No motivation to exercise

I went through all of this and I have NOOOOOOOOO motivation to exercise.  I'm only 5 weeks out and down 29 lbs. 

My mother had the surgery in July and is almost at her goal weight-- When I told her that I am suppose to get down to 110 lbs. she said YOU HAVE A LONG WAY TO GO IF YOU ARE ONLY AT 29 LBS...  

Some days all I want to do is eat-- of course I can't because of the pouch..I did cheat and eat some chips and felt guilty !!!!!!!!!

29 pounds at 5 weeks out is fantastic!! average is 3-5 pounds a week so you are above average. You are further than I was at 5 weeks and at 6 months I'm over 100 pounds down. Don't sweat it just stick to your plan. You may also want to see a therapist about why you want to eat and what is triggering it. I give a lot of credit to my therapist training me to think about it before I eat it. I've cheated some but never mindlessly I've always done it after asking myself why I want it and clarify that it wasn't emotion driven.

Thank you for your kind words and encouragement.  I hope you had a Merry Christmas!

Hey,

You need not to worry. If you desire and believe that you can achieve the un-achievable, then definitely you will do that one day. Getting motivated for work out in the morning is just as simple by considering your bloated look in your mind and the fellow who is your best buddy simply criticizing you for that look of your. Loosing all the good and your favorite clothes that you wish to buy or have would be wasted is the thing that will get you on to your nerves for kicking off your day with a workout.

All the Best

i found that there is no such thing as motivation to exercise when you first begin moving. After my surgery last April, I gave myself a month to heal and decided it was time to move. I was able to barely make it 10 minutes on the treadmill. My husband had bought me a treadmill 5 years prior and it was in the corner of my garage and I had never gotten on it. I did not even know how to turn the thing on.

I made myself walk on that thing everyday for 10 minutes. After 2 weeks i was up to 20 minutes because I added a minute everyday when I could. I HATED EVERY minute i was on that thing. It began to get hot out and I decided to start working out indoors and got the Leslie Sansone DVD. First,  I did the mile walk and a week later i started doing the 2 mile walk. I did that for 2 months before I could get up to 3 miles. I HATED EVERY MINUTE OF IT.

Everyday I had an inner battle about whether to do it or not. I had no motivation. I had heard about Zumba and loved the music. I saw there was a zumba class in the water at my local pool. Then I saw a news clip on TV about how the trainer cannot see your legs while doing zumba aquatics, so if you screw up it wont be embarrassing. I decided to try it. I LOVED IT. I found a pool in my area that had classes daily and started going. I loved the pool and tried a water aerobics class and loved that even more.  I puchased a gym membership and the rest is history.

I went from a 54 y/o woman who had never worked out in her entire life to someone who works out  2 hrs daily. I cannot get enough of the gym. I do 60 minutes on the machines and then either take a water aerobics class or work out for an hour in the pool by myself. I have muscles, definition and my husband cannot believe it. I can bench press 100 lbs, and have more motivation now than I have ever had.

Working out is not something that starts out positive. In the beginning it feels like a job with terrible physical labor. But, if you find something you enjoy, I promise you after a while you will be like all the other muscle heads; in love with working out. You will even miss it on your off days. You will have boundless energy, sleep great, and have wonderful self-esteem.

I was a 356 lb sedentary person and 7 months later I am 100 lbs lighter and a gym rat. If I can do it, anyone can. I used to park in the handicapped spot because I was so out of shape it hurt to walk into the store. I threw that handicapped placard away 3 months ago. I look back and I am ashamed that I took a spot from someone who really needed it. 

Now when I get on the treadmill an hour is nothing. I rarely get on it though, too boring for me. i prefer the arc trainer because the burn is so good.

Good Luck,

Sharon

So, how are you doing today Robin?

Aloha Robin-

I'm rarely on OH anymore because I do not need the intense support it offered me ( months pre op and a couple years post op). But I remember fearing post op exercise was going to be my downfall. So you are getting my long version!

