Hi guys!
I haven't wrote anything here in a long time.
I don't really know what is wrong with me , I seem to be falling apart. I no longer have any wll to exercise , I keep eating more , and I keep promising to myself that I will begin to train. I don't know how I became my own worst enemy ! If anyone has any advices/tips to get out of this state , please share with me.
I think this is a depression . I don't know what to do.

Do something for yourself RIGHT NOW. THIS instant. Get up, go for a walk, head to the gym, put down the twinkie, climb a flight of stairs, do some jumping jacks or pushups. Something RIGHT NOW that means you respect and care about yourself enough to not put it off, not change your mind, not find an excuse. Stop reading this message and go do something.

Sometimes, that's what it takes. Doing it even when you're completely unmotivated to do so. The thought enters your head... "I should ......" and then you don't do it. Well, DO IT right then. Stop whatever you're doing. At work, at home... whatever. Stop and do ONE little thing. Hop on an elliptical for 5 minutes. What is 5 minutes that you can't go do something? You spend more time watching retarded commercials about women's feminine products.

Go talk to your doctor if you think you have depression issues, that will get you to the point where you'll be in a very bad place, and you'll be unable to get out without help, since often this is a chemical imbalance in the brain or another serious issue that needs professional help to correct.

Until then, do something for yourself and stop reading this and get offa your bum... as exercise can help your mood... it's like cake but the reverse effect on your body... and you never feel bad about exercising afterward.

I'm not saying you can will yourself better. I'm saying you can will yourself to do small things that will snowball into big things if you let them. So, go sprint up the stairs RIGHT NOW.

Hey Lex,

I think Aoife's advice is very good advice, as soon as you say to yourself that your going to start training, don't say tomorrow, or next week, actually do it there and then. Get everything ready after you've read this in a nice pile somewhere so when that moment happens you have no excuse, everythings already ready for you.

I sometimes find myself in a bit of a loop, when i go to the gym all the time I feel alot happier in myself, alot more lively and energetic, but then, if after a period of months training I skip it a couple of times i find that I still feel great, and I for some reason lose motivation to go, which is crazy really but true. But its not then that I feel depressed and fed up, its a few weeks down the road when I've not been and I'm feeling less energetic and tired that I get these feelings. Then when I finally drag myself off to the gym again 2 days in a row I kick myself for being an idiot and so the loop begins again.

I don't know if thats whats happened to you but my best advice would be to drag yourself to the gym, even if you don't feel like it, a couple of times, and you will probably feel much better in yourself, then the really important thing is keep going, get some weights and an exercise ball at home for days when you really can't make it and do half an hour, anything just to keep at it so you don't fall out of the habit

Let us know how its going

You're not alone, Lex. I suffer from Seasonal Affective Procrastination disorder (yes, I'm a SAP). I sometimes just can't get myself to do certain things (personal finances, working out, dishes, actual work...) and the more I put it off, the harder it gets to get myself to start up again. I was in that loop with both working out and finances for a few weeks. I find if I just sit down and FORCE myself to do it - even just for a few minutes - it suddenly becomes much easier the next time and I stop procrastinating. I forced myself to sit down and enter all my past bills, and suddenly I find I'm keeping up with them on a semi-weekly basis. I forced myself to go for a brief run, and suddenly I was working out regularly.

Aoife and Sam are bang on. Just make yourself go do something, and you'll find you might even look forward to the next workout.

A quote from the Motivation Quote post:

"A winner is somebody who goes
out there every day and exhausts himself trying to get something accomplished."

Joe Torre (1940 - )
New York Yankees manager
former Major League Baseball player


are you exhausting yourself?

I think what you need the most is motivation (as we all do I suppose =), you need an igniter, something you get you started, something you stop you from doing what you know you shouldn't be doing, something, as Aoife said, RIGHT NOW!

Nobody can made your day but you. If you don't "fix" it, who would, right? I know training and getting in good shape is a very lengthy process which requires great patience and the willingness to fight your own self - your worse enemy - but you know what, the reward at the end is VERY worthy and you know you would never regret!

Training is like an investment, it runs with time. The more time you spend the more you get in the end. So START RIGHT NOW!

Go to the gym. When you're there you have to work! Make yourself pay for it, and to make what you pay more worthy I believe it would motivate you to train harder!

The only way to grow is to feel pain. If there is no pain, you have to create the pain. No pain - No gain.

All the people on this site are training hard, and by coming back you've put yourself on the right track.

YOU CAN DO IT!!! =)

I experienced this quite recently. I got sick 2 weeks ago and slept for 3 straight days then through the recovery I avioded the gym, then I was lazy for a week thereafter. I was mad because I was losing weight but I didn't get up.
3 days ago I got fed up and went to the gym and Deadlifted big and heavy (for my weak little body). I have exercised for 3 straight days now and I am feeling much better and I think I might be looking a little better too!

When I hit a slump like this I pretend I'm someone else for a week or two or however long it takes to get out of it.

We all have that 'Ideal Self' - the person we wish we were ( successful / fit / whatever-flips-your-pancake ) and for a few days I pretend I am that person. That person enjoys exercising, likes choosing good food and doesn't beat herself up over minor setbacks.

I just ask myself 'What Would the Perfect Me Do'? Or how would the Perfect Me encourage me through this situation? It's very similar to the visualisation exercises self-help authors recommend but I feel it is more practical and applies to me here and now.