Well, now I know! The arrival of the holidays combined with a drastically intensified craving for sweets made this a particularly dangerous season for me. For a solid month, I gobbled down candy and cookies like there was no tomorrow, promising myself that each indulgence would be my last.

Famous last words, huh?

Once the New Year began I resumed some control. I cut out all candy and cookies (but not sugar altogether) As a result, I've lost two of the four pounds I picked up during all the festivities. That leaves me with the original ten pounds I put on over the summer, plus another four or five I'd like to get rid of while I'm at it.

The process has been delayed a little thanks to unforeseen circumstances. One of our friends passed away on January 2, then we had company here from Africa to attend the funeral. After that, Walt and I both got sick with some kind of virus. Obviously not the kind of virus that causes any weight loss, but the kind that makes a person want to lay around and eat comfort food.

Ugh!

It's time to get crackin' again! I am going to go back to the gym today (really, I am!) I don't feel like doing a bunch of jumping around, so Zumba class is out, but I will at least get on the treadmill for thirty minutes and see if I can't jump start my metabolism. After that, I'll resume my "at home" workout with crunches and all that other fun stuff that makes me want to scream.

I had another interesting routine doctor's visit last week as well. We went through the same old song and dance about my low iron levels so I'm back on iron supplements again. After the visit, I came home and researched the causes of low iron (for the four hundredth time in my life) and discovered it's common for people with hypothyroidism to have low ferritin levels, which lead to anemia.

Why didn't my doctor know that?

I was also intrigued by some information I found concerning low body temperature. (Remember, I was complaining before about always being cold?) There's something called "Wilson's Temperature Syndrome" which is oddly enough associated with hypothyroidism. Although the Synthroid I've been taking seems to fix the low thyroid problem, I learned it can actually cause misleading blood test results. I ordered some supplements from a holistic health website. It's my hope that they will work at least a minor miracle and I'll feel better overall.

Oh! And drop some more weight, of course.

Seven months from today, I will turn 50. Wow! What a sobering thought. I've only got seven months left in which to complete my transformation. That means this Grandma needs to get off the couch and start moving again!

Becky Taylor
http://www.boldnewday.com

January 13, 2010