Originally Posted by john_pifer
Originally Posted by caprice_2nv
Originally Posted by john_pifer
Exercise, if you aren't already. And, by that, I mean vigorous exercise - not just walking a few blocks. Running or aggressive bicycle riding. You need vigorous exercise to stimulate your cardiovascular system and get your natural endorphins (the body's natural painkillers and mood-enhancing substances) flowing.
Forget treating it with drugs. And stop drinking, or, limit yourself to no more than a couple of drinks per day.
Schedule a trip to the mountains and do some camping and hiking. See some sights. Take a trip somewhere you've always wanted to go. Things like this change your perspective on life.
Do some things to help others who are less fortunate than yourself.
Pray.
Personally, I work for land surveyor so I spend most of the day excercising. I can't run because I'm carrying expensive equipment and sometimes heavy loads, several items at once by myself trying not to drop anything. I am usually moving fairly fast though because the pressure is always on to get all the jobs done. I often feel I have to skip my half an hour lunch break to get the work done.
I also ride my mountain bike in the summer months. Winter time it's harder to stay upbeat. Winter makes being outside not so enjoyable for me. If you're just going for a nice stroll it's one thing but winter makes everything harder to do. Your fingers turn numb when you're trying put a nail in concrete, etc. Just trying to put it in perspective because sometimes people have a hard time imagining something they haven't had to deal with (especially depression for example).
Definitely excercise helps a lot but it's one of the hardest things to want to do if you're dealing with depression and already spent all day working your rear off to make a living, whether you're working physically all day like am, or just have a mentally straining job stuck in the office all day.
First, walking around is not what I'm talking about. I'm an aircraft mechanic, so I also have a physical job, during the course of which I'm walking around between hangars, up and down stairs, crawling through airplanes, carrying and lifting heavy loads, etc. That is not vigorous exercise. It doesn't get your heart rate and breathing rate anywhere near where running (or even jogging) or aggressive biking or weightlifting, etc, does. That's what is required to get your natural endorphins and hormones flowing to get you feeling better.
Your comments about not wanting to get outside in winter, or not wanting to exercise after a long day at work are just excuses. Sorry to put it that way, but they are. We all deal with weather, and we all work hard all day long. If you really want to make changes in your life, you have to make up your mind to get past mental obstacles like weather or thinking youre too tired to exercise.
Another thing I'll say about exercise is that it makes eating much more enjoyable. When you do some vigorous exercise, it makes you much more hungry and your food tastes better. You look forward to meal times and have a better appetite. Not to mention the fact that when you're doing vigorous exercise and you're at a healthy weight, you can eat anything you want and not have to worry about gaining weight. A lot of people get on the miserable cycle of diet, gain, diet, gain, diet, gain, and not being able to eat good-tasting food because they're too worried about their weight. And, for someone like me who loves to eat, that would be a terrible way to live.
I'm not going to argue with anything you said but I will comment that I've never had to worry about what I eat as far as weight goes, I'm 5'11 and always been around 155lbs. The one thing I try not to eat us sugar, because i get migraines frequently and sugar likely makes them even more frequent besides just being bad overall.
Yes maybe I'm making excuses but I will say between the hours I work and chores, other things I need to accomplish there is not a lot of extra time and we all need some relax time I believe. Once I get the extra motivation/time right now my next task is to get out to my friends property, pull my Cutlass out of the barn in winter storage and do the oil change/clean out I didn't have time to do when the snow hit a few weeks back.
