The fitness excuse file

www.wiman.us	Fitness Section Topic Index A-Z Index	Excuse File
	Fitness Section Topic Index A-Z Index	Excuse File

Send in your favorite excuse! george@wiman.us

I don’t have energy. Energy isn’t something you just “have,” it’s something you make. Exercise tunes up your body’s energy-making system. Start gradually, push just a little. Focus on sustainable change.

I don’t have time. Are there TV shows you enjoy so much you are willing to sacrifice your future health for them? How important is that video game, really? Would it matter if you dropped out of that online chat group to go get healthy? You have 24 hours in a day, just like anyone else.

The gym membership is too expensive. How much are you paying for cable? (Kill two birds with one stone - free up some money and get away from the TV) Could you drive a cheaper car? This is your body we’re talking about.

I don’t like exercise. I can hardly blame you, given that PE teachers taught us all to hate exercise for the last several decades. Find out about practical, sustainable exercise.

Exercise is boring. Now we’re getting somewhere! I agree exercise by itself isn’t particularly interesting. You can combine it with other activities like music, books (on the exercycle), TV, outdoor activities, etc., but it still may not be exactly fascinating. This is a case of delayed gratification: all the activities you enjoy are improved by good health and mobility. See the “inconvenient” scenario below for some notion of just how boring life could be without exercise:

Exercise is too inconvenient. How inconvenient would it be to slide into disability, getting weaker every year? Eventually, you could live in a nursing home waiting on some underpaid dietary aide to bring you some rubbery jello.

I don’t want to give up all the things I like to eat. Remember, your attraction to those foods is partially biological and partly social. The important thing is how much total enjoyment you get out of living, and your health makes the biggest difference there. Nothing tastes as good as physical fitness feels.

I don’t like other people at the gym looking at my fat body. You’ll meet lots of other fat people at the gym. Everyone is there for the same reason - to get fit and stay fit. Some do this more effectively than others, and some will have different fitness goals. Very rare is the individual who would look askance at your fat body, and why would you care what such a person thinks? You are there for yourself, not them.

I have better things to do than exercise. Sure you do, like monitor your blood sugar, wait for your angiogram, or talk to your doctor about bypass options.

I accept my body the way it is. If you aren’t disabled by ill health yet, you accept your body as being able to move around and do things. See the next excuse:

You’re just trying to make me fit your concept of beauty. “Body-acceptance” theory makes a lot of hay about the fact that different cultures depict beauty differently. But the common, cross-cultural theme is health. In societies where starvation is common, fat is “beautiful,” and where obesity is a health problem, thin is “beautiful.” Instead of worrying about what some society says is beautiful, you should be thinking about what common sense tells you is healthy - strength and aerobic fitness.

Doctors keep changing their list of what’s healthy and what isn’t. Sure they do, so you have to do some of your own research and apply common sense. Your doctor isn’t responsible for your health; YOU ARE.