"EXCUSES"

This week let’s talk about excuses. We make them about all kinds of things. During my “midlife crisis” a couple years ago, I came up with lots of reasons for what I was doing. Even the term “midlife crisis” tries to put a different face on it, but none of that made it right.

And those five pounds I put on recently? Since Tough Mudder is over, I’ve cut back my running, so I’m not burning quite as many calories each day. But I’m still eating the same. A valid excuse, I think, but it doesn’t solve the problem.

Heck, even writing this article has been hard this time. We just finished Biggest Loser “16” last week, which always provided plenty to talk about. But coming up with something new has been a little difficult. And then there’s the holiday to deal with. See? More excuses.

It’s easy to come up with excuses, especially when we’re talking about things as personal as fidelity and relationships, or diet and exercise. As long as we can come up with a reason for doing what we’re doing, it seems to make it alright—at least in our minds, for awhile.

But sometimes, the truth will filter through, even though we try to block it. When that happens, we find ourselves conflicted. At that point, we’ll often try to make more… you guessed it… excuses.

If we’re successful in excusing ourselves, the “problem” is solved and we can go on doing what we’re doing. But if we find ourselves in a big enough crisis, the excuses start to run a little thin, even to us. If things get bad enough, well, sooner or later we’ll have to face it.

It’s always better to deal with things sooner, rather than later. You might have some consequences, but if you wait too long, the problems get bigger, and so do the consequences. The more out of control you are, the harder it is to get back on track.

Fortunately, the human body and spirit are pretty amazing. We’re designed to come back from almost anything—just look at some of our Wounded Warriors. They deal with things that make most of our problems miniscule.

But if you’ve been letting things get out of control, maybe this is the time to take a look at things. I can’t tell you how many times I’ve talked to someone who let one thing happen, then another, and before they knew it, they were significantly overweight.

They maybe had an injury, or got busy at work, and stopped working out. Somehow, things got off track with their diet, too. It’s easy to do. Some people keep doing it over and over.

Obesity is becoming normal, instead of the exception. Kids quit moving right around the time they can start watching TV and playing video games, and things often go downhill from there.

We need to either cut back our portions or find a way to get more exercise in every day. Some of us need to do both. Most of all, we need to quit making excuses.

As for me, since I finally got this article done, I’m going to go home and kiss my wife, tell her I love her, and have some supper while watching my portions. Then I’m going to get on the exercise bike and ride it at least 45 minutes. Normally I’d go an hour, but I worked legs today and my legs are kind of sore… whoops, there I go again with the excuses. I’d better go an hour.

As always, if you have any questions, please feel free to contact me through Facebook at https://www.facebook.com/tomdolanfitness !