There is hope for the older chick!

H

honeybunch

Guest
I just wanted to brag and at the same time offer encouragement to anyone older out there who thinks they cannot change they way they look, or how their clothes fit. At the same time, offer a lesson that your perception of yourself and how you look is not always accurate.

As I've been saying, for the past few months I've been focusing REALLY hard on working my legs with weights, primarily to get rid of all the jiggle, and have found myself getting more compact and too small for some of my britches (size 6). I tried on some shorts and threw the too-big ones in a pile for my daughter-in-law to try on when she came over yesterday, and when she came over I looked at her, I thought, "I dunno....," 'cause she looked smaller than me.

Anyway, she tried on the shorts and they fit her! What a kick! At age (nearly) 52 I weigh what I did when I got married (the first time) in 1970, and wear britches smaller then my 29 yr. old daughter-in-law.

The moral of the story is: Don't give up, it can be done! You CAN outsmart the female fat cell, and whip your trouble spots into shape.

Now I have to steel myself to go to the basement and do Circuit Max with extra leg work, and crawl back on the good habit eating wagon after my picnic yesterday. Lots of junk food, and I really went for it.

"Go out there and make it a good day!" "Just do it," and all that other go-get 'em stuff.
 
Thank you HB for your inspiration. I will be fffifty in Oct. and
People are always saying wait until you get older !!! Well, I always read your posts because they are positive and sometimes really funny. I am not as strong as you but I am striving very hard to be better at that aformentioned age than before. Anyway, please keep us posted with your progress.
 
I want to be just like honeybunch when I grow up. Actually, I think I'm going to try to be just like her now and go do PowerHour.
 
Way to go Honeybunch (love love that name).

I am 52 years old and wear a size 2 or 4. When I was married for the first time I was 23 and wore a size 9. The difference between then and now? Back then I would go on crash diets, lose some weight for awhile and then gain it back with interest. Exercise never entered the picture.

Now I weight train and step bench mostly with Cathe (having discovered her in May of this year and my other tapes are now under a pile of dust).

I have no jiggle anywhere, well developed legs and muscular arms, shoulders and back. My goal is to get some more definition but even if I cannot I am satisfied at where I am. I work in a casino with 3,000 co-workers and I am in better shape than most and that includes the twenty and thirty somethings. I can tell that is true when we all go up the stairs together and I am the only one not gasping.

So my point is that no one should just assume that at age 50 one starts to fall apart. Not true. We just have to work harder at it. I have lost 20 pounds since starting Cathe's tapes and it took me longer to do than it would have 20 years ago but the end results are the same.
 
Remember the old Virginia Slims slogan, "You've come a long way baby"? Also remember what we DIDN'T have when we were younger....no Cathe tapes, no books or magazines, no equipment, just Jack LaLanne on TV; Weight Watchers was just starting, and on and on. It was TOUGH because we had no clue how to do it right. Ken Cooper coined the phrase "aerobic exercise" in the 70's, I believe, and then it was all about running.

But, now we have no excuses because we have all this stuff. There's no reason not to be in shape. I'll bet you have a lot of jealous friends because they want to look like you do, but they don't want to do the work! Eat right and exercise, no fancy stuff.
 
My favorite reply to how I stay in shape is "I inject the blood of virgin reindeer directly into my brain through my eyeball each morning." Nobody wants to hear "I work out 5-6 hrs a week while you watch TV." and "Nothing tastes as good as being thin feels."
 
Mogambo and Honeybunch, you both warm the cockles of my heart.

Many times at work someone will ask me what I do to stay slender and in shape and my first reply is "you're not gonna like it when I tell you" and then I proceed. I watch their eyes glaze over as I talk about weight training, aerobics and clean eating.

Most of the time I hear "I don't have time for all that" and then they wander away to the nearest candy machine.

FYI, we are given uniforms by the casino which includes shirts and pants. I once asked someone in wardrobe what is the most common pants size for women being distributed and was told a size 18. Gasp. No wonder when I need new pants there are rows and rows of my size languishing on the racks.

I think I will use Mogambo's answer instead of truthful details because most people I have found are not willing to do whatever it takes.
 
Yes, yes, YES!!!

All of you have spoken what has been on my mind and heart for a while now. Most people think I am somehow naturally slender -just this week I said to a couple of women "I don't THINK so!" They laughed but didn't believe me either. Then I explained what I did every day and they groaned. I told them that this body really would rather be ten pounds heavier and FLABBY but I refuse.

Hey HB - how does the jiggle go away? I have decided that it will never disappear (tho my legs look better than ever - just not wiggle free).

Let's hear it for the older crowd - not fifty but crowding 47 as we speak...

Joanna
 
I always remember a quote

from Cher in her first fitness video--about 1990??
"You don't get a good body by wishing for it; you get it by work." Truer words never spoken.
 
RE: Yes, yes, YES!!!

The jiggle has not entirely gone away, but what has helped the most are leg extensions and inner thigh work. That plus working the legs AT LEAST 3 times a week, and I mean working them hard.

BUT, you can get a good workout in a short period of time at the gym if you superset between the machines like I did on Saturday. I went from the leg extension machine to the outer thigh machine; from the inner thigh machine to the leg curl machine; and ended with switching from the leg press machine to the butt blaster machine. Three sets for each machine, and I was done in way less than 1/2 hour.
 
RE: I always remember a quote

Or, in Cher's case, by paying a cosmetic surgeon for some of it ;-(
 
Thank you Honeybunch!!! I really need the motivation to get back into my routine after a week w/ a really bad chest cold.

I'm going to quote another one of Cher's pearls of wisdom: 'Hey, if it came in a bottle, everyone would have a great body.'

You go girl!

Thanks again!
Joyce
 
Hi Honeybunch! Congrats on looking SO GOOD and LEAN too! I've been noticing for the past couple of years (I'm 47) that my inner thighs don't look the same as they did when I was in my 20's. Don't know if you have too. Gravity is definitely taking over. Skin sagging! Oh what to do!! Nothing of course. We're just aging. I keep thinking that if I do more floor work involving inner thighs from PS SL&A that this will do it but NO it won't. Trying to turn back the clock. Also notice my cheeks on my face getting more hollow and the skin sagging by the jawline. Oh well enough said can't really complain though when my husband always tells me how beautiful I look and I did drop another dress size. You keep up the good work and Cathe is the greatest! Take care, Kathy
 
My legs have NEVER looked good since I was about 13 years old! The inner thigh machines at the Y have done the most good for me, and the only floor work I'll do is the stuff in PSLA, not the Firm tapes. I gave up on the Firm tapes.
 
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