“Your mind will quit a thousand times before your body will. Feel the fear and do it anyway.” ~ Unknown

There are no worthwhile excuses for not exercising. None. Your body needs regular movement so if you keep talking yourself out it, stop doing that. Yes, I’m a health enthusiast, but that doesn’t mean I always love exercise. I have, however learned how to manage the top three excuses we use to push it aside.

Lack of time is an inaccuracy because we’ll always find time for things we want to do. Lack of energy and motivation are more likely to hold you back… and those won’t change unless you do the thing. So, start small, and definitely watch the short video below, (or read the transcript that follows) to learn how I push past these three common exercise excuses. #YeahYouCan

Hey, Michelle Cederberg here. I literally just finished doing a run that I did not want to do. As is often the case on runs that I don’t want to do, I spent a good portion of the run either talking myself into pushing further because I didn’t want to or convincing myself that I had done enough so I could stop. We are good at making excuses when it comes to exercise. So I thought that I would share three of our biggest excuses for not exercising and how to get past them. Most of the time when we say that we don’t exercise it’s because we don’t amount of time, we don’t have enough energy, we don’t have enough motivation. Tell me if I’m wrong.

When we say we don’t have enough time, I think that we are telling ourselves a lie because we will always find time for the things that we want to do.

What’s probably more accurate when you say you don’t have time is that you don’t have energy or motivation and you are choosing to do other things with your time because of it. So if you don’t have time, the simple answer is make the time, and do less. If you don’t have enough time to exercise, walk out your door and do a couple of laps around the block. Do a little bit of movement. Just get moving. Here’s what I believe about exercise. It’s not the doing that’s tough, it’s getting to it. So once you get moving, you’re more likely to continue walking for longer than 5 or 10 minutes.

If you sincerely don’t have the time and you really want to get some exercise, then up the intensity. A short, high-intensity workout can have a big impact on your health. Walk or run some stairs, add some sprints to a short walk, get your heart rate up as much as you can. Time is not an excuse, so let’s talk about the other two.

If you don’t have motivation, look to the finish. For me, today’s motivation was that it feels so good when you stop exercising. That’s one. Another motivation is I now get to check off one of my workouts for this week. Another is I get to celebrate having done something I didn’t want to do. Motivate yourself with the outcome rather than the process because it’s not necessarily going to be an enjoyable thing. We don’t all love exercising. I don’t love breathing heavy and working hard, but I love how it feels when I’m done. Plus, when I exercise outside, I do enjoy the weather and the view. Today the sun is shining, the lovely Bow River is flowing beside me, and they’re both worthwhile distractions. If you have no motivation, celebrate the successes that will come once you’re done.

And the no energy excuse… we’ll, I got news for you. That one’s not going to change unless you push into this exercise thing.

We are rarely going to have the energy. I have been teaching fitness for over 30 years and I rarely look fully forward to the workout. I rarely have the energy to get there. But when I get there I get energized. When I teach my spin class I get energized. When I go for a run, I get energized. If you don’t have the energy, then what you do is you start small. Today I’m working up my distances for my running. I’ve been running for only a few months now. I started with 3K, moved up to 4K. Today was a 7K, and because I’ve been on the road a lot, I had to just let my body tell me what it wanted. A slow run, nice and easy, until my body warmed up and it wanted to go faster…and today it didn’t really want to go faster so I listened.

Energy will come when you move. Energy will come when you finish moving. Energy will stay with you if you give exercise a priority in your life. I’m going to tell you this right now, you’re not always going to feel like exercising. And if you’re watching this and you’re somebody who always loves exercising, please share in the comments below how you make that happen. And if you don’t love exercising, share your ways of getting over these barriers to exercise. Our bodies need movement to be better in everything that we do physically, mentally, and emotionally, so let’s stop with the excuses. Quit selling yourself short and get out and get some movement. I now get to have a short, leisurely walk home to cool down and enjoy the sunshine and celebrate the fact that my run is done. I am Michelle Cederberg reminding you that you’ve got one chance to live this life. I say dare to live it big and dare to live it with some energy.

Exercise will help. Make the time, trust that energy will come, and motivation too. No excuses.

Michelle Cederberg, CSP, MKin, BA Psyc
CEP, CPCC, ORSC

Empowering today’s dreamers, leaders and go-getters to create the life and career they want.


www.michellecederberg.com
403-850-5589

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