Geelong's Gym

As a Personal Trainer, believe me, every excuse you can possibly come up with… I’ve heard before.  You’d be surprised at how good people are at talking themselves out of positive behaviour… literally!! 

Check out this Nike YouTube clip.  I bet your excuses are there, because as you can see, there’s no excuse that hasn’t been used before!

Ok… so you’ve decided you need to make some changes in your life.  You’ve upped the effort on exercise and you’re trying to be a bit more sensible with your diet.  You’ve set goals and time frames.  It all sounds great until you open your mouth!

I can’t. 

I want to but…. 

I would if….

STOP BEING SO NEGATIVE.  Stop speaking what you can’t have or can’t do.

TAKE OWNERSHIP OF YOUR CHOICES.  Stop blaming someone else or the circumstances for why you can or can’t do something.  Instead, try speaking only positive words and making the statement yours.

For example: 

Out for coffee with a friend who wants a piece of chocolate cake and wants you to have a piece too so they don’t feel guilty.

You respond, “I can’t, I’m trying to be good.”

Friend- “Go on, one little piece won’t hurt you!”

You- “I would but my trainer would kill me if they found out.”

Friend- “Well how about we share a piece…go on…”

You-“Oh alright…but only a little bit.”

And now the damage is done, you’ve undermined you goal, feel crappy that you gave into temptation so easily and the cake wasn’t even that good.

Imagine this:

Out for coffee with a friend who wants a piece of chocolate cake and wants you to have a piece too so they don’t feel guilty.

You respond, “No thanks.  I’m choosing to eat healthy stuff.”

Friend- “Go on, one little piece won’t hurt you!”

You- “No thanks. It’s not what I want to do.”

Friend- sits quietly sulking wondering why you’ve changed so much????

Choose your language carefully and take a moment to stop and listen to yourself.  What message are you really giving around the choices you’ve made?

And you know what, no more excuses… Just Do It!!! 

This says it all really!

Well the pace has really stepped up in the training for Walking Home, with Nike setting the group of 20 volunteer walkers a challenge for September…300km to be walked in the month.

Now at first glance that doesn’t seem such a big deal. So let’s break it down.

30 days….10km walked daily. Seems easy enough I hear you say.

But it is WALKING, not running.

So based on walking at 6km per hour, that’s 1 hour and 40 mins of walking every day. Too bad if it’s raining, if your work is hectic, if the kids have extra needs to be met before and after school. And what happens if you miss a day? You do the sums.

And here is the biggest hurdle-the time required to prepare for this event. There is nothing but walking to get your hips, shins, ankles and knees ready for the 187km five day hike. But all the participants have ‘normal’ lives to co-ordinate and sometimes finding the extra time is very hard.

So if you see one of the walkers in training in the gym, give them a smile and pause to ponder just what they are giving to this amazing event.

Ordinary people making an extraordinary difference.