Exercise is NON Negotiable....

[eclectikat]

Re: Exercise is NON Negotiable....

Thanks for the comments guys... just for the record I did not sense you were being insensitive at all. I understood what you were saying. I just try and read these posts as if I were a total newbie who is at that critical turning point in their lives where we all have been. This board is what got me to jump into this change of lifestyle woth both feet... I am so very grateful for that. So...

Just so you know...I too get lazy and appreciate your kick in my behind. And take it as just that!

[Adena]

Re: Exercise is NON Negotiable....

Well, of course you can lose weight without exercise. But, we are talking about overall health here, and I don't think anyone (even non-exercisers) will dispute that regular exercise makes you healthier.

As for weight loss, most folks around here (and on most weight loss plans) would rather increase their effort -- more and more so as they are able -- and double the results. Here's my personal endorsement for the tremendous difference exercise makes:

The first photo was taken in September.
The second photo was taken in January, after 4 full months on Atkins, but with limited exercise.
The third photo was taken in mid-February, about 7 weeks later, with almost daily exericse.



My apologies for the scary bike shorts photos, but they DO tell the tale of the tape....

This doesn't mean I'm not sometimes lazy and need that kick in the pants myself. Regularly, in fact. But never in a million years can I dispute the value....

[gman]

Re: Exercise is NON Negotiable....

Kathy - How about a hearty hand shake rather than a kick? Would that be ok?
Adena same for you a hand shake well done. BTW thanks for the loose skin link.
Lisa thanks for getting this thread going.
Everyone.. in this thread, it's great to get your opinion out and have a good discussion -everyone has a point to make.
I'm headed to the gym.....

[MoreStylish]

Re: Exercise is NON Negotiable....

Yep, you're absolutely right. I was one of them and was a skinny fat person. I lost weight, lost muscle and looked yucky. If that doesn't bother you, than yeah, go for it. You can totally lose weight on Atkins (or any WOL) and not have to exercise. I wouldn't recommend it though, the results are less than stellar (at least in my experience) My overall health is more important to me than just seeing a number on the scale.
Best to you!

I was actually talking about my brother-in-law who lost quite a bit of weight and now weighs 175 pounds and looks great with and without his shirt off.

P.S. I do exercise.

[Lisa]

Re: Exercise is NON Negotiable....

Thank you all for making this a postive topic to discuss and not making anyone feel like their opinion didn't matter---because it does. We're human. Our opinions matter. I really appreciate the honesty and integrity of those who share openly why they don't/can't exercise.

I've already thanked (annoyed ) a few of you privately who've shared their thoughts and I hope we can help change that past idea and that exercise IS a big part of Atkins----the 3 legged stool that jimmie48 reminded us is a great visual! (THANK YOU! ).

Thank you for all of you who've shared you awesome "two cents"---but to me it's priceless---valuable insight to how exercise has changed their lives.

Adena, pictures tell a 1,000 words, but I think yours showed 1,000,000 reasons of why exercise is non negotiable with Atkins. You look awesome!!!





Exercise is still non-negotiable with Atkins if we're playing it by the book. And since we're on a board following the 2002 edition, I think we are playing by the book.


So, do I dare ask the next question? Oh, I think I should......



Then, what consitutes or defines exercise (and not Webster's definition either)? I'm looking for that personal definition, what does it mean to you-----personally? Job, no car=have to walk, no money=no gas=have to walk, etc.

Because I have a theory (it's not a proven one, so just smile and read on)that maybe once we define it for ourselves then maybe we can figure out what reasons or excuses we have do it instead of not.

Could exercise be really that complicated? hmmm.....

[Chicklady]

Re: Exercise is NON Negotiable....

I consider exercise to be motion, movement/activity that is beyond my usual daily activity required to get done what needs doing. In ither words, if I have to take the stairs to get to my job, that's not part of my allotted exercise. If I do the stairs several times during lunch break, that would be part of my exercise. I have started weed whacking the front lawn. My husband used to do it on his riding mower, but I needed exercise and I needed exercise that made me feel like I accomplished something.

[BonnieRose16]

Re: Exercise is NON Negotiable....

To me exercise is something that is physical activity beyond my daily activity that makes me feel great! I personally get a "fitness high" from working out, and it makes me feel like I am making progress even when I'm not...

[SueSue1212]

Re: Exercise is NON Negotiable....

