In 366 days I will be 50 and I want to be in the best shape of my life. Who's with me?

[FitBeforeFifty]

I am currently overweight, at 12st 5lb, and a BMI of 27. I am perimenopausal, addicted to sugar, and a bit of a coach potato. I WFH and snack A LOT.

Last week I went on holiday and wore swimwear for the first time in years. I felt like crying when I saw the reality of what I am doing to my body with too much sugar, booze and not enough exercise. I've been kidding myself that it's ok, but it isn't.

In 366 days I will be celebrating my 50th birthday. I feel as if this is my last chance to properly get a grip on things and reverse some of the damage I've done before it gets even harder.

These are my goals for the next 12 months:

• get to 10 stone and the middle of a healthy BMI


• stick to fasting / OMAD / no snacking (I know this works for me, I just fall off the wagon too easily due to WFH / boredom)


• stick to a lower-carb (not no-carb) WOE, again I know this works for me


• daily yoga / barre (I use DownDog app, but not often enough!)


• 10k steps per day

I don't want to be fat at fifty. I don't want to be a menopausal cliche with a big gut and a load of excuses as to why I've still not shifted the weight and am still on the sofa mainlining wine and biscuits every evening.

This feels doable - anyone want to join me and be fit and fabulous at fifty (and beyond)?!

Great post @AuntieN and good luck! Sounds like a very do-able plan.

Hello to all new joiners in fact - hope this week is a good one for you! Be kind to yourself and know that you are making slow, steady positive changes that will benefit your whole self, not just how good you look in your pants (although that is a motivating factor!) 😄

@SandrasAnnoyingFriend that bowl sounds luscious, I love that sort of food. I agree that healthy eating is so much easier in the summer but hopefully by starting now we can set some good habits that will help to see us through the chillier months.

I have changed my username just for this 😳.

I am 38 and hit peri menopause at 35 and the week after my 38th birthday full blown early menopause. As of Sunday just passed I have 60 weeks until I am 40 and dint want to feel the way I do.

I think my HRT (2 patches) seems to be finally working. I have gained weight and currently top the scales at 224lbs. Its time to change.

Aim - by 40

• get to under 175lbs


• feel more energised


• declutter my overflowing wardrobe as I loose weight

My plan -
• drink 2.5L water a day
• 2 carb portions a day (not 4/6!)
• CrossFit classes 4 x a week
• extra strength training to help my joints
• 10,000 steps a day
• alcohol is for special occasions only

Hope it’s ok to join you all.

I'd like to do strength training but I don't really know where to start. Maybe I'll treat myself to a few PT sessions to get going

Just wanted to come and shake my Pom-poms and give encouragement.

This time last year I was 49, and overweight at 12st. At my heaviest I was over 14.7st, and was either overweight or obese for virtually all my adult life.

I reached 50 this Spring and weighed less than 10st. I started SW October last year, I know it doesn't suit everyone but it worked for me. I've gone from 16/18 to 10/12 and I still wake up every morning unable to quite believe it. My DH can't believe it either, he thinks he's got a new woman.

I'm proof it can be done, and honestly if I can do it then anyone can because essentially I'm greedy and a bit lazy.
Don't give up, one day at a time. If you have a shit day where you eat crap it doesn't mean you have ruined your whole diet, it's just one day, make tomorrow healthier.

Last week I was envious of some ladies I spotted in the supermarket, wearing lovely cool summer dresses. I actually thought "Oh well it's ok for them they're nice and slim, I can't wear anything like that".
My brain hasn't caught up with my body because now I can wear anything like that, and being able to do so in hot weather is just amazing to me, after nearly 30 years of feeling I needed to hide my shape.

It's so, so worth it. You've got this.

@SandrasAnnoyingFriend thats what I did and I now know how to safely use the weights and have started doing 2x 30min strength sessions a week. I booked three sessions and they gave me a few ‘workouts’ to follow.

I'm way older than you all but very fit - though I had gained about a stone in the past year due to a mixture of surgeries, travelling and 'life stuff'. I'm once again getting close to my target weight, due to focusing mostly on 3 things:

- a protein rich diet
- strength/resistance based exercise
- hardly any alcohol

Most women don't eat enough protein. My diet consists mostly of chicken, fish, eggs and vegetables/salad, plus some fruit. I always keep several boiled eggs in the fridge - only 70-80 calories and very filling. My go-to fruits are cantaloupe, melon and apples - few calories and yet filling.

