no joy any more from working out

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I think it's because of the abilify.

When I used to do stepping, I really enjoyed it when I worked up a sweat but now I only do it for 5 minutes and I get tired of it. I wish I could do it for hours at a time but I can't.

Damn medicine!

I'm back up to 300 from 293. Thinking about taking the magnesium citrate.

try a different exercise for a while, and use the stepping only as an anaerobic augmentation, for short bursts?

This is where it's so valuable to have a doctor you can halfway talk with. Not just a wooden puppet where you pull the string in the back, and the doctor says ride out the side effects.

Is it expected to get better with time?

Would another medication be a better bet?

These seem like the obvious questions, and it seems like a doctor should spend a couple of minutes conversing with you and seeing where you're coming from and seeing what it means to you, even if he or she immediately knows the 'answers.' Then we get into that everyone's biochem is a little different. And the biochem of the human body, esp the brain, is tricky and subtle. So, Abilify is a prestige medicine and might in fact work great for some people, but other people, just not their cup of tea at all.

Switch up your workout routine(s) and talk with your doctor. Also, you may need to discuss your dietary habits when you go b/c foods will affect your meds/weight/energy levels in different ways.

Only things I can do right now is jogging in place, stationary bike and stepping. The stationary bike is old and rusty and doesn't run well and it hurts my butt.

I don't know if the effects will pass. I hope so. One of the side effects is weight gain so I have to keep up with the exercise but it's causing physical "I don't want to do this right now"-ness (?)

Just keep it up. You need to get yourself over your mental break point. At least that's how it worked for me. I hated working out when I started it, and it took me quite some energy to keep me mentally focused on it. Took be about six months until it stopped thinking of it as a nuisance, and it became an integral part of my life.
Keep it slow, find your own pace, and don't think about it too much. Let your body do the work, just move, and get your head clear.

That's great advice for working out in general, and I didn't know the 'wall' could be as long as six months. Now, in MasterJedi's case, it's more specifically the side-effect of the medication 'abilify.'

the stationary bike can be oiled and readjusted, and the seat probably can be replaced or strategically augmented. if you can jog in place, a quality minitrampoline can be a good thing for you. is there another drug other than abilify that you can consider using?

I think there are others in the same family as abilify. I'm going to stick it out to see if the side effects don't go away on their own.

is the abilify family of drugs the only ones to work for you? and do you know your resting metabolic rate? only if you know this can you judge how many calories you can get away with eating while still losing weight.

takes a lot more than your BMR to lose weight. It takes your BMR plus burning 3,500 calories to lose a pound.

What I mean is, you can't just take in 1,500 calories and sit on your butt all day and expect to lose weight. You need to create a calorie defect to lose weight. Your BMR would maintain your weight.

but the BMR would give you a starting point, anything else is akin to guessing. you would at least know how much exercise you'd need and/or how much further to reduce your caloric intake. just a thought.

MasterJedi, is exercise the only thing that you no longer enjoy on this drug (ie, have other aspects of your quality of life also deteriorated)?