Cara Kempf is a certified personal trainer with the Fitness Zone in Carmel and a group fitness instructor with NIFS in downtown Indianapolis. She can be contacted at fitnessblog@theindychannel.com.

If you're finding yourself a little depressed, anxious, or stressed lately, I've got something that might just do the trick. Can you guess what it might be? That's right!! Exercise. Especially on days when it's rainy and gray, I begin to feel like I might just want to stay in bed all day, eating chocolate and watching movies. I'm sure I'm not alone in saying that we all have those days, it's just a matter of dealing with them when they come.

Believe it or not, I have dealt with depression and anxiety my whole life.

My mother used to tell me that in kindergarten I would stand by my bed and cry because I couldn't pick out the exact right thing to wear -- that I just couldn't make a mistake. Funny as it seems now, from that point until about four years ago I didn't know how to deal with my anxieties. I tried everything!

That's when I began to fall in love with exercise. I didn't realize it at first, but every time I exercised I would feel happier, like I achieved something great. Soon I came to find that if I took the easy road and didn't exercise, I would come to regret it and start to feel a little stressed again.

I know that there are days that you just don't feel like doing much of anything. I have them still, but not as much as I used to. On those days it is essential that you make yourself get up out of bed and get to the gym, or downstairs to your VCR (not with the movies, but with the exercise videos!), and get moving. It may be a struggle to get started, but I guarantee that once you do, you will feel like a new person.

Studies have shown time after time that exercise is beneficial in so many ways. Not only does it fight cardiovascular diseases and bone diseases and things like that, exercise also fights stress, anxiety, and depression -- it is a proven fact! So, the next time you feel any of those three things begin to creep up on you, get to the gym as fast as you can.

Are you stressed because you work constantly and feel like you can't make it to the gym because you have no time? TAKE A BREAK -- you'll work a lot more efficiently (and happily) if you release those endorphins!