In short, I’ve dealt with some crappy life stuff for the last four years, in which time, I basically stopped caring for myself/my fitness.

Prior to this period of my life, I was an avid long distance runner, D1 college athlete, then easily transitioned into crossfit, which I found to be a great way to stay fit without a massive time commitment (worked for my career and family obligations).

Now, I feel like I don’t even know where to start. I don’t think I could even run one mile without gassing out, and CrossFit just feels… intimidating.

I’m in the worst shape of my life, but I feel like I actually can finally do something about it. …only problem is, I feel so lost and uninspired and don’t know where to start.

Does anyone have any specific advice on how I can get out of this hole? 😭

I have finished my first week as a postie / mailman here in the UK. Its damn hard work, especially when I have sat on my backside and typed code for a living for the last 30 years. Lots of lugging mailbags around while sorting the mail for the route and loading the van. Plus lots of walking, lots and lots of walking. I think I averaged about at least 5 - 6 miles each day whilst carrying a heavy mailbag or pushing a trolley filled with letters and parcels. On Friday I didn't sit down at all from the time I started my shift at 7:22am until I got on the bus to go home at 4:15pm.

Its good honest work. I can feel it doing me good both physically and mentally too.

How have you unwound this week? Any creative projects you would like to share?

Which workouts are you currently focusing on? What have you done to EOOD this week??

Hello,

I'm a female, between 55 - 65 years of age, and living close to Vancouver, Canada. My main chronic health issues are depression and anxiety.

I wanted to put more effort into finding a female friend from Reddit. In the past I have tried other websites.

I tend to have low energy.

I want to set small intentions with someone, so I don't feel overwhelmed by the process of us getting to know each other and socializing.

I'm tired of not being able to express my real self to the people I interact with offline.

If you are interested, say hi here. I'm not open to DM's for now.

Thanks for reading.

Taking the overall pulse here. How are you? If not well, think whether there are any positives to share as well to balance negatives. But of course, if you need to vent, know we are here to listen.

Today I suddenly feel suicidal from many incidents that happened this past months and then out of nowhere I feel like I want to exercise. This is not the first time I workout, because I don't have discipline to continue daily. I choose walking for 1 hours (4k.m), I know it's not much but at least I feel better.

Went on a hike today after 2 months of doing nothing. It did the trick. So beautiful in the mountains with the fall leaves. So nice the hear the birds and smell the earth. So great to shut off the constant anxiety over world politics and senseless violence. Nature is restorative when I get out in it.

One of the things that keeps me depressed and overwhelmed is that I have to drive everywhere. I'd like to have people in my neighborhood who I could walk with or lift with, or even spend time with socially.

A few weeks ago, I got up my courage and drew some fliers to invite neighbors over for coffee in my driveway. We went out on a Sunday afternoon and spent a few hours getting out fliers (knocking on doors and also leaving them under doormats).

Bringing the table out to my driveway, I wasn't sure if anyone would come. If 10 people had come I would have been thrilled. I stood there nervously wondering --

An hour later, we had 40 neighbors swarming our driveway and spilling out onto the street. 🥰 Ages 3-85+. I was amazed how many people showed up, even just popping by for a minute before church or sports.

I'm now working on getting folks into a WhatsApp group so we can organize things like this more often.

Yes, every day should be world mental health day. The UN had to pick a day.

This years theme is "Lived Experiences Heard: Real Voices, Real Change".

So who has been a good listener for you and how has that helped you?

I have to say my wife has been an incredibly good listener for me. She has talked me back from the edge a couple of times but she is always listening to me and trying to make sense of me for herself and for me too. I wouldn't be here now if it wasn't for her.

How have you unwound this week? Any creative projects you would like to share?

Which workouts are you currently focusing on? What have you done to EOOD this week??

I have ADHD. I am in Canada right now and I spend quite a bit of my time feeling overwhelmed and out of control. I have to think about a lot more things on a daily basis compared to my usual routine at home in England. Driving is a nightmare, not just driving on the other side of the road but navigating and reading the road signs etc. It doesn't help that there are elections here soon and the sides of the roads are covered in signs for the different candidates.

When I am in the gym I am in control of what I am doing. I sit on rowing machine, strap my feet in, set the damper, set distance and just move, sweat and repeat. Pick up heavy thing and put it down repeatedly in lots of different ways. I have been rowing for at least 25 years and lifting for over 40 years. I know exactly what I have to do. I barely have to think.

The gym is a couple of hours where I am in control to the point where things are mentally effortless even if I am working as hard as I can physically.

Taking the overall pulse here. How are you? If not well, think whether there are any positives to share as well to balance negatives. But of course, if you need to vent, know we are here to listen.

I (19) am struggling with motivation due to ADHD (possible autism too), and my overall mental health is digging through rock bottom. I want to get back into working out since I want to physically improve myself more. Even if I still feel like shit, I want to feel less like shit than I am now. But as soon as I get close to actually doing it, my motivation gets thrown out the window faster than I can say exercise. I've been in this mental pickle for about 3 years now, and I don't like it. I don't know what to do.

How have you unwound this week? Any creative projects you would like to share?

Which workouts are you currently focusing on? What have you done to EOOD this week??

So despite taking a week off recently, I have felt unusually tired, even though my sleep has been better somewhat. So I figured maybe it is seasonal depression related. I decided both yesterday and today to do some cardio instead of yoga (as previously planned for one of these days) and I started using my SAD lamp.

And then this afternoon I got a sore throat, which makes me think maybe the tiredness was a first symptom of respiratory physical illness, not mental health related after all. Grrr!

So maybe I would have been better off doing the yoga after all. Tomorrow morning I hope to do yoga, but if I do not feel up to that even, I will allow myself to rest. And today need to go to sleep early.

Maybe take a Nyquil multi symptom night med to help me sleep. Although it has a risk of seratonin syndrom when taken with Sertraline (Zoloft), but since my dosage of Zoloft has recently been reduced by half and I have no plan of taking the Nyquil regularly, I am confident that it is safe. Used to not have to worry about drug interactions but now need to check everything and even fairly basic over the counter meds may have interactions. But I do not want to have to put up with all the symptoms either so not taking cold meds is not my favorite path.

I'm putting this out mostly for people like who were confused as to why they may feel sad or down after exercise. Shouldn't exercise be universally good?

I've spent some time trying to figure it, because it didn't happen consistently for me. Sometimes I'd exercise and I would be fine, and sometimes, especially with weightlifting or calisthenics, I would feel somewhat depressed afterwards.

Here's what I found. It's not about nutrition, it's not about sleep and it's not about muscles breaking down or recovery.

It is about intensity.

If I push myself to the "fuck yeah" point, I feel great. I feel alive, I feel assertive, maybe even aggressive ....and then I will pay for it late in the day or next day.

If I exercise in a more boring fashion, then I'm fine. Muscle soreness is still there, but my mood is normal.

I suspect the brain is releasing all that adrenaline and whatever else and it may get depleted, I don't know.

If you suspect this for yourself, you can test this with cold showers. For me cold showers do the same for me – I feel great for a while and then I crash.