Wednesday, April 11, 2012

Excuses


I have been thinking about my past habits in eating, exercising and studying trying to determine what worked for me and what worked against me. In the past I exercised, but not a lot. There was always some excuse. I'm really good at rationalizing. Now I want to face my excuses head-on and find solutions for them.
Here are some of my most frequent excuses:

I'm too tired. Here's what happens: I'll have every intention to exercise, but I'll get caught up in doing everything else under the sun. Oh! Looks like I need to clean out the refrigerator! And more often than not I am genuinely busy and wait and wait and wait until I'm just too tired to exercise.

Solution: Schedule exercise for a time of day when I don't feel too busy or too tired. That sounds easy enough? Probably not for all of us. What is the solution? Make exercise a priority (I'm speaking for myself here too) wake up 45 minutes early and go to the gym, do an exercise dvd or dance to your favorite playlist. I need to write it down and stick it out. I know once it becomes part of my schedule it will become habit.

I can't find any workout clothes. Okay, I know I am totally not alone on this one, but I always feel like every component of my workout gear is in some state of being cleaned, under a pile of clothes, or in the hamper. I need workout pants, t-shirt, shoes, sports bra, socks and ipod (if I'm lucky) to get motivated to exercise. Sometimes I get unmotivated just by knowing it will take 30 minutes to find something.

Solution: Dedicating a drawer to just exercise clothes. This is something I've wanted to do for a very long time and know it could help me a lot. Having all of these items together in one spot would be very beneficial to my sanity and my exercise schedule. Also keep an eye out for sales to buy more workout items. I know I can use more workout clothes but being unemployed right now does not allow for me to run out and buy more. So at this time part of my solution will be to do a load of laundry after working out so the few items I have will be clean.

I'm too busy. I've been guilty of this excuse, mostly because on the days that I am pumped up to exercise, I'm also pumped up to do everything else. And on other days I just have a lot to do, I'm sure I'm not alone. It’s hard sometimes to fit in exercising when you have a crazy busy day. Though I will be graduating shortly I will use school as an example. It was difficult to find motivation to exercise when I just spent 12 hours on campus.

Solution: Facing facts. In recent past I managed to watch the entire series of Ghost Hunters, My Name is Earl, Supernatural and Wicked Attraction. I also watched three seasons of CSI, several episodes of The Big Bang Theory and countless movies on Netflix. I also found time read many non school books, (school books don’t count because I really have to read those), put makeup on, get dressed up, and so many other things that I simply made time for. To say that I was "too busy to exercise" is simply not true. I know I can make the time to do it.

Waiting for the perfect situation. There have been points in my life that I needed perfect weather, the perfect workout shoes, the perfect time slot, a perfect feel-good easy day to exercise. Guess what?

Solution: That day does not exist. How we feel now in this moment about exercise is probably how we'll always feel. I cannot tell you how many times I've mapped out my road to weight loss only to fall short waiting for it to feel right. Waiting for life to be stress-free and slow. In my mind, there was going to be a day when the clouds parted, the angels sang and I'd turn into this super healthy person that bound out of bed at the mere mention of exercise. And all I have to say to myself is “That day will never come. You either do it now or not at all" As my Grandma used to say sh*t or get off the pot.

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