Is Your Weight Causing Depression or Is It The Blue Funk?
Being over weight causing depression is a pretty common problem. But is it really depression?
Blue Funk is what I call the negative blahs we have about ourselves from time to time. In other words, depression. There are two types of depression. One is the Blue Funk which is either situational or temporary and doesn’t last more than a few days. Two is Down the Rabbit Hole.
Now listen close Alice, because this is important. If your depression last more than a week at a time, you need to see a doctor. That’s a much bigger problem than a blog can help you with. It’s serious, even if you think it’s not. It will never hurt you to seek help. It can only enhance you.
Overweight or Obese
Now when your struggling with your weight, it’s easy to become depressed. So very easy. When it’s your weight causing depression, think about what triggers it.
You look at magazines with these long legged, impossibly beautiful women on the covers and wonder why you don’t look like that after four months of super hard work and such a strict diet. The answer is simple, there’s no Photoshop for the living body.
No one is chasing us around with the perfect lighting. No everyday person has an entire wardrobe department sprinkling, powdering, spraying and dressing you every day. It’s impossible to be 100% perfect without that.
Now that we’ve got an understanding that 100% perfect is a figment of the imagination let’s talk about how you can combat Blue Funk days. Or at least some of the methods I use.
First – You’re Not Alone!
Understand that every single person on this planet has them. Yes, even Cindy Crawford wakes up with her beautiful 50 something self and thinks “I wish I looked (fill in the blank) today.”
Why? Because we are human and that is what humans do. We also have days when we wake up just feeling ourselves. It’s just human nature.
Second – Keep A “Me” Journal
Detail how you’re feeling about yourself that day. Words are powerful.
Write down every single feeling about yourself. For example, my entry for July 27, 2016 at 7am. “I feel like a blow fish. Big and round. Like I’ve been attached to a hose filled with the heaviest air known to man, any moment I may pop. Or maybe a blow fish that has mated with a clown fish. A blown up clown fish with acne and weird facial hair. I feel like a masculine blown up clown fish with acne.”
The next portion of this journal should have a “Why do you think you feel this way.” Is it really your weight causing depression? My response to this question: “I’m having trouble with my hernia swelling, I started my period. My skin discoloration is prominent to me today. I’m broken out and it’s a shave my face day because the peach fuzz is definitely not peachy.”
Now that you have all of that written down, make yourself get up and get dressed as you normally would for your day. It doesn’t matter if It is a work day, a sweats day, whatever. Just get yourself out of those PJ’s, and don’t you dare have ice cream for breakfast either. Get dressed!
Now take a selfie and include it in your journal. I have mine in word so that I can easily find it and add pictures without the hassle of printing and all of that. This is a quick project not a Martha Stewart marathon.
Third – Positive Affirmation
Give yourself a positive affirmation to repeat all day. Mine today was “If John Leguizamo can be a pretty woman so can I.” (That’s a Too Wong Foo movie reference. That works for me. Choose something that works for you.)
Whenever you are feeling your Blue Funk say it. Out loud, to yourself, sing it in the car really loud to a song it definitely does not fit in. Whatever! Just say it many times to yourself.
Fourth – Think Positive
When you come home from your super long day, all you want to do is pull off your underwired torture device known as a bra kind of day… open your journal up. List three positive things that happened that day.
Could be simple things like “The guy held the door for me at the gas station.” Whatever positive things that happened.
Ask yourself “If I really was a masculine blown up clown fish with acne would these things have happened?” The answer is most likely no. It’s most likely your weight causing depression again. If I was a masculine blown up clown fish with acne that guy would have slammed that door in my face and held it like it was the zombie apocalypse.
Fifth – Work It Out!
Take steps to feel great! Go work out. Increase the endorphins. Give yourself a manicure or pedicure… BOTH! Have lunch with a good friend. Walk some place new and discover your world. Look through your fitness journals compare your measurements to last months.
Most of all, cut yourself some slack. Remember that not even movie stars are glamourous 100% of the time. Everybody has bad days. You just have to train your mind into loving yourself for who you are right now. A healthy mind leads to a healthy body.
These are fun ideas to kick the Blue Funk but if you start noticing a pattern. You’ve noticed that you have more blue days than do feeling yourself days. Please talk to a doctor. It may be more serious than you think. I don’t want to lose any Alice to the Rabbit Holes. Depression is a serious illness.
Take care of yourselves!
~Beck