Excuse Busters: You CAN Walk After WLS

Still not convinced walking is for you? Have some excuses you are using to deny your body and mind the pleasure of physical motion? Read on!

Not enough time to walk? I don’t think so! Not when in the beginning you only need to walk 10 minutes a day – and by week twelve you are spending one-half hour a day walking! That’s a half-hour sitcom, surely you can squeeze that amount of time into your day to make your life healthier and more meaningful. One walking group claims time is all we have and walking for exercise will probably extend your time on earth! Bottom line: You don’t have time not to walk!

Afraid you might injure yourself walking? Probably not. Walking is about the safest form of exercise around – in fact, walking injuries are slight such as blisters, mild cramping, or sore knees and joints. If you follow the program above and build up your endurance and strength you are at slim risk for injury. A cautionary word, pedestrians are killed by motor vehicles. Outdoor fitness walkers can avoid this fate by using walking trails or sidewalks. Walk facing traffic, wearing light colors and reflective clothing and double-check both ways before crossing streets.

Too embarrassed by your size to be seen “exercising” in public? Admittedly, this is my personal favorite excuse, and I don’t think I’m alone. I’m lucky enough to have a treadmill in the basement, and even at a healthy weight, I prefer the privacy of my home to walk for fitness. If you don’t have a treadmill another option is a walking fitness video that will have you marching about in front of the TV building cardiovascular supremacy in the privacy of your own world. Try Leslie Sansone’s “Walk Away the Pounds” video.

Exercise may be the most difficult change to incorporate into your lifestyle after weight loss surgery. Unlike the food restrictions necessary to affect weight loss, exercise does not come with surgically achieved tool to help you. Exercise is entirely up to you. Times have changed. Consistent moderate exercise has replaced the no-pain, no-gain torture of decades past. Exercise and fitness has become more pleasurable and less injurious. Daily exercise improves our physical appearance, our health and our overall sense of well being. We must not cheat ourselves the innumerable positive benefits exercise brings to living. Start slowly, set reasonable goals. Reach and surpass those goals. Your life now, after gastric bypass, is about health and wellness. This can only be achieved with a commitment to physical movement.