Some good ideas there, one thing I forgot to mention, it is very important to warm up with some gentle exercising bending and stretching etc.
I certainly enlisting the family idea but would be worried they would know exactly you needs.
Someone mentioned swimming excellent, that is all you need really of course accompanied by diet.
Omah, you are right about health walks etc. I used to take a group of oldies who were recovering from heart and other old age operations, it amazing how easy it is to get back quicker, we used to make it fun with music and dance.
I found that, if you walked with a formal or informal group, the members always said at the end âSee you tomorrow/Tuesday/next week, etcâ, so the onus was on me to show up or have a good excuse not to ⊠
Nowadays, I do about 15 miles of countryside walking per week in winter and 25 miles in summer. I keep a log, take photos and compile my own maps/routes as a hobby ⊠
Walking literally keeps me off the streets ⊠
Hi Playtheman
You appear to be caught in a spiralling problem because sleep is a very important factor for losing weight.
First off though the notion that âI am overweight therefore I must exercise and go to a gymâ etc is typically a knee-jerk reaction and often a bad analysis of the situation.
No-one is overweight because of lack of exercise.
We are overweight because of bad diet choice which in turn is often due to bad food education. People often think they are eating âweight losingâ foods when in fact they are doing the exact opposite.
Your primary goal imo is to understand what you are eating, by which I mean checking the ingredients, and then, when that reveals the really bad things you have been eating, just cut them out. Only you can do this.
Sugars
Most likely, like so many of us, you have been caught by the âSugar Trapâ which means you are eating what appears to be innocent foods which are actually piled high with sugar.
Hereâs what you need to know. 1 teaspoon of sugar = 4g.
So look on your tins, packets and other products at the sugar content per 100g, and divide that number by 4 to see how many teaspoons of sugar are in every 100g of the product. Then factor that up by the actual weight of the product. You will be staggered at how much sugar you have been taking in.
If you have been drinking soft fizzy drinks of any kind, I advise you to cut those out completely. They are piled with sugar and generally they will mess with your body and its metabolism causing hunger pangs which lead to snacking.
If you put sugar in your tea/coffee then definitely wean yourself off that addiction. You are really poisoning yourself when you do this. I used to do it, thought I could never enjoy tea/coffee without sugar in it. I was wrong. Giving this added sugar up was easy.
Typically it is the other less obvious foods that have large sugar content that can be hurting us. Take a look at the pictures in this thread to see some horrific examples:
http://www.over50sforum.com/showthread.php?t=27681
e.g. A simple 1 litre bottle of apple juice contains a staggering 22 teaspoons of sugar !
A seemingly innocent carton or tin of chopped tomatoes contains 3 teaspoons of sugar !
Important at this point to understand that sugar is sugar no matter what the form. There is no ânatural sugarâ vs âtable sugarâ, sugar is sugar and has the same chemical formula no matter where it is from. The reason apple juice is bad for you is because it contains all the sugars from apples and none of the fibre you find in the rest of an apple.
When we eat sugar we need to also eat fibre which changes the speed at which the sugar is digested by the body. Sugary products eaten on their own get changed into fat quickly. Sugary foods eaten with fibre give the body far more time to use the sugar so it gets used for the bodyâs energy needs instead of being stored as fat.
In short, get sugar out of your life as far as you can. Doing this one step will do more for your weight and health than any exercise.
The Importance Of Sleep
Many people are still unaware how important sleep is in the weight losing stakes. When you sleep your body is burning energy and thus you are literally losing weight whilst doing zero exercise. It happens through the process of your body staying warm.
A recent study found sub-par sleep could undermine weight loss by as much as 55 percent!
The University of Colorado found that dieters consumed 6 percent fewer calories when they got enough sleep. For someone on a 2,000-calorie diet, thatâs 120 calories per day, which could amount to nearly a one-pound weight loss in a month!
Eating meat helps to trigger the production of Tryptophan which makes you sleepy. Turns out that just 1/4 gramâabout what youâll find in a skinless chicken drumstick or three ounces of lean turkey meatâis enough to significantly increase hours of deep sleep.
Since you are having sleep problems, you are losing out on this most natural and easy way of losing weight. Iâm guessing the sleep problems are due to a combination of what you are eating/drinking, and domestic/work stress issues. You probably go to bed and just lie there with a gazillion things running around your head ! You are not alone.
Getting a good nights sleep, with real deep sleep, is very important. Try having a cup of milky drink like Horlicks etc before bed or alternatively one of those herbal teas which promote sleep such as the ones containing Valerian.
Also, to maximise the weight loss, donât cover yourself with lots of warm blankets. You need to be cool so that your body will burn energy to keep you warm whilst you sleep. Your metabolism will be raised automatically to achieve this.
Anyway, I hope at least some of the above helps. Good luck.
This looks interesting .
What nonsense !
We are talking about gentle exercise here not marathon running.
