Build Your Best Body by Avoiding These 6 Lame Excuses

Admit it.....you've done this way to many times.

You've looked in the mirror and you don't like what you see. In your twenties, things were fine. You could eat whatever you want and get away with it. But now you have this backfat that droops over your jeans. Your face is pudgy.

And you can't help but wonder...

Related: 5 Devious Diet Myths Hindering Your Progress

Is this how it's supposed to be? With resilience, you refuse to let this be the case. In a moment filled with frustration, motivation and bravado, you decide its time to change. Except this is as far as it ever gets.

You go through this cycle of intense emotion of wanting to change things, but when it comes time to do work to make change happen, you don't come through. You marvelously find a way to consistently miss your workouts and eat like you don't give a damn.

With the best intentions of changing, you always have excuses. Summer is right around the corner, but unfortunately so is the pizza place (and the battle is almost always won by the pizza place). Aren't you tired of this?

The solution is simpler than you think. In this post I'll reveal the 9 most common excuses you use to justifying your missed workouts and piss-poor nutrition habits (and provide with practical solutions).

Myokem's Shaun "the Giant Killer" Clarida and Marc Lobliner destroy a chest workout at the Powerstation Gym.

Build Your Best Body by Avoiding These Excuses

1. I ain't got not time

This is undoubtedly the most common used excuse. It's an easy way out. But it's invalid for two reasons. One, its an unreasonable to claim that you don't have time when we all have the same amount of time, yet people with similar circumstances as you find a way to make it work.
The young dad who has 3 kids has the same 168 hours in a week that you do and he surely doesn't have a #dadbod.

Secondly, which is less obvious, is that it's not about the lack of time, but instead it's about a lack self-confidence. The more confident you are about anything, the more likely you are to do it right?

But when it comes to hitting the gym, you feel like a newborn gazelle: Uncoordinated, vulnerable and anxious. You lack self-confidence. But you don't want to admit that, because nobody likes to admit they don't know what they're doing. And, the thought of looking like a newbie in the gym is terrifying thought on its own.



Solution: Get your energy management in order. Decide to cut out the fluff in your daily routine: Online shopping, watching old episodes of 30 Rock on Netflix, or pretending to be busy at work while you scroll Instagram.

This alone will open up at least 30 minutes in your day.

Then, find a legitimate coach who listens to your needs first, before they offer any kind of program. They should be able to teach you how to move properly, develop a nutrition plan that fits your budget and life, and provide supplementation suggestions based on your desired training outcome.

The end goal of the relationship should be to equip you to be self-sufficient in the gym at some point.

2. I'm too tired to workout, I'll do it tomorrow

Think of a full tank of gas in your car. After a week of commuting, your tank approaches empty. If you don't replenish it with more fuel, it'll bonk out and you'll be on the side of the road calling triple A.

Your willpower works in a similar way. When you wake up, your willpower tank is full. As you trek through the day making difficult decisions, dealing with problematic accounts, and putting out firestorms, your willpower tank gets depleted. Your capacity to do complex things and or tasks that require significant effort is lessened by days end.

This is why you walk out the door in the morning with your loaded gym bag with intention to hit the iron after work. But when you clock out, you drive right past the gym, pick up some Chinese and head home to catch the latest Scandal episode.

Solution: Workout first thing in the morning when you haven't been hit the onslaught of requests, notifications or emails. To level up, wear your workout clothes to bed and have your Nike Fly knits at your bedside. Upon waking throw your kicks on and hit it. To preserve muscle and assist in oxidizing fat for energy, slam down 10g of BCAA's (Branch Chain Amino Acids) before your workout.

3. I never reach my goal anyway, should why should I even try?

Goal setting is cheap. Anyone can set a goal. And the reason why you keep setting goals without achieving them is because it's intoxicating. Your brain releases chemicals that make you feel hopeful when you set goals that motivate you.

Setting goals without a routine is a disaster waiting to happen. It's like eating a burrito before sex.

Here are a few examples between a goal and a routine:

If you're blogger, your goal is to write 4 posts a week with a minimum word count of 1,000 words. Your routine is the reading, researching and curating process you follow every day to write your posts.

If you're an entrepreneur, your goal is to build a business that does $500k a year. Your routine is the marketing and sales strategies implemented daily to increase sales.

If you want to lose 20 pounds of fat, and your goal is to be at 12% bodyfat. Your routine is the training and nutrition plan you follow every day, and every week.

Goals carry little weight in comparison to the required behavior that will yield the best possible outcome.

Solution: Spend less time obsessing over the goal, and find a daily routine that supports your desired outcome.

4. I'm not fat, so I don't need to workout or watch what I eat

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If you're skinny fat, you might have it the hardest. Why? Because we live in a visual society. So if you can't identify any issues from the naked eye, everything must be all good, right?

Since society bases health and fitness largely on if a person is fit or obese (judging only the outside) skinny fat people often neglect that they too, are at risk for some serious health issues. If you?re skinny fat, you may not be heavy, but you might have stored up the most dangerous kind of fat: visceral fat (fat that accumulates around the organs).

Solution: But even with this danger, it's still hard to get yourself going on a regular training routine or healthy diet. So instead of basing it off of appearance, it would be better to measure your efforts with how you feel.

For example, take note of your work performance and productivity when you workout versus when you skip the gym. Or, notice your energy levels or stimulant dependency when you include whole foods into your diet.

5. Dieting is so hard, I don't want to be deprived of the foods I like

You're right, you shouldn't be restricted from the foods you like. Unfortunately, mainstream health and fitness media probably conditioned you to believe that in order to lose fat, you can simply say goodbye to any and all comfort foods.

Boiled chicken and steamed broccoli for the rest of your life sounds miserable doesn't it?

Whenever a diet is grounded in deprivation, it's only a matter of time before you break. Ironically, having parameters around you diet sets your free. Here's what I mean. If you identify what your calorie needs are and balance it with a macro-nutrient (proteins, carbs and fats) that supports fat loss, you have the liberty to fit in foods like a slice of pizza or a cup of ice cream into your daily intake, without feeling guilty or losing any progress.

Solution: If you're over eating canned tuna with hot sauce to get lean, flexible dieting is your answer. Don't worry, you don't need to do this on your own either. There are plenty of fitness coaches who can develop a flexible dieting plan for you. Use google.

6. I don't know anything about health and fitness, I can't solve the problem on my own

This is another sorry excuse. Stop pretending to be helpless when you have access to Google. You can pull up a workout plan within seconds. With a click of a blue link you'll have a list of foods to eat and which foods not to eat.

Solution: Find the real problem. In medicine, they say that "accurate diagnosis is half the cure." So instead of prancing around making this whole thing more complex than it needs to be, you need to saddle up and ask yourself, "What exactly is the problem?"

Research tells us that a majority of the health issues we face today are a by-product of a poor lifestyle management with diet and a lack of activity. The problem is that you are expecting someone else to do the push ups and drink the green smoothies for you. It's time to take responsibility for your health.

Wrapping Up

This time it's going to be different.

Instead of being motivated for 8 hours to make a change, only to return to square one, you're going to see things through this time. You know where your weaknesses are and where you continually make excuses. But you also have solutions to overcome them now.

Just imagine, instead of feeling hopeless and defeated, you're going to start holding yourself up to your own word. You'll feel more confident. You'll feel in control. And finally you'll make progress that makes you proud to look in the mirror.

You've got it what it takes. Now go follow through.