Wednesday, January 19, 2011

Something not quite right?


Hello everyone, I hope that you have had a good week up to this point. We are on the down hill slide to the weekend!!!! I wanted to give you a quick message about something that is common among many of us when we initially change our diets and increase our exercise. This is the feeling of being unsettled or feeling blue. When you make positive changes in your diet and begin to exercise it is not uncommon for a week or so to actually feel worse than before you began your change. I know I know, that sounds terrible doesn't it? I mean you have made these great sacrifices and you are moving in the right direction and now I am telling you that you may feel sluggish or depressed in the first couple of weeks??? Here is the deal, you are making changes to yourself and to your environment and your body has to adjust to that. Some of the unhealthy food choices you had been making may have created a chemical reaction in which now you are withdrawing. Sound like addiction? Yes it is not unlike that, unfortunately most of the processed food that you may have been eating was actually poisoning you and creating a dependency. I don't mean to sound extreme but there is a bunch of research that points to this being fact. So between the fact that your body is trying to figure out this new regiment and the fact that you may be detoxing from an unhealthy diet, you may initially feel tired, irritable, and down and out.

This is also accompanied by the fact that you are now physically working hard. When you begin exercise you are physically sore but you also are opening a way for your emotions to find an outlet. There is something about sweating that opens up some of the "stuff" we have been bottling up in our life. It is not unusual during or after a work out to feel emotional. Its OK, this is a time to get some of this "stuff" out and this is a healthy way to do it! This may last for a week or two before you feel better and you may see this same pattern each time you increase your exercise or make a new change in your diet. Hang in there all this doesn't last forever and you will find that if you keep a healthy diet and exercise that you will be happier and have more energy than ever before, but for some you will need to work through this. DO NOT GIVE UP!!!! You can do this, as I said in an earlier post, you will have step outside your comfort zone but when you do you will be heading in the right direction!

Till next time.... Travis

2 comments:

Unknown said...

Travis, I agree with you on the correlation between feeling emotional and a good workout. Working out has definitely provided me with an outlet that I didn't at first realize I needed. I have surprised myself at times by almost coming to tears in some really vigorous exercise sessions. It's so cathartic! Thanks for the encouragment and wisdom! ~Serene

Anonymous said...

Interesting!! Thanks Travis!