Pretexts of Difficulty

"We excuse our sloth under the pretext of difficulty."-Quintilian

In this ongoing series, I deal with common excuses that I hear every day from clients and potential clients.

I'm too busy. Oh, did you see last night's American Idol results show?

No you're not. Moving more and eating less takes work, let's be honest about that, but it doesn't have to take that much time. The average American watches 6 hours of TV per day. Your body, the sack of meat that is all you are and all you ever will be, is asking for 5 hours of dedicated movement per week. That's 45 minutes per day, or 1 minute more than a re-reun episode of Lost that you've seen 6 times. What you're really saying is that you've got a routine and exercise isn't in it. So stop thininking in blocks on your Outlook Calendar and think about how to accumulate 45 minutes throught the day without adding to your busy schedule of watching crappy TV or drinking bad beer with people you don't like all that much anyway.

Start with a bunch of air squats and push ups when you wake up. That's 2 minutes out of your schuedule, tops. How about you spend $20 on a used iron gym and do a pull up every time you go to the bathroom? That's less than 5 seconds. Maybe you can even do Turkish Get Ups while you watch American Idol? Or turn your walks into training walks? That takes no extra time at all and notice I never mentioned anything about going to a gym.