To be so lazy

[purplewurple]

I feel like I'm the laziest person around.

I'm 26 and have one dc aged 4 I am about 4 stone overweight so my weight may play a part. I don't feel depressed or anything like that I'm just too lazy to do most things.

I would love to take my dc for a walk to the local shop for supplies but the walk back is uphill and so I keep thinking 'oh I couldn't be bothered'. Even when I need to do something like clean the dishes it takes me ten minutes to make myself do it. Let's not even speak about vacuuming I must do it once a year and so dp has just taking over that department. I always ensure the house is clutter free and tidy but it really needs a deep clean and repaint. I've bought the paint and then couldn't be bothered doing it.

I enjoy days out with family but I don't strain myself too much really. I wish I was full of energy for my dc and myself. I used to be so fit and active.

This is an everyday occurrence and I try to eat healthy as I'm trying to lose weight using calorie counting.

How can I stop being so lazy. Why do I feel like this.

What do you eat in a typical day?

I find I can get into a funk at times too. The 5 second rule (check out youtube videos for this, Mel Robbins is the lady who gives the talk) is really really good. So helpful for me so maybe there might be something in it for you.

Typical day food

Breakfast: toasted muffin and coffee
Lunch: sandwich/beans/soup
Dinner: tofu curry/spaghetti bolognese/chilli/fish and potatoes etc.

On a bad day on top of the above I'll have crisps and biscuits after dinner.

I'm struggling to lose weight but I haven't put any on.

Make lists as to what you want to achieve and allocate the tasks to a specific time/ day in a diary. Give yourself a little reward for achieving each task. Change your mindset. Walking to the shops with your child or playing with a ball in the park will benefit your child and at the same time you are doing some exercise. Win win.

I enjoy it when I'm out it's more the thought of 'I've to get myself ready, I've to get my child ready and actually put makeup on myself'

It's worth seeing a GP just to rule out anything medical but the most likely explanation is that you are overweight.

I am completely sympathetic and non-judgmental because I am about a third of the way through a significant weight loss journey - I started with more to lose than you have!

I used to struggle so much and feel so lazy. I would drive to the corner shop which was a 6 minute walk away. I would ask my DH to fetch me things when he got up rather than get up myself. Even small exertions exhausted me.

Being overweight is exhausting. Believe me, thin people would be tired at the prospect of hoovering if they had the extra weight you're carrying strapped to them!

The good news is I am already SO much better for having lost even some of my weight. I have motivation and energy I never had before.

It's great that you're losing weight yourself because it will help enormously. do you use an app to help you calorie count? I recommend My Fitness Pal. I also recommend weighing everything because humans are very bad at eyeballing quantities!

I also really recommend exercise. It sounds counter intuitive but exercise gives you energy. Start by walking with your son and maybe build up to something like the couch to 5K app - that was really life changing for me.

You have the will OP - that's half the battle! You can definitely do this!

I'm going to walk to my local shop today then which will take about 25 minutes to walk to then buy some fruit and vegetables and 25 minute walk back.

You are eating a high carbohydrate diet which can play havoc with your energy levels.

Lots of bread, pasta and potatoes.

There is a lot of evidence that if you switch to a low carb high fat diet your energy levels will transform ( as well as your weight)

Have a good read of this website - it has so much about the science of how our body deals with carbs and how it affects us in so many ways.

www.dietdoctor.com

Many many people will be in the same situation as you, it is not your fault. It is that we are terribly informed about how we fuel our body. Carbs mess with our blood sugar because they are essentially sugar however you consume them (i.e. as a potato, pasta or bread) and when we get our energy from them, they crash us regularly and often.

Forget the makeup for a start! Chuck some clothes on. Hopefully the weather's good where you are which helps cut down on child-getting-ready time - no need for a coat or scarf. Just get yourself out the house.

I know you say you're not depressed but "oh I couldn't be bothered" is a prominent feeling in low level depression. I know I'm on the slippery slope when my immediate reaction at a suggested outing is not "ooh, that sounds fun " but "that will take a lot of sorting out, it's too much bother". But if I can get myself out, then I enjoy the event.

As to vacuum cleaning, deep cleaning etc - break it up into tiny pieces. Don't say "I must do the vacuum cleaning", say "I must vacuum the front room" or even "today I'll move the sofa forward and vacuum clean behind and under it and I'll put "vacuum the rest of the front room" on a list to do another day".

Don't take dc to the shop, take him/her for a walk in the other direction, then it'll be downhill on the way back.

I'm like you energy wise (I also have a few health issues including fibromyalgia and bipolar), but the GP picked up I had B12 deficiency, and when I get my injection I'm great for a few weeks, but then slow down to a stop until the next one.

Worth a GP visit just to rule anything out. I'd had it for a long time before diagnosis and was starting to suffer neurological problems which haven't all resolved.

You've described textbook depression in your post, OP. It might be worth reading up on it a bit.

In the meantime why not set yourself a couple of small and realistic goals for the week. So 'on x day we will go to the park for one hour'. Just one or two things a week for now, start small. You will feel great about accomplishing them.

I was a bit like you with the getting ready thing - we'd come downstairs in our PJs for breakfast and start the day then I would have an idea of something to do but by the time we'd got dressed etc it was lunchtime and we ended up doing nothing... Now I make sure me and DC are dressed before we come downstairs so when it comes to leaving the house it's just do a wee, shoes on and go!

The thing is that you're addressing it, OP. You're trying to identify causes and excuses - that's a great start! I know people that are the way you describe and seem to be blissfully ignorant of either the problem or the possibility of any solution.

You say make up is a thing you can't be bothered with - I felt that way and it was so liberating to finally say, "Y'know what, Christina? You don't have to wear it if you don't feel like it!" I wear mascara and a transparent powder for work - just a clarins moisturiser in the school holidays/weekends and if I'm going out I like to wear the full works and actually enjoy the feeling of glamming up! I stopped wearing make-up (or rather, started wearing make up when I wanted to) around 27-28 and have no lines/wrinkles at 37 which I'm sure is connected. It's nice now as an optional confidence boost, not a necessary mask.

I have really bad skin and makeup gives me confidence so I always put a face on before I go out.

I think perhaps I do to some degree feel a bit low sometimes. But I made myself get ready and went for a walk with dc to the shop and bought salad ingredients. All in all it was 45 minutes up and down hills in the heat and then we had a lovey salad for lunch so feel a bit better now.

Thank you for all the advice I do need to stop looking at the bigger picture and take small steps at a time really

Can you have a shower and do your face as soon as you get up? I'm 4stone overweight and equally lazy. If I don't get up and shower before I do anything else, I can honestly waste the entire day. Once I'm downstairs, the thought of having a shower is such s total faff that I can't be arsed, and so I never leave the house.

Plus, get dressed right down to shoes. Preferably lace up shoes like trainers. The difference in motivation between trainer-wearing feet and bare/socked feet is unreal!