Excuses, Excuses, Excuses

WHAT IS YOUR EXCUSE?

There has to be some reason why you aren't as healthy as you can be right now. Maybe you are a really busy person and don't feel like you have the time to put toward getting yourself healthy, or perhaps you have always been unhealthy so you don't know any other way of living. Regardless of what your reasoning is for your current lifestyle, it's easier to toss your excuses aside once you acknowledge what has been stopping you from getting healthy. It's a great idea to examine why you are the way you are and what you can do about it to get yourself motivated.

KIDS AND WORK: THE USUAL EXCUSES

Time consuming, yes, but not a valid excuse. Nobody in the world understands sheer exhaustion, sleep deprivation, and constant worry like the parents of babies and young children. If you are blessed to have a child or two or more in your life then you are undoubtedly torn between wanting to be the best parent possible and wanting to take care of yourself. By the time the kids head off to bed the last thing you probably want to do is to head off to the gym or sit down to plan a healthy menu for the coming week. Having acknowledged that being a parent is a satisfying yet demanding occupation, prepare yourself for this statement: Having kids - no matter what age or how many you have - is not a valid excuse for being unhealthy. Whether or not you agree with this statement, it's still true.

If anything, having kids should make you want to be even healthier because you want to be able to keep up with them and lead by example. Do you want your kids to grow up thinking that it's okay to ignore the health needs of your body? Don't you want to have kids who think that health is a priority? As a parent you probably feel as though you need to suffer and sacrifice for your kids, but if you are sacrificing your health then you're only being a martyr while also setting a horrible example for your kids. Remember that someday your kids are going to grow up and leave the home, and you'll be left with a wrecked body that you ignored for too long. Now is the time to get motivated to get healthier, whether you are out-to-here pregnant, or living in a home teeming with children, or if your youngest child has just headed off to college. You can't allow your position as a parent to stifle your quest to be healthy.

Don't let work be the death of you. Even sillier than ignoring your own needs for your kids is ignoring your own needs for a job. You may have a fantastic career that pays you oodles of money and affords you great prestige within the community. If you are using your job as an excuse to not be healthy, however, then this dream job of yours can turn into a nightmare. Here is the truth: jobs can come and go, no matter how secure you feel or how much time and effort you put into your career. If you sacrifice your health for a job then you're really setting yourself up for a bad situation.

No matter what your occupation, you need to try not to let your job take over your life. You're putting too much stock in what you do for a living when your job trumps your need to be healthy. Do you sit for hours at a desk, seldom allowing yourself breaks for a short walk or fresh air? Do you often miss out on sleep because you're working extended hours? Do you find that you often turn to caffeine or cigarettes in order to get the boost you need to get through your day? Don't let your job turn you into a working zombie. You may have a great job that you love, but how are you going to love your job if you wind up sick because you work too hard? You need to get your priorities straight and figure out a way to balance work with your need for physical well-being.

The healthier you are the better parent/worker you can be. It is so much easier to be effective in whatever it is you're doing - working, parenting, or both - if you are healthy. This does not merely pertain to your weight. Yes, you may have an easier time running around after your kids or keeping up with your workload if you aren't carrying around a bunch of extra weight, but your health is about so much more than how much you weigh. How do you feel throughout the day when you are dealing with your kids or with your work? Now think about how much better you would probably feel if you were doing all these things in better health.

If you need some motivation to get healthier then just think about how much more effective you can be as a parent or worker if you are healthier. Running around after kids of any age can be hard work, and if you have a job that is also physically demanding then you will definitely benefit from a healthier lifestyle. Your job doesn't even need to be all that demanding for you to benefit from a healthier lifestyle.  If you're healthier you'll probably have more energy and get sick less often in addition to having a sunnier disposition. 

Most occupations can benefit greatly from all these things.  So the next time you feel guilty about leaving your kids with your spouse so you can go to the gym or missing out on a not-so-important meeting because you needed to spend some time in the fresh air then think about the big picture.  You're more effective in what you do when you can do it with a healthy body.

Integrate your healthy regime into your routines. You may say it's impossible to incorporate a healthy lifestyle into the things you do now, but the truth of the matter is that it's only as hard as you make it. You may think, for example, that there is no way for you to get any exercise in with your small children in the house, but have you actually ever tried? You may be surprised at how entertaining an exercise DVD might be for your kids. You should also try to jump right in and actively play with your kids because you'll get some great exercise doing that.

