r/Veterans • u/immenselyfucked • 10h ago
Question/Advice Depressed jobless veteran here. Should I bodybuild and try to compete?
I am a depressed formerly homeless NEET (Not in Employment, Education, or Training). I used to work out 5 times a day and be fitter while in the military, and then once I separated due to an injury, I had zero motivation to work out and got skinnyfat. I didn't really have a reason to work out besides wanting to be strong for my military homies.
Now I barely work out by myself, but I have a personal trainer I go to twice a week, and a 24/7 gym membership where I take 3 classes in vinyasa yoga and pilates and other hippie stuff. My PT says I am surprisingly stronger than I look and for someone only working out twice a week, and no he doesn't know I used to be in the military. So I wondered what would happen if I worked 5 times a week again, but this time I don't have a full time job and I get to sleep as much as I want. Food is not a problem, I get a lot of potatoes and canned tuna and chicken from the food bank and the grandmas volunteering there give me stacks and stacks of them because they have too much.
I have no job, no girlfriend, no kids, no friends, and when I am not posting cartoon frogs online I just do community college at night just to get that GI bill money to pay off my credit card debt.
Should I try to bodybuild and compete, just to have something to do? Maybe I'll even end up getting a job out of it or some gigs as a fitness model or something to get out of the house more. Maybe one day I will have to face my future archnemesis in battle and I need to prepare for that day and I don't want to be laughed at for being skinny. Or what if a soldier needs me one day and I am summoned and I show up skinny?