Just about two (2) winters ago, while being pregnant with my third baby, I was sadly diagnosed with depression.
Earlier in the past, I had problems and struggled with feeling deeply sad and having apathy which I carried into my third pregnancy and I also struggled with postpartum depression right after the births of my first two children.
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But this time was very different, it felt so difficult that I knew I had to see the doctor for a possible solution because they are worse than the first two pregnancies.
Instead of the usual treatment, a different approach was advised by my doctor. I have been prescribed to use an antidepressant and started taking therapy sessions.
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The first time I was diagnosed with depression, my doctor advised me to use a short burst of physical exercise to lighten up my mood anytime I am feeling moody, or depressed.
As soon as I start feeling moody, I would jump right on the floor and quickly do something about it with a short exercise.
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EXERCISING REGULARLY HAS A LOT OF HEALTH BENEFITS
A good decision I decided to take is to apply my doctor’s advice for a mood-boosting exercise daily.
A sports psychologist at the State University of Ohio Wexner Medical Center Ph.D. Stephen Graef told Healthline that when blood flows, moving around it releases endorphins.
“Endorphins are released by our body to counter the fatigue and pain that we may experience and can be done through some movement of the body, especially through exercise. Speaking from a mental health view is also going to give us those benefits of those same chemicals reason being that they have those feel-good effects.
These are my seven HIIT exercise
I do these exercises daily and they bring wonderful results in combating depression
You can do them all for 30sec while taking 10sec rest in between.
jumping jacks
wall sit
pushups
crunches
step-ups
squats
lunges
WEEK 1
The first week is about getting started and during the first week of trying it out, I was excited I chose to do it.
For some time now I had been keeping records of my moods and I have been taking note of whether there will be an improvement when I start the workouts. Especially at noon if I will feel different and better cause that is the time I get moody the most.
I was very eager to look forward to having that surge of serotonin, plus the confidence booster that usually comes with nailing each workout and getting some done for the day.
But in reality, those exercises were somewhat harder than I thought plus there were a lot of unforeseen circumstances.
WEEK TWO
At the end of the first week, I needed to move my workout session to noontime.
Ironically When it’s 3:00 p.m. I would feel tired and just want to lay in bed. Then have my alarm on and have a seven-minute exercise.
Well, I would say the changing of time was a good thing cuz it helped me a lot buh still I have difficulty completing each workout.
I started losing motivation to do HIIT most days as I would just find excuses not to.
However, once I finally start to do it, I would notice a gradual boost in my mood. Not that I was feeling overwhelmingly strong, but I would feel more positive during the rest of the day.
WEEK 3
At week three (3) I was drifting off course little by little as I would have flu. I struggled with the flu as I wanted to quickly recover from it and get right back on course with my workout plans.
My desires were reversed and Instead, I was battling with serious chest pain as I would have difficulty using the stairs.
I notice something this week is that I still struggle at least a little with my mood.
WEEK 4
After 10 good days of falling sick, I was feeling well again and ready to go back to my HIIT routine.
I was worn out and tired of looking after myself and my three sick kids.
STORY SO FAR
Well, even though it’s seven tough long weeks of sweaty minutes, having the knowledge that I can improve my mental health and create for myself a balanced healthy life in such a very short amount of time is a good motivation strong enough to make exercise part of my weekly, if not daily, routine.
