Do you excercise and what is your routine??

Just wondering what everyone's routine is? Or if you have one at all :)

I am just walking now but plan to add back pilates, resistance bands and wii fit routines. I am just not a gym person...tried to force myself many times, but I hate every second of it!

I love hiking and lots of outdoor activities so I'm looking forward to being much smaller when the weather warms up. My 250 lb butt had a hate hate relationship with my bicycle seat LOL

I hope this is enough for me to get to goal and maintain!

My Dr recommends walk as a first exercise.  I didn't do much because of my hips and knees.  As the weight has come off, they hurt much less. 
I go to Curves at least 3x a week, sometime 5x.  I exercise with the Wii and have started doing floor exercise, pilaties/yoga stuff most days when I don't go to Curves.  I also have 2 ponies to ride and drive when the weather allows and feed, put out hay, water, clean the barn 2x a day.  This much has kept me losing most of the time.  I seem to have a pattern that includes a week of no loss every so often.  Otherwise, I seem to lose about a pound every 3 days.

I think the guidelines are mixed. My surgeon only wants us walking and doing light weights while we're losing. Once you're at goal, he says you can increase to heavier weights and jogging. I still just walk and am doing leaning push-ups.

--gina

I am down to two one hr. workouts a week at the gym with a trainer.  I started out 5 days a week 6 months before surg, and have just cut back recently.  If I didn't have my trainer right now, I'm not sure I would continue (I am SO LAZY).  I think "just walking" is GREAT exercise.  My trainer says "just moving" is the key.  If you like what you are doing, I'd say stick with it.

Jane

My doc says the same as Gina. Walk the first and nothing too strenous. After the first year hit the gym including weights.
Right now, I play on the Wii and do what I can there. I do the yoga,any game on the fit and playing the just dance. They also have Zumba so I am looking forward to buying that on Wii.

I have worked out increasingly hard since I was cleared for exercise at 2 months out. I don't have a gym near my house, so I bought an elliptical machine and weight bench. The elliptical was uncomfortable since I am so short, so I sold it and bought a treadmill. I love it. I started running outside too. I hate the weights, but I do them anyway. I work out 6 days a week (the first couple of weeks were really hard, but once I got in a routine, I'm addicted and feel like crap if I miss a day). I do a long cardio session, push-ups, and crunches one day, then a 30 minute fast walk, weights, and core exercises the next. Friday is my total day off. My arms were saggy and droopy, but now they are very muscular and defined. I have a 6pack (although the bottom of it has some wrinkled skin). I also was below goal in 5 months. I'm not trying to be a know it all or go against anyone's recommendations, but I cannot for the life of me understand why a surgeon would tell someone no hard exercise while losing? It makes the pounds drop a ton faster, and gets you healthier, the list of benefits goes on and on.

The first couple of months were difficult for me, especially after spending 2 weeks in the hospital. I was also anemic, so finding the energy to do anything besides walking, seemed overwhelming. Currently, I am doing much better, the anemia is resolving, and I am ready to do more than walk on my breaks at work.  I am about 3.5 months out.

I started working with a trainer 2 days/week last week, and she is starting me with basic resistance exercises and light weights. We will build from there. I also started a pilates class last night. I need to add in more cardio and feel like I can do it now.

Your plan sounds good. Home DVDs and the Wii have helped a lot of people. Be careful with lifting, since most surgeons restrict lifting anything more than 10-20 lbs for the first 6-8 weeks. When the weather gets better, hiking sounds like fun and is a great exercise.

I'm with Shannon, for the added reason that when I don't have intense exercise, my mood is worse.  I need the endorphins!  Walking just doesn't get there (at least in my experience.  I walk a lot, too, and very fast - I'm a New Yorker!)  ;)

My workout is basically alternating 90 minute ballet classes with 30 minute runs.  I do all this on workdays for the energy (I have much more energy when I work out than when I don't.)  

I can understand the logic of not working out too much to trick the scale, sortof.  But I also know that WLS patients can lose oodles of muscle.  Our medical team encourages as much working out as we can do, because they want us to retain/build as much muscle as possible - it's better for us metabolically and physically.  

I would say, Char, that you should try not to think too much about what your body liked before.  You will feel differently as the lbs continue to drop off.  I used to HATE exercise.  And no wonder.  Who would want to exercise while carrying a few 30 lb bags of dog food???  ;)

Good luck working this out (pun intended.)  And come join us on the fitness challenge - you'll share in our struggles with getting it all together.  And we push each other (gently) too.

Shannon,

When did you start working out?
From what I have seen online and on Youtube is that the first 6-7 months are the critical months for dropping the most weight.  Working out (even though we hate it) is really going to boost the amount of weight lost and also build up muscle. 

I think Doctors don't want patients to do too much too soon out of fear of injuries but logically it does make sense to optimize those early months as much as possible.

I go to Zumba on Mon & Wed.  The rest of the week I do 30 min treadmill at the gym and usually 20 min weights.   On the days where I dont make it to the gym I do hand weights at home or sweating to the oldies tapes.   Cindy