Stop Making Excuses and Start Losing Weight
Are you tired of making excuses on why you can’t get started losing weight?
Do you keep coming up with a list of excuses for why you cannot find time to exercise, get to bed earlier, or start dieting?
It’s easy to feel overwhelmed with research on the best weight loss plans for you that at the end of it, you don’t even know where to start so you keep procrastinating with excuses. For a brief moment, it feels good to put off getting started. But when we are consistently postponing changes that we know are good for us and putting off improving our health we might end up feeling less fulfilled and more anxious.
Here I’m going to cover why we keep making excuses and how to overcome them so we can become the best version of ourselves.
Why do we make excuses?
We fear the unknown
One of the six fundamental human needs is a need for certainty and predictability. It drives us to seek pleasure and minimize pain, keeping us in our comfort zones. As a result, we are paralyzed by the fear of making wrong choices like starting the wrong diet or signing up for a gym membership that we’ll regret.
We end up debating with ourselves repeatedly on what is the best decision and end up putting off making a decision that we are not 100% certain of. Unfortunately, we end up in the same place and have no results. We would rather stay in our comfort zone of not making a decision than take a chance to risk the unknown.
We fear failure
Fear of failure stops a lot of us from even getting started. We fear making mistakes or making bad choices because we’re not confident or feel doubt.
What if we go all in and we don’t reach our goals? It’s this possibility that can stop us from taking that first step forward.
Sometimes we experience so much fear that it can feel like it’s impossible to overcome but it can be done. Any effort to achieve success has a risk of failure and a risk of reward.
We lack purpose
Any excuse can be overcome when we have a big enough why. We will find a way around any obstacles when we have a big enough dream.
Sometimes we come up with excuses because there isn’t an important enough reason to get started. We lack the inspiration to pull us towards getting started on our goal.
This can be solved by getting clear on our purpose and our priorities. Purpose gives us life meaning and inspires us to take action.
Priorities help us make decision-making easier when there are conflicting values.
When both purpose and priorities are clear it’s harder to make excuses.
How to Stop Making Excuses
Method #1 - Embrace Responsibility and Ownership
What’s empowering about this method is that you are in charge of your health and you have the power to make better choices. After all, we only have one place to live and that’s in our body. Every health-conscious choice we make or don’t make impacts how we feel in it and no one knows how we feel except for us.
Instead of blaming others and making them your excuses, take responsibility and ownership for your choices and failures. You get to take control of your future because past history doesn’t dictate future circumstances unless you let it.
Method #2 - Have a Clear Vision of How it Feels To Reach Your Goals
What is your ideal self and how does it feel?
Two feelings drive us to take action, pain and pleasure. Our goals and actions in life are designed to minimize pain and maximize pleasure.
We think we’re choosing goals because they’ll be good for us or it’s a worthy goal that everyone has but in reality we choose goals based on how we think they’ll make us feel when we reach them.
Imagining how we’ll feel when we reach our goals increases our chances of reaching them. Instead of having to push ourselves towards our goal and use willpower to sidestep any excuses, a goal full of positive feelings will pull us towards it.
Having a clear vision of your ideal body and health will help you to make better decisions and better habits, minimizing excuses.
Method #3 - Identify Any Limiting Beliefs
Limiting beliefs are beliefs that hold you back from making the changes you want. They can keep you from reaching your goals because they can drive your behavior to create non-serving habits and thinking patterns.
What’s scary about these limiting beliefs is you believe them and hold them to be true. Some examples include,
· What if I fail again?
· I lack willpower
· I’m always a stress eater
· No matter what I do I cannot lose weight
These limiting beliefs become the stories you tell yourself about why you cannot do certain things or why you are a certain way and why you cannot change. They can be passed down from your family and friends, your culture, and societal influences or formed from your own experiences.
If you’re self-sabotaging or feel you don’t deserve your goals, chances are you are holding on to some limiting beliefs that are simply not true.
Method #4 - Stop Overthinking and Take Action
Imperfect action is better than no action.
If a task feels overwhelming break it down into smaller and smaller actionable pieces that it almost feels impossible not to follow through. Any small step in the right direction helps you overcome any excuses to get started.
Even if it’s a small step, taking action strengthens your ability to take more action. You build the muscle of an action taker and gradually it becomes easier.
Small actions are important because you start building confidence in yourself. You start building faith in yourself and trust in your abilities that you can achieve what you want.
Method #5 - Learn Your Mistakes
Life happens for you, not to you, and mistakes will keep repeating itself until you learn from them. You’re bound to make mistakes when you take action. Making mistakes is a great opportunity to learn about yourself and what went wrong so that you can do better next time.
When you apply what you’ve learned in your next decisions, you automatically grow, head in the right direction, and get closer to reaching your goals.
We all make excuses and understanding why is a key part of dissolving them. Learning how to stop making excuses is a muscle that can be trained and made easier with consistent practice. With a little patience and a clear vision, you’ll be well on your way to becoming a healthier version of yourself.
Candace is the owner of Rhodes To Strength. She provides weight loss and mindset coaching services to women around the world so that they keep the pounds off for good. She believes in working with clients to create sustainable habits that work for their lifestyle.
You can find her rollerskating, hiking, and bird watching in her spare time.