Engagement Rings

[mox 298]

Sure she's talking about the leash? ..........

I can't imagine what else she could be talking about. Oh, she seems to have lost the leash though. She keeps saying she needs микроскоп to find it...

[Danno 1,228]

Wonder if this thread goes on long enough, if it can circle around far enough to wind up back on engagement rings again?

I hosted a couple of Ukraines at my house and the organization they came through gave them $25 a day to eat on. The first thing they wanted to do was go to the grocery store. After about 3 days, they felt it was cheaper to eat out than to buy food and cook it.

I think this is true very often but the food you end up eating is certainly the highest of fat content.

Someone brought up the issue of older RW always being fat (or nearly) and I think it is true, of the RW I see there (and RW here) many do in fact get fat.

Is anyones MIL an exception?

As one lady explained to me, RW expect to get fat when they enter that stage in life, it is normal for a woman to cling to fitness and beauty when she is young but all Russian woman go through a mental change at about 35, what was important before has changed to something else. In the same way a 22 yr old man dreads loosing his hair yet a 45 yr old man can accept it easier.

They say the best predictor of what your wife will look like tomorrow is "what does her mother look like now?"

Weren't all these round 47 yr old ladies once 47 kilo babes too?

Wonder how many guys would be "ok' with their wife sporting the bod of their mother inlaw?

If your girl reads this forum, we will understand if you speak in "safe" terms

[eekee 182]

A lot of the older Russians I know, who have adults kids but are not yet pensioners, they go to work, come home, the women cook dinner and do housework on the weekends, but the rest of the time they're watching tv. They're still eating the heavy foods, but they're not going out salsa-dancing and all of the other stuff your girls do. Plus your metabolism slows down as you get older. I think you're right that the focus shifts from yourself and your own beauty to something else, say, your grandkids.

It's not as noticeable in the USA because the sitting-around-watching-tv-all-the-time generally starts much earlier... say age three

Wonder if this thread goes on long enough, if it can circle around far enough to wind up back on engagement rings again?

I hosted a couple of Ukraines at my house and the organization they came through gave them $25 a day to eat on. The first thing they wanted to do was go to the grocery store. After about 3 days, they felt it was cheaper to eat out than to buy food and cook it.

I think this is true very often but the food you end up eating is certainly the highest of fat content.

Someone brought up the issue of older RW always being fat (or nearly) and I think it is true, of the RW I see there (and RW here) many do in fact get fat.

Is anyones MIL an exception?

As one lady explained to me, RW expect to get fat when they enter that stage in life, it is normal for a woman to cling to fitness and beauty when she is young but all Russian woman go through a mental change at about 35, what was important before has changed to something else. In the same way a 22 yr old man dreads loosing his hair yet a 45 yr old man can accept it easier.

They say the best predictor of what your wife will look like tomorrow is "what does her mother look like now?"

Weren't all these round 47 yr old ladies once 47 kilo babes too?

Wonder how many guys would be "ok' with their wife sporting the bod of their mother inlaw?

If your girl reads this forum, we will understand if you speak in "safe" terms

Edited January 19, 2008 by eekee

[Jason-Sasha 1]

Sure she's talking about the leash? ..........

I can't imagine what else she could be talking about. Oh, she seems to have lost the leash though. She keeps saying she needs микроскоп to find it...

LMAO! Hahaha. Now I really hope she is talking about that leash.

[Jason-Sasha 1]

Wonder if this thread goes on long enough, if it can circle around far enough to wind up back on engagement rings again?

I hosted a couple of Ukraines at my house and the organization they came through gave them $25 a day to eat on. The first thing they wanted to do was go to the grocery store. After about 3 days, they felt it was cheaper to eat out than to buy food and cook it.

I think this is true very often but the food you end up eating is certainly the highest of fat content.

Someone brought up the issue of older RW always being fat (or nearly) and I think it is true, of the RW I see there (and RW here) many do in fact get fat.

Is anyones MIL an exception?

As one lady explained to me, RW expect to get fat when they enter that stage in life, it is normal for a woman to cling to fitness and beauty when she is young but all Russian woman go through a mental change at about 35, what was important before has changed to something else. In the same way a 22 yr old man dreads loosing his hair yet a 45 yr old man can accept it easier.

