Let's get MOVE-ing!

EXERCISE... love it or hate it, it's something we all should be doing every day!   As a fat girl, it's never been on the top of any of my "To Do" lists (thus fat girl), but since I committed to this life-changing weight loss SURGERY, I knew that I could no longer sit on my ass and would need to get up off of it and MOVE it frequently. So that necessitated finding some things I would enjoy (or I'd never keep it up)... and I dug deep into the recesses of my mind to try to even REMEMBER anything that used the words "enjoy" and "exercise" in the same sentence. Everybody, from my doc to my sister, kept saying to me pre-surgery, "You KNOW that you are going to HAVE to exercise after surgery.  You can't just expect this surgery to do all the work.  So you'd better be figuring out what it is going to be."  And I knew this. At my FIRST post-op visit of 1 week, my doc asked me "SO, what are you doing for exercise?"  I told him that "as soon as I felt like it, I was going to star****er aerobics."  He said "I want you doing some exercise NOW." I was thinking "MAN, I just got off the operating table a week ago... easy for you to say!" Again in 2 weeks, I got the same from him. (And I'm glad he's so adamant about this.)  It was after that visit I followed thru on what I was telling him and everybody else and drove over to the Y (21 miles),  pulled out my credit card, and joined, paying for a YEAR (instead of monthly) and make my commitment right then and there.  I also paid for 5 sessions with a personal trainer.  If somebody had told me 6 or 8 months ago I'd be paying to work with a personal trainer, I would have said "Get outta town!"   We have GOT to exercise.  Everywhere we turn these days, we are seeing how important that is to being healthy and losing weight or maintaining weight loss.  We can't sit on our arses and think surgery is a magic bullet!  We DO have the money to invest in something when it comes to exercise, because we can take the money saved on food we no longer eat and INVEST it in ourselves!  But there are so many ways to exercise w/out spending much, if anything.  Walking costs nothing.  Videos are cheap.  Turning on the radio and dancing nekkid is free. This severe weight loss journey, in order to be long-term successful, requires a commitment more than just surgery and watching what we put in our mouth. Having said all that, I hope you will post what exercises you do...  What fat and calorie burning exercises do you ENJOY?  I believe that doing something one enjoys is the key to longevity in excercise... and I'd like to see everybody share their exercise commitment because I might see something you are doing that I haven't thought about.  I get bored with routine so I have to have several things that I can rotate around because once I'm bored, I quit and fail!  I AM DETERMINED THAT I WILL NOT QUIT AND FAIL THIS TIME. I hope you'll share that determination with me. I would even love to see folks coming to this post (or a new one) on "What I did to Shake My Booty Today!"  Maybe by being accountable to each other, it will keep us on track. Right now, I: -Do water aerobics 2-3 times a week -Try to walk 2-4 miles on the off days (but don't always make that)  Some days I SKIP on my walks... there's a whole web site dedicated to the exercise of skipping! -Put on my tap shoes at least once a week and tap for 20-30 minutes -Do leg stretches in the bed either when I wake up in the AM or when I go to bed at night with a belt thingy. -Use my 3 lb. hand weights (bought at Dollar Store) when sitting and watching TV at night. I aspire to: -Keep trying to REMEMBER to park far out in grocery store (and other) parking lots... old habits die hard, and I'm so used to finding the closest one possible.   -Keep trying to REMEMBER to take steps at places where I can (again, old habits die hard and things like this require consciousness!) -Get going with my personal trainer (we meet for 2nd session on Thursday) to learn and do more pieces of equipment at the Y for strength training and toning -Add some arm weights when I walk -Walk MORE (when I do that the lbs. seem to fall off me) -Add one more fun DVD workout each week at home and floor exercises (which are more stretching than anything) -Use the stretchy thing my BIL gave me for Christmas. -Remember to put my pedometer on when I walk and keep up with steps! -Add some sort of class there at the Y outside of the pool (need to investigate them and what I can handle at this point) -Thinking about signing up for a dance class at Arthur Murray... for exercise and to meet people too. -Work with that big ball my BIL gave me! -Still trying, after nearly 50 years, to hula hoop!  Can't seem to master that to save my life! -Remember that I can get up and do something for just 10 minute spurts and get benefit (and not give myself excuse that "I don't have time.") -Remember to go onto BCBS Blue Points each week and log my daily exercise to keep earing points/gifts! -And UGH, drink more water as part of this "program" too. That should keep me busy for a while. NEXT....................

You are so right. I am a big failure at exercise and I know this will be my single biggest struggle. I hate getting all sweaty. I've joined multiple gyms, bought many dvd's, and even had a home gym with an elliptical and exercise bench. For whatever lame reason none of this has worked for me. Shortly before making the decision to have WLS I sold the elliptical. What a dumb mistake! I really do have a lot going on in my life. Full-time work, full-time school, and a son with Asperger's Syndrome to name a few. I really don't have a lot of time, but with having WLS I'll be making a new commitment to me! I'm worth 30 minutes a day to do some moving. So after much consideration my husband and I purchased a treadmill. Hopefully it will arrive soon so I can start working on creating a new habit. I know that it will be hard for me to get to a gym with all that I have going on. So the treadmill was the best option for guaranteeing that I will walk at least 30 minutes a day. So my plan for after surgery will be to walk at least 30 minutes a day, use my pedometer to make sure I take at least 5000 steps a day, (10,000 steps would be considered 5 miles) play Wii Sports with my husband and son, purchase a bike so we can bike ride as a family when the weather gets warmer, and SWIM when we can open our pool again. I will need everyone's encouragement to make this happen. Lord knows I hate exercise...

