“There aren’t enough hours in the day.”

“I’m too tired.”

“It’s been a stressful day, I deserve a treat.”

“I’m just not motivated.”

“I’ll start tomorrow.”

“I don’t want to waste food.”

These are just a handful of the things we tell ourselves day in and day out that are keeping us stuck making poor food choices, skipping the gym, and generally not following through on our health goals.

And the thing is, some people will insist on fighting for their excuses. They’ll clutch to them like a security blanket, they’ll defend them, and like a girlfriend trying to explain away her toxic ex, while she fights for him, he will continue to hold her back and keep her small.

But you’re here, so I assume that’s not you. You have hit the point where you’re ready to break up with those excuses once and for all.

But how? How do you stop letting them get in the way when they feel so real, so valid, so persistent?

I have no fewer than seven strategies that will give you back your power. If, and only if, you implement them.

1. Ask if your excuse is actually true.

I recently had a check in call with a client. The previous week we had set the intention for him to take a 5 minute walk every night - the goal being to simply get in the habit of daily movement. When we connected the following week, he’d missed most of his walks because he worked late.

It may have been true that he worked late. But this would be the chance for him to ask himself, “Can I really not take a 5 minute walk because I’m working late, or do I just not want to go?”

I think we all know what the answer is.

When time is the excuse, when busy-ness is the excuse, when other things getting in the way is the excuse, you have got to challenge yourself on whether that actually prevents you from making the healthy choice.

So you didn’t have enough time to go to the store and grab healthy groceries… did that really mean you had to order pizza for dinner? Or could you have also gone to Chipotle and gotten a bowl with protein and veggies? Or to the Whole Foods prepared food section? Or to Snappy Salads?

Recognize when you’re looking for the excuse because you don’t feel like making the healthy choices. Because what you’re looking for you’ll find.

2. Flex, don’t break.

Instead of saying, I couldn’t make it to the gym for an hour so I can’t do anything. Ask yourself if you can go on a 10 minute walk after dinner (the answer is yes) - ceiling and floor

This comes down to the all-or-nothing, perfectionistic approach that so many people take when it comes to their health goals. If something comes up and they can’t make it to the gym for the hour workout class they planned, they throw their hands up and don’t workout at all.

When they cave and have a burger for lunch, they say fuck it and get the large fries and milkshake too because they’ve already “ruined” the day.

If you want to stay consistent and actually get somewhere instead of constantly stopping and starting over, you’re going to need to let go of being perfect and let good enough be good enough.

Instead of breaking every time things don’t go according to plan, learn to soften and flex the plans a bit. Can’t make it to the gym for an hour? Walk around your neighborhood or find a 10 minute bodyweight workout you can do at home.

Decided to get the burger? Get a side salad and a water with it.

Play with what 60-80% effort looks like for you because frankly, that’s where you’re going to live majority of the time. 100% effort days are an enigma, not the norm.

3. Find your expanders.

If there’s something in your life that feels like a major obstacle to you making healthy choices - maybe it’s being a single mom with 3 kids, maybe it’s having limited finances, maybe it’s working 80 hour weeks - first I want to acknowledge that yes, those situations are very real and they do make things harder.

However if you can find someone who is in the same situation as you who is still managing to make healthy choices, that will help expand what you currently believe is possible for you. You’ll see by example how they navigate the same circumstances that are keeping you stuck.

Don’t have anyone in your life like that? This is where social media is actually a great tool. Not only are there people out there who are like you, there are people like you who are posting exactly how they’re managing it all. Find them. Follow them. Emulate them.

4. Ask your higher self for advice.

If you are committed to making this change for yourself, there is a future version of you who has the same life, the same stressors, the same schedule. The only difference between this current version of you and them is they make different choices in the face of all that.

So whenever you come up against a situation that threatens to sabotage you, connect with that future Self and ask what they would do in that situation. And then do it.

Spoiler alert: this is exactly how you become them.

5. Reparent yourself.

I have another client who works out with me twice a week. But once again, in between sessions we’re working on her getting in 5 to 10 minutes of daily exercise. When I asked her this week thy she didn’t do it, she sort of laughed saying bluntly, “I’m lazy, Kat. I just need to get motivated and do it!”

When it comes to these moments where it is simply a matter of “I don’t feel like it”, I told her you have to treat yourself like you would a kid who doesn’t feel like eating their vegetables.

You’re not going to let them run the show. You’re not going to give in because it’s easier to just give them what they want and let them have icecream for dinner.

You know they need to eat their veggies, so you say something like, “I know you don’t like them, but you need to eat at least 3 bites before you can get up from the table.” They may huff and puff, they may hate you for making them do it in the short term, but in the long term you know it’s best for them.

Have that same exact conversation with yourself. “I know you don’t want to go to them gym, but you have goals and this is how you reach them. Just go for 10 minutes, if you want to leave after 10 minutes, you can be done.”

More often than not, once you get to the gym and start moving, you’ll end up doing the whole workout.

6. Remember, if there’s a problem, there’s a solution.

Imagine you’re driving along trying to get to your destination (healthy body, here we come!), and you look up and realize there’s a giant log in the road.

So many people will see the log and turn around with the belief that they no longer can drive forward.

They go back to where they started until they remember how much they hate being there. They set out again hoping the log will be gone. But it never is. And again and again, they turn around and start over.

The log is not going to go away. You’re always going to have days where you’re tired. You’re always going to have days you’re busy. You’re always going to have days where you’re unmotivated. You’re always going to have days where you screw up.

You have to learn how to drive around the log.

There is no problem you have, no circumstance you’re in that someone hasn’t figured out how to navigate successfully. Which brings us to our last strategy…

7. Join The Club!

Yes, I’m going to plug my membership program right now because it is the fastest, easiest way to overcome any obstacle that’s currently in or will ever be in your way. I have been a functional nutrition coach and a personal trainer for 14 years, there is nothing, and I mean nothing you can throw at me that I won’t have a solution or a strategy for.

And for just $29/month, you get to have me as a coach in your pocket. Going to a restaurant and need advice on what to get? I’ll be there with an answer. Missed your workout because someone scheduled a meeting during your normal gym time? I’ll be there with an answer. Too exhausted to meal prep after staying up all night with a sick kid? I’ll be there with an answer.

Not only will you have me there to help you through different situations in real time, every single one of my programs takes real life into account. I have trainings on tapping into your motivation, time management, stress management, cravings, people pleasing, procrastination, setting boundaries, the list goes on and on.

Plus we’ll be doing our new year challenge next month called the Fuck It Fix that will really help you get over that all-or-nothing mindset that we talked about earlier. Trying to be perfect with your diet by restricting like crazy, never screwing up, never missing a workout, it does nothing but set you up to binge or quit every time you make a “mistake” or go off plan. And that is literally why you are getting nowhere with your weight loss goals.

If you could learn to miss a workout and get right back to it the next day, if you could eat a cookie or 2 without devouring the whole box, if you could enjoy a few treats during the week so you didn’t feel the need to go “full fuck it” with your diet on the weekend, I promise you the scale would move. And you would feel a lot more sane.

There’s all of this goodness inside The Club and honestly a lot more, click here for all the details and to sign up today or email me at [email protected] with any questions you have.

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