I HATED exercise during my SMO 30s and 40s . Even before that, when I was just heavy and not SMO, I hated to exercise- I rode horses and they did all the work except mucking stalls and throwing hay bales around, which is quite physical! A friend told me she'd walk with me post op- good to prevent blood clots- so for 3 weeks til I could get into the water, e walked every day. Our first week was 10 minutes per day. The second was 20 mins daily...and by  the third week I could walk for 30 mins each day. Talking with her allowed me to pace myself and control my breathing. If I walked on my own, I put my iPod on. MUSIC MUSIC MUSIC is key for me to work out- if I forget my music, I will drive home to get it! 

After 3 weeks I was cleared for water exercise- so I did aquasize because it was the only thing I could do without sweating.... they played MUSIC which was key.... I wasn't the only fat person in the class.... the water was so supportive of my aching joints....and because I FELT like 140 pounds in the water because I was so buoyant from my 77% body fat. I'd wear a sarong as a skirt over my suit walking out to the pool, then drop it right before I'd get in the water so I wasn't on display to everyone. Tied it back on as soon as I was out of the water while I dried off. Did it for 5 months, starting 45 mins 3 days per week and eventually working my way up to 90 mins 6-7 days a week.

Once I was down 100 lbs, I felt sufficiently acceptable to be seen in public, at least  enough to start applying my 2 year old, never before used gym membership. So by 5 months post op I had 2 free personal trainer sessions and used them to learn free weights and HIIT (High Intensity Interval Training) on the cycle....HIIT uses variable speeds and heart rates to get more bang for your buck ( a workout is 45 mins rather than 60+) so I did that 2-3 days a week till I built up my cardio and lost another 60 lbs.

By then I was loving the workouts, both cardio and weight training- and found the courage to try cardio kickbox and tae bo. Even then, having worked out for 8-9 months and being down 160 lbs, it took me 6 weeks of twice weekly kickbox classes and twice weekly Gravity/ boot camp before I could get through an entire 45-60 minute class without dying. So at every stage, it took a while to get going. 

A few suggestions I can make from experience that might be helpful:

1) Use music to help fuel your workouts - have several playlists, each with warm up music, higher intensity music, and cool down music. I even have a waterproof SwimP3 that I bought myself at time of surgery so I could listen to my own tunes during Aquasize, swimming, and now stand up paddleboarding. LOVE it.

2) Mix up your regimen - don't just walk the treadmill, take walks outside - on a trail, through a park/garden, up/down hills - outdoors you get variability like unstabilty of ground, inclines up and declines down hills, wind, temperature- so not only does the scenery change but the intensity of your workout changes. Bring weights and  take 30 steps with them above your head, or do lunges for 20 paces - mix it up.

3) Get a buddy one day a week and make that a standing appointment for yourself- no cancelling out. My trainer also taught me that you schedule your workouts like a doctor appointment, x number of days per week -and you have to go each appt- either to the club park or class. Even if you end up not working out, you have to at least drive to and walk in the door. Then if you feel like turning around and skipping your workout, you can...but usually once you're there, your attitude has changed and you'll commit to the exercise. In the past 4.5 years, I can safely say I skipped only 2 workouts once I'd walked in the door- and one time was instead taking part in a blood drive they were hosting that day so I could still say I did something good for someone. The other was getting a massage instead- and I didn't berate myself, I just said I was doing something different for myself that day.

4) Mix it up- if you do the same thing every day you WILL get bored and your body will become more efficient at the workout, finding ways to "cheat" and burn fewer calories. Try different cardio- my life bucket list now has things checked off it like surfing, boxing, standup paddleboarding and I have added even more to my list of Want To Dos....rock climbing, a triathlon and completing a mile ocean swim with my kids. 

5)Take a weekly day of rest where you do nothing more than stretching or yoga- I pooh poohed yoga and now find it to be a great stress reliever and flexibility enhancer- both things I SUCKED at before. It gives your muscles a chance to heal ( this is when they actually build, during recovery phase!)

6)Try different forms of resistance training ....free weights are much more versatile than machines, and every hotel will have free weights while not all will have your kind of machine. You can balance on one leg while doing bicep curls, use a Bosu or exercise ball, do TRX cable training, plnk floor workouts, use resistance bands in your hotel room, try Pilates or Gravity class- all winners.