They say the best predictor of what your wife will look like tomorrow is "what does her mother look like now?"

Weren't all these round 47 yr old ladies once 47 kilo babes too?

Wonder how many guys would be "ok' with their wife sporting the bod of their mother inlaw?

If your girl reads this forum, we will understand if you speak in "safe" terms

Older Russian women who actually remain thin are very rare it seems. I know I pray that my sweet little Sasha will remain this way, but its only because I know that I will never be able to get fat. In my family no man is overweight. Just doesnt happen. I wouldnt want my poor Sasha to get fat alone.. . We just need to keep our Russian ladies living an active lifestyle into their golden years. Maybe we can break the trend. And for God's sake keep them away from Oprah and the television as much as you can!.....

[Kazan' Tiger 1]

This thread is (was) about engagement rings-???

Well my future MIL is only a bit bigger than my fiancée. Not picking on the pudgie, well a little maybe. It still comes down to how bad do you want it. If I sat back, gave up running in favour of more television, chips and dip, I would eventually get fat too. My fiancée and I like our trim physiques. If we continue to motivate each other and walk, run, work out, or what have you, we can maintain a nice form for life. The problem for many couples is they eventually compromise this aspect. Physical form and an active lifestyle become less of a priority than other things. For others, it remains important for all of life. I have seen many older couples in my area out on the trails, running, biking, rollerblading, etc. that are far from fat. Some are quite old and I envy their shape! Age does not mandate an increase of girth. It comes down to more intake than outtake and what you are or not willing to do about it.

Wonder if this thread goes on long enough, if it can circle around far enough to wind up back on engagement rings again?

I hosted a couple of Ukraines at my house and the organization they came through gave them $25 a day to eat on. The first thing they wanted to do was go to the grocery store. After about 3 days, they felt it was cheaper to eat out than to buy food and cook it.

I think this is true very often but the food you end up eating is certainly the highest of fat content.

Someone brought up the issue of older RW always being fat (or nearly) and I think it is true, of the RW I see there (and RW here) many do in fact get fat.

Is anyones MIL an exception?

As one lady explained to me, RW expect to get fat when they enter that stage in life, it is normal for a woman to cling to fitness and beauty when she is young but all Russian woman go through a mental change at about 35, what was important before has changed to something else. In the same way a 22 yr old man dreads loosing his hair yet a 45 yr old man can accept it easier.

They say the best predictor of what your wife will look like tomorrow is "what does her mother look like now?"

Weren't all these round 47 yr old ladies once 47 kilo babes too?

Wonder how many guys would be "ok' with their wife sporting the bod of their mother inlaw?

If your girl reads this forum, we will understand if you speak in "safe" terms

[Satellite 1]

We just need to keep our Russian ladies living an active lifestyle into their golden years. Maybe we can break the trend. And for God's sake keep them away from Oprah and the television as much as you can!.....

Actually the American lifestyle lends itself to getting fat especially if you live outside of big cities. I know of many ladies who moved here and easily gained 10 pounds a year and quickly lost their figure! Edited January 19, 2008 by Satellite

[Kazan' Tiger 1]

I know some that have gained too. But some that have stayed the same, also, due to adjustments in lifestyle.

Another thing to add... You don't just wake up the next day having found yourself 5 kilos more than the day before. When you find yourself a kilo or two heavier, maybe do something now instead of waiting for the other two or three to join the party.

We just need to keep our Russian ladies living an active lifestyle into their golden years. Maybe we can break the trend. And for God's sake keep them away from Oprah and the television as much as you can!.....

Actually the American lifestyle lends itself to getting fat especially if you live outside of big cities. I know of many ladies who moved here and easily gained 10 pounds a year and quickly lost their figure!

Edited January 19, 2008 by Kazan' Tiger

[Jason-Sasha 1]

We just need to keep our Russian ladies living an active lifestyle into their golden years. Maybe we can break the trend. And for God's sake keep them away from Oprah and the television as much as you can!.....

