Exercise Progress

It has been a while since my last blog post. Sorry about that!!
I wanted to blog about exercise as I know it today. Believe it or not, exercise looks different from this weight than it did when I got started on this adventure. For one thing, it is easier!!! So let me back up:
Before Christmas break just a few months ago, I started exercising at the gym. I was doing mostly treadmill and a little bit of the elliptical. I couldn't go very long on the elliptical, it was too hard!! My heart rate would shoot up too quickly. Then I had a physical and discovered that i weighed more than ever before in my life. I also was starting to develop high cholesterol. On top of all that, I had a stress fracture in my left foot probably due to the pounding I was giving it on the treadmill. I take after my dad's side of the family, with small bones. My wedding ring is 5.5 (and it is now too big!). My foot bones are these tiny little things bearing the weight of an obese woman. So! For me, that one-week period of time was my "hitting bottom". I knew things had to change. I was 100 pounds overweight!!
One day during that winter break, I went to lunch with my best friend. She had had great success with the particular weight loss place that I go to now. I talked to her about it and made the decision that I was going to check it out. Right after lunch, i went there and ended up signing up! Since that fateful day, i have lost 28 pounds, my cholesterol dropped a huge amount, and I have more energy.
Flash forward to a couple of weeks ago.
I got on the elliptical again. I went for 10 minutes, rather slowly, and checked my heart rate. It was too low!!! I picked up the pace and was able to work out.. HARD. I got nice and sweaty and kept my heart rate at a healthy level. My muscles were screaming at me, but I kept going and I learned something important. I looked around me and saw skinny people working out everywhere. I realized, exercise is soo much EASIER for skinny people. I used to think that most people at the gym were skinny because they worked out. Now I know that most people at the gym are skinny because they CAN work out, and they can do it much easier than morbidly obese people. Just after losing 25 pounds, the whole exercise experience is sooo different.
Now don't get me wrong! I am not saying that fat people should not work out. Obese people need to work out and CONSUME WAAAY LESS, but you don't see them at the gym because it isn't reasonable. At that time, i could NEVER (and still can't) fathom myself doing a "boot camp" workout, or even yoga class, for that matter. But we have to start somewhere. For me, I fixed my diet first, then found that exercise felt a lot different.

So! My thinking about exercise has changed. Fat people don't go to the gym because there is nothing there for them. Just a lot of skinny people and stuff they can't do without injuring themselves. I used to think the reason you only saw skinny people at the gym was because only skinny people exercised. I had no idea that exercise is a completely different experience for a skinny person. I look forward to watching it get even easier for me as I continue to lose weight and get in shape.  Live and learn!