7) Be SMART about your workout eating- some kind of mixed protein/carb/fat balanced meal pre exercise then a protein shake afterwards. Protein first ALWAYS, and supplement with your protein drinks or bars if you are so early post op you cannot get all your protein in. Minimum 70 g/day, you should try and exceed 100/day of you are trying to build muscle or for when you heal after plastics ( and yes, you can get there!). Protein first fills you up so you don't have room for crap like potato chips and smoothes out your blood sugar spikes which not only makes you dizzy but also helps avoid the simple carb or High GI index meal /// rapid BG spike /// Insulin spike ///  rapid BG plummet //// crave more carbs! Remember if you are an RNY, your simple carb**** your intestine before being processed much by your stomach ( now pouch) and duodenum ( now bypassed). Find ways to get protein in ALWAYS and try to eat your dense protein first - Plain NF Greek yogurt. Edamame and quinoa and whole beans. Egg white scrambles with red bell peppers and grated parmesan cheeseFortified NF milk ( 1/4 cup NF dry milk powder added to every cup of NF milk in your fridge....then use this to make your SF puddings, cream of chicken or tomato soups, oatmeal, etc. Aside from milk and cottage cheese, avoid things "white"...no bread rice pasta or refined sugar. If you feel like a starch, make it a baked sweet potato or steamed mashed cauliflower whipped with chicken stock and your fortified milk mixture If you crave rice, try quinoa instead. If you crave a chip, try a tortilla chip LOADED with whole bean, NF sour cream and some shredded cheese and salsa - 2 of those whole bean loaded chips and you should be too full for anything else for a while

8) Buy a tape measure and take your measurements quickly NOW before you've lost much more. Neck, bust, right below your bust, waist, hips, upper thigh and bicep (at the consistently same places on your leg/arm). Then take those MONTHLY and write them down. There will be times when you plateau and the scale will barely budge....but I guarantee if you are exercising with cardio AND weight training, you'll lose inches as you lose body fat and gain body muscle even if the scale does not drop- you are changing your body composition to more lean body mass and lower body fat. Of course your clothes will fit better, so have a fashion show in the mirror every month, as you go through your closet  - nothing more motivating. You'll find that shopping for new clothes is pointless- you'll go to a different size every 3 weeks- this is where thrift stores come in, and you'll be stoked that you can wear sizes of great things at thrift stores. The choices are far more limited when you're in a 5X than a size L and then eventually S. Your SHOE SIZE will even change!

9) Don't forget the extra things that fuel your metabolism and energy so you can exercise- your vites ( esp Bcomplex), multivite with iron for women, plenty of sleep, water! I used to make snow cones with shaved ice and pour a fruity liquid protein shot over the ice , then eat it that way with a spoon - satisfied the desire to eat and chew, and not just drink, and got my protein to boot. Bcomplex replaced caffeine as my drug of choice ( we were told to give up caffeine pre op and I never took it up gain.) Stress is a killer- the released cortisol defeats our weight loss attempts, breaks down body muscle, enhances belly fat

10) Please don't compare yourself to anyone else who has had your surgery, or exercising at your club, or derails you. I did find that I had no appetite after surgery - a benefit of just the sleeve or with all surgeries I'm not sure- and still don't after almost 5 years post op. But I have heard that those with hunger are actually in need of anti-ulcer or anti-acid meds like Protonix or Famotidine , and that people on certain anti depressents struggle with huger because of the meds. Every BODY is different, it's a unique journey for each of us. Some go down the steep  trail quickly, others walk down at a slower pace- but the important thing is to get down the mountain eventually. You will get there too.

Hope this was aimed at exercise ( I hated it too!) as well as staying on track. You will do it, chiqua. Mahalo for reading this ong winded post! XoLori

Well, I'm happy to announce that I have been going to swim aerobics for two weeks straight now.  I hit a turning point 2 weeks ago where I started to feel like myself again-- and like I actually had energy.  I don't know maybe I just took a little longer emotionally to heal too.

I'm down 47 lbs. and feeling great!!

Thank you everyone for sharing your stories and your support.