47 years old... am I "there" already? (Perimenopause)

[HermitGirl]

Best thing is not to overanalyze when to bike but just ...get on the bike. And start cycling. Small distances several times weekly and go abit farther each time/every few days...always exploring and enjoying yourself. If you follow the latter and have a friend join you occasionally..it will become part of you.

When you are mobile, able..and live in an area where there's no snow, there's no such thing as a better time in life to cycle.

and you won't think as much about your peri and weight.

I am 50 in peri but not experiencing much of negative symptoms... but do have to be careful what and how much I eat now.

That's sober and nice advice Star.

Well, I did search 'menopause' and there's more long threads than I care to read. I did read some, and I've noticed women panicking about their waist line broadening. Heck, I don't care where the fat is so much, I just want to be leaner all around. I'm over trying to be skinny 120 pounds like in my fittest Thirties. No, I'll settle for 135 or 140, I just can't handle being 180 anymore . The more I read, the less faith Ihave in diets in general. I still think just adding riding to my schedule may start the scale pointing in the right direction.

I also know it is human nature to think our own plight is special and obstacles are more difficult... example of that thinking in general: "I am in perimenopause, so I eat less, exercize more, and the weight stays" . Can't be. Sure, maybe after 40ish years, our bodies don't burn as much , so we have to eat less... I can deal with that. I am exercizing way more, but it's merely maintaining my already too high weight. It's a B*tch to exercize more, eat less at the same time to have a very gradual and slow weightloss. Sure, in youth, it was easier. No way this middle-age thing is for pansies. I just want to be assured that if I really do start eating less, I'm not going to tempt my metabolism into starvation and it will hold tenaciously on to every calorie. I just don't want to get into that mental or physical trap. Bun DARN IT... I want to lose some of this weight !

[ny biker]

I don't think you can be assured of anything. If you alter your diet and/or your activities, you might not lose weight. But if you don't try, then the odds of succeeding are near 0.

Perhaps you should start with a food diary to track how many calories you are eating every day. You might find some easy things to cut back on or eliminate entirely.

There are some online food journal sites. I personally don't have the urls, handy, but I've seen them referenced in other threads so someone here should be able to recommend one.

[Brandi]

I don't think you can be assured of anything. If you alter your diet and/or your activities, you might not lose weight. But if you don't try, then the odds of succeeding are near 0.

Perhaps you should start with a food diary to track how many calories you are eating every day. You might find some easy things to cut back on or eliminate entirely.

There are some online food journal sites. I personally don't have the urls, handy, but I've seen them referenced in other threads so someone here should be able to recommend one.

I have to agree. I have a friend who was a tri ath and she could not understand with all she was putting into it why she wasn't loosing wieght. Well everytime I was around her and we would be eating something she was eating the worse food. Fried this, ranch dressing that,mass butter on everything. But she was also on a # of meds for depression and sleeping problems which did not help her weight either. And now she is having terrible peri problems. I just wonder if dropping wieght would help that situation? And you don't have to diet just watch what you put in you. Cut back on starch and sugar and see if that helps. Eating more fruits and veggi dishes couldn't hurt either unless you don't like that stuff. And if you haven't talk to your Doc please do. Have you had a blood panal done? Maybe thyroid is at work here as well. Good luck. Ice packs in your pocket might help! Know someone who did that.

[jobob]

Well, I did search 'menopause' and there's more long threads than I care to read. I did read some, and I've noticed women panicking about their waist line broadening.

"Panicking" is overstating it a bit, don't you think? Annoyed, yes. Panicking, eh, notsomuch.

It's a pity you're too busy to read what's already been written. I'm too busy right now to repeat myself.

[Tuckervill]

Jobob, lol.

But, Hermitgirl...you say you don't want to diet, but if you really are hiking an hour 5 days a week, and jogging, there must be something else to do. It's either what's going out or what's going in. Now is the time to be brutally honest with yourself, and start recording what you do. We often grossly overestimate the amount of exercise we do, and grossly underestimate the amount of food we eat.

The only way to stop that is to write it all down and review it later. fitday.com, nutritiondata.com, calorieking.com, biggestloser.com, sparkpeople.com. Lots of choices. Don't get too bogged down in those websites and the "community". Just make one little change, and start logging your food and exercise. If you have an Iphone or PDA or Blackberry, get the food logging app for it.

You don't have to diet. You just have to measure and make appropriate little changes one at a time, and be consistent!

Don't blame it all on menopause until you know it's not you.

Karen

[jobob]

Don't blame it all on menopause until you know it's not you.

I love that - may I borrow it?