Actually the American lifestyle lends itself to getting fat especially if you live outside of big cities. I know of many ladies who moved here and easily gained 10 pounds a year and quickly lost their figure!

True, but if you compared 50+ year old women from Russia and the US, I think you'd see that our older ladies here maintain a slimmer figure. Its also true that American women age better. I've always said that young Russian women are much more beautiful than young American women. But the opposite seems to be true for older women. Older American women have more options for health care and beauty. Sasha lived in the US twice and each time she seemed to actually lose weight. She's also very active in America.

[slim 1,514]

"I not like this $30 dinner and I will not be eat this foo-blat. I want go home."

Wow, slim what kind of restaurants did she eat at back in Russia? My wife had been to a restaurant just a few times in her life prior to coming to the US. You must have spoiled her!

Anyway, the best response to that it, no more restaurants, we'll eat at home from now on.

My wife is not one of the girls "from small village." She has lived in big cities the whole of her adult life and lived abroad for several years as well. She's grown accustomed to the men in her life giving her anything and everything she wished for especially when it comes to food and restaurants. So, when she came here and was "disappointed" with the quality of life and food, she naturally blamed it on me.

I was not the one that spoiled her and my attempts to do (and/or break) that now have only led to further disappointments on the culinary front. We've located several places that are pretty good, but each one requires the better part of a C-Note to dine. That's just not possible on our budget so it's "eating at home from now on" which really ends up screwing me. I'm not a big fan of soup and salad and I really don't feel the need to have a diet of cucumbers and beet soup with the luxury of some pilmeny (that takes several hours to make) every now and then. Oh, and then we get to clean the kitchen afterwards! Yay!!!!

I do have a secret weapon and it's called chicken wings. She seems to like those pretty well so I sneak in the pizza with the wings and then we're good to go for a couple days. (Well, I'm good to go for a couple days, anyway.) I'm still working on the hamburgers (which are like poison!) but we've compromised with (budget friendly?) salmon burgers here at home.

We're still trying to get the balance of "good" foods and "good" prices with me holding out for the least amount of cleanup possible. We've made some progress in the last year but we're not all the way home yet.

Yep, I've heard this one more then a few times. It doesn't matter what nationality the restaurant is, it is always "stupid American food"...

I don't know, my wife enjoys the few times we go out no matter where it is to.

My wife needs more training then yours!

Mine too!

She says no, it's not short. It's just the right length.

You ever seen Mallrats? "If a girl says it's a nice size, that's a nice way of saying it's small." (We're still talking about the leash, right?)

I hosted a couple of Ukraines at my house and the organization they came through gave them $25 a day to eat on. The first thing they wanted to do was go to the grocery store. After about 3 days, they felt it was cheaper to eat out than to buy food and cook it.

I think this is true very often but the food you end up eating is certainly the highest of fat content.

$25 a day would be awesome!

We've had the "eating out vs. eating at home" debate just about once a week since my wife's been here. For two people to eat prepared meals at home, the savings really isn't so much that it's worth the inconvenience of grocery shopping, preparing, cleaning up, etc.

The health benefits on the other hand, there's your savings! I'm one of those guys that likes a good Whopper for breakfast and I'm pretty sure that's not what my mom would've made for me when I was growing up "big and strong." So, we compromise a little. We usually get breakfast and lunch from the store and either prepare it to take to work or eat at home and then for dinner we do about 50/50. Sometimes we'll eat at home and sometimes we eat out. Leftovers, if planned properly, can save a whole lot of money. (And be healthier.)

They say the best predictor of what your wife will look like tomorrow is "what does her mother look like now?"

Weren't all these round 47 yr old ladies once 47 kilo babes too?

Wonder how many guys would be "ok' with their wife sporting the bod of their mother inlaw?

I believe by that time it's not supposed to matter so much. If you've been married for 20+ years, sure it's nice to have a partner that's in great shape and still looks beautiful, but that's where the "through thick and thin" (emphasis on thick!) comes in. You should be able to love them even if they have no face or no legs or something to that effect. Sure, weight gain isn't comparable to a car accident or another form of disfigurement, but hopefully you're more in love with the person than the person's looks.