There is absolutely no need at all to warm up before taking a stroll, you are more likely to pull a muscle âwarming upâ and injure yourself whilst by trying to âwalk it offâ
Remember your age and act accordingly and not like some silly teenager showing off,
Walking is a natural exercise and needs no preparation.
One concern i have is perhaps the lack of motivation is indicative of something that needs exploring further.
Very good point, Nom.
Hello Chris and welcome 
I think people look at exercise and dieting to lose weight from the wrong perspective and they often set themselves impossible targets which canât be met then give up .
Better to look at a permanent life change.
This encompasses walking whenever you can and eating small healthy meals most of the time not as part of some diet.
With a âdemanding family of 4â I am sure there is plenty of opportunity to play games /walk/ swim with them /and to perform household tasks that will provide exercise and serve a useful purpose at the same time :-).
When I have cleaned the windows of the house inside and out or washed all the paintwork in a room or dug the garden I feel I have had a good workout The âmotivationâ is seeing a job well done with the added bonus of helping me to keep fit .
Enquire about over 50âs classes at your local leisure centre. At mine they do a Circuits which is good fun. It involves spending a minute doing different activities - stepping up & over a step - push ups against a wall - air boxing etc. You just move round in a circle from one thing to the next. Lots of giggles and chat.
Another thing that is really good exercise is aqua fit in the pool. You donât need to be able to swim as it takes place in the shallow end. Why not make enquiries at your local centre or look online for details.
Exercise doesnât have to be boring.
I agree, Carol, I do the circuit training 3 or 4 times a week for as little as 30minutes a time. You have to move quickly and always someone to have a laugh with - the best way to exercise is to make it fun !
Exercise is NOT going to fix the problem. In fact it could easily exacerbate it. OP says he is already 50 pounds overweight and that is surely due to the types of food being eaten. Exercising will expend more energy requiring him to subsequently eat more food to supply that energy. Eating more bad food is going to ultimately make things worse. What has to happen is a permanent change in the understanding of what foods are good and bad a permanent change to good foods.
The exercising will happen naturally as soon as the body has an abundance of energy. When you are âfull of beansâ you can not help but get up and go do something, just watch any young child, they just can not keep still. Adults tend to have less âbeansâ due to poor diet and so feel lethargic. Exercising in this state wonât change that. Good diet is essential first. Everything else follows naturally from there, better energy levels, better quality of sleep, natural desire to do things and loss of weight.
Sometimes when Iâve been to my exercise class I eat less.
I never eat more.
But surely if you were awake youâd be burning even more caloriesâŠ
Depends what you are doing.
The major difference when sleeping is that during all those hours you are fasting. So energy is being expended without you taking in any additional energy, hence you lose weight.
What you ate beforehand appears to have an effect on what the body does when you are asleep as does the length of time you sleep for. It changes whether the body burns calories or fat.
In a study exploring the effect of sleep loss on metabolism, two groups of adults followed a calorie-restricted diet, but each group got different amounts of sleep. Everyone lost about the same amount of weight, but the group that got less sleep â 5.5 hours each night â lost 60 percent more muscle and 55 percent less fat. By comparison, the group that slept 8.5 hours lost more fat than muscle, according to a report in the Annals of Internal Medicine in 2010. The researchers concluded that sufficient sleep helps maintain lean muscle
We should try and get about 7-8 hours of good sleep each night.
Youâre experiencing what I call âAnti-wantingâ and then âAnti-doingâ!
My signature on a lot of forums, years ago, wasâŠ
âSometimes, you must do in order to want-to-do!â
Itâs true, too.
Ian.
If you get into regular exercise you can reset your metabolism to a degree. Of course as we get older we hold the weight more too. But even half an hour of walking daily can make a difference. I suggest a dog;)
True âŠ
For years we got up early had a quick breakfast and rushed of to work, some probably doing the same repetitive work day in day out.
Think we did get bored a bit and long for the day when we could relax more, what do we do now, we eat more because we get bored.
A good idea is to get up when your body tells you, have a good breakfast and pop out for a walk for an hour or two, probably taking in your local coffee shop for a coffee, it soon becomes an habit but a good habit.
You havenât sat down put the TV on but what you have done is stoked up and exercised.
This can be a good habit whether you are overweight or not, it is about getting into a routine again after 50 odd years of doing just that.
I found my Ipod the best thing I have ever had, that and my small pocket Dab radio, they accompany me every morning, sadly my health not being what it used to be I am getting restricted, I just get my walk around the village and taking in the coffee shop.
Make exercise an habit, but donât make it boring and remember give up fatty foods and sugar if you can and you will be surprised how the weight will drop off.
You can always take a camera with you and enjoy, you donât have to strip off into shorts and vests, nice if you can but I get the idea not many on here would take it that far.
You need a goal. My goal for next year is to run the Snowdonia Marathon âŠ
For this I intend to lose a stone and up my mileage to around 60-70 miles a week.
Good luck with that MKJâŠand good to see You posting again:-)