Weddingbee boards

Does anyone else feel anhealthily strong compulsion to exercise?  I thought I had been getting better about this, but today I called and cancelled with my trainer... because I had spent the previous hour feeling like I was about to throw up.  Yet I still feel guilty for not working out.  :((  [maybe the wasted money makes it worse]

It's hard for me to seperate "good to exercise" from "totally ok to take a day off once in awhile."  let alone "do not go to gym and puke."  Anyone else like me struggle with self-loathing and guilt about this?

@Future Mrs. Martin:  Yeah, mine is fairly mild.  I tend to work out about 45 minutes/day every day, and I don't restrict my eating, so it's fine as far as my physical health goes.  It's just days like this when I get sick (or something big comes up) and I can't work out that it becomes a problem. 

Defintiely worse things to be addicted to, but I HATE the feelings of guilt that come when I can't work out.  I feel like I should be above that - I mean I'm smart enough to know that if I take a day off because I'm going to puke or there's a family emergency I'm not going to suddenly never work out again.

@noodlesploosh: Thanks!  I've seen books about exercise bulimia and other eating disorders, but I may have to check this one out. 

@lilyfaith: yeah, I am really type A, too.  Which can sometimes be helpful but I think is more self-destructive than productive overall.  I waste way too much time and energy guilting myself. When I was much worse than I am now about eating and exercise, I had a lot of trouble doing classes because I'd be worried they weren't intense enough.  Which led to hitting the treadmill before classes that often turned out to be really, really hard and were no longer fun because I was already exhausted.

@justeen: I'm getting better about this.  I do think one mini turning point for me was when my fiance's grandfather (who he's very close with) was in the hospital and I had to skip working out for a couple days to visit him.  At first I started getting antsy and feeling really guilty about not working out.  But WHOA MORE IMPORTANT THINGS GOING ON.  It's not just me this hurts, you know?

I'm sure your mom really appreciated seeing you anyway.  When we go visit my family, it's nice because we all run so it becomes a family activity, but my fiance's family doesn't so I feel guilty for ditching everyone.  Or guilty for not working out.  Which, yeah... lots of unnecesary guilt in life.

Anyway, don't worry about two days.  My Dad, who has been a distance runner for over forty years (whoa!), says that it takes about three weeks to start falling out of shape, so yeah a couple of days isn't going to do it.  Now all I need to do is get that through my self-punishing head!