There is a breadth of literature surrounding aerobic exercise and mental health recovery. Starting a training program is a natural way to personally explore and test how fitness and exercise effects my experience of depression and anxiety. Why am I doing this? I want to engage folks in an honest discussion around mental health. I want to perhaps support others who have had similar experiences- who knows, some of you may join me on this journey.
To measure progress, I will be using two metrics; The Beck Depression Inventory and the Beck Anxiety Inventory. A word of caution- these are "google" versions of the empirically supported instruments. Nonetheless, the two instruments should provide me a baseline and a consistent measurement throughout my experiment. Other variables I want to measure include my weight and medication dosage. Some of the literature I reviewed indicated that medication use declined as folks adhered to an aerobic fitness plan. One confound is the relationship between my medication and weight. One of the two medications I take has weight gain as a side-effect. I am curious to see how my weight will contrast against the dosage of this medication. Another confound will be my regular participation in therapy. I am not prepared to stop going to therapy for this experiment- thus I was to be explicit in this limitation.
Here is how this is going to work. I will discuss my training one to two times a week. Reporting on how it's going, what is working, what I am struggling with. Twice a month, I will measure my depression and anxiety on a scale and discuss how my mental health has either improved, remained the same, or decreased. Furthermore, I will share my medication use (code them as "Medication #1 and Medication #2) and report on their dosage.
Diet and nutrition are of paramount importance to training and mental health. Instead of reporting everything I eat- I will generally discuss my diet an report on cravings and struggles. My training routine will consist of one short run, two medium length runs, one long run and two strength training days. Nutrition as stated will be monitored- I will allow a cheat meal and snack once a week.
Baseline
Weight- 205lbs
Medication #1- 200mg
Medication # 2- 100mg
Depression Inventory Score- 40
Anxiety Inventory Score- 32
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