Weight Loss Trap – Making Excuses

I am always amazed at the ability of people to rationalize their behavior and to bargain the price. Please, forgive me, I did not mean for you to think I was talking about you.  I was really talking about the people on your left or right.

Back to the point, there is decent if not perfect advice that will improve your health available from many sources.  I often refer my patients to those sources and ask them to begin to apply those solutions to themselves.  They often take my advice and begin to apply the solution but when they get back to see me in a few months they have often altered the plan.  That would be OK if they were applying a principle in a different way but often I hear:

“I liked the plan, it is a good one. BUT (here it comes) I could not eat those vegetables or I could not do all that walking or I can’t afford to buy that food.  There is always some “reason”. I actually think that adjusting the plan to suit your needs is a good thing but these aren’t adjustments! They are excuses!  These people quit! They did not encounter a problem and create a solution. They did not call me back and ask me for help. They quit and then have some lame reason for not doing what they need to do.

Change is a difficult thing.  It is good that it is too.  We need habits to protect our time and energy.  It isn’t easy to change a habit.  We never really receive any training or understanding on how to change. When we do it is so esoteric and cloaked in the need to get a grade that we never really understand the principle as it applies to us.

So, that brings us back to excuses. It is a habit we learn as kids to keep us out of trouble.  When we are confronted by authority, our “habit” is to tell the authority figure – Teacher, Police, Doctor, Physician Assistant – why we did not do the assigned task. There were circumstances beyond our control! It is a habit to make excuses and not examine the reasons. It is OK to have reasons. Maybe you hate vegetables, are so out of shape you can’t do much exercise, or many other actual reasons but maybe you don’t want to change – that is pre-contemplation.

Maybe you went right out and took action but never considered what was really in it for you. Without good reasons, you can’t make the change – it isn’t “worth it”. Maybe, your plan of action is on too fast a time table or you expect to change very strong habits and attitudes too quickly or too easily. Change requires a big infusion of energy.  If you do too much too fast or include too many changes, none of them happen.

Avoid this and other traps that stop you from being well, energetic and peaceful. I want to help you find your plan in applying the right principles.  Let me get you started. Join my Personal Empowerment Plan and listen to the principles involved in change. Then join me every Wednesday at 8:30 EST for Ask Bruce Anything. It is a simulcast that you can access by phone (but long distace fees might apply) or listen over the internet and type in your questions and comments. If that does not appeal to you, leave me a comment or question on this blog right below this post. Thanks for reading, now take one of those actions.

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