My wife said she's just going to have lyposuction and facial surgery and all that to be beautiful forever. I said, "Well, than eat up!" But for some reason she's yet to buy into my school of thought. Something about cholesterol and healty living... ah, foooey.

I know some that have gained too. But some that have stayed the same, also, due to adjustments in lifestyle.

Another thing to add... You don't just wake up the next day having found yourself 5 kilos more than the day before. When you find yourself a kilo or two heavier, maybe do something now instead of waiting for the other two or three to join the party.

Since Oprah's been mentioned here before, and we all know she's the champion of "gaining a few" and then "losing a few" I'll go ahead and jump on her bandwagon. I'm the type of guy that can gain 5 kilos in a very short time and before I know it, it's been three months and I'm 30 pounds heavier.

But, as Jeffery pointed out, all it takes is a little adjustment and boom! that 30 pounds never even happened. Easier to do when it's only 11 pounds as opposed to 30. And the women definitely know it. Hell, they know when they've gained a single pound, so 5 kilos is no surprise.

Best thing to to, as said, is keep that active lifestyle going. Now if I could just break away from VJ.....

True, but if you compared 50+ year old women from Russia and the US, I think you'd see that our older ladies here maintain a slimmer figure. Its also true that American women age better.

Older American women have more options for health care and beauty.

I disagree on grounds that American women aren't necessarily slimmer, it's just that they've been bigger their entire lives so by the time they're "old" they don't seem to have gotten bigger the way the small young Russian woman turned into the "big" Russian old woman. The change is more gradual and less of a change actually. To add 25-40 pounds over a lifetime as opposed to adding 25-40 pounds after ritirement.

There is more of an attempt for women to "stay beautiful" even in old age here more than anywhere else in the world (except maybe Italy or France or something.) I bet that's probably more due to marketing and the beliefs than anything else. In many cultures, an "old" woman is revered because of her age and life experience, wisdom, etc. Here, she's just "old and ugly." That's kind of sad.

[Kazan' Tiger 1]

Slim, exactly! Every day Alla gets on the scale. She always has. If she sees a rise of even one kilo, she simply cuts back or picks up the pace for a few days. As soon as her magic number returns, all is normal. In the year we lived together over there, her weight only "grew up", in her words, twice. Both times it took her less than three days to return to her "goal" mass. This truly is the secret, if you will. It is easier to maintain something then repair it!

Since Oprah's been mentioned here before, and we all know she's the champion of "gaining a few" and then "losing a few" I'll go ahead and jump on her bandwagon. I'm the type of guy that can gain 5 kilos in a very short time and before I know it, it's been three months and I'm 30 pounds heavier.

But, as Jeffery pointed out, all it takes is a little adjustment and boom! that 30 pounds never even happened. Easier to do when it's only 11 pounds as opposed to 30. And the women definitely know it. Hell, they know when they've gained a single pound, so 5 kilos is no surprise.

Best thing to to, as said, is keep that active lifestyle going. Now if I could just break away from VJ.....

[Danno 1,228]

We just need to keep our Russian ladies living an active lifestyle into their golden years. Maybe we can break the trend. And for God's sake keep them away from Oprah and the television as much as you can!.....

Actually the American lifestyle lends itself to getting fat especially if you live outside of big cities. I know of many ladies who moved here and easily gained 10 pounds a year and quickly lost their figure!

Yes I agree, I liken her move here to putting a "freeze-dried" babe in water.

[eekee 182]

I disagree on grounds that American women aren't necessarily slimmer, it's just that they've been bigger their entire lives so by the time they're "old" they don't seem to have gotten bigger the way the small young Russian woman turned into the "big" Russian old woman. The change is more gradual and less of a change actually. To add 25-40 pounds over a lifetime as opposed to adding 25-40 pounds after ritirement.

There is more of an attempt for women to "stay beautiful" even in old age here more than anywhere else in the world (except maybe Italy or France or something.) I bet that's probably more due to marketing and the beliefs than anything else. In many cultures, an "old" woman is revered because of her age and life experience, wisdom, etc. Here, she's just "old and ugly." That's kind of sad.

