Okay so I was banded March 11th and the weight is starting to really come off now. I've been exercising as much as possible and being so much more active. Actually for the first time I went to the lake. I was so surprised, because before when I was 327 pounds there was no way I'd have ever got in a bathing suit on a boat. lol.

Anywho, I'm down to 260.5 now and I'm wanting to switch up my exercise routine, without overdoing it. Right now I'm doing 30 minutes every morning of cardio. My mom and I do different machines every day. We have an elliptical and a treadmill so we rotate. I'm always working really hard to. I make sure to keep my pulse in the 150-160 range and I sweat like a man.

Any ideas of how to spice things up?

Weights Run outside. Run the stairs. Jump rope. Walk jog then sprint.

Walk at a 15% incline on your treadmill. Do lunges, squats, push ups, sit ups, plank, rows.. Id add some weight training. You can use cans of soup or water bottles as weights to start off with.

@amaniccookie~you go girl! I also was banded in March. My start weight was 244 I am now at 219. I ride my bike 6 miles 5 days a week. I just recently bought a biggest losers DVD that you use weights with. I struggle with workout options as well. I have a problem with my right foot when I try to walk long distances, it just burns like it's on fire.

I have lost 5 1/2 inches on my waist and I have ankles again! I'm still trying to figure out my portions because if I eat a cup or less I'm starving and end up late night snacking. Ugh! I have had 4 fills and I am at 5.8 in a 10cc band. My last fill was just a few days ago. I def notice a difference with this one. Just curious where you are at with your meals, etc.

Interval training! If you need guidance use something like treadmill trainer or cardio coach (www.cardiocoach.com) which are guided workouts for use on cardio machines, the 40 minutes will fly by and you'll get a much more intense workout than with steady state.

I love to do things like sandbag workouts - google it, you'll get heaps of ideas. I made a sandbag from a duffel bag and a few 10kg bags of rice from the supermarket - try doing turkish get ups with a 30kg sandbag and you'll know what hard work is all about lol. The rice/sand/wheat whatever shifts and moves so the load is always changing, which works all your stabiliser muscles too and your core like nothing else - this is functional fitness at its finest. I got most of my ideas from youtube - Josh Henkin is the expert on this and its a great workout to do at home. The sandbag is cheap too so all you have to do is buy something like a bag of sand or potting mix if you go away somewhere and you've got a great mobile workout too.

Another thing to google - Steve Pfizers treadmill bootcamp - insane. Really fun, really intense aned a totally new way to use a treadmill - but perhaps not in public!

I also walk on an incline on my treadmill and pump handweights to give my knees a rest from running - its actually a pretty intense workout. I just make it up as I go along. Again, you might not be able to do this in a gym, they probably dont want you using dumbells on their expensive machines, I do it at home.

It also sounds like you'd be ready to run outside, it burns more calories and is harder and more functional than a treadmill or elliptical. You might also like spin classes.

I would definitely recommend DVDs. A lot of them are only around 30 minutes and there's so much variety with them. I love Jillian Michaels myself. I have her 30 day shred which I don't use all that often anymore since I started going to the gym but it's 20 minutes of hell for me basically. But knowing that I sweated like a pig with less than half an hour of working out is great, especially if I just don't have time for anything else. I also have the Zumba DVDs which I love, but would totally recommend joining an actual class for that. It's so much fun

Anyhoo, you sound like your doing great! I hope you find something that works for you

For weight loss and toning, swimming laps worked wonders for me. I dropped 100 lbs. in 5 months BEFORE surgery. When I started I could only do about 15 minutes, but over several weeks I worked up to an hour of laps. I'm a week post-op now, so it's going to take some time to get my mojo back. But that's what worked for me. Congratulations, and good luck on reaching your goal!

I'm learning the joys of resistance bands. Also, make sure to keep measurements and you may want to track you body fat percentage instead of your weight and BMI to gauge how well your workout routine is benefiting your body.

Gaither

Outdoor biking is great exercise, easy on the joints and fun, especially as the fall weather approaches (assuming you live someplace where you have a fall

Interval training is really a great way to mix it up and is thought to increase your fitness and burn calories faster than other kinds of training. As a previous poster, pointed out, you can easily find info on that online.

I love the WII fit for indoor training and sometimes alternate between a fitness game or two on there and the elliptical. There are lots of fun games to mix it up with and there are some intended for competition between two people. The trick with burning calories on the WII is to really move and not just let the "wand" do the work. Some of my favorites on the the WII Sport and include the tennis program and the boxing one. If you do it actively, the boxing one will shoot your heart rate right up.

Do you have a staircase or are you close to a track that has stadium seating? I'm up to 70 times (up&down is 1) on the stairs at least 3 times a week! It will get you heart rate up and you can't cheat the stairs! Then I do some arms with weights and leg lifts for my stomach! I feel it the next day! Good luck to you!

I was tired of the same old, same old... so I went to my first Zumba class last week. I loved it and it was a great work out!

Lots of great ideas here!!! Thanks everyone!

Have you tried dancing? Rock and roll is very energetic and I work up a real sweat on the dance floor, especially if I do some group (line) dances while my husband has a rest, so I can keep my heart rate up.

I second lap swimming. Water proof MP3 player is a must! Makes time go by so much faster. Also water aerobics is great. You can make it as intense as you want.