It was getting tough in 2006 and the workhouse still threatens us in 2011

annie123

scottishminnie wrote: »

I know I'm overweight but take exception to my GP who told me on Friday that I should be between seven and a half stone and seven stone twelve. I'm eleven stone so that makes me three and a half stone overweight (or according to her, obese). at 5ft 4 I've never been that weight in my life, was eight and a half once and looked ill.

Nonsense.
I'm 5'4" and have always been between 8 -8.5 stone and this year my GP told me to put on some weight, said at my age (48) I should aim for 9-9.5 stone.
I finally did it (9 stone )and hubby says I look better for it and I'm still a size 10
My BMI is now 21.63
Your BMi would be 18 @7 stone and classed as underweight:
http://www.nhs.uk/Tools/Pages/Healthyweightcalculator.aspx

Ignore your GP or go again with info from the NHS link above.

grandma247

Hugs for you frugal.

We watched page eight on bbc 2 tonight and I havent laughed so much in ages. A kid at school could have done a better job. The dialogue was appalling. It could have been a really good drama but turned into a comedy instead. We take the mick out of stupid lines and scenes.

I use tea tree oil for cold sores and try to get them when they are threatening if I can. Lavender is also good.

JIL I have a recipe like that in my mothers recipe book. It is nearly half a century old and there are some interesting recipes in it along with how to's in photos.

EDIT; Forgot to say that I made the most beautiful soft tasty wholemeal loaf in my breadmaker today. Dil and I had a guinness(sp) friday night but she only drank a little of hers so I decided to try it in a loaf. I put 1lb of medium chapatti flour, 2tbs fat and the beer plus enough warm water to make up the liquid to 325ml 1 1/2 tsp salt a tbs sugar and 1 pkt yeast. I used the first setting which is for white bread. It is gorgeous.

I also made yorkshire with some of the flour because I could not be bothered to look in the freezer for the fine wholemeal chappatti flour I usually use and put four med to small eggs,1cup of milk and 1 cup of flour into the blender and whizzed it a while then added a 1/4 cup of water,salt and pepper and left it half an hour. Whizzed it again and put it in a muffin tin that had been heating in the oven with some fat. They were lovely too but they could have done with just a few more minutes as they were a tiny bit doughy at the bottom. It was a suprise because i expected them to be like pancakes.

ceridwen

Scottish Minnie

Your doctor is looking at some very "strict" weight tables to say a weight in the 7stone range for someone of 5'4".

There are various weight tables around - which I would estimate vary to some extent depending on whether they have been done purely from a weight point of view or the looks angle is coming into it. The weight tables that would go down as low as the 7 stone something weight range for a woman of that height would probably be American I would think. British ones dont seem to run that "low".

The consensus of opinion I would say on the range of tables I have come across would be that:
- 7 stone 12lbs is the lowest healthy weight (ie beneath that is too thin)

- 8 stone 7 lbs to 9 stone is the correct weight for looks purposes.

- Up to 10stone 4lbs will "do" for health purposes

- Above 10stone 4lbs weight-related health problems are likely to start.

The variation would be to allow for whether someone is small build, medium build or chunky build. Anyway no-one of that height should be beneath 7stone 12 lbs or above 10stone 4 lbs from the health point of view. What weight one decides to be in that range will vary according to ones own basic underlying figure shape - eg some people might have to be at the lowest range of that in order to have a flat stomach and others might have to be at the highest end in order to have a "bust".

Each extra 1" over 5'4" height equals being 4 lbs heavier, eg:
- if 5'4" is 8stone 7lbs
- 5'5" is 8stone 11 lbs
- 5'3" on the other hand is 8stone 3 lbs

Re looks - dont look round at people in the street to judge at all. I have noticed that, on average, people are now considering a weight about 1 stone heavier than they would have thought 10 years ago to "look correct" these days. I had some slimming magazines of about 10 years ago on the one hand and much more recent ones on the other hand - and, having gone through, the before and after weights and what weights the women were aiming at - it looked very much as if the "desired weight" from the looks pov has gone up about 1 stone in the past 10 years. Eg the exact same women now think 9 stone 7 lbs is the "desired weight" as would have set it at 8stone 7lbs say 10 years ago. Reason - because most of us expect people to look fatter than we used to - and then look at ourselves in the mirror bearing that in mind (ie rather than setting our own standards for ourselves iyswim).