Exercise has without a doubt made the biggest difference for me as it is intensely motivating and makes me feel so much better about myself. Not to mention that I look so much more trim and toned. I work out for at least 45 minutes every day, focusing on HIIT and weight training. There are lots of fitness trainers on YouTube, but I mainly work out with Growingannanas, Lucy Wyndham Read and Caroline Girvan. I started off with 3kg dumbbells and gradually worked my way up to 8kg, and as much as 12kg for things like dead lifts .

Alcohol can be tricky. One glass can so easily lead to another... I prefer wine but have largely switched to very low alcohol IPA beer, which actually isn't bad at all. There's a chap on YouTube who explains our relationship with alcohol very well. I think his moniker is 'Alcohol Explained'.

Try it and see how you get on - it really works!

@SandrasAnnoyingFriend - weight training is so important as we get older. So many women neglect this and end up with osteopenia and osteoporosis.

Try these YouTube workouts by Rebecca Louise and Growingannanas:

Both RL and Anna have tons of different workouts. Once you feel ready to move on, Caroline Girvan is one of the best weight trainers online:

The above is the start of Caroline's Beginners series. She has several series of 50 sessions, plus lots of individual workouts. Highly recommended - she changed my life!

Thank you, I'll check those out once this heatwave has passed!

@FitBeforeFifty belated happy birthday!

Can I join? I was in exactly the same position 3 weeks ago. Want to lose 2 stone (1 of which is thanks to lockdown) by end of June next year. Be good to have some company!

What an amazing achievement! You must be so proud of yourself! Fingers crossed in a year or so I can come back with a similar story!

@AuntieN Thank you for saying that, it means a lot.

Anyone coming up to that age and worrying about it, it's never too late to make a fresh start, 40s/50s/60s, it doesn't matter. My mum lost weight in her late 60s/ early 70s for health reasons and ten years later she's kept it off.

I think I'd resigned myself to always being big, because looking back even as a child I was a bit plump. When people label you the fat one it's easy to believe that that's who you are, so what's the point? I never saw any danger in eating more and putting on just another pound because I was fat anyway.

I've also come out the other side of menopause, peri was a bloody(!) nightmare but now not having periods has been massively liberating for me. I didn't realise how much they ruled my life until I stopped having them, just the same as I didn't realise how much headspace was taken up with stressing over me being overweight until I lost the weight.

Hot flushes were much worse the more sugar I consumed, especially near bedtime. No sugar = no flush

@ChristinePerfect i am like this with alcohol… one glass = flushes for the entire next day like a horrid hangover.

I have been period free since 37 and can’t explain it but I still get engorged ‘pre period’ breasts every month yet no period 🤦🏻‍♀️.

So lovely to read your success story!

Hi
I know I'm a little late to the party but can I join you? It's 192 days til I turn 39, and I definitely want to be in a better place than I am now, although I'm currently lying on the sofa with covid so it's not going to be hard to beat it 😂
Goals for the next year are
~ to get to a healthy BMI, currently 12st2 with a BMI of 28.8, so need to get down to 10st6
~Be able to run a half marathon again
~Go on holiday next May with friends and be confident in my swimwear and fit enough to try everything (it's a neilson all inclusive watersports holiday)
~use my gym membership enough to justify the cost and improve my swimming

I've started the self care while I'm off sick, hair mask, feet filed and creamed, moisturised everyday and sorted out all my lotions and potions, as feeling good about myself and my skin means I look after my body better

Would also like to join late... Am going to be 50 too in just over a year and with menopause have lost the plot - gained a lot of weight over last 12 months and feel horrendous. Also don't want to enter my 50s feeling like this. Would like to get back to 10 stone and readjust my lifestyle especially alcohol and stress. Exercise I'm quite good at but will do more and push myself. Would like to wear a fabulous dress for my 50th and feel good about myself. Lots of inspiration here.

Great inspirational thread. I would like to join please.

Late 40s and overweight by 2 stone, I have been massively over eating & under exercising. I have something special planned for Spring next year and I want to lose 2 stone for it. I am also going away with friends in a years time from now and I want to feel great in my bikini. I can currently get away with the weight gain while I'm wearing my summer clothes (dresses can hide a lot !), if I was in a bikini in front of my friends then I think they would be surprised to say the least. I have 7 months before my special event next year, starting now should see me at goal. I have never been more determined. I started 2 weeks ago and its going really well. I've cut down a lot of alcohol (and saving money too), I'm doing swimming and walking. My plan for summer is to swim and walk my way through the whole of August lol.

@Thefroglover -

Unfortunately swimming and walking won't give you your bikini body back. You'll need to exercise your abs! Try this (turn off the sound after you've done it a couple of times...):

And this:

And the 3-minute blank every single day:

And this is brilliant for legs:

Coupled with a high protein + lots of veggies - little/no alcohol diet you'll see results in no time! 😀

Amazing to see so many new joiners, welcome everyone! It is really inspiring to hear the success stories too - thank you @ChristinePerfect and @FlowerArranger for the tips and motivation.

