The biggest excuses I hear from people about not working out/getting healthy are:
- “Well, that’s great for you but I can’t afford to eat healthy”
- “Running, weight-lifting, etc. is too hard!”
- “I don’t have any time to workout.”
- “I am just not an athletic person. I wasn’t born with athletic talents like you.”
Okay, for real, if I had a penny for every time I heard one of these excuses, I would be able to pay for law school out of pocket.
Let’s go through and address each excuse:
- “Well, that’s great for you but I can’t afford to eat healthy or get fit.”
This is a sticky one. I am in no way advocating that you ONLY buy organic food. Organic food can be dang expensive and I get that! However, making room for fruits, veggies, and lean proteins is not hard to do. Think about it, if you’re current diet and grocery run consists of junk upon junk, you can totally make room for healthy options.
First off, you would no longer be buying the snacks, desserts, and no longer eating out.
That saves a ton of money!
Secondly, since you’ll be eating more substantial, vitamin-enriched foods, you will be fuller and more satisfied and you may find that you won’t be going through food as quickly.
Example: When I was in college I gained weight by eating a LOT of cereal. When I decided to change my lifestyle/eating habits, I cut out the cereal and ate a healthier, more satisfying breakfast. One bowl of oats and maybe some eggs kept me full and not wanting to eat more than one serving! It already felt like I was eating a lot because the food I was eating was healthy and dense.
AKA saving food and money.
Next, you’ll find that places like Walmart and Costco (Sam’s Club for me in Oklahoma) have the best deals. Learning to shop smart goes a long way!
On the other hand, fitness can be so cheap! Let’s say you were going to take on running. If you were running 15-20 miles a week, you’d only have to replace your $80 shoes every 33 weeks! That’s almost once a year! Plus, nothing beats a cheap gym membership. Almost every town has a gym or local YMCA that costs as little as $10 a month, contract-free. How can you beat that?
Also, the best fitness resources can be used free! My FitnessPal, Nike Running, and other apps can be downloadedfor free. Bodybuilding.com is an amazing resource with free workouts and forums & articles where you can self-educate and learn from others. There are many, many more free resources.
- “Running, weight-lifting, etc. is too hard!” & “I am just not an athletic person. I wasn’t born with athletic talents like you.”
Okay I want to lump these two together because I hear these more than all of the other excuses. Was I always a decent runner? No! Was I always in the shape I’m in? No! In fact, I was the slowest girl on my cross country team in middle school. No joke, my parents thought it was the saddest thing. I was NOT born a runner. I was made a runner.
Was it hard when I started getting serious about running, YES, it was! But my desire to do well and get better at it eliminated the dread of running. I’m being totally serious. When people say, “How can you run for fun?!” I always want to tell them how easy it is now that I’m used to doing it regularly.
Now, depending on your current fitness level, it may take you longer than it did me for it to finally feel comfortable and even “easy”. But you will get there if you put in the old-fashioned thing called “Hard Work!”
I’m not bragging. I’m simply saying that the body is an amazing thing. It adjusts and evolves to whatever you put it through. Of course it’s hard at first but, hold fast, it WILL get easier.
Plus, once it becomes a habit, you begin to enjoy it. I NEVER thought I’d enjoy running when I was younger, but as it became a regular habit of mine, I began to see the beauties of it: being in the beautiful outdoors, feeling the endorphin release, having time for just myself and God. It became much less of a chore.
Finally, getting healthy does not mean you need to be a Crossfitter. I don’t recommend that for most people anyways. Just look at your life right now, obviously, if you are out of shape or overweight, you are doing something wrong. Something is not working. So what is the solution? Baby steps. Make one small change every day if you need to. You don’t need to jump right in to a crazy workout routine. In fact, I don’t recommend that either! Find something you enjoy. I have a coworker that has bad joints so he’s taking up swimming! There is always something you can do and it will be better than laying on the couch.
Side note: Healthy eating can be enjoyable too. Most people, including myself, have found that the cleaner we eat, the less we crave or even enjoy eating junk. You can make so many modifications anyways. Healthy brownies? You bet.
Remember, old habits die hard BUT they do die eventually. And once they do, what most people call “too hard” “not fun” will be easy and fun to you.
- “I don’t have any time to workout.”
This one makes me laugh. 30 minutes people. THAT IS ALL YOU NEED. 30 minutes. Do you watch TV at night? Do have an hour lunch break at work? Do you stay up too late for no good reason?
Then you can make time for 30 minutes of quality exercise.
Running for 30 minutes can burn up to 500 calories depending on your fitness level.
Do you have YouTube and internet? Look up Fitness Blender workouts. They are a couple that film HIIT, Cardio, and Strength workouts… many using just body weight and they are no longer than 30-45 minutes.
In sum:
If there’s a will, there’s a way. If you are an average Joe and you truly want to be fit and healthy, I guarantee you can. I’m not saying fitness and health need to be the number one priority in your life. It isn’t in mine! I sure do enjoy spending time with friends and family more than spending hours in the gym. And you don’t even need to invest THAT much into it. Overall, when you really look at the big picture, these are minuscule and tiny sacrifices you’d be making for a lifetime of health and wellness.
Now take a hard look at the reasons you won’t make a change and ask yourself, “Is this just an excuse? Am I truly afraid of making positive changes for my health today?”
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