Exercise Helps

Sunday was a       day
Anxiety Range: 1-4
Depression Range: 1-3
Impulses: 2
Activity Level: 4
Light TIme: 1 hr

Soon after waking up, the anxiety started and climbed and climbed; I was depressed at the same time too. Husband suggested I go to the “Y” since I hadn't been in a few days, and he seems to notice that I feel better when I do make it there. I agreed to try it, but prepared for the workout to be restricted to two hours, the limit I can leave the kids in the daycare center. Husband decided to let me go without the kids, but we made a trade, I would have to stop at Target on the way home to do some grocery shopping.

I had a pretty good workout, I rode the bike for 15 minutes or so, completing almost 2 ½ miles after realizing there was a pilates class I would like to try 45 minutes or so from then. To fill up the time without tiring myself too badly, I got on the tread mill for ½ hour, walking a little over a mile. I walked into the pilates class knowing absolutely nothing about it, and just copied everyone else as they were getting set up. The entire class was done sitting, kneeling or laying on a mat, and we used a ring to help hold out our limbs uniformly and to add resistance while doing it so it would engage more muscles. I guess there are many different tools you can use with pilates, but I am a complete n00b when it comes to this. My yoga experience helped a bit with being able to remember how to hold certain poses that are also used with pilates. Unfortunately, there were few yoga poses used, leaving me in the dark the rest of the class.

While in class, it started snowing! Snowing, on October 26th! The wind had been blowing hard all day, and this just made the snow blow harder and harder and sometimes even sideways. I called Husband when I was leaving to ask if I could get out of going to Target on my trip home. I wasn't even wearing proper pants, just some knit capri exercise pants, and froze just walking to my car. I didn't want to think about standing in the wind and cold trying to load groceries into the car.

The exercise did help my mood and made for a better afternoon. The whole day I felt like it was much later than it was. Maybe because I got up and started being active so early in the day, or because the weather was extra dreary. After the workout, my depression and anxiety were minimal until about 8:00pm. I was tired, the kids were still awake and noisy; I just wanted to go to bed. Instead, Husband just about forced me into watching some tv and I was awake until almost 11:00 when I would have been happy to get into bed at 9:15.