I did it

I exercised...for 12 minutes. ;-) Hey - it's a start. I did crunches and push ups when I got home from work/MD appt, and I was exhausted, so 12 minutes was better than nothing. My pre-op testing was from 3-3:30, and I waited to see my MD until 5:30. I brought my lap top to work on while I waited, but the hospital's wireless internet connection was down! I did as much as I could with things I had printed up and my blackberry, but I wasted too much time while I was waiting.

My MD weighed me, and I was down 6 lbs from the last time I was there, 6 weeks ago. Just as my scale is showing, I'm losing a lb/week now since I haven't been exercising. I suppose that is still good because a loss is indeed a loss! Now that I'm back to exercising, I'm hoping to increase that, but even if I don't, I'll still be happy losing 1 lb/week. The exercising will continue to firm me up and give me energy and a metabolism boost.

When I met with the pre-op nurse, she asked how much I had lost since my lap band surgery a year ago, and when I told her, she was floored. I've gotten used to my loss, and so it was a nice reminder of the difference in my life to see her reaction. She said most of the people she has spoken to are underwhelmed with their lap band results, and we agreed that is because they are hoping it's going to be a fix all, and it's just not.

With gastric bypass, it is much more drastic, and even though it's still hard work to lose the weight, it comes off much faster. Not only is your stomach size restricted, but your body doesn't absorb all the nutrients or calories from the food you eat, so it's a double whammy. Additionally, many undesirable foods make the GB patient feel extremely sick (for the first 1-2 years post op), so it's much harder to "cheat." The lap band only makes you feel full quicker. If you want to find ways around it, you definitely can.

For my work out today, I'm going to attempt the exercise bike at the gym. My knee was bothering me a lot last night from spending four hours driving yesterday, so I'm hoping the bike will be okay. If I have trouble, I'll do the treadmill.