It is a new year, 2015 is behind us and so should the excuses why you could not reach your body fat and weight loss goals. If you are one of those people that think that it is impossible to lose weight, you need to squash that immediately! I will be honest, I used to make excuses for everything! If I messed up, it was always somebody’s fault. This is what really held me back from every reaching my ultimate goals. I would never own up to my own faults. This is a huge reason why so many of us struggle to get to where we want to be in life. Being in the fitness world, I have heard just about every excuse about why goals were not met. It is not just your everyday average person. I have heard athlete’s’, body builders, and even myself mutter these words. Excuses are the voices in your head telling you that you are too tired to go to the gym, you will never lose the weight, and this is impossible. That is why body fat and weight loss goals in my opinion are 95% mental. If you can conquer the mental game, everything can and will become less stressful and pretty easy.
5 Excuses that Destroy Body Fat and Weight Loss Goals
1. I do not have the time to prepare the food
I put this at the time of the list for a reason. This is the biggest problem that holds people back from achieving their weight loss and body fat goals. It is very easy to go to get something to eat during your lunch break or any time of the day. You know what we call people who eat out all the time? Lazy! Did you know that preparing your own food can help you lose weight and body fat? The reason why is that you know exactly what is going into your mouth. When we go out, what you may think is healthy, may be the total opposite. You do not have to make these 5 star meals, just something simple that takes 10-20 mins. If you really do not have a lot of time, what helped me was while I was cooking my dinner, I was cooking the next day’s meals at the same time. How about even cooking more dinner and taking it with you for the next day. Laziness is a killer for goals, I know you have 20 mins in the day to cook your own food!
2. I do not have time to go to the gym
You telling me in the 24 hours of the day, you do not have 20-60 mins to exercise? Have you ever wanted to do something so badly that you plan your day around it? That is how the gym should be. Hate to tell you people but you are not the only person in the world who has to balance work and their kids with their workout schedule. I am not telling you to workout for hours upon hours. Depending on how intense you are working out, the workout could take 30 mins. I know you have 30 mins to workout in a day. How about even waking up a little bit earlier and hitting the gym. I used to hate to workout in the morning, but over time and a busy workout schedule, I forced myself to get my butt in the gym and have a good quality workout. It takes some time to get in the habit of adding a workout to your day, but you will get to the point to where your day is not complete until you workout.
3. Too expensive to eat healthy
Yes, this is an excuse that I hear all the time! These are the people who say it is too expensive, but they go out to eat almost everyday. It is expensive to eat out. One meal at a restaurant is that same amount of money that could feed you for a week. There have been plenty of times where you are on a tight budget, but you can still eat very healthy. You would be surprised at how cheap it can be to get healthy food! Get off your butt and hit the grocery store and cook your own food. When I was in college, being on a nutrition budget was a must!
There are plenty of healthy foods that are under a dollar per meal. These foods are what I still eat every day. One of my favorite meals, then and now is a white bean tuna salad and this is under a $1.50 per serving. There are so many healthy meals out there that will be under $2 dollars per serving. Next time you say that it is too expensive to eat healthy, do your research and you will be surprised!
4. I do not have the energy
“It’s raining outside, it is too cold, everyone stresses me out and I kept hitting the snooze button”. This is what I hear a lot when people talk about having zero energy. Bring a coat, dress warm and we work out inside, this is what I will tell people. Stress is a part of life, it is how you deal with it. Did you know that working out relieves stress? I even tell my clients to let me know when they are stressed out and I will give them all the stress relieving exercises that takes the anger out. What helped me avoid the snooze button was to put my alarm a couple of feet by my bed so I had to get up out of bed as fast as I could so I would not wake up my wife. The hardest part is getting out of bed, once you are up, then you should be good to go. Another big part of why you are not having enough energy is because you are not fueling your body with the right food and/or you are not getting enough sleep.
5. Blame others
It is your body, how are you going to blame others for your mistakes. I had a brutal day at work and my kids are driving me crazy, so I am going to eat my comfort food. If you do not know what comfort food is, it is the crap that makes you happy. A cookie is not gonna make you gain a bunch of weight or body fat, but if you combine that cookie with chips, soda and ice cream, then you are not doing yourself any favors. If your family or friends come over and they made your favorite dessert, you may not want to be rude and say no but that does not mean you go hog wild on the dessert. Once you start blaming others for your mistakes, then you are going to have a tough time reaching your goals. When I started my plan to lose weight, I first had to admit to myself that I was the reason why I got to where I am. Sure, I could blame others for the reasons why I am not eating the right things, but it is not their fault that I am eating it! Once I admitted that I was in control and put my mistakes behind me, now I can look at that crap and ignore it!
Making excuses is unfortunately something that we can be good at because it is easy. I hear all the time and I have even said it is that I want to lose this much weight and look great. The problem that to lose weight and body fat, it does not happen overnight. You have to put in the hard work and dedication to achieve your ultimate goal. It is not always fun and people may think you are crazy, but it is satisfying to get to where you want to be. It is a new year, get rid of the excuses and get to work!
Written by Chris Barber, CPT