4 Lame Excuses to Getting Healthy & How to Beat Them

You’re ready to get healthy, and you really do want to commit to that fitness routine and start your regular meal prep, but every week there seems to be another excuse of why you can’t, or something else that is holding you back from getting started.

The truth is, that everyone starts somewhere, and even once you’ve adopted a healthy lifestyle with regular exercise and lots of healthy food, there will always be challenges and excuses that creep up.

The key is finding ways to overcome the excuses and to push through anyways.

If you feel like you’re in a rut courtesy of these common excuses, here’s how to beat them and get started towards your healthiest self: 

"I don’t have time"

We are never going to be in a place in our life where we have enough time. Whether it is enough time for exercise and health, enough time for cooking or enough time with friends, it will always be lacking.

Success comes not from having enough time, but from making time. Set your exercise, healthy living, meal planning etc as a priority and make the time to make it happen. Even if this is in 15 minute increments, or requires you to get up 15 minutes earlier. Start somewhere to make a little bit of extra time and once you start you will begin seeing other places where you can become better at time management so you can fit in the time to get healthier.

"It’s too expensive"

It’s true, buying healthy foods, loading up on greens powders and keeping your fridge stocked with lots of veggies can be expensive, but so is eating out. Add up the amount that you spend each week on groceries and eating out, and see how much you are currently spending on food. Then, set yourself a budget and determine what is within your means to spend on groceries each week and go shopping. It may require you to eat out a few times less, buy items that are on sale, or not buy a few things one week, but with some extra effort and dedication, eating healthy can definitely be done on a budget.

"I don’t know how"

Sometimes eating healthy, starting a fitness routine, doing meal prep and trying out yoga can seem incredibly overwhelming when you don’t know where to start or have little experience in any of it. Take small steps. Choose one or two things to start out with and read and educate yourself on those things. Reach out for support from friends, coworkers or just the author of the healthy living blog you read. Most times people who are talking about health and posting healthy recipes are more than happy to talk about it even more when you send an email. Don’t get caught up in making too many changes at once or feel like you have to learn it all – it’s a process of growth and challenge and that’s the best part!

"I can’t do it alone"

Being healthy as an individual and taking it on as an individual is different than doing it without a support network. We all need support and we all succeed better when we have the support behind us that we want and need to help us reach our goals. But that may require you to step out on your own to get started and then recruit the support you need and find the people who can be in it to push you forward. If you have the right people behind you, it won’t feel like you’re in it alone, even if you have to take all the initial steps by yourself. The other side of this is that sometimes it’s not that you can’t do it alone, but rather that you need to eliminate people from your life who tell you you can’t do it alone. Surround yourself with people who bring you up, believe in you (sometimes more than you believe in yourself), and who push you to want to achieve and be better.