Exercising for mood and health.

Why don't more people exercise?


Here are 4 big reasons:

1. It's giving to yourself instead of others (mothers!)
2. It takes time, and it's not a habit.
3. It friggen HURTS!
4. The benefits don't happen right away, nor are they obvious.

Most people, by the time they have mood or health problems they think need treating, have children and/or jobs.  These are essential responsibilities, right?  You can't put your needs ahead of these kinds of needs without serious trouble.  Most people lose out on exercise right there.  They're good, responsible people.  They get their jobs done first, then if there's anything left, which they might take for themselves, they still consider giving it to their kids or their work!  Isn't that how you do it?


Now of course in the long run those kids and jobs would be better off with a mom or dad who's not troubled by mood and / or health problems, and exercise is purported to treat mood and health problems.


Most people in the North America have tight schedules.  So most people would have to change their schedule to make room for regular exercise.  Exercise is not the routine thing, it's an extra thing.  There's the second huge reason why it doesn't happen:  people leave their plan for exercise to a repeated decision.  That's like repeatedly deciding to take a medication.  One of those times, taking two minutes to do so will seem less important than something, like getting the kids to school on time, and poof!  medication missed.  And if it requires 30 or 40 minutes, like exercise, poof again!


Thirdly, for people with Fibromyalgia and Chronic Fatigue, exercise really really hurts.  I mean you're in a lot of pain and already exhausted before starting, and people with CFS don't get that endocrine high, just total and utter exhaustion that they have trouble surmounting for days.


Last, the benefits don't happen right away.  That's another predictable way for human brains to miscalculate,  something else of more immediate value will win out, even if it's nowhere near as valuable in the long run.  Worse yet, the benefits of exercise are subtle.  So even when they're happening, they're pretty easily missed:  increased strength (how often do you use that?); increased stamina (same problem); better weight control (too many ways to mess that up!); less depression (unless you have other reasons to stay depressed or get depressed again, like stresses or genetics).  And the well-know, undebated benefits like lower heart disease risk and osteoporosis protection are invisible, especially to our decision-making brains.

Could I do this? 

The main "no" must be coming from my head.   Name some physical limitation and you could find somebody somewhere who's got that limitation too but has overcome it somehow.  So we're really dealing with motivation and time/money/other-resources barriers here.

Of course motivation is not a depressed person's strength, right?  If you have depression, you know:  cooking dinner is hard enough.  And look, how many people who aren't depressed exercise regularly?  (people's self-report, which is surely exaggerated -- wouldn't you?-- says that about 5 in 10 North Americans who aren't depressed still don't do anything regularly).  So if they can't, or at least don't, why should someone -- including me -- expect that I can?

Ah, but there's a trick here, one you might be able to use.   "Motivation" may not really be necessary!  "Motivation" is a feeling, right?  An inclination, a state of energy and willingness.  Yet people act differently than they feel, all the time, right?   I feel like yelling at my kid, but I choose to wait, calm down a little, and speak softly but firmly. 

So, maybe it's not motivation I need to look for.  Maybe it's the ability to do something different than what I "feel like".  Now even that is a problem for a lot of people, and more so for people with mood problems!  Being less "impulsive", being more deliberate about my choices, can be very hard, especially when my emotions have too much hold on me. 

So let's think about what kind of physical activity I could do repeatedly for a long time and not skip very often. In my view there aren't too many of these.  In my view, the one that wins over everything else by a long shot is....brace yourself.... walking with a friend.... nearly every day...... for a short walk.  The friend part is almost as important as the "walk" part!  My friend will be out there when I’m not really "feeling like it", but she or he will be waiting on me.  That's a better motivator for most humans than their own health benefits.


We are talking about extra walks, more regular walks.  Not the walk to and from the bus stop every day, even though that walk is a good 5 minutes.  Not the walk to the grocery store rather than driving every few days.  OK I don't do enough of that last one.

I thought of getting a dog, a dog is man's best friend is he not?  But a dog requires training knowledge that I don't have, a dog is so much more energetic than I am.  Sure I could play fetch with it to tire him/her out


I was able to quit smoking, I was able to climb back from Obesity and Mobility impairement once, I was able to stop drinking coffee for over a year, surely I can surmount this?


I know the doctors want to put me back on meds that will make me gain even more weight, reducing my ability to move even more, increasing the pain, I have to find the will soon or it just may be too late.




Thanks for reading!