I am sorry if I sounded like I was jumping on anyone, that was not my intention. But, I agree that if I was a newbie searching for something online to help and I read "Must Exercise" at my highest weight I would of kept on surfing. So, I guess the best way of putting it is...
You can lose a lot of weight without exercising, however, as soon as possible you need to start some sort of exercise. As some of you know I recently went on a 3 mile bear infested hike, I played out about half way through but the thought of being left behind with grizzly in the area motivated me to go go go!!! I will be honest I have not tried anything like it since. I do however, do some sort of exercise everyday now. Hold the phones...I am not is a spandex suit doing jumping jacks just yet. When I wake I use my craftmatic bed to raise my head up just enough so I can do 5-10 sit ups, then I go for a short walk and by that time I am exhausted. I still do not have great stamina but I am trying. Exercise to me is anything that makes me feel like my muscles are burning. I have to be very careful though as soon as I start getting chest pains I have to quit. Maybe someday I will be able to go to a gym and fit in, but for now I would just be the "Fat Lady wasting her time" as I was once told when I tried to get into an exercise program. Do what you can, when you can and for as long as you can.

[SunnySmile501]

Re: Exercise is NON Negotiable....

As for those that 'can't' exercise due to physical/ health conditions, there is always something you can do. I am not saying that everyone has to start jogging or power lifting, but you can do something that is more than what you were doing before. If you do gentle exercise sitting in a chair and you weren't doing that before, it's an improvement and will lead to more mobility.

I suffer from a disorder called Reflex Sympathetic Dystrophy. It is something along the lines of MS and muscular dystrophy combined, with severe 24/7 pain, muscle wasting, movement disorders and spasms that jerk me off my feet. I had been in a wheelchair, then walked with a walker and at the time I started Atkins, I was walking very painfully with two quad canes. Then, they tried to fit me with the metal canes that clamp on the forearms like polio victims use and I rebelled. I decided that I was not only NOT going to advance to a more 'disabled' assistive walking device, I was going to get rid of all of them. I was told by my many specialists that I could not even do aquatic exercise. Hide and watch was my reaction!

When I started Atkins at nearly 300 pounds, I didn't exercise for the first couple of weeks, but then I started just doing gentle leg lifts in bed. Almost any stretching causes one of my seizure disorders (myclonus or dystonia) to kick in, where either my right leg/foot or right hand goes into a contracture spasm and locks into a claw position. I am stubborn, so if I planned on getting up and walking again without assistive devices, I had to find a way to move that did not exacerbate my condition(s).

I also had ongoing diverticulitis and eventually had to be in the hospital for over a month and have surgery to remove my entire sigmoid colon. I have severe deterioration of my cervical spine, bone spurs and spinal stenosis.

When I first started doing real exercise, I was lifting baby 2-lb. weights for 5 minutes while sitting in a chair. In that 5 minutes, I would be pouring sweat and in so much pain I would be crying. It took me a couple of months to go up to 3-lb. weights and to exercise for 20 minutes, some of it standing.

I was fortunate to find a fitness tape called "Gentle Fitness" by Catherine MacRae, a woman who suffers from MS. It uses the fundamentals of yoga and t'ai chi and is mostly done from a chair. Some was done on the floor, but that is one thing I can't do to this day, because I cannot get back up from the floor without help. I did that tape for over a month before attempting to walk outside with no canes and that was the hardest hour I ever got through. I would be pouring sweat just from that very gentle exercise from a sitting position, but I was getting stronger all the time and could walk around the house without my heart racing and my legs shaking. Although it was very gentle exercise, I was still burning a lot of fat and calories because, for me, it was vigorous exercise for my body to accomplish.

The first time I walked outside without my canes, it took me 45 minutes to walk one quarter mile and much of it I walked while sobbing it hurt so bad. I had to drag my bad leg, but I made it home. I was so proud, though, I walked it every other day from then on. This all started in September 2005 and by January 2006, I could walk two miles in about 45 minutes and only using my cane on the few steps I have to go down and not at all otherwise. I was lifting 5-lb. weights for 30 to 45 minutes and even made it to 8-lb. weights before I had surgery twice in 90 days (October 2007, February 2008 ). I am just now back up to 5-lb. weights, but I lift 2 to 3 times a week and I'm going for the 8 pounders in a few weeks.


For someone that had spent the better part of eight years bed-bound and house-bound, this was a victory brought about by diet AND exercise. I still have RSD, because there is no cure. I still have to go to UVA Medical Center several times a month and sometimes several times a week, but the doctors just shake their head at me and smile. I've had serious surgery three times since 2005, and each time I have been set back, but I get up and do it over again, starting over with 2-lb. weights and exercising in a chair.

