Exploring new sports

… and you will have to do sports.

I knew it. It was part of the package I signed for. But still, it is easier said than done. I won’t lie, I am no sports person. Just imagining myself in the gym causes me major discomfort. Actually doing it, it is like a small anxiety attack. It feels anyhow but comfortable. So now what, right? Some new sports will have to be explored and added to my horizons.

To tell the truth, it was not so difficult when I was right after the surgery. All I could and should do was walk. So it was all turning around where I would go, what to see there, which route to take, if I would try to walk a little faster. But the moment I was supposed to start some major physical activity, it was a huge unknown.

A field to explore

I think it is like this for most people who have been obese for as long as they can remember. When you carry all the extra weight, it is anything but easy to do sports. Plus you hate the people staring at you and happily judging you. That is why you actively avoid doing it. And things get even worse because of that.

Now, in the new era of your life, you are supposed to become active, engage in some sports activities, and be reasonably consistent in it. But where will you start? What will you do? You can still keep walking, but it is not good enough. You need some actual sport. The good part of this story is that as you start losing weight, you get spacially smaller and it becomes easier to move around.

Google knows it all

I spend a lot of time online, so I did what was obvious. You will be laughing now thinking I am a real babe in the woods 😀 I opened Google and put “ kinds of sports”. Ok, this was not the best idea, but still, when you are completely lost, at least it is a good starting point. Yes, I felt completely overwhelmed and scared to death. What the heck is this??? This looks straight away scary 😀

Ok, there must be some other way. I remember reading somewhere that YouTube has a tutorial on how to learn anything and everything. Aha moment! That is the way. So I opened a new window and started exploring. My dear friends, it is really like that. YouTube can teach you absolutely anything. It is all there.

YouTube knows better

So after exploring for a while and narrowing options and possibilities, I ended with something like “exercise for obese people”. That looked like things I was able to do with the weight and shape I had at that time. It was challenging but in a reasonable way. You can even specify it and narrow things down even more. I added “No jumping”. Obviously, when you are still around 100 kg, it is not a good idea. I could hurt myself easily.

I have to confess that YouTube exercise videos and tutorials, routines, and challenges became my best friends. Yes, I started slowly. I was weak, I had no stamina, and I got tired after 5 minutes at first. But still, at least something was better than nothing. Sometimes I was exercising in parts. As it was aimed at arms, then legs, then core, and things like that, I stopped after each body part, rested a while, and then continued. I have to laugh at that now, but that time it was my best. Really.

I am somewhat advancing!

But as months passed, I was able to switch to another type of exercise. I am not a huge fan of jumping jacks and these impact things. Most likely this attitude goes back to the times before my breast reduction surgery, when anything jumping like was a total torture, when I ended with bruises all over and my male classmates had things to dream about 🥴no, this is not the way for me.

I realized that I was lacking flexibility. Sure, I spend 10 hours a day by laptop with my non-existent butt glued to the chair, so no surprise here. It was pretty obvious. But well, I started to add a small stretching part at the beginning of my sessions and voila, it paid off. I can easily touch my toes now and my mobility improved significantly. Despite the sad fact that my working daily routine is still the same.

There are so many options!

You can try anything you feel like. If it looks funny, why not? Some videos will scare you right away, no, stretching for ballet dancers is not a thing for me 😀but it fascinates me what a human body is capable of. That is for sure. Still, at least now I know it exists and what it looks like 😀

I took a particular liking to Pilates. I started with the easiest routines, but with time I started to advance little by little and I have to say I built a reasonable base of muscles around the body. No more back pain, I maintain better posture, I am more flexible and I gained some strength as well.

I made a list of videos to pick from

What amazes me is that I have a list of exercise videos to pick from. I would never thought I could have something like this and use it. I save videos that I like, that are engaging, sometimes funny, and sometimes there is a movement that is too much for me, but the more times I go back to the video, the easier it gets, and in time I kill it. And it feels really good!

I am not a follower of fitness trainers, nutritionists, and people who live in this field. Sometimes I tell the algorithm to surprise me. It is when I have no idea what else to try. Sometimes it has good ideas, and sometimes I wonder what is going on. Never mind. At least I tried.

Challenge it is

I also tried some challenges. Some of them were relatively easy, but I failed some of them, albeit I did try to finish them. And some of them were a real challenge 😀 I was glad when it was over 😀they kick your (disappeared) ass and make you get out of your comfort zone and push through something that you would normally hardly even think of.

What I truly hate are those trainers who claim that things are ridiculously easy, they look like they have lived in the gym for the past decade and will try to tell you that you are useless if you are not able to do that too. This is mean and demotivating. Everybody started somewhere, everybody has their own challenges, conditions, and limitations. No need to boast and ridicule others.

You will like it

But let’s admit that. Once you start engaging in a regular physical activity, you realize it feels good. Not at the very beginning when even watching the videos hurst all around your body, that is why I keep saying to start slow, but when you start exercising and when you can feel it, when you can do one more set, a new move, when you can do what you couldn’t before. It is an extraordinary boost of motivation to keep going.

As I plan my months and weeks, I always make sure I will have time for exercise. I actively plan for it. Most of the time I do it in the morning, still it is not my favorite activity, so I make sure I “get rid of it” as soon as possible. Who wants to keep thinking all day that you have to do something you are not completely fond of? I am exaggerating a little, but you know what I mean.

When you plan for it, it is sitting on your agenda, nagging at you and it reminds you that there is a thing to do. So as anything else on the list, you just go and do that. What else to do with it, right? You know it best, there are days when you don’t feel like going out of bed, let alone moving yourself, it feels too much. But still, do your best. No, it doesn’t have to be perfect. At least something imperfect is better than perfect nothing. Go and do it.

Dont start skipping

My trick is that you have to make sure that you don’t start skipping. It is a very dangerous precedent for your behavior. Last year I had COVID-19 and it hit me hard. They were about to send me to hospital. Obviously, under these circumstances, it was impossible to keep going. I was happy I was breathing without support. It took me a month to recover. And it was so incredibly hard to start exercising again afterward.

It felt as if I was starting all over again. It fell off the agenda for some time, so I had to actively find a space and place for it again. It was about willpower and discipline. I did it. I recovered that habit. But it was anything but easy.

How about you? Have you become a gym bunny or are you still having a reserved relationship with the exercise routine? Or are you the person who never does any sport at all and hopes that the surgery will sort out everything?