The Art of Excuse-Making

"I Don't Have Time to Eat Healthy"

This comment bothers me the most. I hear it all the time from overweight people and I just don't get it. Granted, if they're overworked and doing the 8-6 thing that's the norm in America nowadays, and then rushing to pick up kids from whatever activity they have that day, and then they're too tired to cook, there is a bit of truth to it. BUT, there is always the weekend to prepare 3-4 family meals and have them ready to heat and eat during the week. You can do the same thing if you're single, just make smaller amounts and divide it up. For the time's when you can't have a real meal, special k bars are out there, as are those 100-calorie snack packs. Finally, there are "healthy" alternatives at most major fast-food places if you're in a rush. Grilled chicken sandwich or small chili at Wendy's, Chicken Caesar Salad with Honey Mustard Dressing at Burger King, 2 chicken soft tacos without sour cream or cheese at taco bell, and veggie burgers and other low-fat subs at subway. Again, not the greatest selections, but they are out there. There is no excuse out there that holds any weight. Anyone that wants to lose weight can do it.

I'm most bothered by "I can't live without [insert junk food item]". If you are not willing to give up whatever it is you ate when you gained weight, then you don't wanna lose weight. It is this mentality that feeds the diet pill industry, eat your cake and lose weight too - but it is a huge lie.

I agree with Jan about the diet pills. But its not just diet pills. Most drug advertising is about stuff that is weight related. They spew that nothing people do improves test numbers. With this in our faces, why bother, unless maybe someone has no insurance. This is making the drug industry billions and they are not going to stop.

You are right frances. Instead of making changes to the diet that caused the bad test numbers in the first place, just keep eating the junk and take the pills. The drug that epitomizes this for me is Xenical. The ads say it reduces 30% of the fat in foods. Why not just eat 30% less fat? No, eat the junk and take Xenical. The campaign on tv in my country is especially offensive, as it shows only women and they talk about the things they'd do if they lost weight, and all of the things are "have a sex life" (in other words). Grrr.

One big problem, maybe you could say excuse, is still: healthy food costs more than processed junk.
I shop for groceries frequently because I don't have a car, so I have to buy a little at a time. Things like precut salad, greens, nice veggies are way more expensive than less healthy things like frozen breaded fish/ chicken, packaged dinners like hamburger helper (which is sometimes all I can afford), etc.
The leaner ground beef is, the more expensive it is!
This is so stupid!

I have an excuse for everything and I'm sick of it. Sometines I feel like a change to a healthier life style and sometimes I don't. When I think of all the reasons I want to live longer for, I catch myself trying to diet per say, and incorpotating more activity. But when I encounter the road blocks and take a look at myself I get stifled and over whelmed with where to start and how to over come. I know if my food choices are very limited then I should at least use portion control. Small amounts of nonsatiable food is never enough.

"I hate exercise"

That's the one that bugs me. Whoever said exercise had to be painful/boring/a chore? Do something fun!! Go ice skating with your kids instead of parking them on the Xbox all day when it's cold out. Or go skiing or take a nice walk or putter in the garden. Not exercising not only contributes to the obesity problem, but it also contributes to stress, high blood pressure, heart disease, etc.

I agree Spectra. If you don't like formal exercise or sports at all, you can still change your lifestyle so that you walk/bike to run errands or to work, or take the bus and get off a couple stops before work to get some walk, take the stairs... you can still move.

Excuse making is big industry. Why do people just have an excuse, then they can get as big as they want. For example my medication makes it hard to lose weight...so I eat at long john silvers 3 times a week.

Or "My knees are bad" ...so I never try to excercise or find a way around my bad knees to be active (in all likely hood your knees are bad because of excess weight)

It is especially bad in marraiges where one partner husband or wife (not sexist her) gets or stays in shape, and the other does not. That fatter partner always seems to be a well of excuses, even though they are in the same household with the same choices as far as food is concerned.

I find that forums, and websites are a poor source of information as far as this is concerned. Typically when the thinner partner, wife/husband consults the internet they are accosted, flamed barraged for dare bringing the subject up. Why is this?

I think that there is an element of censorship involved. Many People don't dare let the subject come up on the internet bacause they live in morbid fear of being accosted at home about their weight. Instead they choose to call the poster "shallow" "callouse" "insensitive" even "abusive". I have only found one site where this dialogue about OVERWEIGHT WIVES/HUSBANDS is allowed and that is myfatspouse.com. The site is a little mean though and has just started getting going?

Has anyone else found a resource for those dealing with a fat spouse situation?

Thin people accuse the fat ones of not doing exercises.But the fact is that they don't do exercise too.They are just socially active people.So they must shut up.I eat a lot,I don't deny this.But no matter how much I eat,I lose weight whenever I walk outside.My brother eats as much as me,doesn't do exercise but he has a social life which makes him active.And he is thin.

The excuse that bugs me the most is "Why can't you just accept me and love me as I am?".

What this says to me is: "No matter what choices I make, we're married and you took vows to keep me, no matter what." Sounds like the person is saying that since they've "bagged" their spouse and have them under contract, they can now do as they please.

However, if this reasoning were applied equally and fairly, it could be applied to justify any choice by either spouse, and force the other spouse to accept it.

Combating excuses seems to be my daily job. As a business and fitness professional, I am a professional excuse killer. I used to be very nice and sweet to clients about solutions to their excuses, but it didn't do any good for them.

I even started a blog entitled, "101 Reasons Why You Can't..." because I was getting tired of repeating the same solutions.

For instance, yes "cleaner" food is more expense, but you can choose...pay for cleaner food now or pay for the countless surgeries and medical problems from the over-processed, chemical-laden cheaper food. You would be amazed how much less food you eat the "cleaner" it is.

I AM GOING TO USE THIS EXCUSE PRETTY SOON IF I DO NOT START LOSING WEIGHT AGAIN.
"I LOST 22 POUNDS IN 8 WEEKS AND NOW FOR 3 WEEKS I STAYED THE SAME,SO WHAT IS THE USE OF TRYING"
ANY THOUGHTS ON THIS?

MARJORIE: It's called plateauing, and it's very common. There are a bunch of common strategies to break a plateau; if you don't know them I can enumerate them for you. However, when you've exhausted all of them, what I usually do is usually spend some time just maintaining my weight, eating a little more, exercising a little less, kind of mentally and physically gathering drive for the next push down. Then, after a while, go back to eating less and exercising more and you should start losing again.

THANKS RYAN. I READ MANY OPINIONS ON PLATEAUS. THE ONE I TRIED WAS TO EAT SIX SMALL MEALS INSTEAD OF 3 NORMAL MEALS PLUS SNACKS. EITHER IT WORKED OR THE PLATEAU ENDED ON ITS OWN BECAUSE I LOST ANOTHER 21/2 POUNDS. IF THIS HAPPENS AGAIN I WON'T PANIC AS I DID THE FIRST TIME. I KNOW NOW THAT IS NORMAL.