By: Clare Pattison

The secret to success is no secret.  However we do it, with or without a lap band, the answer is the same.  Eat less and move more.  When people ask me what my secret is, that's my answer.  Almost always, they are disappointed.  That's it?  They want to hear about a miracle diet, a magic formula, an amazing breakthrough.

The eat less part was the easier of the two for me.  I have had success with dieting before, once even losing 100 pounds.  But I never kept it off.  This time I knew that I needed to also be successful at the second part of the equation.  Move more.  When I first watched The Biggest Loser just last year, a light went on in my head.  The only difference between them and me was that they were fit and active.  I knew that if I could only get moving, I could do what they were doing in my own time and in my own way.

I am a classic example of starting from absolutely nothing.  My daily exercise included getting dressed (that would be my bending and stretching for the day), walking from the house to the car and the car to my office, climbing one flight of stairs, then doing it in reverse in the afternoon.  My big fitness activity each week was pushing a shopping cart around the grocery store.  My strength training came from trying to carry the grocery bags up the three stairs into the house.  Wow.  But keep in mind that I couldn't put on my socks without a great effort and I couldn't talk for a few minutes after climbing that one flight of stairs!  As for the grocery bags, some days I could do it, and some days I just couldn't.

It took me MONTHS after lap band surgery to get moving in any way at all.  I thought about it, read about it, researched it, had sessions with my exercise therapist and wore a pedometer but still didn't move a muscle.  I was embarrassed.  I hurt.  I didn't have any comfortable clothes.  I didn't know how.  I didn't like to sweat.  The pool schedule didn't work for me.  I couldn't afford classes.  The gym at work was always busy.  Our road is gravel and too dangerous to walk on.  It was too cold.  It was too buggy.  I didn't voice any of these EXCUSES out loud because I knew them for what they were.  I had to get past my own head issues in order to move my body. 

It reminds me of back in high school when we had a starvathon to raise money for charity.  For some screwy reason, I just couldn't participate.  In my mind I thought it would draw attention to my obesity.  Then I felt humiliated when everyone made snide remarks because the fat girl just couldn't go without food.  AARRGGHHH!  So now it was I didn't want people to see the fat woman trying to exercise. 

Well that was then, AND THIS IS NOW!!!!!  When I finally pushed through whatever it was in my mind that was in my way, and believe me, it was a mighty push, the train started moving.  It started ever so slowly, almost unnoticeably at first.  The first tiny move I made was to send my documents to the printer in the mail room instead of using the printer in my office.  Yup.  That was my mighty move.  No one would know that my walking down the hall a few extra times a day was the BEGINNING of a healthier, fitter me.  But it was.  And I stopped asking the young spry one to take things downstairs to the front desk for me the next time she was going anyway.  I just took them myself.  No one pointed or laughed.  Then at coffee time I would put the coffee on in the lunch room and walk down the stairs, around the hallway and up the other stairs.  People thought I had just gone to the bathroom.  Somehow these tiny things gave me courage.  They gave me courage to get past worrying what other people thought.

When I finally got up the nerve to walk into the company gym, I started with 5 minutes on the elliptical.  It looked like the easiest machine in the gym.  Good thing there were paramedics exercising in the gym with me because I almost needed them.  Nix that idea.  I didn't give up.  Next day I tried 5 minutes on the recumbent exercise bike.  But with my belly in the way, I couldn't get close enough to the pedals to reach properly and it really hurt my butt.  I mean really, not just an excuse.  So I eyed the treadmill with trepidation and not just a little fear.  It turned out to be my friend.  Again, I tentatively tried 5 minutes holding onto the rails at a very slow pace.  This I could do.  And the treadmill in the gym is the super-industrial-strength model that could manage my weight. 

So I kept going to the gym on my afternoon coffee break and doing 5, then 10, then 15 minutes on the treadmill gradually increasing the pace from a leisurely stroll to a brisk walk, and working my way from holding on for dear life, to holding on with one hand, to swinging my arms, to swinging my arms holding 2 pound weights while I walked.  Then we took the big plunge and bought a treadmill for home.  It was a lot of money and another payment that stretched our budget, but I use it every single day and like the lap band surgery itself, it has been worth every penny.

Next step, strength training.  No idea where to start.  All those machines in the gym terrified me.  Instead, I found the dumbbells my son had left behind when he moved out and got a pile of books and DVDs from the library.  You know the kind, weight training for the absolutely terrified woman type.  I made little stick figure drawings on a sheet of paper so I'd remember what to do, and taped the paper up on the wall in our basement.  Again I started really slowly doing only the weight training for dummies versions of each exercise.

Onward to the core muscles.  I'm still new at this stage of things.  The first thing I incorporated was tightening my gut muscles while doing my hand weight exercises.  I probably should have been doing this all along, but I didn't know that.  Same with my butt muscles.  Just that alone was a lot of work and concentration.  Next, I dusted off the wii fit board and started doing the balance games.  So far so good.  I bought a weight bench at the Thrift Shop for $9 and I'm planning to add some core exercises to my morning routine soon.  I'm still not ready to get down on the floor.

Now my usual routine includes a 30-40 minute workout first thing in the morning on the treadmill and with hand weights.  I have two DVDs I use for strength training, one for upper body and the other for lower body as well as the wii fit.  I vie for the equipment in the company gym at coffee break and don't care who is in there or who sees me.  I WEAR SHORTS!!!!!  And I don't care what anyone thinks of the flappy skin I have on my arms and legs.

Am I a fitness goddess?  Heck no.  I still feel like an awkward clutz most of the time.  I can't keep up with any of the aerobic DVDs I've tried yet and my attempts at doing many of the moves they do are quite comical BUT I'M TRYING and I'm SWEATING. 

I'm as ordinary as they come.  I fought against getting moving with all my might.  But tiny step by tiny step, I got the train on the tracks and ever so slowly, it left the station.  I'm not up to full steam yet, but everything I do gives me health benefits.  Like the Little Engine That Could, I've gone from I HOPE I can, to I THINK I can, to I KNEW I could!  Can I carry anyone's groceries while I'm running up these stairs?

Clare Pattison

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