Motivation & depression

Add Nordic walking sticks to your walk. It's easy but you burn more calories and you get an upper body workout too.

shelleylindholm wrote: »

I suffer from severe depression and find that my motivation is zilch when I think about exercise. I like to walk, want to run again, and I enjoy yoga. Any ideas?

I would suggest getting as much of your exercise outside as you can. I have severe depression also and I find sunshine is one of the best things for me. If you can't make yourself exercise, even just going outside for 10-15 minutes will give you a shot of some vitamin D and may lift your mood to where you feel more capable of exercising.

I joined the "Just For Today" commitment thread on this board, because committing to doing something for one day only just seems less daunting when I'm down. I also use an app called Habitica where I earn points and level up by accomplishing tasks I set for myself that align with my goals, like exercising, resisting junk food, drinking enough water, etc. It may not be for everyone but it's fun for me and gives me a bit of a boost to see me progressing toward the results I want.

Also, maybe find a friend to work out with you? That can be a nice substitute for going out for lunch and eating something high calorie, plus you both get fitter, and the socializing may give you a boost as well.

Finally, remember that if weight loss is your goal, it's lost in the kitchen more than at the gym, so I try to have a stockpile in the freezer ready to go. Then if I have days when all I'm capable of it sticking something in the microwave, I have healthy, calorie apportioned items ready to go. I have split pea soup, lentil stew, 5 bean chili, spaghetti sauce, and a couple of frozen dinners in the freezer right now.

I attended a conference about staying focused and sticking with plans that we've made to progress toward our goals, and the speaker, Jaylee James (who has also struggled with depression), said some things that really resonated with me, so much that I read them over to myself every Sunday afternoon:

"Know yourself: the plan needs to work in two ways, getting stuff done and not dying of stress overload. Keep track of both and take time to check in with yourself. If you are stressed out, falling behind, exhausted, feeling like a failure, the plan is the problem, not you. The plan is there to serve you, not the other way around."

"Forgive yourself when you completely throw out your plan. Self-loathing is incredibly useless and unproductive."

"Revise your plan. Give a plan 3 weeks to really try it out if you can. Revise and re-revise until you find something that works for you."

"Celebrate! Whenever you accomplish something you need to celebrate it. Celebrating the work you do is just as important as doing the actual work. "

I hope this helps you. Friend me if you'd like and I'll do anything I can to cheer you on.

Try run walk intervals, e.g: walk 3 mins, run 30 sec for 10-20 intervals or what ever ratio of run/walk works for you.
This is how you come back from injury and have to start building up your running from scratch. As the days and weeks go by, you change the intervals, reducing the walk and increasing the run until eventually the walks are zero.

A lot of mental illnesses make it hard to stay motivated or be active for various reasons. Stay strong, push through it and try to find someone you can maybe do something fun/active with.