| Catz |
Posted
on 02-Mar-02 01:28 AM
So What's Your Excuse?
by Kathy Smith
Let's focus on some of the most common excuses for not exercising. Look at the following excuses and see if some of my solutions can help.
"I have no time to exercise"
This is the excuse I hear most often. I empathize with it because I have the exact same problem. Here are some suggestions to try to find time in your day:
Get up earlier two mornings a week.
Ask your spouse or significant other to help with dinner or dishes two days a week, so that you can work out.
Meet a friend after work, or at the end of the day, for a workout. You'll get a chance to socialize and keep each other motivated.
Work out to a favorite TV show. If it happens to be on at a time that's inconvenient to exercise, tape it and save it for a workout. (I like to do this with Frasier.)
Exercise is cumulative, so dividing your workout into two parts -- some in the morning, some in the evening -- is just as good as doing it in one session.
Grab a walk during your lunch break.
"I'm too tired to exercise"
This is one reason I don't exercise at the end of the day. I exercise in the mornings because it's when my energy is at its peak. The day's events haven't yet started to interfere. If you're too tired to exercise, try these tips:
Make sure you're getting enough sleep.
Shift your mindset. Instead of focusing on how tired you are, choose to focus on how good you'll feel after working out.
I've found that having a ritual sometimes helps to get you in the mood, particularly when fatigue is a factor. I make myself a vitamin C drink, start chewing on a piece of bubble gum, then lie on the floor, press my hips up in the air, so I get a little blood flowing to my head. Finally, I take some deep breaths and I feel energized.
"Exercising bores me"
This one's a little hard for me to understand. There are so many options and choices.
Close your eyes and remember a time when you were in grade school, sitting at your desk, praying for the recess bell to ring. You ran to the playground, alive with the anticipation of playing. Playing what?
Change your mindset. Stop thinking of it as drudgery. Think of it as time for yourself.
Fantasize while working out. My favorite fantasy is to imagine myself as a rock star, driving 65,000 people into a frenzy with my extraordinary talent. (If you've ever heard me sing, you'd realize what a real fantasy this is.)
"I didn't get the results I wanted, so I gave up"
Not getting results can be discouraging. But when you think about the benefits of exercise, you'll see there's no such thing as "not getting results." While you may not have gotten down to your target weight as quickly as you would have liked, you're still affecting every system in your body. You're doing yourself an awful lot of good, even if it doesn't seem like it.
"Exercising is too expensive"
An exercise program doesn't have to be expensive. All you need is a pair of workout shoes and some dumbbells.
Keep your eyes open at garage sales for used dumbbells.
Put the cost of dumbbells in perspective. What is their real cost measured against the enormous benefits you'll gain? As the old saying goes: "An ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure."
Dumbbells aren't much more expensive than a few manicures or movies.
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