The Triangle of Life (Exercise, Mind, Food)

Ok, I want to take last week’s post one step further. I told you guys that I am a diagram junkie. So, you have been warned and are therefore choosing to read this ridiculousness at your own risk.

Last week I hashed out how I overcame some pretty bad anxiety through the use of exercise that has for reals changed my life forever. But, I left out some other pretty cool changes that came along with that as well. I noticed that there was kind of a ripple effect that took place when I exercised and it went something like this:

When I exercised, my thoughts changed, my mind chilled out, I became as cool as a cucumber, endorphins were going cray, and therefore I was less cray, the whole nine yards. My mind was in an awesome state and therefore I made better food choices. With better food choices, came the energy I needed to exercise. I didn’t find myself wanting to shift between binging and starving and it really didn’t even cross my mind. I wanted to fuel my body and feel my best. I started living how I believe we were created to live, free from all of the addictions I had with food. Plug-our society is crazy addicted to food and uses it to self-medicate from all emotional issues thereby making it the number one addiction in the US. Sad, but true…

I found that if there was something wrong, times that I would typically referred to food (or lack of it) to cope, I no longer did anymore. It’s like my body knew it wouldn’t do the trick. No amount of junk food could do for me what the workout did and I was uninterested…

When we have intense cravings, there is usually something behind it. For instance, it is often linked to poor sleeping habits, not enough water intake, relationship problems, stress, spiritually not in a good place, not getting the sufficient nutrients from food, or just a general lack of love (whether for ourselves or from someone else). The point is there is usually something missing and we fill that void with food.

This shift was gradual but noticeable enough for me that if I broke the cycle, things would get all out of whack. So, if I didn’t exercise, I became filled with anxious thoughts and I felt out of control. So, I would either throw in the towel and eat whatever (wreaking havoc on my bod) or my stomach was in knots and I couldn’t eat at all.

Then often times the choices I made about what I ate impacted whether or not I worked out that day (wooow full circle- I mean triangle 😉 ). If I ate crap, I would either over workout to burn it off (doesn’t really work that way but, it made sense in my head at the time) or consider the day a wash and not workout at all. This is where finding balance is key and where we need to put less emphasis on how we feel and focus more about doing what is best for our body.

So, don’t get me wrong, I splurge as much as the next girl and I L-O-V-E my chocolate, but I try to stay balanced and try to keep that triangle moving as smoothly as possible!

Breaking it down looks like this: exercising affects your mind (brain chemistry), which then oftentimes determines what you eat and how much of it, and then this comes back around to how much you workout (or not at all) and the motive behind it. And thus the triangle of life! Cha-ching!