Ashley, Health Educator

Thankfully, the job is there! I had a job teaching 6 to 10 clients a day, 5 days a week. My schedule was booked as far as a month in advance! I'm excited to get back to it, knowing that my boss/friend is giving me additional opportunity upon my return, but getting past this difficult time and being stuck in limbo until my house here sells is making me anxious in bad ways. Trying hard to be positive that there is a future. I was a very driven, professional ballerina before the birth of my son, and I tend toward anorexia and workout bulimia because I am so self-concious about my body. If you are an over-achiever in the workout department like I am, maybe workout regimens that are geared more toward calming, balancing, and centering techniques could be looked into. I teach a very yoga and tai-chi based program and practice several types of yoga. When I'm actually taking care of myself, I find it leaves me feeling worked and centered without being over-worked. Being that you are a runner, you could probably use something to stretch your hamstrings and calves, anyway, and could use something to quiet yourself after all that cardio. just a suggestion.

Hi Liz Thank you for your reply, I hope you find a job which will satisfy you as soon as possible. From what you say, you felt much the same as me the day after, I wasn't particularly sore as I have a lot of stamina usually, but I did feel terrible about myself and my life in general. I agree that it is best for us both to take the exercise stadily, but one of my problems is that I'm and 'all or nothing' type of personality, my current fitness goal is to be able to cycle 100 miles in a day by next spring, which I used to be able to do 20 years ago. All the best Pete

Hi, believe it or not, I am a very depressed mind-body fitness instructor. Despite my apparent illness I work with people of all types on a physical and energetic (Chi) level for a living. I love what the work I teach does for my own body and mental well-being and sharing it with others. But for a few years now, I have been taking care of everybody but me. Due to my boyfriend's decision for a job change, we moved and I have been cut off from my own work and the ability/equipment to work myself out. Not having my work has been the major reasoning behind my latest bought with depression and anxiety. It has been a stressful, agonising 5 months, involving lots of financial and material loss and harsh feelings between me and my boyfriend. We are working things out and getting back to the city we used to live, in order that we can both make a living and get me into some therapy. At any rate, I do know a little bit about how exercise affects people in a physically, psychologically, and energetically. Its funny that I read this today, because I just did the same thing as you. Exercise is good for everybody psychologically speaking because it increases our energy levels and evens out our brain chemicals/activity. How our bodies feel is directly related to how we feel emotionally and vice-versa. Its great that you're working out in an attempt to feel better physically and emotionally. However, too much is too much if your body and brain aren't in that kind of shape. 2 hours of working out when you're not in the shape to do so is NOT good for you. Your body will rebel. You're just trying to feel better, you're not training for the Olympics. Like I said, I have not had the opportunity to work myself out on the level I'm used to for several months now. I finally went down to a studio where I had hoped to find a job upon our arrival here and asked if I could rent the equipment. They actually let me use it for free. I felt so great about their generosity that I put myself through a workout much more intense than I was ready for. Ofcourse, I too felt great all day yesterday, but I'm sore as hell today and started having terrible thoughts about myself, too. My advice now for me and for you would be that we both need to continue the working out, but at a steady pac

I have joined a gym and try to go there daily. I find that if I put in a lot of effort there my mood is improved for several hours afterwards. I also have a question though: On one occasion I decided to test my endurance and did a total of 2 hours on a combination of cross trainer, bicycle, and treadmill - the recommended session length is 20 minutes, 3 times a week, but I usually do 40 mins at least 5 times a week - after this particular session I was completely worn out but felt wonderful for the rest of the day and had a good night's sleep. On the following day I had one of the worst 'downers' that I have had; is there a 'come down' effect from the endorphins which exercise releases which caused this negative effect the following day or are the (excessive) exercise and my mood the following day unrelated?