I wrote a post a couple of weeks ago for my blog about typical reasons people find to not lose weight (eat more healthily/exercise/etc). It spawned a whole ongoing series, so it's something that's been on my mind.

http://www.theofficediet.com/2008/01/24/whats-your -excuse/

I've been thinking about my own excuses since then -- why I put up with being overweight as a teenager. I think my reasons were two-fold, partly that I thought I "was just fat" and partly that I didn't want to buy in to the media-driven culture of aspiring to be a size 0...

So what were or are your excuses? How did you get round them? Or if you're still making them, how will you beat them?

Ali

My current excuse is that it's too cold to go running or cycling.

I was naturally slimmer when I was younger but my excuse not to exercise was always lack of time which was a valid excuse when I was trying to run a business and bring up a child. Also, I had less energy. On reflection I probably could have squeezed in more exercise during the day.

An excuse I sometimes make now is I haven't got the right change for the gym car park (it takes 40p, exact money), which is a lame excuse in the extreme. Also, if it is very cold, I have used that as an excuse too (don't want to come out into the cold with wet hair in case I get a cold). At the moment I am motivated and going to the gym most days so I am not making excuses.

In many ways this lulls you into a false sense of security, you can eat what you want and your body deals with it.

Then suddenly one day (in my case when I hit my thirties) a layer of flab appears and the devastating realisation dawns upon you that you can no longer consume half a trifle for breakfast and get away with it.

I have never been naturally slim, alas!

I love the "40p excuse" :-D Sadly my gym is about a 60 second walk from my workplace so I can't really use that one...

How it goes is, I start hunting around for the right change and by the time I realise I can't find it, I have already mentally decided not to go.

Spot on Imran what you say about not getting away with being able to eat so much when you get older. I think people assume I am naturally this weight and not that I have to be disciplined to ensure I don't bulk out.

I can't always get to gym as hubby works varied shifts, and I need him to look after little one, so only an off peak member which limits me to 3 days a week, as rest of time I'm in work - so currently lucky to get there even once or twice a week, then I need to feel like going. However he then bought me a bike for christmas so I can go out anytime - and I read on here someone mentioning how the streets are free and there 24 hrs, now I'm waiting for warmer weather! not sure what my excuse will be in the summer.
I am trying be eat more healthily - thats something I should have control over!!!
Was also much thinner when younger - but was more active naturally, office job is a waistline killer

Also being married is my excuse!
when single I'd be out dancing all night, walking everywhere as I didn't have a car. - now its big meals in, big meals out, take-aways, bottles of wine, driving everywhere.....having man sized portions of good home cooked food instead of a quick lean cuisine frozen lasagna

I eat as healthily as I can, but all food is cooked for, cooking facilities here are limited, and yummy desserts are more interesting to the palate. Plus calories saved in diet are usually expended on excessive amounts of alcohol.
As for gym, I literally have no time - time has to be spent sleeping and working, and then I need to socialise and talk to people to not go insane. To go to the gym for 30 mins takes an extra 30 mins of getting ready, showering after, changing and drying my long hair - and silly as it sounds, every hour of the day counts. Late at night I have more time but if I'm not going out, it's too dark to walk across the scary place to my gym alone.#

But I'm quite in control of my appetite right now - whereas it was out of control. I resist pudding where I can, and my main meal is usually veg and meat. And I've bought an exercise DVD to do in my room whenever I have a spare 10 minutes. Also when I re-start my gym membership, it comes straight from my pocket - and I have to use it at least twice a week to make the monthly fee worthwhile.

I can't make any excuses, I know i need to loose quite a bit of weight but i eat too much...simple as

i excercise alot for someone of my size, i just ruin in by eating a shedload of food afterwards

Not having enough money is my excuse.