I know that alcohol is my downfall and I really, really need to knock it on the head. It's not good for me physically or mentally. Last night, dh and I shared a bottle with dinner and I feel shit this morning, and am craving sugar. Plus, it affects my mood - I got irritated with something he said and it made me grumpy all evening! We're absolutely fine but it's so daft and pointless to keep doing this. I gave up a couple of years ago for 12 months so I know I can. My wine alarm just goes off at 6pm every night and that's it.

Anyway, it's a new day and I will not give in to the hangover carb monster!!

@FitBeforeFifty - have a look at this:

And this:

Wiliam Porter explains the problem of alcohol really well, in particular why moderate drinking is so difficult. This Naked Mind is also a very good website which focuses on how much better we feel when we're not drinking.

I’d love to join too please! @FitBeforeFifty I sound similar to you, I’m 49, I was 12 stone back in early May but I’ve lost a stone so far. I also started walking to work every day and I’ve recently started couch to 5k. I know I could also do with toning up so will have a look at the links above.

ive noticed with age, the weight seems to be going on more around my middle, whereas when I was younger it would sit more on hips/thighs.

I’m definitely feeling better for it so far and it’s great to read the success stories above.

Can I join please? I'm already the wrong side of 50 and peri and find that weight loss is suddenly a real roblem, especially post pandemic, but I would like a place to share the struggle!

For me, I knew I needed to lose the pandemic pounds asap as it would only get harder, and last year I tried MFP and WW and gained weight with both - I learned I have to make my own food (which I prefer anyway) and that I'm incapable of inputting the right items. I decided last December that I wanted to lose about 30 pounds. I had been stagnate so bought an exercise bike and a treadmill, and I worked my ass off, from nothing to 10 miles on the bike most days and 5 miles on the treadmill several days a week. Then I hurt my back, and had to rest, and as I hadn't lost anything I lost motivation, but I'd also started the 16:8 somewhere in there and love that, it's stayed with me. During my recouperation I started calorie counting, that graudally led to a 12 pound loss. That took me up to April when I lost motivation again as I had some holidays booked - so I focused on maintaining, even whilst on holiday. I've kept that 12 pounds off, but this week decided to get back to calorie counting. I've kick started this week by eating A LOT of fiber and drinking A LOT of water, and next week will resume the calorie counts, but it's been good to have a week to ease myself back in.

So that's a long monologue, 😱

I’d like to join you please. I’m already the wrong side of 50 and fatter than most of you here but I’d like to feel better.

HRT check up today and the GP has agreed to let me remain on two patches. It’s the first time in forever I am sleeping relatively ok, not having daily hot flushes and a little more energised.

I have done three gym classes so far this week and kept to my food plan with the exception of an emergency heatwave callipo!

Some great inspirational posts - thanks for sharing. Love the videos too. You would have to be a very careful observer to see my changes - I mean after a meal out and night of booze I shared a pizza with my friend instead of getting my own, I am going to give up fizzy drinks this weekend, I have been swimming, upped the step count and while I just ate too much toast I didn’t but any crisps this week. I love the weight training idea - sounds both good and tough!

@AuntieN what great goals! I must write mine down and break them into chunks too - we have similar ones actually, weight loss, exercise/ fitness and improving self esteem. I'll have a look for that book as well.

A massive 'well done' to you @ChristinePerfect - SW worked for me as well a few years ago, but I tried it again and found it too restrictive - I have friends that think it's great though!

Thank you for the tips @FlowerArranger, I definitely need to eat more protein. I'm doing more of the resistance work too - my DM suffers from osteoarthritis and I really don't want to end up the same way. I've found the Davina McCall Own Your Goals website really helpful, they usually offer a free trial if anyone's interested.

And hello to my fellow hangover sufferers @Earlymenopausesucks and @FitBeforeFifty - I used to be able to enjoy a few drinks and not feel it in the morning - not any more!!

I have 50lb to lose and have set myself the challenge of losing it by the end of the next academic year - my aim was always to lose it by the time the DC started school, they're now about to go into year 2 in my defence home schooling did get in the way! DTS1 took a photo at his activity club today of a woman with chubby arms, several chins and a big roll of belly fat - I think we can all guess who that was

Hi can I join please. I’ll be 50 next year too. I’ve done the low carb boot camp on here a couple of times and it worked. However recently I decided to try eating a less restrictive diet and I’ve put some weight on again. Boot camp stats again on Monday and I’m planning on joining in.

im feeling motivated by this thread and everyone else’s plans.