What’s holding you back?

August 23, 2010

We as humans are so funny about making excuses. We are so damn good at it without even trying! We talk ourselves out of things that should be good for us in order to hurt ourselves. Can you identify with any of these?

  • I’ll start dating when I lose some weight
  • I’ll start my diet tomorrow, after this huge cookout
  • I’ll start going to the gym when my kids are back in school

These were my defaults:

  • I’ll start exercising once I lose 50 pounds
  • I’ll join a gym when I get smaller
  • I’m not going on another vacation till I lose lots of weight
  • Work is stressful right now, I don’t have time to exercise

Is it easy to just get started? Heck no. There are a million ways to talk our ways out of doing something outside of our normal routine – outside of our comfort zone. What is the damage that we’re doing to ourselves by all of this postponement? For me, I know I’ve inflicted years of damage: of living a life without limits, of feeling ashamed, of growing ever more larger…

If I could count all of the “yesterday’s” of the “I’ll start tomorrow’s” then I’d have years back. If I could tell myself, after 1 small bad choice, that the rest wasn’t important, I’d have many pounds back.

So please, be uncomfortable. Push yourself outside the box. Don’t wait until tomorrow, or even your next meal. Make a choice. You have the power.

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Tagged as: motivation

  • Kim (Imperfectly Perfect)

    I can so relate to this! I may have lost out on a good 20 years of my life, but I can tell ya that I won’t be missing out on 20 more…not even one more. I don’t want to look back at any more years of my life and say “I wish I had ____”

  • Tobakett

    I can totally relate to the first one….I swore up and down i wasn’t going to even try dating at my size anymore because it always turned into guys who just were curious or heard that big girls give better…well…im sure you’ve heard it…

    Lucky for me, I have a very pushy friend who made sure I didn’t run when the perfect opportuinity knocked….and in October it will mark the best 3 years of my life :)

    For the last one…we started a ‘biggest loser’ thing at work, since a lot of the folks in the call center want to lose some pounds and money makes a great motivator…..but of course they delayed the start by a week because the State Fair was in town and everyone decided they needed to have one last binge on fried food on a stick and cream puffs, lol.

    I bought EA Active for my Wii and I keep making excuses as to why I havent started the 30 day challenge yet…..I think in the morning I just need to kick my own butt and do it :)

  • http://the-soul-quake.blogspot.com/ maegan

    thanks for blog-slapping me in the face…

    …i’ve been doing the excuse thing a whole lot lately and have completely gotten out of my groove.

    got to get it back again.

  • http://colormeuntypical.blogspot.com Untypically Jia

    Honestly, I don’t know what’s holding me back. If I had just committed to losing half a pound a week when I really knew I needed to start losing weight, I would have been at a healthy goal weight like three or four years ago.

    Between fighting against my body, poor self image, fear of injuries and honestly the fear of “what if I’m not able to do it?” it just feels like so much sometimes.

  • http://abetterlesserme.blogspot.com/ D…

    Too true, it’s so easy to put everything off, good things as well as the things we know will be a challenge. I know physically it is the compulsive and emotional eating that is holding me back, I’m just yet to work out why I am hanging onto these behaviours when my logical self has been yearning to be a healthy, average size since I was about 10 and knows how damaging this has been for me in so many ways! Thanks for the reminder :-)

  • http://adauntingtaleofscalewarfare.com/ Scale Warfare

    I so relate to this! I didnt get in a swimsuit for probably 15 years because I wasnt going to do it until I lost weight. Last year I got in a swimsuit and just got over myself, I realized that even the skinny mini’s are more worried about their own cellulite than they are about mine.

    There are a lot of things that I’ve let myself miss in life because of my weight. Slowly but surely as I lose weight (and gain and lose and live this tough journey) I’ve become more and more confident in who I am.

    Love this post :)

  • http://twitter.com/cookswithtofu Suzanne

    Great post! I can absolutely relate. I wasn’t going to start running until I lost some weight. How I was going to drop those pounds without working..well I hadn’t figured that part out yet. Amazing how we can easily talk ourselves out of something.

  • http://twopoundsawk.com Meg

    Great advice! I can’t wait to start losing again after the baby comes…and I hope to not have any excuses to hold me back. :)

  • http://thejourneytofit.wordpress.com/ Danielle

    I constantly said I didn’t have time… but how many hours a night do I spend in front of the TV?
    I constantly said the gym’s too expensive… but I found one that’s $10/week. (So doable!)
    I constantly said no new clothes until I’m the size I want to be… which failed every time I found a cute thing on sale.

    I’m done with excuses. Thanks for this post. :)

  • Graygeekette

    ME TOO! I have put off for years and now at 58, the weight is so much harder to lose and so many more physical restrictions. But I am started and doing it. For you young ones, don’t waste time. DINDIN (do it now, do it now).

  • http://www.fillupyourmug.blogspot.com Sarah7500

    I know I’m late to the party, but I’m the kid excuse person. In my own defense, my son has autism. Leaving him at the gym daycare was not going to happen. I gained 90 lbs in the ten years since he was diagnosed. I don’t find that to be a coincidence. It has only occurred to me recently that I was grieving, and depressed.
    But now he’s 12, and I joined the Y, and I go when they’re in school. I work out on my lunch break. The pounds are slowly falling off. I fear getting injured because I’m also the survivor of two major car accidents. But I’m working on it, slowly but surely. And it feels good.

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