I love fruit and would much prefer to eat fresh fruit and wide varieties of veg but my boyfriend is always complaining about how little money we have. It's just not economical when it's much cheaper to cook spagbol or chips and beans than it is to get the ingredients to make smoothies and nice food

Did anyone see the piece Amanda Ursell wrote about this in Body&Soul? It's at: http://women.timesonline.co.uk/tol/life_and_style/ women/body_and_soul/article3209876.ece

My excuse is that I'm a pig with a sweet tooth. I just love chocolate and cheesecake and all sorts of desserts, and can never turn them down. i eat really healthy meals, and don't skip any, but I snack like crazy at the moment.

I'm not usually overwieght as I do loads of exercise, but if I stop (which happened for a couple of months last year) I just balloon in size (about 10 kilos in three months). Although I did go on the contraceptive pill at the same time. I think the two were linked. Now I just think about food all the time. Maybe this is due to the pill? I can't remember being this bad last year. Decided to come off it next week anyway so will see if it is just an excuse or an actual symptom.

Excuses - it's too cold in the winter, couldn't be bothered in the summer it's too hot to move, no one starts a diet on a Friday wait until Monday, I'll start at the beginning of the next month, no it's christmas, no it's easter.......and that's how my last 30 years have gone.
Still logging on to this site though so perhaps my 'I'll start on Jan 1 08' may work this time!!

The temperature in London is now topping 10 degrees C so it's time to finally get running and get that six pack in order.

I've noticed that the new diet has halted the tum expansion but has only reduced it slightly. I am going for some serious fat burning now - I expect to have a flat stomach within two months!

Thank god for global warming and mild winters

Until recently, my biggest one was the time/effort it took to change from smart dress to gym/swim/walk gear then back again. MOst days I was 'dressed for work' (even though that is just down the hall) by 6:30 - 7:00 am and stayed that way until bed time.

I sort of resented getting hair/makeup messed up etc. Blimey, vain or what???

Now, most days if I have no outside appointments a.m., I do a home based programme (walk/run, cycle or weights) and put on nice gym type gear until lunchtime, doing a araiety of activites to burn cals, tone and strenghten and improve cardio fitness. Daily. At least 1 hour.

Then, shower, change and posh up.

It works.

Other Half's excuse was no time - does work 7.30-5.30 every day. Realised we sat in front of News for half an hour before work, so use that time now to swim instead. Have lost a stone in a month.

Also cycle to town (3 miles) instead of driving now, when its not raining hard.

Little changes, big difference

A stone in a month, Tree Hugger? That is fantastic. I think I have lost zilch with a capital Z! But I am more toned, my clothes are looser and I feel great. That is enough for me right now and I have been consistently keeping up with the diet and exercise (though I keep forgetting to fill in my exercise and food diary on the home page).

Yes@little changes and also staying patient.

I sort of resented getting hair/makeup messed up etc. Blimey, vain or what

Nah, we are women! We are allowed to be vain. But there is one lady that goes to my gym and she takes it to the extreme. Even in the pool she has a full face of immaculate make-up and manages to swim without getting her hair wet. I was tempted to accidentally splash her just to see if she was wearing some ultra water resistent make up! (Just joking, she is actually a lovely lady).

Thank goodness I'm not THAT bad Sue, though I have to say one of the reasons I dislike swimming to some extent is the faff getting ready and then getting dressed/polished again in often less than desirable facilities.

But you have reminded me of another hate of public baths and changing areas/gyms.

Women who get into pools without showering. Get behind them and you often find a mouthful of perfume/hairspray/deoderant in a trail for lengths.

And in changing rooms too.

Perhaps here I could issue a plea to exercisers everywhere. Caution in your use of sprays and powders. I can't be the only asthmatic who has severe problems with many fragrances as well as the propellants in body sprays etc.

Running out to the nbearest fresh air with just a towel (or less) is not a pretty thought.

Do NOT get me started on a rant on changing rooms!!! Okay, too late. Firstly, those sprays make me wheezey too so anyone spraying them around, not only am I forced to smell whatever it is, but I feel my chest tightening up. Then there is the lady who goes into the steam room naked and lies naked on the bench without a towel under her. I am naturally quite modest and I do not want to see lots of naked people walking about (unless Brad Pitt were to venture into the changing room, of course!). I could go on.... But I feel my blood pressure rising so I shall shut up now.

