As the title says,
Does anyone here use exercise as a means to cope with strifled emotions? If so, how many times do you engage into it weekly and what does your diet regimen look like?
For me, I've only had short burst periods. Hardest part for me is sticking to a consistent diet of actually gaining some damn weight/muscle mass.
I don't use my gym as a way of coping with emotions, it comes from a more disordered eating/body image. I go to the gym at minimum three times a week and walk at least 7000 steps every day regardless of gym activity. Besides the physical aspect influencing my need to go to the gym, the best advice I can give is get an exxy gym membership. Mine is 25 AUD weekly (in this economy is FOUL), but the guilt if I can't go for a day and stuff eats me UP! Knowing I not only am doing terrible at losing weight, but I'm wasting my money while I'm at it is a MAJOR motivator.
We don't even need to talk about my diet regimen its SO bad LMFAO (besides my protein intake, that's pretty good when I eat..)
On an average gym day I have 600-750 calories and I try and have some protein in those calories but I have practically none. After a gym day I try and have a rest day where I have an ABSURD 1500-1700 calories (bit chubby over here) and I have around 100grams of protein!! (probably too much in relation to my body weight but whatever)
In regards to foods I recommend if you want to be healthier or gain muscle, these are my TOP go to's, regardless of how calorie dense some are:
- eggs - they're very rich in proteins and vitamins
- smoked salmon - it's fatty but a good fatty and has essential vitamins and proteins, fish in general are SO good (any form of salmon or fish is good, this is just my preferred one since it's so easily accessible and has little to no preparation needed)
- plain greek yoghurt - trust me, regular yoghurts are a LOT more sugary and unhealthy, if you're trying to make diet changes plain greek yoghurt no added sugar is the way to go!! It takes a while to get used to eating it plain, so I'd recommend chopping some fruits to add, or adding berries and PLAIN oats. (my personal favourite is frozen berries and plain oats, the berries freeze parts of the yoghurt to an ice cream consistency and it's SO good)
- plain oats - once again, same with the yoghurts theres a lot more added stuff in oats than you think. Plain oats are good because you can choose how much of whatever sweetening substance you want to add, you're not having all of that uncontrolled sugar and syrup that will stunt weight loss.
- avocado - similar to smoked salmon, very fatty but SO good for you, I love having the salmon and avocado together.
Obviously meat in general is VERY good protein-wise, I would advise staying away from super processed meat though as there's more problems then you think.
Also with physical exercise and activity, DO NOT, I repeat DO NOT over exercise yourself. You'll either see wonderful results and then plateau because your body can't keep up with it all. Also only use enough weight to give you that slight struggle near the end of every set, it's not worth it to use too much weight, you will injure yourself; if you use too little weight and don't push yourself enough you won't gain any muscle at all..
Also with leg workouts, 15 minutes of light/medium cardio afterwards is gold, trust me, it's so good for your growth.
. I gave myself to it very much in the beginning and saw good results but I am to a point where I am forcing myself to train and do not feel any pressure or rather feel very tired and heavy. My mental state directly impacting my performance and saw my performance declined over the months
