For those of you not working out post-op....

8 months later and I'm FINALLY working out....and I don't mean walks. I have always taken little walks here and there but I mean working out in the gym longer than a day here and there. I want to cry every time I realize something positive that has come out of my surgery. Ok let me explain...So I decided to finally hit the gym last week and I even paid a personal trainer at my gym after my "AH HA!" moment! So I get on the Eliptical (don't know the spelling) which I was always too scared to get on because I always thought that there was nooooo way I was going to survive 5 min on it. Mind you, I was 390lbs! I wouldn't last 3 min.....I finally gained enough courage to try it despite my fat girl mentally that I wouldn't last and I was sooooo surprised that on my first attempt I did 2.2 miles in 30min and I was not tired!!! Sure I was less energetic than when I got on but I could have kept going and I was so shocked that it was not even difficult. Present day I am down 130lbs and I cannot imagine carrying 130lbs right now and trying to workout yet that's what I was carrying around 8 months ago. I have been going to the gym everyday and its not even hard! I actually enjoy it. 5 months ago I would have not been this enthusiastic because it would have still been hard and I still need to retrain my brain to stop thinking I'm this morbidly obese girl that cant do anything. That's why I'm posting this....don't be afraid to take a leap and do something you might have never been too comfortable doing and just try because you might be pleasantly surprised. I wish I would have started working out a lot sooner but I cant change that now I can just change it from this point forward. We drop weight so fast that our brains don't have enough time to catch up sometimes. I would have never guessed I could jog a mile and not feel like I was going to have a heart attack! Oh and the biggest plus is I have been losing about 1-2 lbs everyday since I've been working out. It really does make a huge difference. I always lost 10lbs out of nowhere but I much rather gradually and consistently lose weight instead of 10lbs every 4 weeks and stall for the next 3. Ok well I just wanted to share my moment of clarity with all of you. I hope this encourages at least 1 person to try something they are STILL scared about post op because like I said you might be pleasantly surprised that your experience will be nothing like you remember, only better.

Lovely, so happy for you! I thought it helps a person not have such loose skin issues when you work out? It definitely helps when you have stamina out of no where to run and...say catch a bus, or catch a flight etc but the muscle tone is really really great. I was out for a walk with the hubbie the other day and he grabbed my hand and I momentarily looked down to grab his and I saw this womans arm that has a nice defined bicep on it. Not mine my brain thought before it could register. Yes it's mine. How bizarre life is! So glad you're enjoying it!

Have you made a fun play list for your ipod? Having a good beat that you enjoy is supposed to increase your workout efforts by ~30% without you even feeling the difference.

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Originally Posted by slim_again

Lovely, so happy for you! I thought it helps a person not have such loose skin issues when you work out? It definitely helps when you have stamina out of no where to run and...say catch a bus, or catch a flight etc but the muscle tone is really really great. I was out for a walk with the hubbie the other day and he grabbed my hand and I momentarily looked down to grab his and I saw this womans arm that has a nice defined bicep on it. Not mine my brain thought before it could register. Yes it's mine. How bizarre life is! So glad you're enjoying it!

Have you made a fun play list for your ipod? Having a good beat that you enjoy is supposed to increase your workout efforts by ~30% without you even feeling the difference.

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You know I was concerned for the skin when I first had my surgery but I knew regardless I was going to have to have surgery to remove the skin and unfortunately I didn't think about it much after that. I know I could have prevented a little bit of the lose skin but not much. I was almost 400lbs and you cant really do much with that. Nowadays I'm more concerned about getting healthy so I can hopefully get pregnant one day (crossing fingers) I'm sure after a baby I might be too busy to care about my excess skin...so we will see :D

PS. I do listen to my playlist while working out and it really does help!

It's not easy, but I'm happy for you guys. Eight months post-op kinda feels safe, but there's just some fear attached to it. You see, before my surgery, I kept overthinking how I'll lose my muscles and started researching how long it takes to lose gains? Can you lose muscle in some months? How long does it take to lose strength? And other related fitness questions. But even before then, I was told I could start lifting light weights in about two months.

Thank you for sharing your experiences with us on this forum. As a new user it is interesting for me to read such posts.