Jaime from the Gym

Last week I had a perfect storm of events that I found these feelings slowly creeping back in. Now I’m incredibly lucky that these days don’t come around as often for me anymore because depression used to be my default setting. But of course they still pop up from time to time.

These low mood states can feel like you’re stuck in quicksand and you can’t to get out of bed and the only thing that feels doable is to scroll or stream the same show for hours on end. Your executive function has left the chat. Fortunately I’m building a toolbox to help.

We know that nervous system disregulation is when your brain has a hard time shifting between states (for more about this check out my 3 states post). There are small steps we can take to start to help our brain get the energy it needs to start to move up and down again.

Stimulating the vagus nerve is always step one. It’s simple and starts to make the process easier right away. From there I start looking at moving the body and the breath more. All of these small pieces start working together to get the dust off the cogs in your brain and make things just a bit easier every day.

Things I wish I had known at the time were signs that my nervous system was working overtime. The last bunch of these were happening right before I stopped working and could have acted as a warning sign that I needed to do something different.

Obviously this is not medical advice and you should always check with a healthy provider if new and concerning symptoms but for someone that was being told I was fine, these were things I didn’t have an explanation for at the time and now I do.

That in itself was a relief that there wasn’t something new going on and that these things were actually all related.

If you want more info on how the nervous system effects all the systems in the body I highly recommend
She has some amazing courses that break it down really well and make it incredibly easy to understand.

I’ve talked a lot about having a disregulated nervous system so it’s time to define the important systems of the nervous system. What they do and how they show up when you’re chronically stressed.

Knowing what’s happening in your body can be the first step in making it a little less scary and a little more manageable.

I don’t think we give enough credit to all of the ways our nervous system affects our bodies and what it can do when we don’t give it some love.

This is just one girl’s example of how mine took me totally out and how I’m slowly working my way back.

Sometimes an anxiety disorder can grow so slowly that you don’t even know it’s happening until it completely knocks you on out.

This is a hindsight view on how my anxiety/ocd evolved over my life and there’s no judgement on people around me not recognizing it because I didn’t know what was happening myself and we didn’t have any awareness of mental health in the early 2000’s.

I’ll dive deeper into some of this stuff especially the last year and a half in the future but this is just a glimpse at how we got to today.

Perfection was never the goal. It can’t be because it’s unattainable and leaves no room for change and growth. It is a set group of values that will likely be outdated at some point in the future.

Whether it’s your workouts, your nutrition, your self care, your job, your family. You will fall short at some point. You are human and you are always learning.

In this exact moment you do not know everything you will ever need to know to be your best self so the only way to learn those things is to make the mistakes.

The key is that when something goes wrong you learn from it and use that information for a better future, and start again. Rinse. Repeat.

Got a high school aged kid looking to up their game this year? The off-season is when you can make the most change.

I’m so excited to be sharing my expertise with the younger generations again this year.

Sign up and get the app to follow a program meant to build strength and speed this summer.

Go to the Train With Me link in my bio and scroll to find the program.

When we become chronically stressed we tend to avoid doing things that make us feel good because we are so focused on trying to not feel bad. This lack of positive stimulation can actually make the anxiety worse in the long run.

To live life well we need a resilient nervous system. Not a calm one or a stressed one but one that flows in and out of all states easily.

A dysfunctional nervous system tends to go easily into stress and then has a hard time coming back down. This is where we start to see chronic anxiety, panic attacks, and even depression.

Now there are lots of ways that I’ve shared that can bring you back toward a state of calm in the moment but for long term success we need to build a nervous system that can calm back down quickly on its own.

This takes practice and effort. Just like building muscle, it won’t happen overnight. These practices actually help to regulate your nervous system from the social engagement side and in the long term help it to be more resilient in stressful situations.

What are you doing this week to bring yourself joy?

We compare, we judge, we shame. It does literally nothing for us except maybe fill our egos.

Everyone is making decisions that seem right to them. From your perspective it seems wrong. For then the benefits outweigh the risks. You did not get to be in their brain for the thought process.

From fitness and nutrition, to parenting, to friends and strangers. There is no universal “right”. None of us know how this wild ride of life turns out so we make our best judgement calls and keep moving.

The only time I like to compare is when it’s something I could improve upon and even then I’m not necessarily trying to copy but trying to see what habits or mindset I could take and use to make my life 1% better.

Judging and comparing from a place of shame aren’t gaining you anything and just causing unnecessary stress to your life.

