Fit@50

Fit @ 50 "Fitness and Depression."

Hi, this is Ivan with Fit@50, and usually, my messages are you know pretty upbeat and somewhat humorous. This time I am going to change the color a little bit. I want to talk about fitness and depression. Why am I bringing it up here? Because I know for me when I'm depressed I don't feel like doing anything let alone working out. If you look at the videos, it may look like I work out all the time. But when I'm depressed all that kind of comes to a halt.

I don’t mind sharing with you that I have struggled with depression. It’s something that's run in my family. It's something that I've seen counselors and therapists about over the years. So this is my transparency moment, to share that I went through a depression over the holidays. I want to share a description of it from my journal. I got into such a depression I couldn’t sleep at night. I couldn’t get out of bed in the morning. I couldn't pay my bills or think about my dreams. At times I couldn't eat. My life just stopped. I wasn't able to work out and do much of anything else until with the help of my therapist, support group, church, family, and close friends I was able to climb out of it.

On top of that (those aspects of depression) stress, sadness, worry, and despair do bad things internally to your body. Stress can do the same kind of damage to your cardiovascular system as overeating, not working out, and lack of exercise. It’s not worth it. You owe it to yourself to get help if you’re struggling with that.

For my fellow men over 50, mid-life crisis is real! I went through it twice. Lol. The first time I was nearing 35, I was in the military, and it kind of became clear who was on the “fast track”. Below-the-zone promotions were coming out, people were coming out on command lists, and I wasn't. It was a crisis for me at the time because I wasn't achieving the goals that at that time I thought were important to me. And so that was the first time I went through what I'll call a mid-life crisis.

It happened again in my early 50s when I faced what I'm going to coin as the “LinkedIn” crisis. You know how when you look at LinkedIn you see everybody’s job title? So, I was going through and looking at everyone's job titles CEO, VP, three-star, and I then I was looking at mine, and it said, teacher. Lol, and oh man I almost bought the farm with that one. It took the same kind of support system to kind of climb out of that and to remind myself that I chose what I wanted to do, and I was enjoying it. Then I knew there was a time coming when I was going to face stress doing the things I chose to do, going on the path that I chose to go on, but I wasn't supposed to compare my title with my “fellow Academy graduates.” But until I got to that point man I was a wreck. Later I was able to get into a comfortable place with what I was doing and the goals that I was headed towards. I did read articles on mid-life crisis AFTER I bought the BMW convertible! Lol. Seriously though, I did buy the BMW convertible. But I also read the articles, and they helped me to be fit on the inside and ultimately fit on the outside.

You'll never be truly successful with being fit on the outside until you are fit on the inside. Depression, being overcome with worry or stress is not something to be ashamed about. It's something to get rid of! I hope that my transparency has helped you if you’re struggling with depression if you’re struggling with worry if you’re struggling with your life at 50 compared to where you thought I would be at 50. These things have a negative impact on your internal health, your desire to work out, to be fit, and to be emotionally, physically, mentally, and spiritually healthy. If my transparency has helped you, then that's a good thing, and it's something I can smile about at Fit@50. Have a great day!