Ok so some of my friends on the banded in Sept thread wanted to help support each other in exercising. :thumbup: Of course others are welcome if you want to join a support thread for exercising!

I think some of the idea is to be able to state goals (no matter how small) and have encouragement when achieving those goals. Of course other talk about excercise woes and ideas are welcome.

I'll start, I was banded on Sept 27 2010. I'm from Ohio. Before band I was walking about 5 miles per week at a rate of 3 miles/hour. and going to yoga once a week.

I have a short term goal of walking 7 miles per week by Thanksgiving. Maybe upping the speed a bit but I'll work on that later. Also I'd like to do 20 minutes of yoga/ stretching 3 more times a week by Thanksgiving.

This morning I walked a slow .6 miles- still moving slow after surgery.:thumbup:

Ok guys, on the treadmill for 3 days last week, still can't do it with shoes. this day already 2 days. I'm trying for getting on every day for 20 minutes right now.

You go for it, girl! And your husband too! It's amazing the places you can see when riding trails instead of concrete! I also reached a weight where I stopped riding - out of consideration for my horse!

It is such glorious freedom to explore trails, sharing the experiences with my horse and other riders! Now I want to meet up with you and start you riding!!!!!!!!!

GingerO

I would love to take you up on that someday! SoCal has so many great locations to ride. I'm in south OC near Trabuco and other canyons where there are many horses. I've been considering finding out if any of the facilities offer lessons. A friend of mine rides polo, but that doesn't seem to appeal to me as much as being out on trails. I'm an avid hiker.

This weekend I will be doing one of my big hobbies for the first time in a long time. We're going to Catalina to scuba dive. I don't dive when my weight is above 200 because I'm not willing to buy a wetsuit in that size and I don't think it's safe because my mobility is very limited when I'm over 200, especially when wearing a 7mm wetsuit as required by our cold water. I'm at 188-189 so I can comfortably dive again. My reward for getting halfway to goal is a dive trip with friends to the Caribbean during the first week of May (also my 2nd wedding anniversary). I am 10 pounds from halfway and I'm so positive I'll make it by the trip that it's already booked and paid for.

Next week I start Couch 2 5k to meet my goal of completing a 5k by 3/31. I've never been much of a runner, even when I was younger and thinner, so this is a big goal for me.

that is so awesome Rambunctious. I would love to dive, and when I took my son to Mexico a couple years the snorkeling we did reminded me how much I wanted to, I thought when he gets a little older that will be a great activity for the family, but I feared the wetsuit, especially at my size. Same deal with horse back riding, and kayaking, I never go when we've rented Kayaks on vacation because I was so worried it wouldn't hold my weight, I know there are kayaks for heavy weight but I was always to afraid to ask in front of my family so I just pretended to not be interested.

so I've been on the treadmill 4 days now, and 2 of them were with shoes. I want to start the couch to 5 k, but I want to be walking normal in shoes and not favoring my toe so much. I have always hated running, we'll see how it goes, I'm up to 3.5 mph for 20 mins now and my toe felt better today then any other day so far.

I can't wait to hear how the c25k goes for you Rambunctious! I'm very nervous, the idea of me running is hard to grasp right now.

Lisa

I have a couple friends that dive that are very overweight. One, a late-30s male, doesn't seem to have any issues with the extra weight. The other, a mid-40s female does have an issue whenever conditions are not perfectly ideal. Each person has different abilities and comfort levels and it is important to know your own. My abilities exceed my comfort level so I use comfort level as my guide. As a Southern California shore diver, physical condition is more important than for a tropical boat diver. A 7mm wetsuit with hood is for more restrictive that a 3mm wetsuit without a hood. Throw in beach entry and the bending to put on fins while floating just outside the surf zone...well, you get my point. My re-entry to shore diving will have a stair entry instead of beach entry and very litte surf/surge. I'm very excited about diving again, but not looking forward to the 55-58F water and a forecasted high air temp of 61F. Brrrr. I'll probably only do two dives instead of my usually three.

I can totally relate to acting disinterested about an activity when really I had a fear about my size. I have often avoided water activities because I didn't want to be seen in a bathing suit, being the only one in t-shirt and shorts, or I feared there wouldn't be a life jacket that fit. I had to cancel a ski trip with friends last winter because I couldn't fit into my ski clothes. I tried them on a few weeks ago and I can wear them again. yeah! As for horse riding, I've feared hurting the horse!

My recommendation for you when it comes to running, don't do it until you are positive your toe is healed. It would be so easy to reinjure it if you start running too soon. I have already done occassional intervals of jogging on the treadmill. Last night I did 7 intervals of 1 min at 6mph-jog and 4 min at 4mph-walk. That was after a 5min warm-up and followed by a 10-min cool-down. I have put a lot of miles on my treadmill and local trails to be able to comfortably walk 4mph. I can't walk that speed daily yet, but I can do 3.8mph daily. I love doing incline intervals. You might want to try that before doing running intervals. The incline and duration varies depending on how I'm feeling and what my workout the previous day was. I like the inclines because they get my heartrate up without the impact on my joints and feet.

Keep posting your progress!! And good luck getting that toe better. It must have felt like an accomplishment to wear shoes and do more speed!!

thanks, great info,

toe is better all the time. I did 6 days last week 20 minutes each day, and so far this week every day also so it's going well. This saturday my yoga class starts, I haven't been to yoga since the week before my surgery in Sept, so I'm anxious.