Collarbones WILL show at correct weight. I'm very slightly overweight at the moment (project I've yet to deal with...ahem) and mine show. At my chosen weight they are VERY prominent - but, on the other hand, my stomach will be flat and at my current weight it bulges somewhat and the top of the thighs rubs slightly. You have to bear in mind the overall picture.

*****************

In other words - dont trust the weight tables your doctor has - as I would say they are probably those "very skinny" American ones - but do check out a range of weight tables in health and/or beauty books to see what weight you should be and take the consensus of opinion between them.

'Fraid I cant look them up in any of my books - as I worked out what the consensus of opinion weight is supposed to be from them - and then threw the books out.

EDIT: Just noticed an age-related post on this above and part of the "range" is that some people advocate allowing oneself to be between half a stone and a stone heavier on reaching middle age (ie to protect the bones) - and I guess theres an element of having to choose between ones face and ones figure at that age too (ie chosen weight could equal gaunt face once middle age....darn it). Thats a judgement call as to which to put first - and, as someone who wears jeans a lot and needs the energy to walk longish distances, then I shall keep my chosen weight the same as when I was younger personally and try not to focus too much on the face.....

Red_Doe

EDIT: Just noticed an age-related post on this above and part of the "range" is that some people advocate allowing oneself to be between half a stone and a stone heavier on reaching middle age (ie to protect the bones) - and I guess theres an element of having to choose between ones face and ones figure at that age too (ie correct weight could equal gaunt face once middle age....darn it).

I'm five foot nothing and weigh around ten and a half stone at the moment. That's overweight for someone my height or as my doc told me "you're fat, lose some weight"!

Up til a couple of months ago, I was over eleven stone...my thighs rubbed together when I walked, which I hate, got the spare tyre, developing a double chin.
It's only poverty that;s making me thin Nothing like a recession diet to melt those pounds away!
But before that, I was finding it very hard to lose weight because I'm menopausal. Not using that for an excuse but it's a fact the weight is harder to shift when you're going through it and hit middle age.
Doctors recommend around two hundred fewer calories per day for menopausal women. Which is fine except I have too much to do in a day to spend counting calories and if I'm making food from scratch anyway, none of it has labels to read the calories, fat etc.
A few years ago when I was ill, the weight fell off me and although I thought I looked great at around seven stone, my face got horribly drawn and skeletal and I just looked ill.
I remember my mum's and gran's generation of middle aged women looking plump but mostly healthy. Glowing cheeks and rounded figures, they didn't all look frumpy either...my Aunty Pat was a real glamour puss right up to her old age!
I do think the obsession with weight nowadays, down to the last ounce, is wrong. Health should always be paramount and although I'm no medical expert I find it hard to believe that a few pounds over a thirty five inch waist will ruin your health for life. A lot of other factors must come into play, such as smoking and drinking, the type of foods eaten, work or exercise taken, etc.
I've seen plenty skinnies who are really unhealthy and unhappy looking. Of course obesity is another story, but for those women who are 'plump'? I think life's too short to measure quarter of a tomato.
My own OH has an aversion to superskinny women. He thinks they look ill and gaunt and when I was thin he hated it. For my own sake I want to be a few pounds lighter and stay that way instead of fluctuating...the poverty diet should achieve that nicely.
But I won't ever aim for skinny again. It made me look older and hell I look old enough thanks!

