Excuses Anyone?
The fact that you have trialled and even followed up classes at KBOD Fitness means that health, fitness and your body is of some importance to you and that’s great place to start! We are focusing on your health and fitness today but overcoming barriers and excuses can be applied to any part of your life. It just depends on what areas mean the most to you.
Take a moment to ask yourself this question; what are some of the biggest barriers keeping you from achieving your health and fitness goals? Feel free to contemplate this for a couple of minutes and even write some of them down; anything that would be an excuse for you not to eat healthily or exercise. What are your daily struggles? You’re merely identifying what could possibly hold you back.
The most common excuses I hear are 1) Lack of time; and 2) Lack of energy. If you’re like most people, you probably have even more on your list. The purpose of this is not to amplify the guilt and force you to exercise. This is simply a great opportunity for us to be honest with ourselves. Lack of time and energy are the most common excuses and are perfectly valid. I think most of us at some stage have used one of these. I know that both of these can seemly seem a challenge to overcome but both are completely under your control. You CAN CHOOSE to do something about them. A lack of time is typically a perception rather than a reality. If you can find time to watch TV, see friends, engage in hobbies and so on then you can find time to exercise. It’s more about priorities than a lack of time. I challenge you to make exercise a priority in your life!
Lack of Energy
A large percentage of people who choose not to exercise claim their decision is based on a lack of energy. “I’m just too tired, I’ve had a massive day, I’m sleepy!” Fatigue is typically more mental than physical and quite often stress related. Exercise helps you reduce stress and leaves you feeling invigorated and empowered. It kick starts the feel-good hormones and in fact injects the reverse emotion into your body than before you started.
Lack of Time
After a week of exercise, you’ll soon be able to shift your perception after feeling the initial benefits. Once you begin to feel this, you should begin to change your own mindset and approach to exercise in general. Allow it to be something you look forward to doing to actually reduce the feeling of stress. Give yourself ten minutes in the morning to burn off the day’s stress so you can relax for the evening. There are several different workouts available on BBO so choose what is right for you at the time. Most people say they don’t have time to work out, but looking at their schedule they do. The problem isn’t a lack of time but more so priorities.
The Inner Self
We want to build sustainable habits around health and fitness and the only way we can do this is by looking at how we think and how we self-talk. You can talk yourself into things and also talk yourself out of things. If you find yourself doing the tug of war whether or not to do a class, look at your self-talk. I know there are some days that your body is telling you exercise is a no-go zone, and I whole-heartedly encourage you to listen to it and don’t feel bad to have a day off. But be sure to set a time aside for the next day and about all to try and set yourself up for success every single day.
Take a moment and think about how you want to feel and look. Look at everything you aspire towards. Think about your long term health goals, how you see yourself in another 10-20 years. It’s a long way off I know but everything we do now shapes our future. Close your eyes and imagine it. What does it look like, what does it feel like? What does it feel like to achieve that goal, experience that success? I’m fortunate enough to have some pretty strong health challenges in my family. Though it’s not too good for my relatives it serves as a great lesson for me to know how I do not want to end up. I know that we cannot control everything in life and that some challenges catch us by surprise but I do choose to try and not encourage any illness into my life.
To help you with your goals you need to see that there are more benefits then barriers. You want to create and sustain a healthy lifestyle. We are human and negative self-talk is a part of who we are, but it doesn’t mean we allow it to control us. I propose to you that every time you identify an excuse, a potential barrier as to why you cannot eat healthy or commit to a workout develop a list of possible solutions… Find 4 different solutions. Evaluate the solution and choose the one that works best for you! Life is about the choices you make in life and some of the choices are made on a daily basis.
Kelii xx
20th November 2017