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Todd

Any Excuse Will Do

By Todd on June 13, 2012 | 3 Responses

When it comes to exercise, and really life in general, your excuses don’t have to be “good”, or even rational. They just have to sound better at that time than whatever it is you don’t want to do.

As I currently work my butt off trying to get in half-decent shape, I can’t help but reflect on some of the really good excuses I came up with during my recent deployment, which “helped” me get this way in the first place.

The mother of all excuses was my hurt back. On the surface, it seems perfectly logical to take a “rest” from exercise in hopes that it would help make things better. But the reality was that I was just as sore after taking months of “rest” as I had been when I was at least attempting to workout from time to time.

Another really good one was my eating schedule. If it turned out that I was really hungry after I got off work, and had to stop by the DFAC on the way home, well that pretty much ruled out the gym. I mean really, I might puke or something if I try to workout on a full stomach.

Speaking of the gym, they had a cleaning schedule that didn’t always mesh well with my off time. And again, if the gym’s closed, I couldn’t possibly find somewhere else to exercise that day. Going to the gym was my “plan”.

And then finally one excuse that really hit me when I got back home … the showers! I have found it so much easier to work out twice a day since I’ve been home, simply because I know I can walk into my bathroom and jump in my shower afterwards. The showers at Camp Marmal in Afghanistan were horrible. Even if I wasn’t hot and sweaty, I hated to go in there. So as you can imagine, not wanting to get hot and sweaty and having to shower before bed turned into a really convenient and consistent excuse to tell myself “I’ll go to the gym tomorrow”.

You know what though, if working out had been important enough to me, none of these excuses (or the 1000′s of others I could easily come up with) would have mattered. I would have found a way to do it.

And that’s really the point …

If you find yourself not doing something that you think you should be doing, it’s probably not the fault of whatever rationalization you’ve managed to come up with.

It just wasn’t important enough (to you) at the time … simple as that.

todd

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  • http://www.imjustsharing.com Mitch Mitchell

    Interesting stuff Todd, and I know what you mean. I live in an area where, during the winter, we deal with horrible weather issues that limit our access. Well, that’s kind of a misnomer; because our weather is usually always bad, we have the best plowing system in the world, so the only time things are really bad is if a storm hits and stays all day long; that’s rare.

    So, it’s easy to make excuses, but truthfully that’s all it is because I could walk the neighborhood, and I can do things in the house because we have weights, I have a trampoline, and there’s enough room to do calisthenics. So yes, it’s excuses, and most of them are pretty weak.

    But at least I’m getting my walks in now as the weather’s improved, so I take comfort in that. :-)

    • http://tmtips.com/ Todd

      Hi Mitch,

      Glad to hear you’re getting your walks in. That’s what it’s all about .. doing something. And not beating our selves up too much about the times when “stuff” comes up that prevents us from sticking to our “plan”. Every day is a new chance to start over :-)

  • http://cillescents.com Cille

    Hey guys,

    I have found my weakest point in not exercising is to be lazy and skip a few days. I have a set schedule time of day to exercise and have found if I miss that schedule, it’s hard to get back on track. I have a treadmill, stationary bike along with other exercising equipment in my home so I don’t have an excuse to not use it.

    I love it this way because I don’t have to worry about getting ready and driving to the gymn and back home. I live in the country and it’s not like the gymns here are close to home like city folks or people that live closer to the city.

    I love to walk outside during the day, but it’s different here where I don’t have close neighbors than it is in a subdivision. I need to get a bad dog to walk with me, then I would feel safe :) .

    Get your exercise going and keep it up. It’s good for your health.

    Run, Walk and have Fun!!

    Cille