A short post tonight as I have been working and left this a little late and I want to go to bed soon.
Having looked and researched and checking and talking to other people, it seems I really have burnt myself out. The weekend rest did me the world of good and I felt hugely excited this morning the I got back to my exercises and felt really good about myself. However, the thing I have found is that resting for a couple of days does not mitigate the effects of burn out. The recovery process is long and I have to be patient. By about 1pm I was exhausted and falling asleep, my anxiety and lack of motivation returned with a vengeance and I began thinking about quitting again.
Thankfully, a few hours rest, doing nothing and taking stock of my situation stopped me in my tracks of self-pity and playing the anxiety game and bought me back to my senses. My motivation has returned and so has my eagerness to continue where I have started but I need to return carefully. I cannot rush back in to where I was before I burnt out, I need to take it slowly.
So from tomorrow, I am going to go back to beginners exercises and do them later in the day so that I can get more rest, rest my body is telling me it needs. I Amy even up my calories and go for losing 1lb a week rather than more than that so that my body is being adequately fuelled whilst I recover. It is sometimes really good to have something like this happen to you so that you can see when and where you should listen to your body, to what it is telling you and when it tells you to slow down...you should.
Maybe it is also the fact that Leicester is returning to lockdown and I was really expecting to be able to go back to relative normality and this has brought back the feelings of anxiety and stress that helped bring about the burn out in the first place. Who knows.
What I do know is that I am feeling good again and that I need to watch myself and make sure that I keep myself maintained and looked after both physically and mentally. Life will go on and I am sure things will eventually return to normal, but until then I have to make the best of things. Mental health is a huge thing and it can bring about lots of symptoms, including weakness and a feeling of exhaustion. So I have to watch for these and act accordingly. Please also watch out for your mental health, it may seem like a physical thing but you must read up and recognise the symptoms.
I will certainly be engaging my brain over the course of the next few weeks to make sure I am keeping my brain occupied and exercising to keep my body fit. My wife and I are starting the 1 million step challenge, which is trying to walk a million steps in 2 months, that's about 17,000 steps a day, so hopefully this will help me to lose the weight and stay mentally and physically healthy.
I will make it and nothing is going to beat me. I am prepared for anything and I will adapt and overcome. So until tomorrow...
Stay safe and stay strong.
Thanks for reading.
Sean.
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