The goal of social media for me is to learn and celebrate. Anything else is a waste of limited energy.

Is changing your mindset the only solution to depression and anxiety?
Absolutely not.
Is it a piece of the puzzle?
Absolutely!

If you can’t change the thought patterns that helped get you into that state it’s like bailing water out of a boat with a hole in the floor. You might keep up for a while but you’ll never get ahead without fixing the hole in the floor.

The beauty of this idea not to banish negative thoughts. That’s not a practical thing to do. This just about keeping ahead of your negative thoughts by adding in some thoughts and experiences that are more positively framed.
When we’re suffering it becomes so easy to focus on that suffering. I’ve literally been there, where all of my thoughts because about avoiding pain and that made everything 10x worse because it was sucking any ounce of enjoyment I had left in my life. It’s miserable.

Beginning to focus on what I could control and anything I could enjoy has been really helpful at keeping the dark days at bay a little more.

What do you do to give enjoyment and fulfillment to your nervous system?

A huge achievement for where I was mentally throughout high school. Graduating college at the top of my program and entire school of recreation.

When you actually enjoy what you’re learning and the people you’re surrounded by it never felt like work.

Missing a lot of these faces!!

If you’ve ever had a panic attack you know how bad it can make you feel both physically and mentally and that is because your body goes through a lot of changes very quickly.

These are some of my favourite things to do around panic attacks and major anxiety.

🔥Heat is very soothing to me because my hands and feet typically get really cold when I get extra anxious. I will get a heating pad and either put it under my feet if I’m feeling over sensitive still or snuggle up with it if I need comfort when I’m coming down from it.

🧊If you tend to go more numb/zone out during a panic attack and ice pack is a great way to bring you back into your body and feeling your physical sensations instead of what is in your head

😮‍💨Trusting your body is the most effective way to get through a panic attack that I’ve found. It sure takes a lot of practice and doesn’t come naturally because of what your brain is telling you, but my panic attacks have started subsiding much quicker when I decide to just sit with them and wait it out instead of fighting it and trying to figure out what to do.

🕶️My senses go into overdrive when my anxiety goes up so sound light even smells can bother me so getting rid of as many extra sensations as I can will be helpful to calm my brain down.

🌷On the flipside if you tend to shut down a lot of your senses, adding a comforting, smell or touch or potentially, even some light may help you come back and cheer body the way you need to.

🧃Once I have come back down to a more regulated state, I always make sure to grab some food. My nervous system essentially just went through a work out and you would be surprised how much energy your body just used and you need to be replacing that just like you would after an actual work out.

Follow me for more tips on ways to help anxiety and panic.

9 Years Together
2 Years Married

Just taking a minute to brag about about the most supportive, kind, loving, caring person I’ve ever met in my life. How I got so lucky to get to spend every day with him is beyond me but I try not to question it too much.

This past year really put that sickness and health part to the test and I couldn’t have wished for anybody more supportive and understanding to go through it with.

Thank you for being the person that you are and agreeing to build this life with me and I can’t wait to see where it goes.

Happy Anniversary and I can’t wait for many more ahead 😘

I may not be physically in the gym but there are still lots of ways I can help you learn to lift and get the most out of your time there.

If you think we might work well together shoot me a message and we can see what fits best.

Gym anxiety is very real and probably won’t disappear overnight but this is my number one tip for easing it when you’re trying to get into a habit of working out.

Have a plan to follow. You’re probably worried about looking stupid and I can tell you for the millionth time and that everyone is more worried about themselves and they won’t notice you but that message probably hasn’t worked so far.

I find confidence comes from knowledge for me so if I know what my workout is before I set foot in that gym I have something to focus on and feel less like I’m going to make a fool of myself.

Obviously I can say I have programs you can follow 💁🏻‍♀️ but you can use one of the workouts I’ve posted or find someone else on Instagram, YouTube, or an old fitness blog and make your plan for that day. If you’re just starting out it almost doesn’t matter the workout, just build the habit of showing up, worry about the details later.

This will give you 10x more confidence to walk into the gym and feel like you belong, because you do! You just don’t feel like it yet.

A lot of people use the terms anxiety and panic attacks interchangeably so I wanted to share the similarities and differences so that when we’re talking about what’s happening to us we can be clear on what is going on.

This kind of language can be helpful in understanding our bodies and brains and how to manage each a little better.

I will definitely be doing a deeper dive on how I manage each of these on a daily basis but this is the baseline of thinking for me when anxiety or a panic attack pops up now.