I was walking 3 miles every other day.  I sort of got out of that habit over Novermber and December and I saw my weight loss grind to a near halt.  So what I've been doing these days is going to the gym every other day.  I was doing Ladies Workout Express, but I sort of "outgrew" it.  So I have joined ViQuest with my husband.  I really like it a lot and find that my body is responding very fast to weight training.  I agree, we all need to be exercising in some capacity.  Jennifer is a great resource for this topic too.  She is doing several things and has tried a lot.  I eagerly await what she has to say. Eventually, I would like to try something like Yoga or Pilates, but that will have to wait until my schedule permits. Good luck and take care. Ellen

Ellen, I LOVE that new picture!

Right now I'm too embrassed to go out into the world to exercise so I do it at home with DVD's. I use Leslie Sansone's walk at home DVD's. It's easy to follow,just marching in place, kicks, side steps and knee lifts. I do this walk aerobics 30-45 minutes a day.If I can do it anybody can. Helen

I walk a mile at lunch with my sister.  I got off my ass this morning and walked.  I have walked a couple of times after work too.  There is a walking track at the hospital 2 mins from where I work.  I pass it going home.    So, my goal is to walk a mile before work, a mile at lunch, and a mile after work.  My dad got me "the bean" for Christmas.  I do some situps on that.  I feel like I am not doing it right, because sit ups are so easy on it.  But, the next day my sides were sore, so it might work.  I want to join Curves, but I am not sure. 

My personal experience on Curves is that it just isn't "enough" of a workout to accomplish much.  Be sure to check it out well before paying and committing to a contract.  I used mine the first month or two, and got quickly bored there.  It's EZ to go in and get talked into that contract like I did when they had their grand opening here in town a few years ago... me and several girlfriends let it happen to us.  None of us stuck with it, but were "stuck" with a year of monthly payments! In addition to not feeling like I was making any progress, their color scheme to me is terribly depressing!  Those gloomy feeling lavenderish walls in there aren't motivating at all for me.  I felt like I was in a dungeon and most of the women there leaned towards senior citizens out for a 30 minute social event. It might be the perfect place for you, but just be SURE before signing the dotted line.

That is exactly what I was thinking.  It doesn't seem like it is that much of a workout.  There were lots of senior citizens where I went and they were talking and trying to get nosey. hahaha  They wouldn't even "change stations" sometimes b/c they were talking so hard.  hahahaa  Yeah that year contract stinks.  Thanks for the advice.  I agree with you 100%.

Hi Miss Stacy.  When you coming to G-vegas again?  I haven't seen you in a while!  Call me sometime we can "do lunch" or something.  I work during the week, but I'm off on the weekend for the most part. Take care. Ellen

OK...my turn!  :) I know I'm going to be an unusual one here, but I've always enjoyed certain amounts of exercise.  There are so many things out there that qualify as exercise, I'm a firm believer in finding the things that you enjoy.  My husband is a fitness fanatic, so we do a lot of things together, which makes the exercise even more fun for me!  :)  We take the dogs on long walks, we play tennis/racquetball, go on hikes and play Dance Dance Revloution video games.  Occassionaly we go to the gym together too.   On my own, I go to yoga 1-2 times a week, and a few weeks ago I started swimming again.  Yippee!  Swimming is my favorite!  I've been swimming about 5 days a week.  I also have an eliptical machine and a "Total Gym" at home which are great for those days that I just don't want to go anywhere. So, that's what I do right now.  What I want to do in the future is: 1-Run!  I had started the couch to 5K program, but ran into a lot of pain with my right hip.  So, I decided to back off from running in the interest of not doing any permanent damage.  But, I still want to accomplish the 5K some day (that's a ways away though.) 2-Push myself in each workout.  I want to continuously try new things - or improve in my performance.  Believe me, there is tons of room for improvement in everything I do physically!  I've always worked out a lot, just not in a really hard-core way. 3-Sit-ups and stretching.  I have to remember to do my daily sit-ups and stretches.  I always feel better after I do it, don't know why it's so hard to get to that point!  :) 4-I'd like to do some more weight training.  This could be from going to the gym, or being a little harder in what I choose to do on my "Total Gym".  That in combination with swimming should help my toning quite a bit. The bottom line:  I truly believe that the more exercise I get, the better my results will be.  Don't get me wrong, I'm not spending all day every day exercising...far from it!  There are days that I just can't seem to get my butt off the couch, but I am determined to get some kind of activity in at least 5 days a week.  If I keep up with that, then I'm happy.