It’s been awhile since I have written an article about excuses. We all have them. We all use them. Let’s face it, it is the top reason most of us skip a workout… we have an excuse.
Yes, some excuses are better than others. At the end of the day it is still just an excuse. Our willpower must be stronger than our excuses.
I can’t afford a gym membership and I don’t have the space in my home or the money to buy my own equipment.
I know all of that stuff can be expensive. You don’t need it.
Do you have shoes? Throw them on and go for a walk. A response I typically hear to this is: but I don’t know how to run. I didn’t say run. Go for a walk: one foot in front of the other. Keep it simple with a comfortable pace to begin and progress to faster walks as you get stronger. If you get to a point where you are comfortable running, go for it. If you don’t, that’s great too.
Is it too cold outside? I can relate to this as I am a fair-weather-only-kinda-girl too. Don’t let the cold weather stop you. Use the stairs instead. Plan a workout using only the stairs in your house. After going up and down those stairs thirty to forty-five times in a row I am sure your heart rate will be elevated and I bet that won’t take you much more than ten minutes.
Between walking, walking faster or running, and stairs you can very easily increase your heart rate for some cardio training
I know, I know you are still a bit skeptical: how effective can a workout be without all the fancy bells and whistles? Trust me, you can! I dare you to give me twenty minutes of your time and I will show you just how effective a workout can be in a small corner of your living room using only your bodyweight as resistance.
As an example of this, I introduced a push-up challenge for this year. There is still a group of us working on these push-ups. We are very close to 100 push-ups a day and we are still going strong. It’s not too late to join us. Start out small (if you double up you can catch up by mid-year). We will be doing 365 push-ups on December 31!
Now that you don’t have lack of funds as an excuse, what’s next? Is time your issue?
I am a working mom of two small, but very busy, boys. I don’t have time to waste either. I make time to invest in myself and I choose fitness. Even though I choose to invest in myself, it doesn’t always work. Life gets busy and somedays I just don’t have an hour of time to myself.
That doesn’t mean I don’t try to get some work in. Sometimes it’s jumping jacks and push-ups in the kitchen while waiting for water to boil, or squats with laundry baskets and sprints up the stairs. Some days I get the boys involved and we do mini workouts together or games of tag or dance-a-thons when I know no one is watching.
If you don’t have an hour for a few days a week to dedicate to fitness, that doesn’t mean you shouldn’t even bother. Start with twenty minutes to half an hour one day a week. Make that one day a habit and look to build in a second day, and then a third. Try tacking on an extra five minutes or just make the best of the short time you have. Whether it be twenty minutes or an hour, one day a week or five it is much better for you, for your body and for your health than no time at all.
Now that I have addressed a couple of your excuses, are you still waiting for that sign to get started? This is it! This is the sign you have been waiting for. Now go!
