Love thy Self, Love thy Body.

I was discussing with a client today about the side effects of over-training .  So this made me think of my experience with over-training and being a recovering exercise addict.  Exercise addict?  What is that you may ask?  Basically it is a form of addiction, and not particularly a healthy one like we think it may be and just as dangerous.  I thought that I would share my very (another) personal experience with you and what lead me to this article.

This article is kind of the second part to “Build a Strong Body, Gain a Strong Mind”.  I thought that I had gained a strong mind but it was still very much in need of mending.  But now that I have had a lot of time to “live and learn” from my decisions made in life, it lead me to where I am today.

I married at 23 years old to my now, ex-husband.  Our plans weren’t to get married but to join the Navy together because they had a “buddy” program that would keep us stationed at the same base.  We weren’t real sure if we were ready for the commitment yet.  Unfortunately going through the enlistment program I found out that I had the beginning stage of cervical cancer.  Not a good way to find out, but I am sure glad that I did!  The Navy said I could either get a hysterectomy or come back in a year after treatment.  I thought to myself, “I don’t even have children yet, I am not getting a hysterectomy!”  But now I had absolutely nothing.  I sold everything, my car, my favorite Honda 300 ATV, most of my belongings, my vehicle, and closed my very first entrepreneurial business.  I was a little devastated.  So that is why we decided to get married, so I would be able to survive and at the time I really did think I was loved and in love.  So I ended up chasing him all over the country.  Amongst all the chasing I found out that I was pregnant, oh what a blessing!  I wasn’t sure if I could after my treatment.  I continued my 3 days per week step aerobic class, as well as my 5 day per week strength training, all the way up to my 38th week of pregnancy, (and actually worked out 2 days prior to the birth of my daughter).  I felt AWESOME being pregnant!  But the joy of pregnancy also came with much sadness.  I found out that my (ex) husband had an addiction, an addiction to internet pornography, chat rooms, and participating in extracurricular activities (as I found out at the end).  This broke my strong mind that I had gained, along with my heart.  For the 8-years of our marriage I thought that my body and appearance was never going to be good enough for him to stop and pay attention to me, even with exercising 5-6 days per week. 

During that time I slowly and silently became an extreme exercise addict and was under so much stress.  I was constantly sick, fatigued, depressed, trouble sleeping at night and would have high-anxiety when I thought I would miss one day of exercising.  Those were all signs that we need to be aware of when over-training and exercise addiction.  Just as recently as 2 years ago is when I made my decision to end the marriage and regained my strong mind.  Sometimes you never really realize (and for women we tend to set ourselves at the bottom), what you are doing until you are just mentally and physically exhausted.

Each one of you are so beautiful, you just need to learn how to except what you were blessed with and love thy self, and love thy body.  Exercise is good for the body, but as always in life, too much of something is bad.  I hope by sharing my experience that it will help you really listen to your body and what it tells you it needs. 

Do you often suffer from a lot of stress?  Is there a way to resolve those particular stressors?  Do you get an adequate amount of sleep?  Did you know that the most important aspect to exercising is keeping your weight and body fat at a healthy level is sleep?  One of the most crucial stages of your health is your recovery process in sleep.  So with a safe amount of exercise, low stress, sleep, and good nutrition, you are on your way to a very healthy life and successful achievement in your personal fitness goals!

So let us review the warning signs of exercise addiction or over-exercising:

· Trouble sleeping

· Constantly having sore muscles

· Mood changes

· High anxiety when you miss a day of exercising

· Exercising more than 60-minutes

· Constantly getting sick, or never being able to recover from a cold and/or having flu like symptoms

· No changes in your physique

· No changes in weight

· Fatigue

Exercise in balance as well as keeping our lives in balance, and genuine happiness with yourself and life is the key to true wellness.

 Empowering you with the knowledge, tools and training for complete wellness!