Protecting Mental Health in Fitness

Fitness is about living in the best possible way with our health and life. Than why we feel more stressed every day instead of being motivated?

If you don't have a personal trainer that will support and motivate you constantly, it may be really difficult to reach your fitness goals and protect your mental health in this process.

Many of the modern fitness magazines encourage us to try new trends and change things we don't like about ourselves. According to many articles we have to follow everything we eat and do.

We define some foods as bad or unhealthy and we try to encourage ourselves to eat more healthy. However these kind of statements harm our mental health.

By defining a food with negative statements we are actually trying to give the impression of eating this food is wrong. This is a kind of manipulation because while there is nothing to feel bad about we feel bad when we eat these foods. If you ever felt bad for eating a desert once in your life, you can understand what we are trying to explain.

We sometimes avoid to do activities with our friends and family because of "health". But we are harming ourselves by missing an enjoyable time.

It is important to protect your mental health while trying to achieve your desired body, weight, muscle strength or other fitness goals. There may be a few mistakes the way you follow.

Mistake 1: Making Calorie Calculations in an Obsessive Way

According to the research there is a positive correlation between using calorie calculation applications excessively and irregular eating habits. When calorie calculation becomes obsession, it becomes more difficult to perceive food as positive. Now food is not just food anymore. They are numbers and nutritional analysis.

If you use information as something destructive, information is no longer something positive.

Solution: Leave it to Your Intuition

If you don't remember the last time you ate an apple without making carbohydrates or sugar calculation, it's time to stop using that calorie counting application.

We were born knowing how to feed and lost this ability over time due to external factors. We have to reverse this situation. Next time you eat, think about what makes the food in front of you nutritious. Choose a piece of all types of food (protein, fat, carbohydrates) and don't forget to add fruit and vegetables to it. Eat slowly, eat consciously, and choose what you like to eat.

The emotional and social effects of eating take up a big part of our lives. The food you eat should give you pleasure, energy and happiness. Try not to think too much about it.

Mistake 2: Exercise to Lose Weight

Exercise can help you avoid stress and depression but extremeness of everything is harmful. Excessive exercise can damage your physical and mental health.

How much should you run for eating a piece of cake that you don't deserve? If you can't find a way to get rid of this excess calories immediately you'll feel bad. Exercise is not more than a way for you to control your life.

Solution: Exercise to be More Powerful, Move Better and Feel Better

Focus on being stronger and more durable. Think about the benefits of exercise to your health. Exercise is never a punishment or a tool to remove your embarrassment.

Find what you love. Do sports under control. If you dont know how to do that get help from someone can do that. Personal trainers can make the right plan for you and help you achieve the strength or endurance you want.

Mistake 3: Following Models on Social Media Too Much

Everybody likes to look at beautiful models but if u exaggerate these images can cause you to set unrealistic goals for yourself.We all try to compare ourselves with the people in the photographs. This unhealthy behavior can cause us to make wrong decisions and make us unhappy.

Solution: Be Conscious

Before hitting the follow button on instagram ask yourself a few questions:

• Is this person going to add something precious to me?
• Is this person going to make me feel better?
• Is this person giving a positive message to followers?
• Is this person encouraging people to follow a healthy lifestyle?
• Does this person have unrealistic standards?

If you only following people sharing perfect bodies, faces and lifes, give it up.

If the people you follow are shaking your confidence in yourselves or you feel jealous or bad, stop following them. It's not wrong to follow people that motivate you, just make sure they're motivating correctly.

Mistake 4: Being Negative About Yourself

Everytime we say something negative about ourselves it comes closer to be real.

"Words are very powerful. We can use them to feel better. Or worse."

Solution: Love Yourself

Stop being bad to yourself. Think before saying something to yourself. If it is negative then find another words.

Mistake 5: Thinking That Your Physical Health is More Important Than Your Mental Health

First thing comes to our minds when we think to look at ourselves is our physical appearance. Mental health is in background mostly. Actually they are in a relationship.

Mental health is as important as physical health. Without having one having another is almost impossible.

Solution: Care For Your Mental Health

The most important part of healthy life is mental health. If you don’t care about your mental health everything gets worse.

Create time to yourself for relaxing. If you feel bored step back and take a deep breathe. You should find why you don’t feel good and know what to do to feel better.

Realize there is a problem and do what you must to do to bring back the balance. Merely by this way, we can manage to get out of the circle of bad thoughts that hurt us.