Exercise: The Magic Pill?

Let’s talk exercise.  Speaking for most of the obese population out there, many of us don’t want to hear about exercise.  Many of us are in such bad shape or so much pain, the thought of exercise freaks us out.  I remember a break-room discussion one day about dieting, what worked, what didn’t, and someone finally made that all-sweeping statement, “Well, everyone just needs to exercise.”  End of discussion.  Everyone sat back, nodded and sipped their coffee.  And I was thinking, “I’d like any one of you to strap a Buick to your backs and see how long you’d last doing whatever exercise.”  It wasn’t quite a Buick, but if you strapped two 50-lb. bags of fertilizer to your back, that’s basically what I was carrying around with me.  When I was 325 lbs., just walking around the block was a sheer impossibility.  Just doing a little grocery shopping would do me in.

I’m not here to disparage exercise.  I firmly believe exercise probably is that “magic bullet” that keeps a body happy, healthy, toned, slim and able to sleep.  I’ve seen the data.  I get it. 

I propose we re-think exercise.  For so many, the term exercise equals a gym membership, a big time and/or monetary commitment, and that stops us in our tracks.  Membership-type gyms will tell you they sell lots of memberships, but only about 10% of their members regularly come to the gym.  Gyms are a great way to go for some; but like the lottery, you can’t win if you don’t get in.  Or it means buying some exercise machine for your home.  We’ve had a couple of those, too.  They usually end up serving as laundry drying racks.  Or you automatically think “jogging.”  If walking is a challenge, ok please don’t even go there.  Alright, on to some real-life scenarios.

I have a personal story or two about the power of exercise in its simplest form: walking.  And I tell this story with a big disclaimer: WHEN and IF you are able to walk for exercise.

For a time, I rode the bus to work.  This would entail walking to the bus stop, and a short walk from the bus to my place of work.  This was maybe 10 minutes of walking, twice a day, 20 minutes tops.  I certainly didn’t view walking to and from the bus as exercise.  Until I stopped doing it.  I began driving regularly to work, so my tiny little walks to and from the bus got nixed from my daily routine.  And in the following few months I packed on another 50 lbs.  Just because I wasn’t walking that little bit for 15-20 minutes a day.   This was quite the epiphany for me.  Just that tiny bit of daily walking was holding my weight at bay.

Second story:  a few years following my gastric bypass surgery, where I had initially lost about 100 lbs., I found myself slowly gaining some weight back.  This is before developing arthritis and my current severe knee problems.  I took a little part-time job in a hospital performing hearing tests on newborns (a fun job if you ever get the chance).  In a large hospital, you know how long it can take you to get from one end to the other, or just from the parking lot to a given wing/floor.  The amount of daily walking I had to do for this job surpassed any I’d ever had (as most of my prior work were desk jobs).  I bought my first pair of “granny shoes” (thank you SAS), and in just a few months I was back down to my post-surgery weight again.  Once again, the power of walking.  Of course, we can’t all enjoy work that comes with built-in exercise as part of the job.  But once again: epiphany.

And now my last story.  I was back up to weighing about 240 when I recently started on Plexus Slim.  As I mentioned, I now deal with joint pain from some old injuries as well as my arthritis which has kept me from doing any meaningful exercise in the past 5-6 years.  I do manage to get several laps done in my local grocery super-store every week, but honestly that’s about it.  On Plexus Slim, even WITHTOUT exercising I’ve managed in two months to lose about 20 lbs. and a couple of pant sizes.

