Yesterday morning I woke up sore from doing lunges the day before. Oh man did my thighs burn when I got up from bed. I decided to let my body rest and skipped doing any exercise. Now I am not sure if it was a coincidence or not, but I felt very blah yesterday. By blah I mean that I just felt very stressed and frustrated. I am a stay at home mom to 2 boys and also a student. My classes don't start until the end of October and I have been on break since May. I think not having any interaction with other adults or getting a break from the kids really wore me out and it all just hit me yesterday. I had a little break down last night and this morning I thought that maybe it had to do with not doing any exercise. I also knew it was because I store all my emotions inside until I am ready to blow, but that's a different subject.
Now I know that there have been numerous amounts of studies linking exercise with better moods. I have searched on the internet and have read a few articles about this. When you exercise your body releases endorphins (which are like natural stress relievers). These endorphins put you in a good or better mood. Now let me just say that I am not an expert on this nor am I a doctor. When your body releases adrenaline, endorphins, serotonin and other hormones this can cause you to feel great. So if we miss one day of exercise will we break down?? Not necessarily, unless you were in my situation and let everything pile on top of you until you couldn't take it anymore. Talk about a heavy load.
Okay, maybe we shouldn't get ourselves all hyped up and super stressed over things and blow up, like me. I hold onto my feelings until everything is so built up that one simple action can bring out the worst in me. How scary is that? I am sometimes an emotional eater and yesterday would have triggered an immediate response. Instead I had a good cry, talked to my best friend, took a shower and went to bed. It is very hard to try and refocus yourself once you have a habit of going to food when your sad, mad, happy, scared, etc. Since I started this blog, which was only 5 days ago, I have struggled everyday to resist that temptation. Instead I have been focusing my energy in exercising. Surprisingly, I feel the same way after I go for a long walk as I do when I'm eating an ice cream sundae. The only difference is after my walk I feel great and extremely proud of myself; after the sundae I feel ashamed and guilty.
This is something that I have kind of known for awhile, but have refused to accept the reality of it. I knew exercise is good for you and makes you feel amazing afterwards, but I was too lazy to get up and do it. I also knew that eating your emotions was bad for you, but I still did it and felt horrible afterwards. Now that I have finally dug my heels in and started this new lifestyle I refuse to go back. Maybe yesterday was a coincidence, but it really made me think. I honestly didn't believe that exercise really would help me release stress. I wasn't a believer in it until today. This morning I did some Zumba and danced my booty off and afterwards I felt great. I wasn't even bothered that my little guy was trying to hold onto my legs while I was doing it or that he was trying to crawl in and out of the steps I was doing. Yesterday would have been a different story though. Now as I am sitting here finishing this post I feel more relaxed and less stressed. Huh, go figure.
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