When I feel unutterably sad, there’s only one thing that helps: exercise

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Northerner

Admin (Retired)
Relationship to Diabetes
Type 1
One in seven people in the UK admit that they have taken no exercise in the past 10 years, according to a poll by the British Heart Foundation. The excuses for this ranged from laziness to bad weather, and some even claimed that they found exercise too boring to contemplate. Up until a couple of years ago I would have happily put myself in the same category. At school I would always stand on the sidelines during sport or loiter at the back of the gym, desperately hoping I’d be excused. The games captains would always pick me last in football, and I do not blame them one bit.

When I left full-time education I threw away my damned plimsolls immediately, and settled into an adult life of sedentary bliss. To compound this idleness, I learned to drive, and would think nothing of taking the car to the corner shop – a two-minute walk away. For a good 12 years, the most strenuous challenge I gave my body was to eat 12 doughnuts in a row (it succeeded masterfully).

But a couple of years ago I endured a rotten period of divorce, illness and bereavements. Collapsing on my couch wasn’t cutting it, and so after one particularly sad day, I went for a 15-minute shuffle around the block.

http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2016/jan/18/sad-exercise-antidepressants
 
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