Transformations Don't Happen Overnight

Fitness makes such a difference with anxiety, worries, stress, health issues, etc.

We all know this is true. I don’t think there is one person in my daily life I could say, “You know fitness helps with stress right?” to them and get back:

“WOW! Really?! I had no idea!” That wasn’t actually facetious.

We all know it’s true, so why does having anxiety and stress make the commitment to workout seem even harder sometimes?

For myself, I have a chronic health condition that adds to the everyday exhaustion most people who work full-time feel. I don’t have children, animals, or a spouse, yet I still find it’s hard to make the time to work out.

I sit staring at the wall, just thinking about how awful I feel and how stressful divorce is and how painful it is to be in this awful limbo of not knowing what happens next. Mixed with this intense antsiness is this desire to be active—to do things, go places, run in circles.

This is just one more of the ways anxiety tries to rule my life. But Nike said it best with their infamous tagline:

“Just Do It.”

The best thing you can do for yourself when you’re feeling this way is to just show up. Do something. Anything is better than nothing. Twenty minutes of walking on the treadmill is twenty minutes more than you would have done otherwise.

There are times I can stick to a 13-week schedule and miss almost no days and take almost no rest days. And there are sometimes when I struggle to even get in more than once or twice a week. Most of it is mental, and figuring out how to break mental barriers is something I’m very passionate about lately.

I don’t want to be fighting myself internally for the rest of my life. I don’t want anyone else to feel this way either, so, whatever I can figure out that helps me, I want to help other people with.

I find that the best thing for me was to just set a schedule for three weeks of healthy eating goals and a goal to be active in some way for 30 minutes each of those days. I inspired myself by planning a treat for the end of those three weeks. It can be a food treat, certainly; I personally don’t believe there’s anything wrong with motivating yourself food-wise.

But maybe it’s something else; maybe there is a new hardcover book you really want, but you never buy brand new! Or you really want a pedicure but haven’t found a way to justify it. Little things like this were the keys for myself to setting up a fitness routine that I knew I could stick to.

Eventually, I didn’t need the bribes! Wonder of Wonders!

Three years of serious goal setting has me here, stalled temporarily, wondering what to do with myself, feeling crippled by anxiety most days and allowing my anxiety to tell me that I should be more fit, I shouldn’t have had that cheeseburger, I shouldn’t be so stressed all the time.

Dealing with divorce is painful, stressful, and hard. It can overshadow every portion of your life. And I’m not even talking about the heartache: sometimes you make a choice that is best for you and you are happy with it, but that doesn’t make it easy or painless.

The amount of stress that has gone into this process has been unbearable at times. I have found a haven in fitness, though! I have found that the more I workout, the easier life becomes.

That’s endorphins talking!

Endorphins tell me that my stress is useless, that it means nothing and is only weighing me down.

So, are you walking around with voices arguing with each other all the time? You ask.

YUP!

You sound like a crazy person! You might think.

And you know what, I might be. I feel crazy even on my best days. But the main point I want to drive home is that even though we know that fitness is one of the best cures for stress and anxiety, getting to a point where we use it as the tool can feel like an astronomical hurdle.

Take it one day, one workout, at a time. Don’t weigh yourself often, don’t expect anything. And, when you start to see results, you’ll only be motivated to continue!