How do women over 60 get in shape?

[Shelley]

Hi all!  I am starting this thread to help all the ladies from our old forum get started up again over here in the new place.  Hope you all find this thread.  Getting in shape after 60 has its own challenges especially when you have lost muscle, have slowed metabolism and hormone changes.  How are you getting and staying fit?  What s working for you?  

[Linda]

Yay" Found it...took me awhile, but I found it 😊

[Linda]

Good grief, it posted twice. I'll figure it out eventually!

[Chamois]

Susan Linda you made it over horray...I am hosting a Christmas gathering this afternoon  Hopefully all my apt cleaning will add up to steps..

Glad to see most of us finding the new site

[RedHedd]

I hit a wall and had a wake-up call a few years ago when I was overweight and my hips were starting to give out. The dreaded words "hip replacement" were mentioned, but before we went that route, my doc ordered physical therapy.  That was my wake-up call.  Realizing I could change the pain and my body by moving more again, I got motivated. Got an iPhone, downloaded the LoseIt app and proceeded to get back in shape and lose 23 lbs.  I've kept the weight off following the LoseIt maintenance plan and a pedometer app on my phone, and then I started seeing the ads for FitBit.  Walgreen's had a sale on Black Friday and now I'm loving FitBit too as it's syncing to my LoseIt app and I feel like I'm more on track.

I was entering my steps and exercise manually. Perhaps I was over-entering my exercise.  I don't feel FitBit really tracks me when I'm lifting weights, but it's showing something; just not as many calories burned as LoseIt allowed me with manual entry of work-out time and exercises, BUT I feel more on track as my weight had slowly been edging up - you know how that goes, especially during the holidays!

I feel like maybe I won't be fighting back at five extra lbs. post holiday this year.  Glad to see there are other over-60's tracking here.  I'm Georgia, from San Francisco.  Great to meet y'all!

[Carol]

RedHedd, Welcome to our little group.  You are already ahead of many of us with your 23 lb loss.  Good for you.  As for tracking weight lifting, don't count on Fitbit.  You need to actually move enough to jolt the little critter into thinking you are exercising.  It also won't count the stair climbers and the bike isn't accurate for calories because it's much easier than walking that many steps.

My daughter got me my fitbit for my birthday and I've only been tracking since Sept 22.  I've been watching my weight for a while longer and was losing a pound a week until the past two weeks when I regained a pound a week.  I am hoping it was just fluid and that it will come back off.  I have been eating much less and exercising when I used to sit in a chair most of the day.  My weekends really thow me off, though, because I don't go to the gym  then.  Also I've been to a craft show last weekend and am going to another this weekend and at those, I also just sit.

I think if we can keep each other motivated enough to not gain  over the holidays, we will be go to go in the new year.  I am looking forward to that.

[kflannery]

It won't be easy but we all took the first step getting here...so we can support each other and appreciate the hard work it takes to lose those pounds....I applaude each of you for moving when you don't want to and monitoring your food.....lord knows it isn't easy..good luck to all of you.....

[RedHedd]

Ah weekends are when I seem to track MANY more steps as it's when I run errands and go grocery shopping - mainly by walking to the local stores - I have TJ's up two blocks one way and Whole Foods up two blocks another way - with my favorite produce store just across the street from my apartment.  This is in San Francisco; we have HILLS!  When I go to the shopping centers, I park my car and walk to all the stores so that adds up too.  I had an extremely busy Saturday last week and ended up walking well over 15,000 steps.

It also helps that I work in a three-story office building with only one elevator so we take the stairs everywhere and I'm up and down all day long. Never used to think it amounted to much, but now my FitBit tells me otherwise.  I've discovered even somewhat mindless housework can rack up the step-points, so I just keep busy!

[SunsetRunner]

Hi Shelley and All, I found you! I have had three very active days, but no matter what I do or how active I am my weight will not budge . I have even gained! 

Very busy time for me right now (and all of you as well, I am sure!) but I will try to check in regularly, I ned to be accountable! Thank you all for your support.

[Shelley]

Just found out some of our friends have been having trouble finding us over here because they appear to have been going over to the Groups section.  Remember I did set up a group over there but then Allison suggested we try it over here.  So having that group over there and this over here has made it confusing.  On top of that, when they launched the new Community site, it made it where no one could post to the Groups as well as the old forums.  But that was a bug in the Groups section.  They only meant for the Forums to be read-only.  Today Allison said they fixed the bug and everyone can post to the groups section now.  I went over there and it does appear to have the reply button now.  There are some good points to being here and some good points to being over there.  Here we have cool stuff like emoticons ability to use different colors and fonts, underline and make bold. You can private message each other and post pictures (like the Artichoke plant I grew!)

It is easy to check out other discussions.  Seems like new people can find us over here too.  Not sure how easy it will be for anyone new to find us over there.  But they did add a search feature so if someone is looking for Women Over 60 at least they can find it.  Over there, it is an actual group instead of a discussion and it shows all the members, and it shows a leader board.  When you post, it is in the old format like the forum looked so we are all familiar with that.  The Group site is still set up and it is called Women Over 60.  If you want to go look at it and compare it to this, maybe we can decide together which one is the best fit for us.  What do you all think?

[Chamois]

Hi all had a little christmas and really blew it ate too much. Do not feel very well ..once you start eating better you feel awful when you eat poorly. ewe stomach just not ok. hope i feel better tomorrow. only got in 4k steps and workedhard todayl

[Carol]

I cannot find the Groups.  And Marilyn has said she can't find this even though I told her how I got here.   I followed the e-mail from Allison to get to this.  It seemed like we had to sign up again.  Or was this just something that I did that turns out to be a scam?  I am totally confused.

