Blue, Exercise and Food!

I wrote about Feeling Blue in a previous post. This post is about using exercise and food to help pull me out of it and make me feel more whooo hoo! 😀

Last Monday, I felt blue, just blue. It was a Monday, back at work after a weekend away. My husband was going away for two weeks, I had had a terrible incident with a spider the weekend before and the thought of this was stressing me out. I just can’t deal with that on my own. We have a wood behind us, they are huge, and I mean huge. Anyway, this, on top of everything else was adding up to BLUE!!

So what did I do to pull myself out of this ickyness. Well the best thing for it! After my blog last week, I realised that eating all the crap doesn’t make me feel good and is probably partly to blame for this blue feeling. And it’s slowly sinking in, that in order to feel great, I need to fuel my body with the most vitality bringing food and to exercise and move my ass. Combine these too and surely it would be a successful win win situation for my body and mind.😀

With the Monday in full swing, I ate better, more fruit and veg and I went out for an interval run/walk in the evening. This did have an uplifting effect – particularly at the end of my run! I was pleased I did it and the feeling I got afterwards was well worth the sweat!

Way back at the start of my blogging journey, my first post was all about losing weight in a different way this year, I didn’t want to follow a weight loss plan as whilst they work in the short term they are not sustainable. So I have to do what makes me happy with regards to food, exercise and life in general and then if the by product of this life was weight loss then I would know I am doing what’s right for me. So these principles I am still applying to this situation. Happiness has to be the main point to all I do. 

I spent some time researching some new recipes online, nothing fancy but just picking meals that would be delicious and healthy or easily adaptable to being healthier. You always have to leave some wiggle room particularly with a recipe so you can add things in you like and take out the food you don’t. And also, there is no chance I’m going to be a saintly eater 😇 from now on in, so some of the recipes will be a little more indulgent! And I am happy with that! You have to be happy with your food, otherwise you will be miserable and the chances of losing weight will be next to nothing. Make sure you aren’t putting your happiness on your food…it has to be about you and how the food makes you feel. I know eating a salad would make me miserable, so I just don’t do it. So be kind to yourself and only eat the healthy or indulgent food if it makes you happy.

Most meals, whatever it is I’ve had, I’ve just added a microwave bag of steam fresh veg – simple! Nothing major. Try it, saves you peeling veg or spending ages prepping it!

As for exercise, I do need to find something else, something for me and Scott to do that’s fun – we always like to go walking but this may be amped up to running or just something that isn’t always sofa sitting. Not always anyway – as you have to have some chill time.

The rest of the week, I continued with yoga each morning – which truly is amazing in helping me wake up and start my day in a calm but energetic way. I went out for walks at lunchtimes and also did an interval run/walk on Thursday after work. All this has definitely helped me to feel more me again and less blue.

I got a cold (sniff sniff) at the end of the week so on Saturday I made this a sofa day of magazines and tv/movies. I looked after me and did very little. And despite feeling rubbish, no blues were in sight! I had a truly chilled day!

Today is Sunday and I woke up feeling bright and energetic, still a bit under the weather but on the mend and ready to beat any blues that rear their ugly head given the day it is. I am not immune to feeling blue from time to time, it’s just sometimes it gets me and I am sure it may be the same for you. I know exercise works for me, my mindset and my anxiety. But I also know that it has to be the exercise I love – joining a gym wouldn’t do it for me. Please find something you love to do, rather than forcing yourself into something just because you feel you should. I’m not saying you will always jump up and down with excitement to do exercise as sometimes I need to kick my ass to get moving, but if something makes you miserable, anything, then question why you are doing it!

Have a lovely week and be kind to yourself and always make sure you look after you. Thank you all so much for reading.

Love Emma

xx