Changing Activity

Activity is an important part of your pre- and post-surgery life. Not only does activity help you lose weight faster, it also helps you stave off cancer, high blood pressure, and diabetes; lowers your cholesterol; reduces your risk of osteoporosis; and helps keep you looking healthy, fit, and trim. But daily activity does not have to mean a grueling workout at the gym. Your daily activity can be both simple and rewarding if you follow a couple of easy steps:

1. Get a pedometer: You need to walk a total of 10,000 steps each day after you recover from surgery. This equals roughly 4 miles and does not have to be done all in one shot. The steps you take in the kitchen while preparing dinner, the steps you take to the mailbox, and the steps you take on the treadmill all work cumulatively toward this total. Wearing a pedometer will help you count all your steps.
2. Keep a journal: Accountability is one of the keys to keeping up with your daily exercise needs, and a journal helps keep you accountable. Write down all your activity in the journal every day. Look at the days that you failed to be as active—was there a reason? Is there something you could have done to prevent it?
3. Start slow: Do not try to take on too much at once. Start slowly with walks around the store, walks through the parking lot as you go into the store, and walking up stairs. As you get more fit, you can increase your exercise.
4. Make an appointment: Planning out when you will exercise and what exercise you will do will help you become more committed. Write down the exercise plans on your calendar and treat them as you would any other obligation. You should be trying for 60 minutes of activity every day. You can break that up into chunks if it helps.
5. Understand what to do: You need to combine both strength training and aerobic exercise in your weekly schedule. Walking, biking, and swimming for a half hour at a time are perfect for aerobic exercise. Resistance bands and weight lifting (after proper training) for 15 to 20 minutes three times per week are perfect for toning.