Living by myself for first time and have stopped taking care of myself - help!!!

Start with small steps such as run/workout 5-6days a week. Then build to loftier goals such as setting a new PR. Challenge yourself and hold yourself accountable. No one's handing you amything--what you get out is what you put in. Almost everyone has lapses but the truly weak people never rebound and make a bad habit a lifestyle while the strong man the hell up and right the ship.

Sign up for a spring race, like the local St. Pat's Day event. Set a lofty but obtainable goal, and start working towards it. You'll need to formulate a run training plan, weight training plan, and some kind of meal plan. If you really need major motivation sign up for a spring marathon or triathlon.

Sign up for a marathon. The bigger the better. It’ll give you reason to get out the door each morning. You’ll want to be ready on race day.

I bet a lot of us have experienced something similar.

Small steps.

Make your bed when you get up in the morning.

Run three times one this week, two miles each run will do. Increase distance, frequency and pace as you feel, but start now and make it a routine again.

The eating will take care of itself if you’re running even semi regularly.

The second you get done reading this post immediately go run. You'll feel better afterwards, you know it, I know it, we all know it.

Sometimes you can't wait for inspiration, sometimes you need to light the fire yourself. Get moving.

Join a cheap gym and two once or twice a week. Run now and then on the weekends. Start eating better.

Jordan Peterson wants you to clean up your room.

It is ok to have burnt out on running, especially if you live somewhere where the running scene is crappy. Find another sport to occupy your time. I started playing golf after I gave up on running marathons. I put on a bunch of weight, but am probably in better shape overall in that I have had to spend a lot of time building strength and stretching in order to protect my back and say healthy.

Maybe you are depressed?

You already noticed your problem, that's a good start. Since you are a runner, sign up for a big race in Spring (HM or Marathon) and maybe some others in the meanwhile. Make a training plan and try to follow it. I would not run, if I would have not have races signed up and I am running for a long time.

Running in the dark doesn't have to be bad if you need to get your miles in for a race. If it's really cold that might be a different story.

Just do something. baby steps first don't be to harsh on yourself. (Been there done that.)

Good luck.

Man up and go to therapy.

If you have neighbors, talk to them. Even if it's only for a minute, it will help. Even with strangers, just saying something beyond the "hello" or "how ya doin'" would help, much more than you think it does.

On days you cant run outside, just do some jumping up and down or skipping rope. You can do that even without a rope. Even 1-2 minutes of this a day is shown to be helpful.

thehill.com

Minute-long bursts of vigorous exercise during daily tasks linked with lower risk of death: study

Gianna Melillo

Story at a glance Completing short bursts of vigorous activity each day is linked with up to a 40 percent reduced risk of dying from any cause. That’s according to new data collected from over 25,0…

Link:thehill.com/changing-america/well-bein...

Read something every day - even if it's only 1 page or 10 minutes.

dailymotivation.site

Today's Daily Motivational message - Daily Motivation

admin

Has life got you down, or do you just need a little bit of a boost? Daily Motivations are a great way to start your day!

Link:www.dailymotivation.site/motivations/

greatday.com

The Daily Motivator - Overcome temptation

How do you overcome temptation? You focus on the consequences.

Link:greatday.com/

Volunteer somewhere where you know nobody and do not get anything like brownie points at your office or your church. Completely random unknown place.

Be grateful for what you have. Many others arent so lucky.

Never give up.

The suggestions to enter a race to having something concrete to motivate you are good, but it assumes you genuinely want to keep running, which doesn’t seem to be the case. Up until now, your life has revolves around running. It is jarring to be in the real world and realize that hs and collegiate running don’t really matter. Subconsciously you realize that even if you train like a machine and get that next pr, it won’t really matter. You aren’t in that intense D1 environment that makes running seem all important. It is ok to be burnt out.

It’s ok to take some time off from running. I would actually encourage it. Give yourself all winter off. You don’t need to run a step. Find some other hobby to focus on. Maybe get into lifting, or ice fishing, or skiing, or a city league basketball team. You know your interests better than I do, I’m just giving examples.

I second the recommendation to get involved in some sort of volunteering. You don't have to do much to start; a two-hour shift once per week is fine. It also doesn't matter much what the organization is. Choose a local food bank, animal shelter, refugee resettlement group, or whatever is locationally convenient for you.

Doing something for other people can help you "relearn" how to put care into yourself when you've lost the motivation to do so. Taking the focus off of how your actions do or don't impact your own life and instead seeing that your actions can have a positive effect, however small, on someone else is empowering. As you build up a feeling of competence by helping out others, you'll eventually feel ready to turn that competence and care back toward yourself. Hopefully, you'll also get some positive social interactions out of the volunteering experience.

Be patient with yourself, and don't beat yourself up over a timeline. Just like building fitness, taking things day-by-day is how you get out of a rut.

You won't be motivated to start running again until...you start running again. I don't think that extrinsic motivation - like an upcoming race or anything will help that much, especially if you are burnt out from running D1. This is a situation where you know exactly what you need to do (start running again at low volume with consistency) but you are hesitating to do it, it's perfectly normal and human to feel this way about anything.

Very relatable post. I think the small step approach is best to ease yourself back into running. Make it a goal to find the best spots to run in your area or use running to explore new areas just to change the focus of what running is, not so much a "workout" but something to do. Also it's important to not be hard on yourself because the most important thing is doing something consistently. Ultimately running is a fun activity and should always be a means of adding joy and health to your life.

Great points about consistency.

Here's a very good article the OP might useful. Especially look at the graphs.

getpocket.com

How to Be Consistent

Five principles on consistency and sustainable progress, all backed by research and practice.

Link:getpocket.com/explore/item/how-to-be-c...

You sound like me when I lived by myself for the first time after college. First step is noticing the problem, which you have.

How's your social life? Maybe join an adult rec league. Do you have a gym membership? I found that only running didn't cut it for my lifestyle anymore. Had to switch it up. Good luck man.

It's a procrastination issue. Running by yourself in the cold and dark sucks, going to bed early sucks, and eating crap usually tastes better and requires less effort than eating healthy.

Switch things up a bit. Get a gym membership, get into lifting, and run on the treadmill whenever you feel like it. Try out intermittent fasting and set new goals. Maybe you can break an FKT record on your local trails in summer, or maybe you can transition into sprinting and grab some 100/200 PRs.