Jul 30, 2013

Running for my pre-anxiety life back!

I awoke this morning feeling sad and lonely.  Through all of my anxiety battles, I have lost myself.  Yet something snapped inside of me this morning.  A light-bulb lit up atop my head like in the cartoons.  I went into the garage and grabbed my jump rope and just started going.  Don't worry I closed the blinds first so none of my neighbors would see me.  And when I couldn't jump anymore, I started running.  Seriously I did from one side of my house to the other.  My dogs even joined me after looking at me like I was crazy.  I managed 10 sprints back and forth before I felt exhausted.  But I felt great.  I felt alive.  My heart was racing, I was sweating, my adrenaline was pumping and I felt great! 

I was not always an anxious mess.  When I was in high school, I played Varsity tennis all four years.  I was a cheerleader during my sophomore year as well and I worked out a lot.  When I was in the off season I would run three and a half miles every other day.  So what changed?  I did.  After high school, I stopped being active and shortly after that my anxiety started. 

Fast forward again to this morning.  After working out, I went to the kitchen and grabbed spinach leaves, kale, blueberries and strawberries and placed them in the magic bullet and made the gnarliest vegetable/fruit smoothie ever and I chugged it. 

So today was the beginning of a new phase of my life.  This phase consists of me being active and eating healthy and seeing if it makes an improvement in my anxiety.  I have a strong feeling that it will.  Did you know that people that are consistently active are 25% less likely to suffer from anxiety?  Did you know that many research studies have concluded that exercise on a regular basis can give the same if not better results that pharmaceutical anxiety medications?  I find it interesting and I am going to give it my all.  What's the worse that can happen?  I become active and tone my body up.  I will continue to post as I go.  Wish me luck!