It’s taken a lot of work and practice to get to a spot where I can manage my mental health in the simple parts of my day and I’m still practicing to get better with it when I’m out and about and encountering bigger stressors. The plan is that some day I won’t have to think so hard about it but for now, like any other skills it takes a lot of focus and sometimes I still mess it up.

This week but I’m really missing some of my absolute favourite people.

This Mock Meet we held was February 2020 before the world got tossed on its head.

So many emotions looking back at all of the hard work that was put in not just on the day but leading up to it.

I was stressed to the max and wanted to crash for about 3 days after but it was so much fun and the emotion just comes up thinking about.

Can’t wait to get back to my people and back to helping them lift big weights. 💪🏼

I was so excited to share this last week but technology let me down 🤦🏻‍♀️🤦🏻‍♀️

I’ve had a lot of practice with anxious thoughts and now some practice letting them go.

I’m not perfect yet (I mean we’re combatting 20+ years of thinking a certain way here) but I’m much better at catching myself and letting things go a little quicker.

These are the things I think about on a regular basis to not let the negative or anxious thoughts settle in as easy anymore.

Do you have any daily practices to keep your thoughts on your side?

As someone with anxiety my brain is wired to look for the problem, look for the threat, look for the thing that is going to ruin the nice thing happening in front of me.

I talked before about doing my best to not follow people and messages that spew those kinds of thoughts into the world but what about when it’s coming from my own brain?

As the physical symptoms in my body got worse, it felt like every decision I made in the last couple of years has been to avoid pain/suffering and this has led to a focus on the potential downsides of life. I think this played a huge role in my mental health spiralling out of control.

I stopped looking to enjoy life and basically took any possibility of excitement away from myself. I would love to say I’m totally fixed now but it’s still very much a work in progress and there are still lots of days stuck in bed terrified to move at the risk of making myself feel worse. Because if you’ve ever had a true panic attack, you know you would give absolutely anything to not be in that state ever again.

There are two small practices I’ve found that help me to start to retrain my brain to look for the positives and let go of the worries a little quicker. I’ll be sharing them tomorrow because this post is already too long already ✌🏼

Some kind words from an online client.

Lifting weight does a lot more than just make you better at lifting weights.

He is training to “run fast, lift heavy” and I’m so excited to be able to help.

He had spent a lot of time in the gym but the kind of progress he was after was new to him and I’ve been so excited to help.

With email check-ins throughout the program and video assessments of mobility and movement technique we are able to build a program around his work, family, and running/race recovery to get him to his goals.

I’ve become pretty strict over what I consume online in recent months. I was noticing I was being drawn to stories that make you angry or upset. This is a natural human reaction to bad news. We want to know more so that we can make change. This in itself is a good thing.

Unfortunately this turns into a bad thing when we have the ability to consume information on a level that would have been thought completely impossible 50 years ago let alone hundreds of thousands of years ago when our nervous systems were developing.

I’ve stopped to question is the world really a worse place or do we just have the ability to know about every awful thing that is happening. Every car accident, every act of violence, even every tiny inconvenience that gets posted to a local page that we would have never heard about before.

This isn’t to say that there aren’t terrible things happening that need good people to go out and fight against to promote change but as I scroll my Twitter feed and see about reforms happening thousands of miles away from me that have nothing to do with my life and I have no ability to help with, I wonder how that affects my body.

I can feel the rush or frustration or anger or sadness when I read another story online that I am helpless against and I know that I have just released stress hormones that will drive my body into an anxious state.

When we continue to do this over and over and especially with things we can do nothing about in that moment, what is the cost to our health.

Take a moment today when you read something that upsets you and evaluate if this is something you really needed to read. Will it make you do something differently through your day or was it just there to make you feel the rush. All of media is trending towards these kinds of issues because it makes people click. Things that make us just feel nice, don’t generate as much buzz or outrage or arguments in the comments.

When your outrage is their currency what incentive do they have to share the good stuff?

Pumpkin Spice Everything season is here 🍁

Find the recipe here:

https://www.trainstronglivestrong.com/post/pumpkin-pie-overnight-oats

A Hindu Proverb

Happy Monday!

There are so many ways to succeed in health and fitness and everyone's path looks different. If you love yours, that's amazing! That doesn't mean it is right for everyone. If you're looking for change, find someone that can help.

RRR9
90s Neon 💛💚💝

gearing up for another long weekend of shenanigans 🎉

Reeves Redneck Reload 9 coming at ya this labour day. Any guesses on what our theme is this year?