7_week_wonder

Morning all,
It's a bank holiday (well down south anyway!) and the first day of my and OH's joint week off work. So how come my to do list starts "Wash bed linen; clean oven; clean bathroom tiles":o

Still at least it finishes with a trip into town to get a jelly bag so I can make some rowan jelly, and we've got a table booked at a brilliant (and cheap) new veitnamnese restaurant for this evening.

Enjoy the bank holiday everyone

Mrs_Chip

Good wishes and thoughts to all who need them, esp Frugal, I know how hard things will be for you now, having lost my Mum just after Xmas last year.

We have had our first two nights working on our van, last night on our own. Everything went really well, and everyone was really kind. We actually sold everything we had on the van, OH had to run back home several time to raid our freezer for more stock! Now we have the tech side sorted I can start the fun side of the business and start developing our menu to be a bit different to the run of the mill chippy van, particularly more healthy options. Any ideas gratefully received!

All this cooking activity has had a knock-on effect on our shopping budget - we very quickly found that all those chips lose their appeal, and frankly food is the last thing on our minds. So for the last couple of days our main meal has been 'something on toast' at lunchtime. As eating late in the day is not supposed to be good for you I look forward to seeing some benefits.

Hope to have a more 'normal' day today, I need to find out who owns the garden behind ours up the hill, it's full of fruit trees with loads of fruit, not being picked as far as I can see. Such a waste, the local jammers would have a field day!

ceridwen

RED DOE

Hope things look clearer for you by the end of the week - ie a chance to see Citizens Advice Bureau later and my own Council's Council Tax concessionary tables having turned up at yours ((( )))

Darn nuisance I cant "magic" some apples and pears up to yours - as I've got LOADS going spare (from ones I've been given on the one hand and a group of us were let loose on someones garden and told to pick however much we wanted of the fruit in it - and theres still LOADS AND LOADS left - so the owner is going to contact our local "community fruit gathering" scheme for surplus fruit to be given to charity (eg Age Concern, homeless, etc) and I know I'm expecting 2 more gifties of apples from people who give me some each year. So I'm busy doing apple leathers, dried apple, bottled apple - and mysterious bags of apples are appearing on peoples doorsteps (as I "recycle" them).

Think I could be visiting the same garden again - this time in that charity foodgathering exercise - duly got dates written into my diary to go off on several "gathering sessions" for this - I can see the local OAPs/homeless centre/etc will be making a lot of apple cakes/apple crumbles/etc - judging by how many "fruit gathering" sessions are on the timetable and its mainly apples we will be picking for them...

We do need more variety of fruit for the scheme besides the apples and I personally havent gotten any of my plums yet ....so I've got to pay a busfare and do a special journey out this year to an abandoned lonely little plum tree later and hope its still "full" (as not near any houses). Darn it...

MRS CHIP
You could ask around in your area as to whether a community fruit gathering group has started up yet (try starting by googling to see if you have a local Transition Town group - as they'll know of any going...). Then tell that group about this garden and they can ask the owner for that fruit for distribution.

greenbee

Scottish Minnie - I once had a GP who went by some of the more severe tables until the day I turned up and he thought I had a drug problem... I'd met my target weight even BMI isn't great if you exercise a lot as muscle weighs more than fat. If you are worried about it from a health point of view, then waist measurement gives an indication of diabetes risk (but also how good or rubbish your abs are...). It is possible to work our body fat percentages using calipers which hurts a bit but is probably the most accurate way of checking healthy 'fatness'. ironically, as I have been unwell recently my body fat percentage has gone up (and my abs have given up completely, the lazy things...) but when I was weighed in the hospital I was lighter than I have been for some time (and apparently people claim the scales weigh heavy) and my BMI was spot on. But then, I think I've lost most of my muscle over the last three months.

grandma247

Anybody remember the ad campaign " if you can pinch an inch"?

Red_Doe

grandma247 wrote: »

Anybody remember the ad campaign " if you can pinch an inch"?

Think so...that wasn't the Nimble bread ads was it? I remember Nimble, bread with more holes than actual bread but I did like the taste of it.