This past week I’ve had mental and emotional challenges that I didn’t expect to pop up. I should’ve expected it because everybody goes through it, but I didn’t think that it would happen to me. Padrone‘s birthday was 30 April, and it was a cheat day for both of us. I had a tiny tiramisu and some pasta. I was all happy about it. The next day, I got out and did about a 6 km fast walk to help work off what I had eaten the night before. A few days after that, I woke up with absolutely no motivation whatsoever. It was extremely weird for me. I didn’t say anything to Padrone at first and kept it to myself. I still got out every day and did some form of exercise, either a walk with Padrone, a faster walk by myself, or some type of indoor exercise. But I wasn’t putting 100% effort into it. I was only half way pushing myself when normally I push myself to go further, go faster, and do a little bit better than I had the day or week before.
It honestly was a little bit of a struggle for me to make myself get up and exercise. Every day for the past 15 weeks, before I’ve enjoyed it and felt guilty when I did not actually get out and do something. But for some reason, my mental motivation, mojo if you will, just left. I was feeling down and a little depressed. I felt like everything around me was just pressing in on me and that I didn’t know what to do or how to get out from feeling this way.
After a few days, I finally came to a point where it is all spilled out and I told Padrone how I was feeling mentally and emotionally. At first, I didn’t feel any better. I thought I was going a little crazy. I wondered if I was developing some form of depression because of hormones, epilepsy, or some other reason. But then, after finally talking about my feelings openly, I stayed home and I slept for about six or seven hours. I had not been sleeping very well for the past two days. I woke up and I feel like me again.
I don’t know if it was talking to Padrone about how bad I was feeling, actually sleeping really well for the first time in a few days, or just some chemical change my brain, that actually made me feel better, but whatever it is, I feel like I’m back on track now. That’s one reason why I haven’t posted a weekly summary, because I honestly didn’t feel like it and I could not.
When you are going through a down time, a funk, a small depression, or what ever other name you want to give it, you have to realize that it will change over time. Things will look better and will get better, if you just keep going. For me it’s easier to say that than do it, because I’ve been through it and I am not clinically depressed. And for me, it only lasted about four days.
If you feel bad or down longer than that, definitely seek professional help! Don’t be afraid to tell your partner, your family, your friends, someone how you are feeling, because talking about it and getting it off your chest and not carrying that entire burden or weight on your shoulders, will help you. If you’re unable to talk to someone face to face, find somebody online that you trust and say hey can I talk to you for minute? And then explain how you’re feeling. Who knows? They might have an answer that you never thought of to help bring you out of your depression.
Well now that you understand what I’ve been going through, you know you’re not alone. Many of you probably think that I only post the good things that happened to me in life, I post a lot of the bad things too. I write this blog as a way to help myself stay motivated, in an effort to help others that might be going through the same things that I have been, and hopefully, it’s an inspiration to other people to get healthier on their own and take their life back. We are all getting older and we all need to take the necessary steps to live longer, live healthier, and be the best that we can be mentally, physically and emotionally for ourselves, our family, and our friends. I know in 20 years when I’m 65, I want to be the most fabulous, physically abled, mentally abled person I can be and not be a burden on anyone.
I’ve actually found that my epilepsy symptoms improved with the change in my diet along with exercising. Obviously, it’s not a complete cure. But since the type of epilepsy I have is resistant to all current medications, I’ll take any improvement at this point. As I’ve gotten older, my seizures and the other things that happened to me because the epilepsy, have gotten worse. Of course, environment and attitude play a significant role in how your body reacts when you have epilepsy, but exercise and diet also have a role as well.
Other health improvements that I’ve seen for me in the past four months, 16 weeks, have been less reflux, less heartburn, and virtually no nausea. Before, since I had my gall bladder removed over 10 years ago, I had many symptoms of GERDS. But now that I have changed to an all plant-based diet, combined with my exercising, I’m much better. If I’m feeling this many improvements in just four months, I can’t wait to see how good I’m feeling after another four months.
Although I don’t have a specific weight goal in mind, I’m just going to continue on the path that I’m on with my exercising and eating, and see where it goes. I’m very happy so far with the results and I feel much more confident in myself and how I dress, but also on the inside. Sticking with the diet and a new way of life, because let’s be honest, it is a way of life, not a diet, and continuing on is one of the hardest things anyone can do, especially when you were so used to eating all kinds of junk food, fast food, and generally things that are not good for you.
So my goal for this week and the continuing weeks, is just to continue on improving my health, pushing myself for exercise, and maybe changing it up a little by adding some small weights for strength training. I’m not exactly sure where I’ll go from here but I’m continuing on. I know that I’m going to have other times where motivation is lacking or I just don’t feel like doing anything. But I’m going to continue because I know and experienced the results, that this is the best path for me.
Thank you so much for following me and staying with me all this time. If you have any questions, or just want to comment on something, please make a comment on the bottom. Will be back next week for week 17 summary.
If you have any exercise tips, I would love to hear from you. Thanks for reading!
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