So the bottom line for those of you who ask, “Do I HAVE to exercise while I’m taking Plexus Slim?”  Apparently not!  So if you are in such bad shape or in debilitating pain that makes exercise currently impossible, take courage, and please, try Plexus Slim.  Here's my shameless business promotional link:   Robinsky’s Plexus Slim Website

 That being said, now that I’ve shed some weight and inches, I’m feeling like I MIGHT want to try doing a little exercise again.  Now that my food intake is significantly less thanks to Plexus Slim, think how much more effective it would be if I added a little bit of exercise to that!  And I do mean a little bit.  I’m going to start out small, really small.  Remember those two 10-minute daily walks I did when riding the bus?  That’s all I’m talking about.  Sometimes walking will send my bad knee into the pits of despair, and I have to just stop and take a break.  So I’m gonna do that if and when I need to.   But tiny, gradual changes are all I’m going to attempt.  Otherwise I will be setting myself up to fail.  Just being realistic.  I will report back in future posts as to my success in this area.

I have a friend who’s expressed an interest in getting some walking in, but she wants a partner.  Walking partners can be great, both for just the company as well as the accountability.  I’m not sure I can commit to every day, but I’d like to be able to get with my friend maybe 3 times a week to do our walking together.  Maybe this is something that would help you—a partner.  Another possibility to ponder. 

So in summary:  If you’re simply unable to exercise right now, take courage and give Plexus Slim a try as your first step towards changing and getting healthy.  Perhaps after some time (like me), you’ll feel like you might be able to begin something small (walking, cycling, swimming).  Even if it’s just 10 minutes a day, it will make a difference.

And I had to include this last little illustration . . . just because it cracks me up so much.

~Robinsky~

 

 

My Life-Long Battle

 All my life I’ve fought it.  That thing called obesity.  I was a chubby kid and teen, and have only enjoyed a few select periods of my adulthood where I wasn’t the “fat one” in the room.  Being 5’10” was somewhat of an advantage.  People trying to console me in my obese misery would say, “Well, at least you’re TALL,” like somehow that gave me a pass to carry around 50 unwanted pounds and be content.  I come from a long line of overweight genes, on both sides of my family, so I was born obese into an obese clan.  And let’s face it, I love food.  All the wrong kinds.  In mass quantities.

There were the times in my life where I could actually look in the mirror and say, “Yeah, kid, you look ok.”  I recall a year in college when I looked pretty great.  The summer or two before I worked at a local motel as a maid.  Besides working early in the morning and having the afternoons free to suntan, (a must when you’re 19), that job was one of the most physically demanding I had done to date.  Making up 20 beds a day and scrubbing down 10 showers every day got me sleek and slender.  But it was short-lived.

The next memory I have of being that perfect size 12 was right before I got married in 1989.  I had embarked on an extensive diet plan with NutriSystem.  It’s a fine plan and it worked great for me.  But of course I ate their pre-packaged food, and found it difficult transitioning back to real food and real life, especially as a new bride in a new city with a new job.  Way too much change in one helping.

I honestly think I’ve tried just about every diet and plan and scheme there is out there to lose weight.  In the old days I remember taking an over-the-counter diet pill that contained phenylpropanolamine (PPA) and the amphetamine-like compound ephedra.  And for a short time I took the equally dangerous fen-phen.  Yikes.   I did the cabbage soup diet, tried SlimFast, Weight Watchers (another truly fine program), and Atkins, all with varying degrees of (at best) temporary success.

In 2002 I found myself in my 40’s and weighing about 325 lbs., wearing nearly a 4X in clothing.  And yes a 4X is too large, even for a “tall” girl.  So I opted for gastric bypass surgery in August of that year, and it probably saved my life.  I finally lost about 125 lbs., and eventually settled at around 200.  Even after that remarkable loss, I was still classified as “obese,” but at least I was not MORBIDLY obese.   I decided to be happy with my body where it was and though I fluctuated a bit over the next few years, managed to stay within about 20 lbs. of that 200 mark.

Until I hit my 50’s.  Then a number of things happened.  I began to develop arthritis in several joints (knees, hips, hands), took a fall in the tub that dealt the final blow to my right knee, making it an eventual replacement candidate for the future.  I started taking Celebrex.  I moved from a very active job in a hospital back to a desk job.  And due to some financial difficulties, we lived with a relative for about three years who lovingly did all the cooking for me and my husband, including my favorite things: never-ending carbs on the menu as well as a nightly desert.  In no time I found myself 60 lbs. heavier and feeling quite miserable again.  With my bad knee, exercise was pretty much impossible.  I was headed into yet another downward spiral of depression.

