My Journey With Weight Loss – Excuses

Today has been a tough day. I had a Zoom meeting at 1am which meant getting up at 12:30am. The meeting was supposed to end by 8am but it stretched to 9am. Normally by this time during the day I have done over 2 hours of walking and am starting on my 1st set of strength exercises. Today I didn’t hit the treadmill for my interval training until 9:30am then by time I had showered, had lunch and done a few important errands it gave me just enough time to write this before joining my 1pm meeting. I realized that my interval training is about all I could get in today but I had been afraid that might happen which is why I have done a lot of extra walking over the past several days. I figure I am actually going to end this week with more steps than I normally do.

My family had suggested to me that I just skip working out today and boy would it have been easy to do that. I am all hyped up on caffeine (which I normally avoid), I am tired due to lack of sleep and quite frankly a nap sounded like a good idea. But no, I am on a roll with my interval training and while today there was enough going on that I would have had a good excuse to take a day off, I just wouldn’t let myself. I do admit while the 40 minutes of interval training went well, the 35 minutes of walking afterwards seemed to take me a couple hours. The important thing though is I still did it and mentally it felt pretty great to push through today.

I often find myself thinking of excuses as to why I can’t workout. Sometimes it is simply because I am having a bad day. Other times it is because I have a really challenging schedule (I know, I’m supposed to be retired but I do a lot of stuff each day). Maybe it is because I just really want to sit on the couch and read a good book. I have worked really hard not to fall into this trap. I know that if I do then it becomes easier the next day to do it again. Don’t get me wrong, I’ve been clear about taking time off but it is always planned and with a determined restart date but I don’t make hasty decisions not to workout. I do everything I can to keep going.

I’ve learned it is important to recognize your excuses for what they are, a way to avoid doing something that is really hard. Being committed to this journey sometimes can seem like it shouldn’t be for the faint of heart because you need to be diligent. I don’t know why but I learned this quickly once I had made the decision to get moving. So, when that little voice pops into my head telling me all sorts of good reasons why I can’t do this today I immediately change the channel and tell myself why I can do this. It’s important that you keep yourself in the right frame of mind in order to mute that annoying little voice but if you stay positive and keep reminding yourself of the end goal you will get there.

Now, onto my next meeting and then maybe a nap.