I know what you're thinking. "Hey, Gracie, this blog post isn't about food! Or food noise!"
I promise you, it is.
Turns out, when you don't weigh over 300 pounds, exercise is a lot easier. But it's yet another paradox of the trauma of living life while fat; everyone loves to scream "diet and exercise" from the rafters. Well, exercise can be really, really difficult and painful when you're fat. I am not saying that experience is every single fat person's experience, but it was definitely mine -- and I know that it is and was for other fat people I know personally. How are you supposed to "diet" when you can't fight food noise? And how are you supposed to exercise when five minutes of movement leads to pain that robs you of your ability to continue that movement?
While burning calories is important, having a GLP-1 on board can help you get to a place where exercise won't be torture. And while I moved my body eight months ago, when I was first starting out, I wasn't moving it to the degree that I am at this stage. Because... I needed to actually lose weight in order to exercise! It was very easy to blame my schedule. But... my schedule hasn't changed in eight months. In fact, sometimes, it's even busier than it was before. The problem all went back to food noise. Because I couldn't fight food noise without medically-based treatment, I kept gaining weight, which would make the very exercise that I so desperately needed to do to lose the weight, nearly impossible.
It is one of my dreams to have a cleaning service come in to wherever it is I live. But the day that happens is definitely not today, so cleaning our apartment is a regular task for me. In the "before times," cleaning our apartment would nearly knock me out. After spending two hours scrubbing the shower, cleaning toilets, bending over to spray rug cleaner, vacuuming, mopping, and standing on a stool to reach our microwave, would result in the need for three Advil. I couldn't do anything else physical for the rest of the day, let alone exercise.
Weight loss has made the exercise that I need to do in order to continue losing weight possible. Now, I'm not planning to train for any marathons any tine soon. But the above featured photo shows my stats from my walk today (thanks, Apple Watch). I walked a mile and a quarter today, after an exceptionally busy day, and I haven't required a single Advil. NOT ONE! I am honestly amazed, considering a year ago, I experienced debilitating pain as a mere result of walking back to the car in the UBS Arena parking lot after an Islanders game. That Gracie would never believe me if I told her I walked over a mile today with little-to-no pain. That Gracie would never believe me if I told her that I can reach the bottom shelf of my dishwasher now. That Gracie would never believe me if I told her that I cleaned that same bathroom AFTER walking one mile on the same day. And that Gracie would never believe me if I told her that I enjoy physical activity of ANY kind.
Of course, I still have some limitations. When I walk, I stay away from hills -- that's partially to take it easy on my knees as well as my left leg. Most people who know me well know that I broke my tibia and fibula almost ten years ago, and two metal rods and 16 metal screws are holding the bones in my left leg together. If I feel any pain, especially in that leg, I know it's time to wrap up a workout. I'm also very much a walker, and not a runner -- and I'm more than okay with that for now. And even with weight loss, I am still VERY heat-prone. Outdoor walks at this time of year are my favorite, because it's warm enough for me to not need a jacket, but it's not even close to hot outside. If it's too hot, I am NOT going for a walk.
However, limitations and all, I never thought I'd arrive at a point in my life when I looked forward to exercise. While outdoor walking is my favorite form of exercise at the moment, it's not the only one I utilize. I go to the gym with one of my best friends. I use my birthday pink walking pad a few times a week. In the summer, I love swimming -- it takes me back to my childhood and is very helpful for someone like me who is always sweating. On days when I have even less time than normal, I use an under-desk mini elliptical that I've nicknamed "The Cube;" the Cube and I spent a lot of time together in the early days, when weight-bearing exercise was still really difficult. And I've even started implementing somatic yoga. Somatic yoga doesn't burn a lot of calories, but it has proven highly beneficial for my physical and mental health. I don't usually go into non-food related trauma I've experienced in my life, but somatic yoga is meant to release stored trauma in your body. Stored trauma can potentially block weight loss and lead to food noise.
See how it ALL comes back to food noise?!
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