Contact Us
One of the reasons I got into training and coaching was a passion for helping people achieve their goals. I give safe, practical, everyday knowledge that increases their energy and makes my clients feel better about themselves and ensures they live a healthy lifestyle.
You can imagine over the course of a 15-year career I might have heard every excuse in the book. I mean, it would take an act of Congress to have a client walk in the door and tell me something I haven’t heard before. Each one of the people who come to train with me these days know I am not a babysitter. But rather, I am a motivator who only works with people who are ready to make a positive change in their lives. Still, the occasional excuse comes up and most of the time they have themes. Here are a few of the more common excuses, as well as how you can change your attitude to help you get the most out of your life.
Excuse #1 “I just don’t have the time.”
Everyone has obstacles. Stay-at-home moms have kids and typical family responsibilities, while career-oriented people have deadlines, commutes, and other 9-5 obstacles. It is all about priorities. If you don’t take care of your health, everything else around you will fall apart. So it is in everyone’s best interest for you to continue to take care of yourself. Many times taking just 3 hours out of a whole week will give you the energy and stamina to handle much more than those lost 3 hours.
If you take control of your day and recognize what is important to you, you can prioritize. If exercise is not a priority, it gets missed and passed over through out the day. Weight loss or a healthier lifestyle often lands in the top 3 on anyone’s list. However, it is probably not one of the top 3 things you get done in a day. If it is a high priority for you, make a list of the pros and cons of exercising and you will quickly feel the need to make time for at least a short workout a couple of days a week.
Excuse #2 “I am just too tired to workout.”
This is a double-edged sword. You feel too tired to workout. But you are tired because you don’t work out. The issue most clients have is simply getting started. Once I can get a person on a treadmill or a bike for the warm up, their body kicks in and wants to keep going. As humans, we want to move. It is in our nature from prehistoric times to continually seek out food and go through activities during the day. Sitting in front of the TV or a computer for long periods of time is not a natural instinct for our bodies. The more we move, the more energy we have. This makes it easier to make exercise a priority. It is a nice cycle to get into. And you will find yourself getting more done through out your day.
Excuse #3 “I am not getting the results, so why bother?”
Why put in any time at all if you don’t see the results in the mirror or on the scale? This excuse is typical because patience and exercise do not go hand in hand. Many times when an overweight individual walks through my door, they want to see immediate results. I try to take the time to explain that if you are 15-20 lbs over weight, you did not gain that weight over the weekend. It took months or even years to gain that weight. Your body will not let go of it easily, so we will need to take it off over the same amount of time. Everyone wants to look better in a week, but taking weight off too fast is not only unhealthy. It often doesn’t stay off.
Excuse #4 “I hate exercise and I never feel like working out”
There are some people who will never actually like working out no matter how long they do it, what workout they do, or how fit they become. The key idea here is to work out because it is one of the obligations in your life. The benefits outweigh the downside of not doing it. Changing a client’s state of mind is important and they don’t have to always enjoy their workouts. Seeing the benefits of it could be enough to motivate them. If a client is particularly out of shape and particularly averse to exercising, I suggest just increasing their movement during the day to get them started.
Excuse #5 “I don’t like to sweat”
Some people think that if they’re not sweating, their workout is not worthy. And they don’t like to sweat. With these clients I like to first find out why they think this way. Sometimes it comes from not having enough time to work out and shower. Sometimes women think that sweating ruins their hair style. Whatever the case, I show these people that there are workouts they can do that are effective and don’t make you sweat. Walking is one of these workouts. Usually when I give them options, they eventually get to the point where they will include harder workouts which include a little sweat.