I also agree totally about how time consuming it all is. After I have had a swim I have to allow at least 20 minutes drying and getting changed time. It is part of my routine now so I don't mind it too much but if I am pressed for time I end up skipping the swim and just doing a workout.

Stand up, move your chair back. Run on the spot for 5 minutes. Now.

Do it now!

Roger



NO!!!!

Sorry

But I did 30 mins x trainer, 30 mins weights/tone and 30 mins intense physio PLUS skipped for 5 mins before falling back in door for lunch. And may yet make a 2.5 mile walk this afternoon befopre making dinner.

So there!!

But, I do support the point in general.

Lol@Ron. I am calm now, I think... Oh, I forgot to mention the people that leave empty shampoo bottles and dirty towels in the cubicles. Just how much effort does it take to dispose of your own empty shampoo bottle? Answers on a postcard...

Oh I'm lucky I don't have to go to the pool to get that - I can stay at home with teenagers who leave wet towels (on average 3 per shower and the big ones to boot) on the floor. And if the bottle of shampoo/conditioner* is empty put the damn thing in the bin! I guess, in my case they think I need the exercise.

I'm in total agreement with all of your comments on the pool, the performance before, shaving bits (or in my case larges) that will be exposed, getting wet, getting dry and the worst one for me swimming makes me exceptionally hungry afterwards!! That's my excuse for not visiting the pool.

Emm

* this applies to empty loo rolls (not at the pool at home, I'd avoid the toilets at the pool, I go before I go).

Oh how familliar Goesona....

As for it making you really hungry, I never understood why NO other exercise had the same effect. Used to come out thinkng. "Now, where is that horse?"

Another problem I encountered at local pool was people didn't like to use lockers. Can't understand why (coming from someone who had ALL her outdoor clothes nicked from a pool 3 miles walk from home many years ago. NO - Don't ask!!)

After polite requests, polite notices I just used cubicles and tough luck if someone's clothes got wet. Junior swimming club and teaching groups and toddlers were worst. And there were plenty of cubicles AND lockers.

Is it me?.......

Sorry I have to - how did you get home? I have a picture of this green ball on a green triangle (that's you) running through the streets in a pink polka dot bikini (because you thought pink and green were nice together) shivering in the mid-winter temperatures!! You don't have any video footage do you?

Someone just had to didn't they.

It was late summer. An Open Air olympic sized swimning pool in NW London with communal changing and a few small 'huts' You put your clothes in baskets and took a colour coded numbered key.

I WAS wearing a pink gingham bikini (I could when I was 14/15!) A sudden fierce thunderstorm meant emergency closure and EVERYONE was changing at same time. It wasn't until EVERYONE else had finished and my brother and mates we all searching that NO sign of my white summer sun dress, seersucker jacket and red sandals (I had yearned for them for years - always having had difficult narrow feet!) emerged.

I had all the towels from group but fortunately bro's mate (a georgoeus hunk of a lad called Roger, went off to join the merchant navy and broke my heart) lived just over the road and his sisters leant me some far too big stuff including flip flops to flip and flop my way home in.

I remember it like it was yesterday. Clothes never turned up, but I can now rest assured that NO-ONE else I have ever come across could have worn those shoes.

Small solace really.

Boo Hoo

You would not like my gym then!



Sorry; could'nt resist!

Would that have been Hampstead - mind you that wouldn't be olympic sized.

Simon - tried to click on that image of you with the pert bottie but it won't allow me to see the full size image!! Do you have other pics from a different angle? Ooh the post/thread police will be on to me!!

It was Vale farm - between Wembley and Harrow, next door to the training ground for WASPS before they moved. Always an incentive for early morning saturday swims. Rob Andrew had (possibly still has) great legs and rear. Phoar!!