Ok so I had a blog about my great workout plan for the week then......I looked into information about over exercising and wow, this one site hit it right on the head. It is making me take a step back and reevaluate everything and it scareds the crap out of me. I think I have been over exercising or what one site called it, “activity addiction” for over 7 years now and it has failed me.

I know right when this addiction started. When I first started losing weight I was doing some light exercising eating lower carb, not really watching calories or macro nutrients for that fact and the weight was slowly but steadily coming off. It all started to slow the more I worked out, specifically when I started running and thus got injured and had to stop and has been a vicious cycle ever since. It was right about that time that I became basically obsessed about working out. My life was upside down at that point. I was working full time nights, taking college classes (not wanting to ever get a C), issues with our youngest disabled DD, an almost teenage DD, hubby was working weekend plus trying to lose weight. My mom even commented that my working out was saving my sanity, I think I was addicted to the endorphins and the sense of control that working out gave me.

Now, I am scared to stop, scared to gain all the weight back. Plus I have spent thousand of dollar on fitness equipment and don’t want it to go to waste.

Spark is a great website but it so feeds this addiction. You get trophies the more minutes you workout but even they do not give out trophies for over 2000 a month, wonder why???? Then there is the natural unconscious competition with other people on the site. Well, I they can get 500 minutes in one week I need to too. Don’t want to seem like a slacker or lazy especially since I am still fat. I am so guilty of this and it was totally unconscious too. If they can run a half marathon so can I and I did, but it was rough on me but I did not care. Had a goal and had to reach it. Can't seem week or lazy.

Here is some stuff from abide.ucdavis.edu/signs.
html#overexercising that I found and I can raise my hand to almost all of these.

Features of an Activity Disorder
• The person maintains a high level of activity and is uncomfortable with states of rest or relaxation. (yep that was me on Saturday)
• The individual depends on the activity for self-definition and mood stabilization.
• There is an intense, driven quality to the activity that becomes self-perpetuating and resistant to change, compelling the person to continue while feeling the lack of ability to control or stop the behavior.
• Only the overuse of the body can produce the physiologic effects of deprivation (secondary to exposure to the elements, extreme exertion, and rigid dietary restriction) that are an important component perpetuating the disorder.
• Although activity disordered individuals may have coexisting personality disorders, there is no particular personality profile or disorder that underlies an activity disorder. These persons are apt to be physically healthy, high-functioning individuals.
• Activity disordered persons will use rationalizations and other defense mechanisms to protect their involvement in the activity. This may represent a preexisting personality disorder and/or be secondary to the physical deprivation.
• Although there is no particular personality profile or disorder, the activity disordered person's achievement orientation, independence, self-control, perfectionism, persistence, and well- developed mental strategies can foster significant academic and vocational accomplishments in such a way that they appear as healthy, high-functioning individuals.


Cognitive Distortions in Activity Disorder Dichotomous, Black and White

Thinking
• If i don't run, I can't eat.
• I either run an hour or it's not worth it to run at all.

Overgeneralization
• Like my mom, people who don't exercise are fat.
• I either run an hour or it's not worth it to run at all.

Magnification
• If I can't exercise, my life will be over.
• If I don't work out today, I'll gain weight.

Selective Abstraction
• If I can go to the gym, I am happy.
• I feel great when I exercise, so if I exercise I'll never be depressed.

Superstitious Thinking
• I must run every morning or something bad will happen.
• I must do 205 sit-ups every night.
• I can't stop at 1 hour and 59 minutes, it has to be exactly 2 hours, so when the fire alarm went off I couldn't get off the Stairmaster, I had to keep going, even if the gym was burning down.

Personalization
• People are looking at me because I'm out of shape. Yep
• People admire runners.
• I am a runner, it's who I am, I could never give it up (I think on of my SP friends has said this!).

Arbitrary Inference
• People who exercise get better jobs, relationships, and so on.
• People who exercise don't get sick as much.

Discounting
• My doctor tells me not to run, but she is flabby so I don't listen to her. (Said that one)
• No pain, no gain.
• Nobody really knows the effects of not having a period anyway, so why should I worry?

The only cure for the above symptoms is complete rest, which may take a few weeks to a few months. To a person with activity disorder, resting is like giving up or giving in.

To the addict, there is no exception to the rule "the more the better." More training, more hours, more miles, more intensity: more is absolutely always better. Anything that interferes with the lust for more exercise is resented. (from active.com)

www.active.com/running/A
rticles/Know_the_signs_of_
unhealthy_exercise_addiction.htm

So now what…… My warped addicted head is saying “let me think about it as I am doing a 15 mile bike ride tonight on a bike that lets me go faster so I can burn more calories” even if my body is telling me damn girl, don’t you get it by the legs hurting from yesterdays activity that you NEED A BREAK. Isn’t the fact that you did not sleep well last night because they were so sore mean anything.

Anxiety, anxiety, anxiety!!!!!!!


Let the struggle (and the planning) begin……………