Dear Emily:

You are welcome. My suggestions to help you with your goal of healing from anxiety and depression, for losing weight and getting fit:

1. Create a daily routine for you and for your child, a routine that, as the name suggests, is the same every day. It is very comforting for children and for adults who are anxious to be able to depend on a daily routine that includes what you do first thing in the morning all the way to what you do before you go to bed. Part of a routine before bedtime can be reading to your child a story.

Include in this daily routine your work, studying for the GED, some aerobic exercise (a 30 minutes of fast-paced walk is good enough). Perhaps end the day with a few relaxing yoga exercises/ postures that you can find and emulate from a YouTube video. No need to stress about not keeping a perfect routine: be flexible, experiment over time with what works and what does not work and make changes to the routine according to what works better.

2. Choose nutritional food for you and for your child, cutting down on sugars and increasing vegetables in your diet. I find that a combination of lean protein, low calorie vegetables such as broccoli, and a small amount of healthy oils (avocado, fish/olive oil, seeds and nuts) is best for losing weight, in combination with daily aerobic exercise.

3. Search online for mindfulness guided meditations and mindfulness exercises that are free and that would fit you,  incorporate those into your daily routine. There is a mindfulness program developed by founder and operator of this website, Lori Deschene that is advertised on the home page.

4. When you feel a strong emotion and a rush to make an quick, impulsive choice- pause and distract, ex.  take that walk or listen to soft music, and when you are calm enough, then make a thoughtful choice.

5. If it helps you to further share here about your childhood/ the difficult years of your adulthood- you are welcome to do so. If you want to share and have me give you feedback/ suggest what can be learned from  what you shared- I will do so. Maybe it will help you to express yourself on paper, instead of typing into a computer screen- that’s an option too.

Is what I suggested so far good enough, for a start?

anita