Start to feel down on yourself if you take a day off from your workout routine?

I posted a journal entry confessing how I was feeling after one day of not working out. Nothing big, right. Then, krogal says she relates and asks this question:

"How can we battle this?"

You know, I had never thought of that before. I started looking on the internet, and it seems that a TON of people feel the same way. There are forums and forums about how good it makes people feel to exercise. But no one asked the above question!

On one hand, exercising every day will certainly keep you in shape, and that is fantastic. But sometimes our plate full of duties will keep us from our workout, or maybe we aren't up to it for the day. There's no reason needed to want to take a day off sometimes.

So the answer would be to exercise every day, right? Because many believe exercising to be an addiction, and refer to this feeling as "withdrawal symptoms." Exercise is said to release endorphins, which are called a "natural pain killer," once again kind of giving off the idea that exercising is like a drug. But I don't know how I feel about that.

Wiki Endorphin and you'll find this near the bottom of the page:

"Another term which is commonly used is runner's high. It refers to the feeling being "high" (full of energy and wellness) after exercise. It is commonly said that the "high" is a result of the release of bigger amounts of endorphins in the body during the exercise. However, some scientists think this feeling is caused by the challenge, and is not related to endorphin release.

For example, in some studies a drug was given to people which blocked the effect of endorphins. These people still felt the runner's high; it means this feeling is not caused by the release of endorphins in the blood. Another study was performed in 2004, which showed this feeling is related to a different body chemical named "anadamide". Anadamide is similar to one of the chemicals which is found in marijuana. The body produces anadamide to fight with the stress and pain in a long exercise."

There are also many pages on people's theories of "How to Release Endorphins." Now, either you think they're endorphins or you don't (the scientists above, for example, do not).

I would like to present some of the things the world wide web offers.

1) If it is a CHALLENGE that gets us feeling good, do something CHALLENGING. I'm thinking, mind games (crosswords, sudoku, drawing). Anyone got other things that are challenging?

The following are from various websites, but most lists are quite similar.
2) Eat spicy foods!

3) Listen to classical music for a half an hour, which is said to create a similar "natural pain killer" feeling.

4) Get some SUN LIGHT! 15 minutes of sunlight DOES release vitamins in the body, and if it can give you this feeling, too, FOR FREE, that's fantastic.

5)The website says LAUGHING for 10 minutes. If you find it hard to laugh at nothing or find something to laugh to, I would recommend checking out LAUGHING YOGA. You can type it in YouTube. It seems quite silly when you watch the guy, but it has great benefits in my opinion. Also watch "The Benefits of Laughing Yoga" on YouTube by our favourite John Cleese for further persuasion. Many of my friends got contact high watching me look silly doing it, and my best friend asked me if we could do it more often, just laugh.

6) Acupuncture releases endorphins, so if you are into that, plan it for your days off! If you're not into it, do some research and maybe check it out!

If anyone out there has found their own way to battle this, PLEASE share! I am going to test these on myself on my resting days, because I really don't like that feeling. Even when I know I'm healthy and looking fine, I can't help but feel awful and pick on myself when that mood comes around, and I think maybe this is quite common.

Thanks krogal for asking this question! I do believe the community will greatly benefit!

Mmmm...

I train 2-3+ HOURS a day, 6x a week, and at times CAN get obsessive about it. It's not the 'I'll gain weight' thoughts, it's the 'I'll gain fat which will slow me down in races' that get to me. I'm more concerned about getting fat and getting slow than just getting fat and being fat (does that make sense??).

I help battle it by either switching around my rest days to PLAN for the break, or if not possible, treat myself to a massage on my day off (if possible), or justify it by saying it's better to rest now (sit out one day) than overtrain and sit out a whole week.

I also ALWAYS make time to spend AT LEAST 15 minutes outside, regardless of the weather, on an off day. It's been below 20 degrees, and I still force myself outside to get some fresh air!! It works WONDERS!!