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You are here: Home / Archives for excuse

Shocking Development in Behavior Change

September 16, 2014 by Scott "Q" Marcus Leave a Comment

According to a university study, approximately 40 percent of our daily actions are habits; unconscious routines we do by rote.

Asleepwalking-mant first, I had trouble believing that. Yet, consider a typical day. Unless it’s an unusual occasion, such as vacation or maybe weekends; you wake up at approximately the same time. You are either a “breakfast eater” or you’re not; habit number one. Should you be of the former category, your morning repast will consist of the same basic items it does every other morning, despite the fact that the average grocery store offers over 40,000 choices from which you can choose.

If you commute to your job, you depart at the same time, most likely down to the minute, traveling the same roads, arriving at the same location, even parking in the same space. Upon arriving, you greet co-workers with the same banter, perform the same tasks, take lunch at the same time (at the usual restaurants), order the same meals, and head home at your regular time.

Yet, that’s not all.

[Read more…]

Filed Under: Diet, Excuses, Habits, Health, Newspaper Column, Weight Loss Tagged With: accelerometer, diet excuses, excuse, excuses, exercise, habit change, no more excuses, pavlok, technology diet

One Perfect Day

April 24, 2013 by Scott "Q" Marcus Leave a Comment

I fly a great deal.

Well, that’s not exactly accurate; I am in airplanes a great deal. They fly. I merely constrict my five-feet-eight-inches of body into about three-feet-seven-inches of space for four hours 18 minutes of discomfort, late arrivals, and poor service. It’s a privilege for which I pay a great deal of money.

To alleviate the numbness in my limbs, I think of walking.

However scrambling and stumbling over three other contorted travelers to stagger sloth like down a scrawny center aisle following a unhurriedly moving food cart with attendants lobbing over-priced “box meals” to ravenous twisted travelers doesn’t sound advantageous. Therefore, I read.

One of the airlines on which I frequently endure travel has a regular feature in their magazine. It lays out how to spend a few “perfect days” in an exotic city. For example, “three perfect days in Paris,” or “four perfect days in Bangkok.” They have yet to list “six perfect days in Eureka” but I am sure it is soon to be.

Three Perfect Days: Trinidad and Tobago

My internal recovering perfectionist is intrigued by the very concept of a “perfect day.”

[Read more…]

Filed Under: Diet, Newspaper Column, Overcoming Obstacles, Overcoming Perfectionsim, Self Talk Tagged With: excuse, human experience, perfect day, perfect days, perfectionism

Picking Favorites

March 6, 2013 by Scott "Q" Marcus Leave a Comment

I own a fake leather red jacket.

Well, I guess that’s not an accurate description; the jacket is not fake. It’s real – and it is indeed bright red. What’s bogus is the “leather.” It appears to me to be leather but it’s really not. It’s way too thin.

Anyway, I’m distracted; let me start again.

I have a red faux-leather jacket. It has a simulated  pocket (notice I cleverly avoided the use of the word “fake”) on the left breast area with a label specifying the brand. I didn’t know that was the emblem of a certain designer brand as I’m oblivious to those sorts of details, and would most likely remain so if not for my friends pointing it out (and being duly impressed). So, I guess I could say I possess a designer jacket.

the red jacket

That didn’t matter to me as I purchased it because:

  • I was cold
  • The jacket made me look “hip” (as much as a 58-year old guy can look “hip”)
  • It was marked down at an outlet store to fit my budget

Now you know how I make buying decisions. Oops, I’m getting off-track again…

Take three… I possess a jacket.

It’s become my favorite jacket. I use any excuse to wear it (which makes for some not very positive fashion statements). It doesn’t keep me very warm, and where I live, that is problematic. Yet, it also doesn’t stop me — like the post office, neither rain, nor sleet, nor dark of night will stop me from putting on my thin, faux-leather, ruby-colored, favorite jacket. (Besides, on cold days, the red shade goes well with my blue skin.)

Okay Scott, focus!

Back to the matter at hand, it’s my “favorite.” That’s what I keep trying to point out. I have a great deal of outerwear (reference previous comment about our local climate), but this particular covering is top of the list (although I have a gray wool overcoat that vies for the title – but I don’t want to get sidetracked again).

I find it fascinating that that we choose “favorites.”

[Read more…]

Filed Under: humor, Newspaper Column Tagged With: change, changing habits, excuse, favorite places, habit change

No More Excuses: How to Motivate Yourself to Lose Weight

October 4, 2012 by Featured Author

“He that is good for making excuses is seldom good for anything else.”
– Benjamin Franklin

Ben Franklin was onto something.

Have you ever met a successful person who was good at making excuses? I haven’t, either. Instead of wasting his time sitting around conjuring up good excuses, a successful person takes responsibility and does what he needs to do to achieve his goal. Simple as that.

If you want to lose weight, do it. Yes, it’s much easier to plop on the couch and crack open a bag of chips while cooking up a reason to skip another day at the gym instead of, well, going to the gym, but would you feel so great about yourself by the end of the day?

It’s easy to let your excuses discourage you from improving your body. It doesn’t have to be like that! Sometimes you just need a little push in the right direction, and what better way to do that than to debunk your lame excuses?

Excuse #1: I’m too busy.

