The Two Words I Hate the Most

“I Can’t.” I hate these two little words. There’s been an interesting phenomenon the last month that has made me think of these words a lot lately. “I Can’t!” It all revolves around the feedback from the most recent challenge that I’ve had going at our club. What I’ve realized is that my members have already overcome the “I can’t’s” and have chosen the “I must” for their health! These little words have been stuck in my head forever (I can’t) and it’s bothering me a lot now! What honestly drives me crazy is when people who don’t exercise or care for themselves use these words so freely as an excuse for poor health. I want to shake some sense into them, because I honestly know they really “can.” We all can!

We all make excuses when it comes to doing something that is not fun and something that takes a little more effort. How many times have I written about taking care of yourself first, then all those around you (whether it’s family, friends or work) will benefit from the better you? If you are better and if you quit making excuses and saying “I Can’t,” then your entire life circle will work better!

Excuses! There are sooo many! With a few resources I’ve come up with what I believe are a few of the biggest “I can’t” excuses around. Here they are…

The top excuse is not having enough time! I look around the gym and I observe individuals walking around the lake, riding their bicycles and wonder how they must have an additional hour tacked onto their day, because I’m pretty sure they are busy people too. Do those individuals know a magic solution to making their day 25 hours instead of my normal 24 hours? We are all busy people, we all have 24/7 (every single one of us!) and that’s no excuse for not taking care of you and exercise is that key to health. We’re talking two and a half hours a week for better health! Most of us watch more T.V. than that!

The second biggest excuse is that you are too tired. Well, HELLO! What do you think combats tiredness? Exercise unlocks endorphins and boosts metabolism so that you are not exhausted and tired. This is the hardest concept for me to get across to all of my business owning friends in town, when your business is at its busiest is when you need to exercise the most. There is no “I can’t” at this time of our year, you should be saying “I must!”

Inconvenience is a third top excuse for saying “I can’t.” This might be a factor for those living in rural areas. So look down! Are there two feet standing under you? A pair of walking shoes and a carpeted floor can give you many of the basics you need for health and fitness. I know there’s a Wal-Mart or Target somewhere where you can find video’s to guide you and lead you towards exercise and health. It’s also very inconvenient to be held up in your house due to weak muscles, achy joints and poor health issues. So weigh the odds!

I love this excuse; I get enough exercise at my work! I hear this all the time from my “blue-collar” working friends (is that the politically correct term?); those who keep our world physically functioning, our houses in one piece, our cars running, our utilities working, our merchandise moving, etc. Yes, those of you who don’t sit behind a desk all day. I know and I will agree that it all counts! Yes, physical labor counts towards living an active lifestyle. But does that physical labor challenge your “entire” musculature with appropriate increased strength benefits for aging and does your physical labor challenge your heart at a sustained heart rate level to help reduce cholesterol and heart disease? Does your physical labor allow you the opportunity to stretch and strengthen all the joints and ligaments of your body for protection against injury at your hard-working job? Usually not! It’s this kind of movement and structure that doesn’t give very many jobs the opportunity to say that their job is exercise enough!

I’ll end with my most favorite of all excuses and why most of you say “I can’t.” Because you hate it, it hurts, it’s boring, it’s no fun, it takes too long, and it’s too hard, blah, blah, blah. Let me remind you that just about everything worth doing in this world is often hard to get done. Keeping your own house clean is absolutely no fun, but necessary for health (scrubbing toilets - yuck!) Saving money, planning for, packing and actually going on vacation is difficult to get done, but necessary for health. Chopping up all the fix’ns for a salad for dinner is ridiculous, but it’s nutritionally necessary for health. Need I go on? Both good things, difficult things and many things that are necessary for health are boring, no fun, take too long and are hard to get done.

So stop with all the “I can’t’s” and start with the “I must’s!”

 

Deborah Holmes

April 22, 2008