There is not one of the medical conditions that I have (I didn't even list them all) that was not made better by exercise. I was not frightened off by Dr. Atkins' admonition that exercise was non-negotiable, I was challenged by it. I read the sentence, "...even the frailest person can start at a level appropriate for his or her condition.", and applied it to me.

I spent the better part of eight years bed-bound and house-bound, but now I've spent the better part of the last almost three years out enjoying life: walking without canes, tramping through the woods, tent camping by myself, back at church, singing in the choir, gardening and many other wonderful things--all thanks to God, the Atkins' Diet and exercise.

And Joee5, I hate to sweat, but I hate being 300 pounds and an invalid even more, so bring on the sweat!

Sunny!

[Lisa]

Re: Exercise is NON Negotiable....

Suesue, nope....didn't take that or see that at all. I'm proud of you for what you are doing for exercise. And I'm even more impressed you went hiking in a area where bears live----Golly, you get my vote for the most motivating exercise!!!

It's the fact that you are doing is what's important. You started some where---we all do. I started walking in place in the comfort of my own home...my paint-stained sweats and two little girls begging for attention.

The fact is, you started

[Chicklady]

Re: Exercise is NON Negotiable....

Sunny, your story makes me feel like a wimpy woos! you go girl! No wonder the doctors just shake their heads and smile at you. Totally inspiring!!

[Lisa]

Re: Exercise is NON Negotiable....

Omgosh, I agree, Sunny---you totally rock as the poster-child for taking control of your life, defying the odds, and making those doctors think twice--three times! Thanks again for sharing your journey. I'm sooooo learning from it all .

[SueSue1212]

Re: Exercise is NON Negotiable....

Thank You *Lisa*, I try very hard not to use my physical limitations as excuses, but sometimes I let them get in the way. Before May 17th of this year my medications were:
Oxycodone 40mg 3X a day
Morphine 1ml. up to 3X a day
Robaxin 4 times a day
and few others for this and that.
Dilatid upon failure of the first two.
( I know a jellyfish's pain )
I rebelled against these for years but if I don't take them when needed my body goes into spasms and I fall to the floor and that is where I lie, sometimes conscious and sometimes not. The longest was 4 days before my Daughter got home and found me. (luckily I fell in the kitchen on the floor right beside the bottled water so I did not dehydrate) The last time I was paralyzed on the floor the dishwasher caught on fire right in front of me and I could not get away from it, my Daughter once again saved my bacon and shut it down and extinguished it, followed by another 10 days spell in the hospital where I was "Reset" as my Dr. calls it. I look normal other than being heavy and people assume that when they see me in Wal Mart or the like in one of the little carts that I am only in it because I am fat. I have drop seizures and myoclonic/tonic episodes. I once had a big chain store call the police on me and told them I was a drunk and had passed out in the store, as luck would have it I probably got the only cop around that was also and EMT and he chewed them like no tommorow. Followed by a 3 day recoup in the hospital. The condition gets worse in floursent light, I don't know why but it does. So, if I am not a case for Agoraphobia (sp?) then I don't know who is. LOL Someday I want to be normal, but where this is leading is that since May 17th I have only taken my medications on 4 seperate occassions. I still have constant pain but it is manageable and not disabling. My Dr. says I am in a sort of remission and that it has nothing to do with my diet. I use to have as many as 4 episodes a day, I have had 4 major flare ups since May 17th. Remission? I don't know but I am hoping and praying that whatever it is it keeps up and since I think it is Atkins I am trying to do everything I can and that includes exercise now that I can. Everyone here has been a great motivation, but until today no one here knew exactly how screwed up I am physically. So here it is, I am a mess hoping to begin anew when I reach goal!
SueSue1212

[misplaced southerner]

Re: Exercise is NON Negotiable....

sunny and sue...you two women are such FIGHTERS!!! wow, no kidding. when i feel the least bit sorry for myself or lazy or whiney, i will come right back here and read your stories of REAL COURAGE. what an inspiration you both are.

for me, (not in terms of what i view as exercise for others but just for me)....i feel i have exercised when i have raised my heartrate for a long period of time, feel a pretty good tiredness in major muscles and have the endorphin rush....oh, and a lot of sweat really helps too!!

[gman]

Re: Exercise is NON Negotiable....

Sunny and Sue - turn to someone and tell them you deserve a hug or give yourselves hugs!!