Another Rest Day
The notion of a “rest day” seems so counterintuitive to me. It was too many rest days that got me into this situation in the first place, so it’s hard to wrap my head around this concept that rest actually aids in a healthy lifestyle.
I learned about the benefits of Rest Day from ye olde internet. And, of course, there was a lot of conflicting information, but there was a unanimous stance that rest days are important. Among the articles, the most common consensus was to take a rest day two times a week, and this is what my exercise app is suggesting is every 4th day is a rest day. Apparently when exercising and stretching, finite tears happen in your musculature. You give them time to rest and they heal quickly, creating more muscle. If you don’t give yourself the rest day, then those tears can get worse (e.g. the sore, achy muscles), enflame, and not assist in any kind of weight loss, muscle gain, or limberness. While it still feels weird to take time off from exercising to stoke more weight loss and an overall healthy lifestyle, I’m succumbing to what appears to be a scientific consensus that rest days are crucial.
I noticed a significant amount of bleh today. Not especially thrilled and not overly depressed with life in general. Just trudging along for the sake of trudging. Not feeling down on myself so much, just bemused in general. I think I’ve gotten used to the rush of endorphins and dopamine that I’ve been getting from stretching and exercise. This is purely speculative and barely anecdotally viable, but I did find myself restless and my mood started plummeting in the morning when I would normally do some exercise.
Managed to slog through the day though. I’ll try some house cleaning and making a meal plan to level myself back out.