Airing out

First order of this post: Note to all, do not drink hot English Breakfast tea and then eat anything chocolatey, or vice versa. It is a a very nasty tasting thing, with a fish-like earthy taste when the two are blended. I was eating a chocolate chip granola bar when I took the first sip of my morning tea and almost gagged. Also, doesn't the concept of a chocolate chip granola bar cancel itself out in the health department? Whatever, it tastes good.

Now I've gotten that very important alert out of the way...I'm playing soccer tonight, a coed practice at a YMCA downtown. My coed team began our new spring season and had a game last night (for which I was sorely ill-dressed as it was ass-cold and windy), and the winter season ended with us in the playoffs which took place Sunday. Needless to say, after two months of relative physical inactivity, I am really sore.

I got up to running several miles three or four days a week last fall, and had to stop because of a bursitis flare-up in both my hips. Basically, I put on too many miles too fast and ruined the buffers called bursa between my hip bones. So when I'd run it felt like I had stones rubbing together for hips. I've had to stop running and rest to recooperate. Me playing soccer is quite a less energetic picture than one last year around September because my endurance isn't near what it used to be.

So, finally, after a long rest period and a couple weeks of just stretching and lifting weights off and on, my hips aren't giving me hell when I run anymore. Now, running around at soccer games feels so amazingly freeing. I never realize how much physical activity really helps me keep even keel until I'm not doing any. My old counselor told me - in one of our talks a couple of years ago when I was on Lexapro - that being athletic is one of the best things a depressed person can do. If nothing else (i.e. the fresh air, the flora and fauna, the vitamin D) doesn't boost your mood a bit, your endorphins are sure to give it a nice lift.

That's not just for people in serious depression; anyone having a bad day, or bad set of days in my case recently, can benefit from a lively jaunt outdoors or a good jog around the block. It'll air you out in all the right places, giving your mind a chance - along with your body - to let go and just drift along. Other times, you might choose to push your mind and body more, seeing what they're capable of. Physical activiy is, after all, a task that involves the mind as equally as the body. Even if my body posseses the endurance and capabilities to perform, my mind will always keep my body tied up if I let it. And everytime I decide to let go of misgivings or emotions, I always surprise myself with what I can be capable of.

I knew I was going to do a physical activity post when I started this blog, and it just seems natural for me to talk about it right now, at this sort of new beginning I feel I'm having with being active.

I'll end with a challenge: Now that it's spring and getting nicer outside, seriously try to get out there at least three times a week for thirty minutes. Ride your bike, go for a run, get in a pickup game with some kids, go LET GO. Trust me, it'll do you some good in a few different ways.