A very dear friend of mine admitted to feeling depressed today. And, of course, I got to thinking....which is quite scary.
To be honest, most days, I am a pretty positive person. I annoy the crap out of my husband, because I'm so positive. But, my positivity comes from a time when I wasn't so positive. It's a "learned" positive, if you will. And, when I say 'I'm positive,' I don't mean that I'm always happy-go-lucky, because i'm certainly not. Just like most parents, I get frustrated with my kids, I often feel overwhelmed, and sometimes i feel like i'm just not doing a good enough job. Don't we all? And, sometimes, I feel like i'm not doing a good enough job with my health and fitness.
Example: Today (yes, TODAY), I didn't want to work out. I wasn't feeling motivated to do it, and honestly, I would have rather sat here and tweeted about cloud computing or integrated lights-out (fun stuff). But I KNEW that if i didn't work out, i'd 1) be in a crappy mood 2) be extra cranky with my kids 3) feel depressed about it 4) feel squishy. So, i MADE myself workout. And did Insanity Max Interval Training, for crying out loud. The entire warmup, i was bitching to myself in my head. "I don't want to do this," "UGH, this is awful!" etc. etc. But I DID it. No, it wasn't my best workout ever, and after I finished, I felt like I was going to die, but I feel proud of myself that i did it. But see numbers 1-4 above? Those things won't happen now. I guess the whole point of my story is, that sometimes, the 'depression' that we allow to creep up on us can be wiped out by MAKING ourselves take action.
90% of the depression that people face can most likely be fixed. Maybe not immediately, but it CAN be fixed. Example no. 2: We're on the Dave Ramsey plan to wipe out our debt. Anyone else? It's not overnight. But last April, I got sick and freakin' tired of working so hard and not having any money, so we got on the plan. Are we debt-free? No. Are we on our way? YEP. Is that "money depression" gone? Absolutely. Because i know we're on our way to beating that monster down!
Back to fitness: If you feel depressed about how you look or how you feel, then DO SOMETHING ABOUT IT!! If you're saying, "Well, i'm too out of shape to do P90X/Insanity/fill in the blank," you're making excuses. Can you walk? Get out there and do it. Did you know that one of Beachbody's BEST coaches was (and often still is) confined to a wheelchair? She was depressed and feeling bad about her multiple sclerosis. She did P90X! FROM A WHEELCHAIR. There's another guy in the P90X dvds that has a prostethic leg. He did the program with one leg, people. All the excuses I ever had for my fitness depression seem so paltry now.
But, here's the key to it all: the way you look doesn't define you. Heck, your general health doesn't define you. BUT..the way you feel about yourself shows. If you feel depressed, people will notice it. You can only put on a happy face for so long. Give yourself the gift of health. Just get mad at yourself, and let yourself know that YOU ARE NOT GOING TO DEAL WITH FITNESS DEPRESSION any longer. YOU are an amazing person. YOU are worth it. YOUR body deserves to be treated right.
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