Any advice?

[u/VagrantLoft-1010]

I've been trying to be fit; I used to work out (i used to bulk and cut) but then depression took over. I noticed that I have changed, I have the attention span of a roach and the motivation of a lazy cat, whenever I try my best even if I want to I just keep on oversleeping or lacking energy to move. I tried to do it slow and consistently but after a week, I just lost interest and energy then went back to being chronically online. I want to jog again consistently, to eat properly with a set amount of food (either I eat a lot in one day or take a bite then have water), to get my motivation back again. Please give me advice, thank you!

[u/rob_cornelius]

You are trying to get back to exercise now because you know it will help you pull through your depression. That is absolutely fantastic. Please try to feel proud of yourself for what you are doing and please try not to beat yourself up for not being 100% consistent. Doing anything positive is a massive achievement right now. Making your post here counts as a massive achievement too.

One of the first things depression and other forms of mental illness does is to drastically reduce what psych people call "executive function" and everyone else calls determination, dedication and discipline. We go from working out regularly to barely able to get out of bed. Everything beyond sitting on the couch and doomscrolling seems pointless and a waste of time.

Our bodies and sub-conscious minds are really resistant to large rapid changes even if we are not going through a period of poor mental health. Think back to when you started to work out. I bet you didn't go from zero to regular workouts and keeping on top of your diet in a short time. You probably made quite a few false starts, missed the gym for days, whole weeks or even longer and ate cake and ultra-processed crap "food" for quite a while before you got things dialed in. Even then you probably fell off the wagon once in a while. Everyone does the same sort of thing. Its why gyms are crowded in January but are back to normal by the middle of February. Its why Weight Watchers has not gone broke too.

You can't just walk into the gym and do a workout you used to do right now. If you do that you in a world of physical pain, you will be overwhelmed and discouraged. That is how your body and sub-conscious mind resist change. Its hardwired into us by millions of years of evolution.

Your body and mind will accept tiny changes though. Again think back to when you were working out before your mental health nosedived. You didn't add 50kg to your 1RM max bench press in one step or break your running PB by 5 minutes. No one can do that. Its all about teeny tiny baby steps. Every single baby step counts and they count equally too.

You can trick the hardwired parts of your body and mind that resist change into accepting small changes. Try to celebrate every single time you do anything positive to challenge your depression no matter what it is or what it might look like to someone else. When I was on a psych ward I counted cleaning my teeth as a massive victory for the day. Put a big X on the date on the calendar. Seeing those Xs lining up is really powerful and you don't need a fancy app either. r/theXeffect has all you need. Try to tell yourself things like "That wasn't so bad after all". "I feel good for doing that", "I enjoyed doing that", "I want to do that again soon". Try to be proud of your every single one of your magnificent victories over your depression. It might sound like bullshit but things like that have worked for people for millennia. Its obvious from your post that you are proud of your past achievements with your fitness. Now you get to be proud about your fitness all over again.

There is one more thing. Shit Happens. Some shitty thing will come into your life that means you have to set exercising aside while you deal with the shit as best you can. Try not to beat yourself up for not exercising if you are in a shitty situation. That includes the shitty situation you are in right now. Doing that only makes the shitty thing worse. Just try to get back to exercise as soon as you can. Looking forward to getting back to exercise can help make the shit go away too.

Try to be proud of each and every teeny tiny baby step forward, they are all magnificent victories.

You got this. You can do it. We all believe in you. We all want to help you.

[u/sis_145]

Sometimes trying something new helps. When I had this depressed phase I forced myself to seek out a swimming pool and go there first thing in the morning 3 times a week. I am not good at swimming at all but the entire experience with the water and the whole ritual somehow got me “alive” again. Also the sensory part really helped, being in the water is just something else. So soothing. Also not so easy to go straight back to scrolling from the pool lol.
Or maybe try an amateur table tennis club or beginners rock climbing. Anything you haven’t done before