While I do know more American girls who are on the heavy side than Russian ones, I think that fat american girls are a recent phenomenom. If you look at my mom's high school yearbook, there's a higher percentage of thin girls than in mine--although perhaps that is due to my mother living in an area with a heavy Russian/Ukrainian/Belarusian immigrant population!

I've always been thin though.

I think the key difference about Russian and American women in middle age is that women in America now, the baby-boomers, totally see it as the "me" time in their life, where now they get to do what they want and spend a lot of time on themselves. The vast majority of the Russian women I know of this age are still taking care of other people: husbands/adult sons/grandchildren.

Edited January 20, 2008 by eekee

[slim 1,514]

While I do know more American girls who are on the heavy side than Russian ones, I think that fat american girls are a recent phenomenom. If you look at my mom's high school yearbook, there's a higher percentage of thin girls than in mine--although perhaps that is due to my mother living in an area with a heavy Russian/Ukrainian/Belarusian immigrant population!

True in the recent development of "fatness" but probably a little off on the reasoning. If you look at the lifestyles of your mother's era as opposed to your own there was a significant difference in how the family was structured, how that influenced diet and excercise and how that, in turn, effected peoples' body shapes.

Back in the day, there was a "core" family where mom did the cooking and the kids "ate their vegetables" and there was no X-Box or Playstation, no cell phones and no e-mail. There weren't 34 fast-food restaurants on the main drag of every small town and mom wasn't too busy working to cook dinner for dad and the kids. (Even if she was too busy working, she still did her "womanly duties" at home.) And, she was expected to have a nice shape.

Fastforward 30 years and now most women work and that "core" family isn't what it used to be. The "two" heads of the family both work and while Junior's out at soccer practice and little Suzy has her dance lessons, there's really no time for dinner because both mom and dad are busy finishing up TPS reports and trying to shuttle the kids around. No time for dinner? Oh well, we'll just pick something up on the way home where we'll watch it in front of the TV. Nothing says family values like processed food and lame plots. There's absolutely no way we'd ever "talk" to each other!

And now since mom's so busy, how can she ever have time to excercise and eat healthy? She's had the prerequisite 2.3 kids, she can strap on that 30 extra pounds whenever she wants. No big deal. After all, she's had kids! And she's a working mom!

In Russia, regardless of how many kids a woman has or what kind of job she has or what she does in her spare time or any other factor... she's still a woman. And woman must looks like woman looks; with nice shape. With figure. With beauty and elegance. With not greasy @$$.

But, like in the U.S., this is changing as well. Who knows, maybe our children will be looking at our mothers' yearbooks and saying "wow, look how thin all the ladies were."

I've always been thin though.

Not all American women are fat. Not all Russian women are skinny. It's a personal choice, it's just been made more acceptable here in the U.S. When I stand in a crowd here, I'm chubby, at best. But when I'm in Russia, I'm the fat guy, hands down!

I think the key difference about Russian and American women in middle age is that women in America now, the baby-boomers, totally see it as the "me" time in their life, where now they get to do what they want and spend a lot of time on themselves. The vast majority of the Russian women I know of this age are still taking care of other people: husbands/adult sons/grandchildren.

That could be true, but do they need to spend all that "me" time concentrating on making themselves larger? That seems to be what a lot of them are doing. I'm not saying it's wrong or bad or anything like that. I really could care less. But what gets me about the whole women/thin/fat thing is women themselves set the standards and then want to complain when the standards don't suit them anymore. If you're not happy with the shape/size of your body, then quit reading Cosmo and Shape and watching America's Next Top Model. Or, do something about it. Either way... quit b!tching!

[panamania79 2]

My fiancée wanted nothing to do with a diamond ring. Primarily, she just considers they are gaudy and a waste of money. Secondly, she feels such a ring does not belong on city streets and she wanted to feel comfortable wearing her ring daily. She picked out a very practical yet beautiful ring. I know I would definitely be concerned about my fiancée having such a ring taken. I've yet to see a large diamond ring on the finger of any Russian lady in Kazan'. If you want to go big, maybe save it for Stateside to be on the save side.

I think your fiance and I are the only women on earth who dislike diamonds.