I had a coworker ask me yesterday. Knowing the excuse cycle, I just played into it. It was a bit evil, but I loved it! I told her that, I exercise so much that I don't see my family anymore and I hardly ever eat. She just nodded as if it was the truth and wished she could do that, too. LOL! I know that was bad, but I already told her once a few weeks ago that I was calorie counting and exercising with my family. The part I loved was that she obviously believed this one more!
My friends know and understand pretty well. They are with me when I bypass junk or ask to come after I eat dinner. They have been to my house and seen my exercise equipment all over the living room. They have heard my girls talk about how mommy rides her bike while they tell me about thier day.
Now that I've been at this so long, I say something like "567 days in a row of calorie counting, plus frequent regular exercise." (Well, that's today. Tomorrow's answer will be "568 days in a row of calorie counting...") When you put it that brutally, they are often taken aback, and then you get the "I could NEVER do that!" or some variation, which is when I just smile and say, "It's what I have to do, so I do it."
Wow! Great blog rant
This thread has been a real help to me.
I woke up thinking about it this morning.
Weight loss is hard work - lots of hard work.
I've been a real shirker and haven't wanted to get serious about it...
and that's why I weigh just as much today as I did this time last year.
I got lots of excuses too:
"I get headaches when I count calories" & my personal favorite
"I'll just eat one"
Yeah.
I'm going to try harder today and take it "One Day At A Time" and then
get up and do the same thing tomorrow.
Thanks again for this thread
Last edited by susiemartin; 03-04-2010 at 10:30 AM.
WOW - incredibly powerful blog! I am glad I took the time to read it!! You nailed it right on the head every word of it.
I know the reason I haven't lost weight before now is exactly what you said - I WAS lazy! I still find that laziness wanting to over take me some days but I don't let it. I tell myself - 5 minutes isn't gonna kill and and before yanno it work out done sweat done and you have done 3.5 miles on the treadmill!!
For people who are just being nosy or who I don't want to talk about it with, I simply say (with a smile), "Hard work." If they press the matter, I like to say, "There's no secret to it. We all know how to lose weight - cut calories and up activity. It's not a secret, it's not some magic, it's just a question of actually doing it."
I find that opens up the other category of excuses about how they eat 1000 calories a day and never lose any weight and it's because they are carb-intolerant, and so on.
At the end of the day, eating less (of whatever food you eat) and moving more is what does it in the long run. But most people don't want to do that or even hear that.
I love the way some of you answer their questions.
LisaF - I am so stealing your "In the gym" answer because I get asked where the rest of me is all the time.
The straw that broke the camel's back so to speak is a friend of mine about to go get weight loss surgery. Now I have no problem with people getting surgery if they are doing it for the right reason, but he flat out admits he's doing it because he thinks it's easier. He has watched his fiance lose weight after she had wls for the wrong reasons. She eats like crap, she's not healthy, and she is more than likely going to gain it all back when it catches up to her. My friend tells me he can't do it. He tells me he's trying to do low carb while he downs an entire chicken and then a family sized bag of M&Ms. Then he decides the reason he isn't losing weight is that his body needs a carb shock so he goes to the pizza buffet and eats 8 plates of pizza and 2 plates of brownies and cinnamon rolls. He gets the electric cart when shopping at wal-mart and it pisses me off. He can walk, he's just lazy. Yes, wal-mart without the electric cart will leave him out of breath, which is why he needs to do it more often, not less. He tells me he doesn't have time, but he spends hours watching t.v. and playing video games. He makes his son fetch things for him because he doesn't want to get up and do it. I've seen him stop the boy when he is in the middle of something to get something for him that was less than 5 feet away, yet he called the kid out of his bedroom to come get it. He tells me how amazing it is that I am doing this without surgery. It is not amazing, it is hard work. He drives me insane.
I had a conversation with him while I was already angry at my sister-in-law who blames it on the kids, on my brother, on her lack of time (hours and hours on facebook though), on the gym (she has access to a free gym, btw) being too far away, on my dad, on anything except herself. She also totally lies about her weight and her size. I could almost understand sometimes, but when you lie to someone that you know knows better, I don't get it. She also thinks I am amazing and also drives me bonkers.
The 2 things combined with all the excuses from everyone all the dang time and I got pissed. I finally understood when my niece at one point just threw her hands in the air, literally growled, and stomped off after someone said what a miracle her weight loss was.
LOVED IT! This irritates me too. Last weekend my grandma, who has been thin her entire life, asked me if I had lost weight. I said yes, 58 lbs. And she said, well are you trying to lose weight? Trying??? Are you kidding me? As if it just falls right off. No, I'm not trying. I'm working my a$$ off!
DH (who's lost 150 pounds or so) turns an amazing shade of magenta when people ask him why he "did it the hard way". Why not have surgery? Jeez, don't you get tired of going to the Y EVERY morning at 5?
Gagagagollygee what a great idea! Shoulda thunk that one up m'self!!! I'm sure I'd be winning my age group in triathalons if I'd a just had that "minor" surgery. Why didn't I think of that???
I can see the magenta rising slowly from his collar up his whole head. It's really, really cool!
I had a coworker ask me yesterday. Knowing the excuse cycle, I just played into it. It was a bit evil, but I loved it! I told her that, I exercise so much that I don't see my family anymore and I hardly ever eat. She just nodded as if it was the truth and wished she could do that, too. LOL! I know that was bad, but I already told her once a few weeks ago that I was calorie counting and exercising with my family. The part I loved was that she obviously believed this one more!
lol i'm try that one time hahahahsoo evil but its hilarious
Nada - of course we are all amazing, but not the way they mean it. We aren't doing something that they can't do, we're just doing what they won't
traci - the fact that it is major surgery is part of what really annoys me at my friend. He is fully capable of doing it without going through this risky surgery that he might not come out the other side of and he has a little boy whose mother is rather dysfunctional so he is basically all the boy has.
