Justifying our exucses

I know I'm good at it. Very, very, good. That's how I got to be a sedentary 368 pounder.

What do I mean by justifying our excuses? How bout these....

I don't have time to exercise.

I'm too busy to eat breakfast.

I don't like vegetables.

I want good food, I don't want diet food.

My metabolism won't let me lose weight.

I've tried Weight Watchers (or insert other diet here) but I gained weight on it.

They're all BS. Yep, pure and simple. They're excuses.

Let's start at the beginning shall we?

I'm too busy to exercise. No, that means you just don't want to. Oh, I'm right there with you, I don't wanna either! I don't care how busy we are, there is always 10 minutes somewhere not being utilized properly. Get out of bed 10 minutes earlier. Skip that TV show and move. Move during the TV show for goodness sakes. You say you work all day? I'm sure you break for lunch. Eat a light salad and hoof it for the rest of your break. You don't like to get sweaty at work? Go before...go after....just go!

I'm too busy to eat breakfast. Oh puleezzz! Again, I'm there. I hate eating when I get up. I'm just not hungry. We know it's good for us. It fires our metabolism, gets us revved up for the day. Think of your body like a wood stove. When you get up in the morning, it's just embers. You need to load some wood on that baby and get it burning hot! It doesn't have to be a 3 course meal...how bout some toast and peanut butter? What about a yogurt and a piece of cheese? A small bowl of cereal with 1/2 a banana? Cookies? Oops, sorry that one slipped in there! You're busy in the morning? Make 1/2 a sandwich the night before and grab it and go. Apples are portable too. There are ways around 'too busy to eat breakfast'.

I don't like vegetables. Oh God gag me, I hate them! My very good friend Clair says I have a 'reluctance to embrace vegetative matter'! I love that, and him. What do I do? I hide them. Yep, I treat myself like I'm a kid. I puree stuff and hide it. Zucchini can be put in almost anything and you don't know it's there. Spinach cooks down to nothing and doesn't have a strong taste in things. Try these mini meatloaves with pureed veg in them. I make homemade pasta sauce...nothing BUT veg. Oh yes, there are ways my friend!!! V-8 fusion light. If you really can't eat a veg, drink that. Not as good as the real thing, but tasty and better than nothing!

I want good food, I don't want diet food. Learn to make diet food good food. There are so many tasty recipes out there. Scour magazines, websites, cook books, blogs. Mexican can be made diet friendly as it's got so many spices in it. Cajun too. I make a wicked jambalaya. I love curry chicken...spice it up with flavor and not fat. You want a cookie? Have one...not the whole package. Moderation rocks. Don't deprive yourself. You want a banana split? I have them VERY often. I use 1/2 cup of Breyer's Free vanilla ice cream (1 point), 1/2 a banana (1 point), 1.5 cups of strawberries (1 point), 1 tablespoon of Hershey's syrup (1 point), Reddi Whip fat free (0 points), 7 cocoa powdered almonds (1 point). I've got a huge bowl of goodness, 2 fruits and a healthy fat too....5 points and it's freakin awesome. Don't think of foods as off limits...think of a way to make them diet friendly or think smaller portions. Don't think of food as good and bad...think of food as food.

My metabolism won't let me lose weight. Shake it up then! Move more, eat different food. Keep it guessing so it doesn't know what you're going to do next. You may have a slow metabolism, I know I do, but you have one. You may lose slow, but you will lose if you stick with it. Remember, slow and steady wins the race. You might 'only' lose .5 a week and think that's not worth it. It's 26 pounds a year! Don't give up and use metabolism as an excuse. Just stick with it.

I've tried Weight Watchers and it didn't work. I get that so many times and I have to bite my tongue. Of course it works. It's worked for years. They keep making it better and better too. They do research so we don't have to. They find what trends work, and what doesn't, and implement them into their program or toss them out, whichever they deem necessary. If Weight Watchers didn't work for you, you weren't doing it right. That sounds brutal, but it's true. There are so many ways to tweak the program if you're stagnant. The biggest thing I've found when I do address their complaining of WW not working, is they lost too slow so it wasn't working. Hello? We're supposed to lose slow!!! If you're losing anything at all, it's working! You've been eating 22 points for a month and haven't lost a thing? Try eating 20 points, or 24 points. Try eating extra points one day and your target points the next. Keep it guessing! Move more, eat different things...it will work if you let it, if you work with it. Make sure you're positive about your portion sizes. If you're not weighing and measuring, you can't be sure. You might think you know what 3 ounces of chicken looks like, but you might be surprised to weigh it and find you're really eating 6! I have a friend in FL that doesn't lose. She swears she's doing it 100%. In the next breath she'll tell me that she doesn't count her coffee creamer, her fat free cool whip, her microwave popcorn...they still count! Just because you don't count it doesn't mean it doesn't count! Make sure you're working it 100% and it really, really, really, will work.

If we want it bad enough, we will achieve it.

I want it bad enough. Do you?

:-)