Excuses, Excuses!

Unless a doctor has told you differently, any reason you have for not eating right or exercising is not a reason, it's an excuse.

Sounds extreme, doesn't it? It's not.

Here are a few I've heard:

-"I don't like the way healthy food tastes." You've become accustomed to eating unhealthy foods. Likewise, you can become accustomed to eating healthy foods. The trick is to start. It'll take time, but you'll get there. And you'll believe it was worth it once you do.

-"I don't have time to count calories." First of all, counting calories only takes time in the beginning. After a few days, armed with a good calorie-guide and nutritional information on the side of packaging, you'll be able to find the calorie count in any particular food fairly quickly. It's good for you to know what exactly is in the things you are putting in your mouth. Secondly, you don't have to count calories. Join a sound diet plan (Weight Watchers is my favorite) that has taken most of the work out of calorie counting by supplying you with comprehensive lists of easy-to-look-up foods. Then follow it.

-"I don't have access to good foods." This is usually baloney, but if all you have access to is butter-dripping vegetables, fried chicken, and triple-layer cake, sop as much butter off of the veggies as you can with a napkin, take the breading/batter/skin off the chicken and the frosting off the cake. Then eat a lot less of them. And move more. (Refer to my "Move More" post.) Many times we have to adapt. For help, refer back to my first blog.

-"It's more expensive to eat healthy."  Well, okay....... Most of the time, yes.  I'll give you this one.  But doctors bills and missed work from being in poor health costs more.

Now some I've heard for not exercising:

-"I injured my (insert body part here). I don't want to hurt it again." So did I. Years after rehabbing a torn rotator cuff I still have to be careful about how much weight/how I lift with it. But the fact is that I can lift weights. It's not enough of an excuse to stop exercise entirely. If you have recently injured yourself, ask your doctor what you can do for exercise. Ditto for surgery.

-"It makes me feel uncomfortable". Look, it's called a work out for a reason- It's work! We all feel some degree of discomfort at some point when we exercise. But trust me, muscles adapt very quickly. Pretty soon you'll be feeling better more often and uncomfortable less often. And you could wind up surprising yourself by looking forward to workouts and wanting to make your body a little uncomfortable with challenging it. You can't know until you try.

-"I don't like to sweat." This always elicits a chuckle from me. Do you want to be sweaty a little bit of the time, or look flabby all the time? That's what it comes down to. Your call. The sweat excuse is by and far the weakest one I've ever heard.

And my all time favorite:
-"I don't have time." This one makes me want to pull my hair out! Hey, listen, if you don't have time to exercise now, think of how much less time you'll have in the future when you're sitting in a hospital bed, recovering from open heart surgery. How will THAT fit into your busy schedule? Or the schedules of your equally busy loved ones? I can almost guarantee you will be thinking (besides "Dear God, please don't let me die!"), "I wish I'd have made time to exercise and eat right. This is not worth it."

Do you want to wait and see if I'm right, or do you want to start taking care of yourself?

None of us have time to not take care of ourselves.

Even just a 20-minute walk to clear your head at the end of a busy day is better than nothing and will have a positive accumulative affect on your health.

I'm sure you can come up with more. Throw them at me! Let's see if you can render me answer-less.

Again, unless a doctor has told you that eating right and/or any form of exercise are hazardous to your health, any reason you have isn't a reason, it's an excuse.