The excuse of the day...

Step. Squeak. Step. Squeak. Step. Squeak. Those are my orthotics. The sounds drives me insane and makes me self conscious when I run. As if the only sound anyone can hear is the squeaking of those inserts in my shoes. I am pretty sure it drowns out the music at Lifetime. Outside, it drowns out the traffic of course. Sort of like the way you hear Godzilla waaaay before he steps on your high rise condo. The squeaking bothers me so much so that I have run without them during my off-peak months. Until my foot started hurting to the point where I almost had to stop running. Now they are back in my shoes. Admittedly, it is a minor excuse and it doesn’t really stop me from doing anything, just takes me back to elementary school where someone might make fun of me for something as small as a squeaky set of shoes. As I was running and squeaking around Stone Mountain the other day, I just tuned them out. I put on my IPOD and ignored them. If others around me could hear it, I did not care.

My other excuse has to do with nutrition. I leave the house at 5:30 AM to go to boot camp. I get ready for work at Lifetime then head to work. After work I have tennis 2 to 3 nights a week at a minimum. Some nights I don’t get home until 9:00 or 9:30 PM. I eat on the go and don’t always make the best choices. I tend to go for convenience. QT, McDonalds, Subway all the fine dining establishments. That is the excuse. It can be done. I can prepare things in advance on Sunday night for the week. I have done it. It is just an excuse.

I hear so many other excuses from others … One friend wants to lose about 75 pounds. She continually tries to diet. On again, off again. Every other Monday, she will e-mail me to say “today is the day”. She won’t start exercising until she loses 30 pounds. I know she could see success so much more quickly if she would toss in a little exercise with the diet from the beginning.

Another friend with various knee and shoulder issues took swimming lessons to try and work in swimming as an exercise that would be low impact. She only wants to go to the pool when there are minimal crowds because she doesn’t want people to see her in her swimsuit. I get that, I do. There are so many shapes and sizes and outfits that I see in and around the pool area, she really has no reason to be self-conscious.

I also hear of people who “don’t have time”. How bad do you want to achieve your goal of health? If it is important, you make time. Get up crazy early like I do, work out at lunch, work out after work. You have to make it a priority. If it were easy or comfortable, we wouldn’t even be having this discussion. In my mind, there are plenty of things that might have kept me from getting on the wagon so to speak. In every case, my fear of it was blown way out of proportion. Sometimes you just need to get over yourself and try. Find something that motivates you. For me one motivator is accountability. I feel guilty when I don’t show up to boot camp because they expect me there. They also expect me to show up on time but I don’t feel nearly as guilty about that ... :)

If you fail, don’t let it be the end of the journey. Get back on track at the next meal or the next day if you missed a workout. In the words of the great philosopher, Kanye, “that that that that don’t kill me can only make me stronger”. Now put on those headphones and forget you have on squeaky shoes!