*Sigh* That’s me, breathing a sigh of relief. Or it could be contentment, too. See, I’ve been off my game lately…but I worked out this morning, for the first time in 2 weeks, and I feel normal again. It feels good.
Some of you may have noticed that I haven’t written a blog in almost a month. Truth be told, I haven’t done much of anything for at least two weeks. Including working out. I don’t have an excuse; basically, I woke up one morning and thought, “I’m not going to work out today.” And it worked so well for me, I did it again the next day. And the next day. And before I knew it, it had been two weeks since I’d worked out.
Generally, when I don’t work out for a couple of days, my body starts to remind me that I should. I start to feel blah, physically. I get more tired than usual, and things just don’t feel tight. So I figured, when I took a little break, that my body would let me know in 2 or 3 days that it was time to get going again. But strangely, that didn’t happen.
What I did notice is that mentally, I started to fall apart. Ironic, isn’t it, given that my last three blog posts were about how good aerobic exercise is for your brain. Let this be a lesson in practicing what I preach. ;) This is one of the reasons that I haven’t been blogging: I couldn’t stay focused enough to write a blog. After the first week, I started feeling like my head wasn’t screwed on straight. By the second week, I was so scatterbrained that I felt like somebody with ADHD who went off their medication. And for a control freak like me, that’s a bad thing. The more I tried to focus, the more frustrated I got.
And focus wasn’t the only issue. I noticed that my temper flared up much more easily. Little things that normally wouldn’t bother me would ruin my whole day. In particular, driving became one of the most annoying things I could do. I’ve never noticed before that everyone in Minneapolis–except for me, of course–is a terrible driver. I became incredibly impatient, with everything and everybody.
Even though I noticed that all of these things are happening mentally, it took a little while for me to make the connection to my skipped workouts. I was waiting for that physical prompting; I was waiting to start feeling mushy and weak. Apparently, I was waiting for the wrong thing.
Anyway, on Saturday (exactly two weeks after my last workout) I woke up and thought, “Maybe I’ll go to the gym today.” I didn’t even have to think it through; before I knew it, I was walking down Hennepin Av in the rain, towards the YWCA. I actually got there about 45 minutes before the spin class that I was considering, so I spent half an hour on the stepmill before doing the spin thing. And I felt so good after spinning that I hopped on the treadmill for 3.5 miles.
I have to say, when I left the gym, I was flabbergasted. I felt so calm, but so energetic. My brain had slowed down and I felt like I could get stuff accomplished that afternoon. The strangest part was, I hadn’t even known what I was missing. For two weeks I had not exercised, and I thought I felt fine. I hadn’t felt the need to work out. It was weird to finally realize how much I had needed it.
And it is totally ironic, considering that I’ve been reading and writing about how aerobic exercise positively affects the brain. As a matter of fact, before I fell off the face of the earth, my next neurology-and-exercise blog would have been about aerobic exercise’s effect on ADHD. Strange, then, that when I stopped aerobically exercising (I was still getting plenty activity due to the hard labor I was putting in with a yard-work project) I started feeling like I had ADHD. I am a case-in-point.
So, let that be a lesson to you. Learn from my mistakes. Even if you don’t feel like you need exercise, you might be pleasantly surprised by how it affects you–not just physically, but mentally as well.
Later this week I’ll follow up with the latest neurology-and-exercise post. As I said, it will cover ADHD and other attention disorders. But I’m going to take a little survey today: I’ve been thinking about starting a food challenge. I would like everone’s opinion on this, so leave comments on this blog. I was thinking of going one month without eating any convenience food. Many if not all of my clients have asked me this at some point: How do you eat healthy when you’re in a hurry? How bad is a Lean Cuisine? We know that the fast-food drive thru is a bad choice, but what about that packaged dinner you picked up at the grocery store for your family? So I would keep a daily blog about my attempts to live without pre-packaged food. I would include recipes and helpful hints, as well as the daily choices I’ll have to make in order to keep the processed food out. So my question is, would any of you find this helpful? If I do it, what else should I include?
Thanks for your feedback! And check back later this week (probably Thursday or Friday) for the post on ADHD. I’d write it now, but I think I’ve exhausted the focus I gained from my workout this morning. 
I think that sounds very helpful, hard…but helpful! I’d also wonder if you would end up spending more/less money.
I’m thrilled to let you do the initial discovery of how to make no-processed-foods a do-able reality, and then I’m absolutely gonna jump on the wagon with you!
Hi Sarah, I just got back home after a long work day, but this kind of made want to go work out
Also, I’m interested on the ADHD/exercise blog, not for me but for my 16-yr old niece, who’s also kind of depressed (maybe tmi…).