Hey all! When I think of my goals when it comes to all of this and my life in general, my biggest focus is on finding my middle ground. Things have always been in extremes including eating, working out, and my overall energy. While I really feel like my eating has settled into place, I struggle finding balance with my energy levels (likely in connection with workouts). I used to struggle with light sleep and nighttime awakenings. Recently, this stopped for about the last two months. However, what also stopped was working out. I stopped running around all day and I stopped any kind of formal workouts. I maybe hit 10k steps a day naturally and thats it. I defintiely had some other days where it was longer walks (I live in NYC so its the mode of transport). Otherwise, I mostly rested. During that time I had wonderful sleep, and just felt so calm about everythinggggg. Like nothing could excite or bother me. However, on the flip side of that, it kind of felt like depression. I was dragggging. Sometimes the thought of walking down the block overwhelmed me. I had very little motivation or interest in things and even my creativity and focus suffered. A week ago I could barely drive I was so tired! Then, yesterday, I did my first workout in a while. I just lifted weights for 10 minutes and then walked on the treadmill at a leisurely pace for 15 min. That is all. It was kind of amazing bc I instantly felt great. All of sudden I felt energetic and hopeful, and excited about things and life. I felt clearer. I felt a bit ansy but it felt better to feel up than the down, low energy state I had been feeling for a while.
I am wondering if you all have any experience with this? If it came to choosing between two states, I would choose the more energetic one because even though I have felt soooo calm and rested recently, I havent felt productive or like myself, really. I could see the more deeply rested state as ideal in different settings (like living on a winery in Tuscany haha) but for a 20-something in NYC, it makes things really hard. I actually spent most of the last month or two at my parents in the suburbs which probably contribute to the calm, further.
Anyways, I would love to hear your experiences with finding the middle ground with energy?
It's possible to be both deeply rested and full of energy. In fact, they go together really well. You expend energy and then you rest. There's no reason to expend so much energy that you turn into a frazzled insomniac, or rest to the point that you're sedentary and depressed. The best way to avoid extremes is to avoid rigid workout schedules or declarations about not exercising. How do you feel today? That's all you need to listen to. If you're tired, rest. If you're bursting with energy, do something active. If you're somewhere in between, split the difference with a light/short workout (or a generally active day) and plenty of recovery. It's normal for food/rest/energy needs to change from day to day or week to week, sometimes a lot, which is how we get into trouble with "from now on I do this" kind of plans.