On Wednesday, which is the day before my "weekly official" weigh-in: "I'm not going to exercise at all today, because apparently I'm retaining some water from my exercise yesterday, and I don't want to encourage it to hang around."

No, not exercising did not help my weight at all. Duh. I wish I had just been honest with myself: "I didn't get enough sleep and I'm tired and I don't feel like exercising." Then, perhaps I would have made myself do it anyways.

Got any amazing excuses of your own?

Here's mine: "It's just too cold to go out and walk(whine, whine)." I know there's a treadmill downstairs-I just don't want to go to it

I don't make excuses for NOT working out as much as I do for slacking off...

"I'll do more tomorrow and cut it short today."
"I'll do 10 minutes NOW, and the rest later."

Those are my top two. Yeah, they don't happen when I get in that mindset...I did well this morning making myself just FINISH 30 minutes on the bike. Having brand new music on the Ipod helps a lot, because it gives me something to look forward to.

Well, a common one for me is: Since Sunday is my "exercise day off", if, for some reason I happened to miss some other day that week...like last week because we had a dinner party to go to on Saturday, I still feel that Sunday is my "day off" and so I convince myself I don't have to exercise. Lazy!!!! So that means I only work out five instead of six days...for no good reason.

Oh, another one that has hit since I entered maintenance is sort of related to the one above. As I am trying to stop my weight loss, since I am at goal but I am still slowly creeping down on the scale...I justify not exercising 6 days a week to "help stop losing weight". NOPE, not a good excuse as it throws off my routine...I need to figure out how many CALORIES I need to add to my diet to stop the weight loss, but needing to stay in good shape does not go away just because I'm at my goal weight. Slowly cutting back on exercise here or there is a NO NO for me...it is a sure path for me to get more lax elsewhere in my maintenance plan.

I often use the maintenance excuse, too.

"I'm trying to find my calories consumed v. exercise maintenance balance.""

"It is 52 degrees outside and the wind is blowing - too cold to run."

"It will make me retain water for the weigh in" is a good one.

"If I lift today I'll be too sore to do xyz tomorrow."

Or the one I used today - "DSS got up 16 times last night so I only slept for an hour and a half. I'm just too tired to exercise." Forget all the other times I got up and did it anyway after that same situation and felt better. I'm just going to let a four year old run my life!

ETA: one more. My elliptical machine is in the room next to where I keep my cat box. So here is my favorite "Gracie just pooped in the box, I can't get on the elliptical for at least 30 minutes."

LOL, that's a good one. Yeah, you don't know WHAT might happen if you go in there to exercise...it could be fatal! Really!

LOL that's a good one. My excuse is usually "If I go exercise now then I have to have a shower and by then it will be too late to go hang out with my friends." Not mentioning that I probably wasted the previous 3 hours on the computer or watching tv...

I'm really good at these, but I always, always talk myself BACK out of them.

Example:
Me: Let's postpone the workout until AFTER this meeting, so we can focus.
Smart Me: If we do that, something else will come up. We have time NOW, so let's do it now.
Me: But I don't WANT to.
Smart Me: Let's do 20 minutes. Then you can stop.

I swear I start every other workout with "20 minutes, then you can stop". I almost never do...and if I REALLY want to after 20 minutes, I DO, because it typically means I'm exhausted, getting sick, or just not physically able to go anymore. I've pushed myself through it but always ended up dizzy or nauseous...but I've only really wanted to stop after 20 minutes 4 or 5 times ever.

Mine has been known to go:

I have a long run planned for tomorrow. I need the carbs!

(yes, but do Ruffles count as an appropriate prerun carb load???? And carb loads usually need to happen 48 hrs beforehand anyway....)

I dont have time to run the X miles I am supposed to run, so I cant run at all.

Usually here we are talking something like 90 minutes of running I cant do so I do none. Instead of how about 45?

I can usually talk myself back into a better choice after trying to make an excuse, but here are some I rattle off in my brain:

"I've had a long day and I'm tired. I deserve a rest." Yeah right. Cause exercise doesn't help keep you energized? You know you feel great afterwards.

"I'll do it later." And I'm the queen of England. "Later" always means you'll come up with another excuse.

And for food:

"It's my weigh in day, and I just weighed in. I can eat over my points." You have a high points day, and it's not on your weigh in day. Here. Eat some baby carrots if you're that hungry. Which you know you aren't.

"It's healthy food. I can have more." It's healthy if you have one serving. Eating two servings totally negates the whole "healthy" part of it.

The baby is finally napping, I don't want to waste this time exercising when I have other stuff that needs to get done.
- Yeah, but I never do that "other stuff" either, I just sit around on my butt hitting "New Posts" on my favorite message boards. Which is a large part of what got me to this weight anyway.

And the complement to the above excuse:
I can't exercise now, the baby is awake.
- In reality, after she's nursed then the baby is perfectly content to roll around on the floor and watch her siblings play while I walk on the treadmill.

It's (3/4/5) days into the week, so starting to work out now won't make a difference in next week's weigh in.
- This kind of thinking is why I started losing weight back in September but just started working out in January.

Heh I don't do points but totally get the one above. If faced with two food types; both the same calories (say a quantity of fruit n veggies and a chocolate bar). I won't want the fruit/veggies n would rather go without but want the chocolate bar? A sure sign I'm not actually *hungry*

My attempts last night were

I've finished work early so I could stop off and get some chocolate then after my run eat chocolate and relax...
which changed into...
but it's friday... maybe I could just get the chocolate, not run and relax. I've been good all week I deserve it...
which had me smacking myself across the face and going...
OR you could do what you PLANNED TO DO with a run and no chocolate.

I went for the latter. Chocolate may make me 'happy' in the moment but the morning after? Exercise does.

"Im just so tired right now. I need the extra 2hours of sleep. Even though i prlly already have 8 hours. Ill go after work though"

8-10 hours later

"My feet hurt so bad and im just too tired. And im a bit hungry. Ill go after dinner"

change clothes and eat dinner

"Now im just too full and i woldnt want to risk getting a cramp. Plus im tired and i need sleep. If i go to bed now i can wake up early and go"

Its a vicious cycle

mine is often--- tomorrow, I will...--- for better choices, better exercise.... bah!

I'm out to run now!!