Is moving around easier?

I'm getting close to getting a surgery date, and starting to get excited about the changes that I'll see. One thing that I'm having difficulty wrapping my head around is how I'm going to feel afterward. I've been working out consistently for a year. That's a year of 2-4 times a week at the gym doing a combo of heavy lifting and cardio. I feel like I've hit a wall. I've definitely made improvements over the past year, but there are some basic challenges that I didn't experience 50 lbs ago. I get winded on stairs, I avoid outings that I know will require a ton of walking, etc. I know logically weighing less will make this easier, but I guess I'd like to hear about it from real people?

Share your success with me please! :D

I never shied away from moving about- and thought my stamina was good even when I was 330#s. What I started noticing is I'd need a day or two to recover from exceptionally busy days. We did a trip to D.C. Just before my surgery and I recall my hip hurting badly at the end of the day.

No such problems anymore. I don't feel like my stamina has changed, but I don't experience the aches and pains that used to plague me afterwards.

I've probably shared this story before, but about a year pre-op my in-laws came to visit us and we went into DC with them. I had planned to do two days in DC but, after walking all day the first day, I was dead. Horrible shin splints and plantar fasciitis. I was in agony. So I skipped the second day.

A year later, about 5-6 weeks post-op, my in-laws (brother/SIL this time, not MIL/FIL) came to NYC to visit and we met up with them. And I walked EVERYWHERE for 3 straight days and felt awesome. And that was just 5-6 weeks post-op!!

Totally amazing.

I'm a month out and I'm noticing a nice increase in energy and I feel like I've got a bit of "pep in my step"

I'm looking forward to running. I want to be like Forest Gump.

This was (is) HUGE for me. I was a "light weight" pre-surgery and I didn't think my mobility and general endurance was impeded. It WAS. Majorly. I seriously feel like I'm gliding when I walk now and I can talk walking up hills, and while on the elliptical. This is stuff I've never been able to do!

OH absolutely. A lot of it was stuff that I didn't realize I was doing until I wasn't doing it anymore. Like, avoiding stairs (even in my own house), avoiding trips to the van for things (detached garage at the top of the hill), anxiety about waiting rooms and lawn furniture. I used to sit in a chair to wash the dinner dishes because I was too damned exhausted and hurting too much at the end of the day to do them standing.

Everything is easier.

The only thing that is not easier after surgery is making the owner of an all-you-can-eat buffet cry.

One of the rudest things anyone ever said to me came from a co-worker in another part of the university.

We were in the lunchroom and she said, "Oh you just look amazing!! AMAaaaaZING... I bet you are so glad that you lost all that weight and you aren't lazy anymore."

I kid you not. She said that. I won't go into details, but I promise you, she has not ever made the mistake of saying anything like that to anyone ever again ...

but, the other part of that is that it was so inaccurate. In fact, when I was 347 pounds, I was the most UNlazy person EVER. Why? Because the mere act of walking from the parking deck to my office left me out of breath. Everything was a supreme effort. Now? EVERYthing is easier. I can walk forever -- I am really rarely physically tired.

Kat- I can so relate! Some people are so ignorant

My jaw literally dropped reading that. People are SO RUDE sometimes!!