We all have the most natural
powerful antidepressant within us and EXERCISE can activate it. It is that simple and you don’t have to be an
athlete or look like a model to enjoy it.
At 22 I was definitely a
couch potato, I had never liked sport at school and the only exercise I did was
run if the bus was coming and I wasn’t at the bus stop. I was over 2 stone
heavier than I am now and feeling very unhealthy. This was in the 80’s long before gyms became
common place. At that time the odd gym
was mainly for body builders.
Fortunately a very forward thinking man called Jim Jarman decided to
open a ladies only gym. I had heard about
it but thought I’m not exposing myself in a leotard (in the 80’s it was all
leotards and leggings, no one seemed to wear baggy t shirts, everything was
exposed!). Luckily a friend suggested we
went together and that was a turning point in my life. I loved the gym straight away.
My illusion that everyone would
look amazing and I would be the only fat one there was shattered and was
thrilled to find out that everyone was ‘normal’, just people like me wanting to
look and feel better.
A big plus for me was that
it wasn’t actually aerobic exercise. It was focused on weight training. We would warm up with 3 minutes on the
exercise bike then go round the weight machines 3 times, with a 3 minute stint
back on the exercise bike after each round.
So all in all we did 12 minutes on the exercise bike. The weights were
built up gradually so it wasn’t too overwhelming for someone like me who was SO
unfit. It actually felt really good to
build strength into my body and within a few weeks I noticed that my body
looked and felt better.
The other plus, which was my
main motivation for going to the gym for years, was how I felt when I
left. I could turn up feeling fed up,
sad, depressed, wanting to eat, eat, eat and I would leave feeling totally
different, like something had changed in my head. I would literally go home a different person,
feeling lifted, motivated, and happy. This has also been noted by both my
husbands over the years as both would suggest I went to the gym if I appeared
out of sorts, grumpy or a bit off. It
was a life line to me for years before I learned about doing inner work on
myself and how to deal with stress and life. I have always said that I exercised for my
head/mind as much, if not more, than for my body. The body improving was a positive side effect
of working on my head/mind that way.
So as much as I don’t need
to run for the bus now, thankfully I have a car, I love the feeling of being
able to do a little sprint whenever I fancy.
If it’s raining when I go shopping, I will run from my car to the
supermarket and it feels GOOD. It makes
me feel healthy and alive, like a horse galloping in the field, just for the
fun of it. Dogs get excited when they
see you getting their lead. It is a
natural pleasure life has given us, EXERCISE.
And please note I have never done high impact aerobics, for me moderate
regular exercise worked just as well.
So you don’t have to join a
gym, there are so many things you can do for free, walking being the easiest and
most readily available. I actually have
a mini trampoline now that I use. The
music goes on and I will bounce away, waving my arms about for 15-30 minutes, I
then follow with some yoga as I find that the stretching is more important than
weight training for me as I have got older.
But if you do fancy a gym,
dare to try it. They are full or
ordinary people just like you, who want to feel and look better. No one really takes any notice of what you
look like, it is a very positive experience and far better than any ANTI
DEPRESSANT and the only side affect is you look and feel better.
I thank Jim Jarman, for
changing my world all those years ago.