Your life may be going 500 miles an hour, but there’s always a way to incorporate healthy behavior into your daily schedule. For example, the time spent waiting in a McDonald’s drive-through could be better spent preparing a quick healthy meal, like a cup of oatmeal or a bowl of salad. Exercise doesn’t always mean spending an hour at the gym. You can break up your exercise throughout the day or replace one of your activities with exercise (such as riding your bike to work instead of driving).

How to motivate yourself: Create a reward system. Every time you exercise or eat something healthy, give yourself a point. For every 100 points, treat yourself to something nice! Or, instead of a point, you can add a quarter to a jar and use the money to buy something you’ve had your eye on for a while.

Excuse #2: Being healthy is too expensive.

Organic food and gym memberships can be hard on the wallet, but there are plenty of other ways to eat well and work out on a shoestring budget. Did you know that you can get your daily intake of fruits and vegetables for an average price of $2 per day? That’s cheaper than a liter of soda! Buy frozen fruits and vegetables, whole grains in bulk, or prepare meals yourself instead of overpaying for already-made meals. Rent exercise videos from the library, jog around the park, or do physical labor around the house.

How to motivate yourself: Add a monetary value to everything you do or buy. This will help you go for the healthier option most of the time. A few examples include:

“Why should I buy this pack of soda when I can get water for free?”

“I’m watching cable T.V. This is costing me $50 per month. Maybe I should cancel cable and go hiking instead.”

“I spend $60 a week on gasoline, which adds up to $3,120 per year. Yearly bike maintenance costs a fraction of that.”

Excuse #3: It takes too long to lose weight.

Dieting and working out is a long and hard battle. Just because you don’t see instant results doesn’t mean it won’t happen eventually. Be patient, and keep it up. You just need to keep your eyes on the goal. You’ll get there someday.

How to motivate yourself: There are tons of ways to motivate yourself to keep going. You just need to monitor your progress and keep reminding yourself why you’re doing this. Take a photo of yourself on a weekly or monthly basis, and, whenever you feel like giving up, lay out the photos in chronological order. Just seeing yourself get thinner and thinner may be enough to motivate you to keep going. Also, you can take out an old thin photograph of yourself and put it up in a place where you will see it every day. It would also help to take an article of clothing you want to wear when you reach your ideal weight and hang it in a visible place.

Are you a talker or a doer?

Do you know someone who talks the talk but never walks the walk? Do you want to be that person? Visualize the way you want to be, and do something to turn into the new you!

About the Author: Dora Novak, author of this article, writes frequently about topics related to food or health. As a start she used low calorie protein bars when she found herself having troubles with motivation.

Need help losing weight? Visit our sister site, www.21DayHabitChange.com and you’re guaranteed to change one bad habit in 3 weeks or your money back. (Enter code “ScottSentMe” and save 60%)

 

Filed Under: Diet, Guest Author, Habits, Overcoming Obstacles, Overcoming Temptation, willpower Tagged With: benjamin franklin, diet, diet excuses, dieting, excuse, exercise, lame excuses, no more excuses

The Power of Accountability

September 4, 2012 by Scott "Q" Marcus Leave a Comment

accountability, ask for helpby guest author John Lenning

The following is a letter that I received from a new friend. I asked him if I could share it because I thought it was awesome.

I just wanted to say “thanks” for helping to get me back on track.
For a little over a year before I contacted you, I had been having  pain in my hip flexors. It started off as nagging pains, but got worse and worse with each month. About one month before I met you, I went  to my sister’s house for a weekend get-together.

One of my college buddies who I had not seen in over 9 months was there. When he saw me, he said “Haven’t seen you in a while, what have you been up to?”

I paused for a second, then replied “Work, and uhh…that’s about it”

He replied, “Work, that’s it?”

I said, “Yeah….”

He then said, “Seriously, you haven’t done anything else?”

 I just kind of stood there with a dumb look on my face, thinking, “Wow, I really have not been doing anything, have I?”

After what seemed like forever, I  kind of laughed and acted like it was not a big deal. I then quickly changed the subject to something about his job.

For a week after that, I just kept asking myself what I had been doing. His question made me take a look at myself and realize that I had let my pain prevent me from doing things. I had been using it as an excuse. I had used my hip injury to justify skipping the gym, camping trips, and other things. I even used it to justify my poor eating habits.

I realized that I had been passively going through life, never stopping to see that things seemed to be going downhill.

Even after that experience, it took me over three weeks to convince myself that I needed to start doing something about the pain. I finally convinced myself that I needed to actually do something and was able to convince myself to talk to Mike. The rest is history.

I am thankful that I was able to finally break through the walls that I had built, and ask Mike if he knew what I should do. If I had not, I would still be living a mediocre lifestyle. Thanks to you guys I am back to my old self.

Thanks again,

Here is the lesson:

If you are having a difficult time motivating yourself, get someone you can trust and tell them what is going on. Then, tell them that you are not comfortable in your situation. Ask them to hold you accountable to do something about it. You do not need to ask for “help” or “assistance” just accountability

About the Author: John is a competitive athlete and trainer. When John is not working out, coaching, or eating, he is usually trying to learn something new. He currently writes about the causes, symptoms, and treatment of hip pain at his personal site.

Filed Under: Asking for help, Guest Author, Health, Overcoming Obstacles Tagged With: asking for help, diet excuses, eating habits, excuse, getting help, goal accomplishment, guest author, hip injury, no more excuses

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