Break the habit of making excuses

Straight off the bat I know for a fact that so many people will avoid reading this blog because it’ll hold a mirror up to your own actions, making excuses not to do something we don’t want to do is the easiest way to not do it, but do you have a genuine excuse? Or do you just believe your own lies?

One of my favorite quotes is “99% of failures come from people who have the habit of making excuses” and at some point, in your life, I know whoever you are, you’ve used one, created one, or genuinely believed your excuse was so genuine, it was enough not to do the thing you once wanted to do more then anything. I want to start this blog by saying, if you think this blog is aimed at you, then it probably is, and you’ll read this and think your special, or your different, or its harder for you because of whatever bullshit you’ve convinced yourself of, so this doesn’t apply to you, I even expect backlash like I’ve had in the past, but just remember, I’m the one sat writing this saying I believe you can achieve whatever it is you set out to do regardless of the barrier that is in your way, you’re the one telling yourself that barrier makes it impossible, I believe you can succeed regardless, and it’ll make the story of your success even more magnificent.

The two most common excuses I see are always time and money, “I don’t have time to eat well”, “I can’t afford to eat healthy”, “I’ve had a lot on this week”, “my job is too demanding”, “I’ve been working away”, “life is hard at the minute”. Sound familiar? Add your own in the comments if you think of anymore, I could use up 1000 words just regurgitating these excuses that I’ve heard time and time again. We touched on the money thing on our Facebook page recently and totally dispelled that myth, we learned processed food isn’t cheaper, it’s just more convenient, and what your doing is prioritising all the wrong things, can you genuinely not afford to buy healthy food for the week? Because I know you aren’t starving, why else would you be here with us trying to lose weight like most of you are? You’re just not willing to give up nights out, takeaways, fags, beer, wine, choose your poison, you want that more then the healthy food, and you’ve wasted money on things detrimental to your health and are sat here saying its cheaper to feed your family with processed foods. What is actually happening in this situation, is you can afford healthy foods, you just like the cheap snacks that you don’t need, or you want convenience food because it tastes nice. One of the first things I wanted to say when I thought about writing this blog, and it ties into the time excuse as well, is that you might be rushed for time, and you know full well you can cook on plan food very quickly just as easily, the problem is, shit convenience food that takes 10 minutes to do looks a lot more appetizing then on plan food that takes 10 minutes to do, your giving into cravings and your blaming it on money and time. Prioritize your health, if you haven’t left yourself long enough to prep food, your just unorganized, not one of you is that busy you can’t spend 20 minutes making something nice. If you genuinely believe your different, go on your phone and tell me what your screen time says, I guarantee none of you are sat at 0! Its very common to see upwards of 2 or 3 hours, all time just wasted, and all because it was just easier to do then getting off your arse and prepping something healthy. How anyone can say eating out or a takeaway was quicker again is lying, you’ll spend 5 minutes looking at the menu and you’ll spend half an hour waiting for it to arrive or picking it up, all time you could have spent making something, “well what if there’s nothing in the house”, well then your unorganized, you didn’t put your health first, you sat scrolling Instagram and Facebook when you could have been doing something more productive. Walk to the shops when you get time, kill 2 birds with one stone and get your steps in whilst you’re at it. Big shops will bring food to your house, I’ve seen that a lot of you do get your shopping delivered, plan better, and if all your left with is something you just don’t quite fancy that day, then I’m sorry to say, you were unorganized again. I’m not sat here saying eat the foods you don’t want; I’m saying be honest and say I don’t fancy what I have available so I’m going to eat shit food instead. Start being honest with yourself and it’ll soon change your behavior. I could go on forever about these 2, but there’s more ground to cover, so let’s move on…

The worst excuse in the whole world is that your just too sociable. You disappear on a weekend, you just can’t say no to your friends, you succumb to peer pressure, you’ve already said you’ll go out, it’s the only time I get with them, fill in the blank, with whatever bullshit you want to tell yourself as to why you must go out drinking with your friends. I have to say, having friends is very important, I’m not for one second saying don’t see your friends, but ask yourself why do you need to have a drink when you do see them? Is it the only way you’ll enjoy their company? Are you worried it’s the only way they’ll enjoy your company? If you can’t enjoy being around your friends sober, then I’m sorry, you have shit friends! And if your friends peer pressure you into drinking because they want to drink, then you have unsupportive shit friends. Your husband wants to get pissed every weekend and wants his drinking buddy with him? Sorry again…. Shit husband. Real friends and partners are there to support you in whatever it is your trying to do, when I stopped drinking I stopped getting asked to do things by some of mine, made me realize they just wanted someone to support them in their own bad habit, you choosing a healthier path holds a mirror up to them, everyone has thought about stopping or cutting down at some point, and its hard to watch someone succeed were you have failed. If you think your circumstances are special and you must drink, it’s because you just want to drink, be honest about it, stop giving shit excuses.

