Thanks, Stacey. You really are lucky that exercise was introduced to you early on. You've got a huge advantage going forward.
As a kid I was a couch potato. Kept my head in a book constantly, worked hard at school, worked after school. In high school and college I did get into tennis and one summer actually lost 20 pounds because I played tennis for hours every night after work.
As an adult I was sporadically active and sporadically back to the couch. But I did learn a lot about exercise and developed some considerable enthusiasm for what it could do for my body and how it made me feel.
And then around age 30 I discovered hiking, backpacking, and trekking. Got into it big time (sraebaer will appreciate this). I fell in love with mountains and have done some major treks around the world at very high altitude.
Anyway, early on post-op my therapist was all over my butt about
What Kind of Exercise Are You Going to Do Long-Term? The first year I walked, and that's about all I did. Then these last two years I've added in yoga / aquarobics classes. And doing these three things every week is exactly what works for me.
Now, post-op, I exercise 5-6 days a week. At my age (nearly 72) it's smart not to do the same exercise day after day. Frankly, I think cross-training is the smart thing for everyone to do. I worry about those who run daily and do no other kind of exercise. Eventually, I fear that will wear out some critical body parts. But I guess that's something everyone needs to learn for themselves. On the other hand, it's certainly possible that someone can do a single sport most of their lives. Obviously, I know my own body better than I know anyone else's.
Finally, anyone who reads my posts know that I'm an avid My Fitness Pal tracker. I also track on MFP my daily exercise calories. I know that without those 1000-1500 calories/week that I regularly burn doing exercise there's NO WAY I could have maintained my weight so consistently for the past 2 years. In fact, without exercising I'd likely have REGAINED 30-45 pounds. Trust me. I've done the math.
If you're not exercising or you hate exercise, I hate to tell you that you just have to do it anyway. And the more you do it, the more you are likely to stop hating it. Exercise is funny that way.
One woman's experience. One woman's opinion.
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