I've been trying to deal with this anxiety, OCD, depression thing for years. Therapy helps. Medication can help (but it comes with nasty side effects). Improving your diet and eating lots of good fats, vitamins, etc. help. But what helps me most of all is cardio exercise.

I was reading about all the various benefits there are to cardio exercise, and it turns out that cardio exercise is like medicine for the brain.

All week long I've been walking or doing indoor cardio in the morning. Since doing that, my brain has certainly been functioning much better. It's a huge difference. I'm more creative, more productive, more optimistic, more logical, and better able to solve problems and remember things.

Here I thought I was getting worse with my mental issues because I was gaining weight, feeling overwhelmed, couldn't control my thoughts, and dealing with the typical stresses of life. It turns out I was just lacking cardio exercise. Now whenever I feel like binge eating because I'm stressed or crying because I'm depressed or beating myself up because I'm not controlling my anxiety well enough, I'm going to grab my jump rope and do 100 jumps or get out my stepbench and march up and down it for 10 minutes, or put on my shoes and head out for a walk.

Strength training is great for building muscles, bones, connective tissues, and metabolism, but cardio is exercise for the brain.

I'll definitely be writing a Kristen's Guide article about this.

Labels: My Life