This next one I’m going to approach slightly differently because I’ve been in all of these situations myself, its why I’m willing to talk about them the way I am, it sounds harsh but I’ve watched myself fail and once I was out the other side I knew I could have done better and was lying to myself, but this excuse is about anyone going through a hard time in your life. It’s no secret that I’ve been down and depressed, I wrote a blog about it after all, and what pulled me out of that situation was pulling myself up, dropping the victim mentality that came along with it, and fucking doing something positive to help my situation. Family members being ill is proper shit, break ups are proper shit, depression is proper shit, you know what else is shit? Having all these worries and negative feelings and making that 10 times worse by feeding your body processed foods and sugar. It makes you tired, it makes you irritable, and it makes you start spiraling into a worse hole that will go on as long as you let it. Somethings are totally out of your control, if you’re in a situation that feels like you’re not in control, like things are falling apart around you, look for the things that you can still grasp on to, like your own health, you’ll thank yourself for it. There’s a reason on aeroplanes they tell you to put your own oxygen mask on before helping others, how can you be of any help to anyone if you can’t help yourself. In a 2004 study researchers found “Depressed adults who took part in a fitness program displayed significantly greater improvements in depression, anxiety, and self-concept than those in a control group after 12 weeks of training”. You want to feel better? Eat right and keep moving. It might be an excuse to feel shit, it doesn’t mean you can’t do anything about it.

KIDS. We have online classes, you can do them in your living room when your kids are there, they might even join in and get a workout at the same time, shit excuse.

AGE or INACTIVITY. You still need to eat, eat good foods, people who are in comas lose weight, you can sit on your arse all day and lose as well, you won’t do it saying I’m just too old whilst you have a mouth full of Werther’s originals, shit excuse.

INJURYS. Please see above as this is linked to inactivity, you can still get a fork to your mouth or else why else wouldn’t you be getting results, just put healthy food on the fork. Yes we all know I did a bit of bodybuilding once and haven’t shut up about it since, but if you ever get chance to watch one, pay close attention to the disabled class, some of those people are in wheelchairs, some have cerebral palsy, you really want to go in your group and say you didn’t get results this week because you broke a finger nail. You were looking for a reason to be greedy and lazy and latched on to the first excuse that popped up. Be honest with yourself.

PREGNANCY. I’m obviously not talking about the third trimester and just about trying to lose weight; I’m talking about being healthy! And of course, your body is going to change shape, you need to eat more, anything to do with the scales goes out the window here. Your baby will thank you for the healthy foods, they don’t want a shit pizza, they want nutrients, if you get pregnant, even more reason to stay with us at Gingers! We’ll up your calories accordingly as well, and you can still get some steps practising pushing a pram around. Will make life a lot easier when you want to shift the ‘baby weight’, and there is going to be baby weight, but for some people there is also, ‘gave into cravings a little more than you should have weight’. Believe it or not I’ve never had a baby, so at the risk of being lambasted by new mothers everywhere, I made sure to have this part approved by our very own Jasmine who has just had her second child, no mansplaining here people, move on.

I could go on forever, but the bottom line is, you just didn’t want to do something, so you convinced yourself your special situation made it just too difficult to do it. Every single situation you find yourself in is never unique, people have been there, and people have succeeded in achieving what it is they wanted to achieve regardless of that fact, so you can too! They aren’t superhuman, they had a stronger mindset, one that you can have as well, if you’d only believe yourself when you say you can do it. Next time something happens, and you find yourself making excuses, instead of saying “I can’t do it because of this”, tell yourself, “What if I still achieve everything I want to in spite of this!” Makes the story of your success all the more sweeter, I believe in you, you should too.

Big Love,

Az