[Linda]

Hello everyone and welcome to all the new people 😊 (I love emoticons as you will all see, lol). Thank you Shelley for getting us all back together.

I'm pretty much going crazy this week, a gazillion things to do getting ready for the big day and we are also hosting a breakfast party for 30-50 people on Saturday. We never know how many will be here so it's always fun guessing and a bit of a challenge preparing food, lol. I think this is the 20th year we've done it (alright already, how many more years?).

It's not been possible to get our normal walks in this week but between the bike, quick walks, shopping and zooming around the house (and watching the food intake) I think it'll be okay. As I mentioned before I gave myself a pass on achieving 10k steps every day this week as I had just too much to do to focus on it. I decided to do the best I could and call it good. Surprisingly tho I've been pretty darn close or actually hitting my goal!

As far as keeping motivated, I think the Fitbit has a lot to do with it. I think I'm addicted to the little thing. I really enjoy seeing the steps adding up and logging my food. It's been fun finding that I'm quite satisfied with what I'm eating and it's always under my calorie allocation. I also thoroughly enjoy the ladies here and the group has helped me stay motivated too. There has been so much support and encouragement from everyone, just reading their stories and suggestions helps immensely. It's always nice to know we aren't alone in this journey toward weight loss and better health.

That's enough from me... You all have a great evening!

[Linda]

Just saw your post Chamois and you're right! I notice a difference now too when I stray from healthy choices (doesn't mean I don't still do it tho, lol). Hope you feel better too!

[Shelley]

Carol, I found the groups under the Community drop down menu.  This part of the community we are on is called "Discussions" and the Groups is called "Activity Groups" and it is right under Discussions on the menu.  Once you click on the Activity Groups and get over there, I think you should be able to find the Women Over 60 group by using the search feature.  Let me know if that doesn't get you there.

I think Marilyn was in the Activity Groups section.  I sent her info on how to get over here too.  Hope she finds us.  I also posted something in the Groups section on how to get over here in case anyone else ends up over there looking for us.

I haven't been getting my usual steps and I am coming down with another cold despite taking stuff to boost my immunity.  I have to admit that the 30 degree weather has been off-putting.  I was walking for an hour in the mornings but when it started being in the 30's in the a.m. and I knew that it was going to be warmer later, I started trying to fit a walk in during a break from work.  Hasn't worked out well.  Only got 30 minutes yesterday, and 20 today.  I should do the dancing around the house thing that has worked so well before but just haven't been up for that this week.  Feeling tired in the evenings after work.  Tomorrow I am off work and hope to get some more steps in.  I am enjoying reading everyone's posts.  Good to see you all here new folks and returning folks!  

BTW, If you are interested in green smoothies and juicing, this is a good little article.  http://www.drfuhrman.com/library/better_for_health.aspx

[zapleahy]

Welcome! Good to see everyone is finding their way over here and enjoying the new functionality. Images, smileys, hyperlinks make it so much easy to express ourselves, which is one of the reasons I thought you might like to replicate your community here. It will offer you a similar experience to the original forums with the single thread, but you can branch out into other conversations as well.

There are advantages to having your own Group as well. One of the major pluses is being able to easily compare stepcount with the leaderboards. You may want to take advantage of both spaces, or at least try each until you decide which suits you best, as Shelley suggested. 

I know moving sites is a bit of a disruption and I want to thank you all for your positive approach. There's a lot to gain from the upgrade, and if you stick with it I think you'll really like it (I hope you do!). There is a powerful new search feature for both Groups and the community forums, so it should be a whole lot easier to find each other and whatever else you're looking for. 

@Carol It's true that you do need to create a new unique display name to use the new community. We've built these forums using new technology and it requires everyone to have a different username. Your account is still linked to your Fitbit account so when you sign out of the community you will be signed out of the community. After your first login it should be pretty simple.

The Community and Groups are now both accessible from the dropdown labeled Community. You can access the social side of the community by clicking "Discussions" in the dropdown. You can access the main Groups page by clicking "Activity Groups". The bug with Groups being read-only has been resolved, so you can post and reply again now. (Thanks, @Shelley  , I see you 've just explained this. PS, I love green juices and smoothies--one a day! Thanks for sharing the article.) 

Make youselves at home here, and if you need any help navigating the new site, just ask. It's the same folks populating these forums, and we're all very friendly. You may also reach out to me or another forum moderator (you can spot us by the "Mod" badge) directly.

[Shelley]

Thank you Allison for your continued support as we transition!

[tallson]

Colin,  I am learning how to use my fitbit and trying to incorporate its use with my daily YMCA workouts. I find many more women working out during the day at the Y and suspect my fellow fitbit users are probably largely female.  We as peolple have more in common than different and can learn much from each other. 

[Shelley]

Hi Tallson!  With the comments from you and Colin, I am sensing we need to have a new inclusive thread for men and women over 60.  Would you all help kick it off?  What should we call it?  I agree that we have much to learn from everone and this may be one of the great new things that organically is emerging from the chaos of the move over here.  Anyone else interested in an over 60 fitbitters thread getting started?  I think if it is out there, people will see it and come "Build it and they will come."  Since these are discussion threads, we are free to move around and chat with each other.  We don't have to shut down the discussion on women getting in shape but we can have a place that is clearly more likely to attract men and women both.  What do people think?

[Walkergirl052]

Still feeling lost! Pam

[Walkergirl052]

Why does it say women over60 over my name and how do I change it?