And believe me, when you are a gastric bypass veteran, NO ONE wants to hear about your weight-gain woes.  People see you gaining weight after undergoing this drastic surgery, and they just think you are the most hopeless soul, greatly to be pitied.  It's like having to declare bankruptcy shortly after winning the lottery; it just shouldn't be happening.  But the truth is, trouble with weight gain a few years after this type of surgery is rather common I've discovered.  The surgery is performed on your inward parts, but not on your brain.  It still craves all the bad stuff.

Usually gastric bypass is that last-ditch emergency solution, and after you’ve done that, you are just out of options.  This is what you tell yourself, because you think it’s the truth.  I planned on returning to Weight Watchers, as I knew it was a solid plan.  If I could just keep my cravings for all those bad things under control.  If I could just resist cheating.  If I could just exhibit some will power.  Losing weight was a priority, but for probably the first time in my life getting healthy and just feeling better were now center stage in my efforts. 

At 56, I felt prematurely old and decrepit.  I would count the hours until 3:00 pm every day, so I could take my pain medication so I could make it through the rest of my day.  After my work day, I would usually just collapse in my recliner for the evening.  Doing the grocery shopping and getting some laundry done was absolutely ALL I could handle on the weekends.  We would hire a maid once a month to do the heavy cleaning in our apartment as I just could not physically keep on top of it.  This added to my depression and feelings of failure and worthlessness.  Such was my life.

Then . . . a miracle arrived at my doorstep.  My massage therapist Hilda introduced me to a company called Plexus Worldwide and their products.  I tried Plexus Slim, the little Pink Drink along with the Accelerator+ for about a week.  I was astounded at how much energy I had!  Now, this isn’t the kind of “energy” you’re thinking of: wired to the point of insanity.  I remember hearing my Mom tell of the “diet pills” back in her day (the early 50’s) that wound her up so tight she told me she’d be out gardening at midnight because she had so much “energy!”  That stuff was essentially prescription speed.  So, no, Plexus did NOT give me THAT kind of energy.  I just felt UP and ready to face the day; a great feeling when you haven’t been in that frame of mind, body and spirit for a LONG time.

Wow, I could come home at night after work and actually DO a few things around the house.  Amazing.  And then the next miracle: I wasn’t obsessing over food 24/7.  Plexus Slim was having a tremendous effect in suppressing my appetite.  I would look up at the clock at work, realize it was lunchtime, and I hadn’t even had a thought for a mid-morning snack.  And because I wasn’t feeling ravenously hungry, I was able to make better choices.  “Ah, I think I’ll just have a chef salad.”  Trust me, this is NOT how my brain thinks when left to its own devices.  I was thinking about food differently!  This has never happened before.

What I was absolutely NOT expecting:  my arthritis and inflammatory pain started to improve!  What?!  I realized at work one day when 5:00 pm rolled around: it dawned on me I hadn’t even THOUGHT about taking a pain pill.  Oh can this really be happening?  Of course I’m still dealing with chronic pain and probably always will, but now it’s at a much reduced level.  I’m ecstatic!

So to say I’m in LOVE with these products is an understatement.  All natural ingredients.  Made here in the good old USA.  Sold via direct sales by people like ME who are having crazy good success with their weight loss and help with other painful symptoms or conditions.  I signed up as an Ambassador because I knew this company was for REAL and I wanted to be a part of it!  Do you think I should stop gushing now?  Sorry, not a chance.  I’ve never had a blog before, but here I am, because Plexus is just one of those things I will probably never stop talking about and sharing with people--like me--who need to feel better--physically, mentally, and emotionally.

Come along with me and let’s do this.  We can change the world.  One little Pink Drink at a time.

Robinsky