Addicted to Exercise

We’ve all heard it: Exercise is good for us. Exercise recharges our batteries and keeps our weight down, blah blah blah…..but do you know that exercise is also a double edged sword which can have damaging effect?

While most people would not argue that exercise is a very good thing for everyone, as long as we do it properly and in moderation. The problem is, people can become obsessive about exercise and can not stand NOT to exercise. Sadly, I am one of these exercise addicts.

Let me name a few of the symptoms of my exercise addiction:

Symptom 1: Exercise is No. 1 life priority and I am absolutely fixated about it. I keep to my schedule strictly and wouldn’t ‘exchange’ it for anything else such as fun time with hubby. If I did exchange, I would normally feel temperamental or grumpy afterwards.

Symptom 2: If I do not exercise for more than a couple of days, such as long distance flight or drive, unco-operative weather, recovering from illness, I become low, moody and depressed due to inactivity. My self-esteem suffers and my confidence wanes. I feel I am not in control of my life.

Symptom 3: When I don’t exercise, even though I know I haven’t put on weight, I feel fat and unattractive.

Symptom 4: If I haven’t exercised for a while, I tend to increase my ‘dosage’ by double or triple the intensity or duration to make sure I ‘make up the slack’ which is almost self-punishing all the while feeling good.

Although exercise has done me a lot of good over the years, it is perhaps exactly these benefits - a healthy and fit body, a robust outlook together with an unshakable confidence, that has made me addicted to it. Clinically speaking, addiction is a sign of lack of security although I am not sure if I should agree. I had thought that my strict exercise programme is a sign of good habit and discipline until today! During a casual conversation I had with hubby today I said to him that I didn’t understand why I felt so low and depressed. Guess what he came up with! He said that it was probably because I didn’t do my morning run! He was probably joking, but it is then the term ‘exercise addicts’ suddenly came to me. Often we need an outsider to see our problems because we ourselves can't see.

In the meantime (and indeed I need some good excuses), I can easily understand why it is easy to become addicted to exercises. Because the good feelings that exercise brings has a lot to do with the endorphins the body releases which has a natural uplifting effect. Some even call endorphins natural anti-depressant. Once you exercise on a regular basis and constantly feel high from doing it, it is hard not to become addicted! So I am not going to beat myself up and feel guilty about a good habit I have. I know my addiction is only in a minor form. I just need to keep in mind that, even in good habits moderation and flexibility are necesssary otherwise the balance can be lost just the same.

I also think about our healthy eating regime hubby and I have recently adopted. We’ve done a lot of adjustments during this period because of the change. However, there have been a few times that I was quite pedantic about things while hubby felt we were missing the fun and joy of life. He is absolutely right! If health, fun and joy are the ultimate goals, what's the point to be brutal about ourselves as long as we are not too off the track and maintain an overall balance?