.... ANYTHING but exercise.

Idiot.

Ok, so the head trainer at my gym was great yesterday. I enjoyed the workout (gosh I'm in bad shape) and decided that using a trainer a few times a month wouldn't be a bad idea. I did exercises I wouldn't have thought to do, and the encouragement helps. He made a good argument for starting strength training immediately even though I believe I have a long way to go on cardio first.

So while we're setting up my contract, I get introduced to the VP over operations, and he asked what my motivation for being there was. I told him I had a bunch of health conditions that piled on last year, and ended up deciding to have the sleeve 6 weeks ago, and I don't want to blow it. I want to make the lifestyle changes needed to make this stick.

Cue the standard crap from him:

* His mother had the lap band and then bypass. She gained all the weight back from the lap band and is only being successful with the bypass because she's finally following his directions.

* He's has "lots" of experience dealing with post-WLS patients.

* If I'd come to him earlier, he could have prevented me from needing the surgery. After all, the people who get the surgery say they've "tried everything" but they really haven't.

* All the surgery does is enforce portion control, and that can be done without surgery.

* But since it's already done, we'll work with what we have.

* My surgeon doesn't know what nutrition is needed. *HE* (the VP) will tell me what I should eat. (I will give him this - I am not eating enough Protein, I'll have to really ramp that up.) Sorry, dude. When you tell me that I can't count Beans or Peanut Butter as Proteins because they're not "complete" without discussing my knowledge of nutrition, you fail. I was raised vegetarian and know perfectly well how to combine foods to get a complete protein.

Bite me.

So I finally got rid of him, and got back to the head trainer who wanted to go through food lists (at the prompting of the VP). I had to explain to him (because I wasn't bothering with the VP) that I get *incredibly* ill in ketosis, so his "carbs are the enemy" lecture doesn't wash with me. I am willing to control my carbs so long as I'm above ketosis levels, and concentrate on complex carbs and healthy choices, but I will *not* do a ketogenic diet. Then I get a mini lecture on how tilapia is not a good choice (already knew that, but it's better than some other choices) and how swai fish is a GREAT choice. Looked that up when I got home, and it's a catfish from the far east. Sorry, dude. I don't eat bottom feeders or filter fish.

I get that most people they deal with are not well educated on nutrition. I get that trainers know more than the average bear about the subject. However, both of these guys are competitive body builders. Their nutritional approach is not going to work for everyone, and they need to learn to be flexible about it. I'm just glad we didn't even discuss veggies, because they'd be horrified to find that I just don't eat them (though I'm working on expanding my palate). And telling me to "just eat them" doesn't work, since I basically have PTSD around veggies and can't physically make myself eat something or I'll throw it up.

I wish they'd stick to the exercise piece.

Thank you! And yes. Your VP guy sounds like a real piece of work. Bummed about my PB I was thinking that was now going to be a good snack. Protein, very soft and filling. Dang.

Sorry, that was sarcasm. You can absolutely count PB. Trainers get stuffy about it because it's high in fat.

A good trainer will help you immeasurably and push you just enough, a bad one will just discourage you and make you want to quit. Not all of them know where the line is with each client, it's a skill they have to develop. In terms of nutrition, the good ones know that it isn't "one size fits all." Particularly for bariatric patients! To insinuate that all we needed to do was control our portions and we didn't need surgery for that...this is usually coming from guys who have never been more than 20 pounds overweight in their lives, and don't understand the metabolic adaptations that obese people have developed that fight against weight loss, screw up our hunger and fullness signals, etc...etc... Nor do they, a lot of times, have any awareness that certain things we are simply too heavy to even DO, without risking injury.

It sounds like ultimately, you found a good one. So that's awesome, because it'll help keep you on the right track. The nutrition part, your nutritionist has handled and you aren't going to need to do a lot to it until you start to creep up on your goal. That's when you'll have to start tweaking macros and see what works to get that last stubborn fat off. Bodybuilders are actually pretty good at that, they're very familiar with the bulking/cutting cycle and how to tweak your intake so you are cutting as much fat as possible, while sacrificing as little muscle as possible. I'm also a big advocate of weight training, because the more muscle mass you have, the more calories you'll burn all day, whether exercising or at rest. But nobody should be recommending weight training at six weeks post-surgery, it's too early. Three months maybe, and not aggressively. Just to try to maintain the muscle mass you do have, to keep that burn going every day. Because with extreme calorie deficits, you will lose muscle as well as fat, and that hurts your calorie burning over time.

So there's some truth in what the meatheads were saying, but they just don't have the whole picture. If someone's never been obese, I don't want to hear them tell me "All you need to do is..." Because they've never been there.

We're not doing any serious weight training at this stage. Just starting some light weights/machines to encourage keeping muscle. I wasn't going to start doing any strength training right off the bat because I'm in such bad shape and really need to work on cardio, but the head trainer made a good argument for not JUST doing cardio because we need to keep muscle mass. So they're having me do modified planks, some upper body machines (lat pull downs) and very light free weights (I think the rows were with 3lb weights). In addition to cardio workouts where I'm starting off very easy and working up slow.

My auto-immune complicates the whole show because I have to push a little or I won't make progress, but if I push to far I get a flare that keeps me from exercising for days. My regular trainer hasn't worked with anyone with auto-immune before, but he's curious and open minded about it, and since I'm a nurse, I love educating people. He and I are going to work together to find that fine line we have to hit for me to make slow but steady progress.

fantastic that you are now working with a trainer. I would love to but don't have the money for that. I find with all occupations you have good and bad ones. I had a fantastic one about a decade ago when I lived on the west coast. What made him really great was that he was a great listener. He listened to what my needs (weight loss), desires(someone to push and keep me accountable and will keep it interesting and fun) and limitations (ACL reconstruction)were and developed a program that fit those. there was no cookie cutter approach, everything was customized and he switched things up (equipment, exercises and even location and made things fun so it never got boring. He even created a program for me to do while traveling that I needed was a deck of cards...Bottom line is for anyone looking for a trainer, if it isn't working with the one you have, keep looking until you find one you like.

My insurance covers an extra 24 physical therapy appointment for after surgery, up to twice a week for 12 weeks, physical therapy would be safer for the first couple months and they have to go to college and get an actual degree. My surgeon and primary have both said no gym trainer but instead use the physical therapist.

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