If you feel as though you can't integrate healthy foods into the menu for what your kids love to eat (macaroni & cheese, hot dogs, et cetera) then you need to remember that you're the parent. If they're hungry enough they'll eat what you put in front of them, even if it is healthy. If your issue isn't kids, but rather the long hours you put in at your job, then you need to find a way to squeeze in the time to get some exercise and eat right. Pre-planning can solve a lot of the issues with your diet because it isn't difficult to pack some meals that are healthy for you to eat at work.

The problem arises when you don't plan ahead and you find yourself standing in front of a vending machine at eight o'clock at night, starving and trying to decide if dinner will be a candy bar or a packet of cookies. Finding time to exercise can be a little trickier when you spend a lot of time at work, but you need to figure out what your priorities are. Really, if you have a job that is so incredibly time consuming that you can't even take a half hour walk at some point during the day then it may be time to look for a different job for the sake of your health.

DO YOU EVEN KNOW YOUR EXCUSE?

Figure out what's stopping you. You may think to yourself, "my kids don't stop me from being healthy, and neither does my job." At this point it's time to figure out what exactly it is that is stopping you from taking the necessary steps to have a healthier life. Are you just lazy? That may seem harsh, but if that's the case then it's a good idea to recognize it and then figure out what you need to do to get over your laziness.

The motivation to get healthy - in theory - should be easy to obtain. You just think about how much better your life will be, how much longer you could potentially live, and how much more effective a parent/ worker/ friend/ whatever you can be if your health is great. If this doesn't motivate you then there is obviously something stopping you; this is the point when you need to figure out if it's sheer laziness or if there is something else going on. Maybe you're scared because you have never lived a healthy life and you don't want to deviate from what you have always known. Perhaps you are reluctant to get healthy because you aren't sure what steps to take and you have heard so much conflicting information that your head is spinning. These problems are all relatively easy to address and solve once you recognize the issue that you're dealing with. Even if it turns out that simple laziness is what is holding you back then at least you understand why you're having problems getting motivated. The good news is that the healthier you are the less lazy you will probably be.

Can you overcome your obstacles? Once you figure out what's keeping you from getting healthy you need to figure out if it's possible to toss the obstacles aside and get healthy. There are plenty of excuses that are common yet not things that should actually stop you from getting healthy - too busy, too lazy, too concerned with other things - and there are excuses which really have some merit but still should be things that you can overcome - in a bad relationship, having money problems, taking care of an elderly parent - if you are willing to make the changes necessary to do so. Perhaps you have a chronic health condition which means that you will probably never actually achieve a state of great health.

If this is the case then you should figure out a way to get healthier in conjunction with dealing with your condition. You may never achieve optimum health, but there is probably room for you to have better health than what you have right now. You just need to decide if you are able to overcome whatever it is that is holding you back. There is one thing that you should know about overcoming any obstacle in order to get healthier: it's worth it. Without a doubt, making the effort to get healthier is something that is certainly worth the effort. You can use this surety as motivation; you know that it will all be worth the effort.

Keep yourself accountable. You may be the kind of person who needs to enlist several close friends and family members to help you stay accountable in your actions, or you may be the kind of person who is able to keep yourself accountable without slipping. Figure out what it is you need to do to stay accountable in your efforts to get healthier and then use those resources. Some people take it as far as going on a reality television show and announcing to the world that they want to be healthier and let the entire viewing audience keep them accountable.

If this is your style then go for it, but if you're like most people you may just want to enlist the help of one or two people that you can trust. Find someone who isn't going to coddle you…if you're out to dinner together and you order a triple bacon cheeseburger with a side of ranch dressing to dip it in then this is when your friend should jump in and stop you before you do something that is going to make your arteries weep in anguish. Your comrades should check on your periodically to make sure that you are exercising, eating right, and taking the time necessary to take care of yourself and improve your health. It's even better when someone joins you in an attempt to improve health, especially if it's a spouse or roommate who can keep you accountable constantly.

If you decide that the best option for you is to keep yourself accountable on your own then just be sure that you're actually doing it. Don't slack off just because nobody else is looking over your shoulder and keeping track of what you should or shouldn't be doing. Remember that disappointing someone else can be uncomfortable, but disappointing yourself is just sad. Try to stay motivated and accountable, and you'll have a much higher likelihood of staying on course.

On the next page we will talk about how you can Stop Making These Excuses.