It’s so easy to lie and tell yourself that it’s too hard to improve your health

I spent years telling myself I couldn’t lose weight because I wasn’t disciplined enough. I only had a little to lose so that was even more of a ridiculous excuse. It took less than a year to get to my goal weight and I’ve been at maintenance for almost 5 months now.

Anyway, I thought I had conquered my self discipline but I was just lying to myself even more about other aspects of my health: exercise and healthy foods. I was eating less food, yes, but it was still junk. And I was sedentary.

I know I’m jumping the gun by saying I figured it out, since I’ve only started today. But hey, it worked for the decreased calories so it should work now.

I had two revelations.

1. This one I credit to a random comment on a different subreddit. They said they aim to make half of their plate fruits and veggies. I realized, hey, I can do that, and it will probably have a drastic benefit to my health. So I tried it today and I loved it! I had strawberries with my sandwich this morning, I had blackberries in my yogurt at lunch, and I had a big spinach salad with apples and carrots at dinner. And all of it was delicious. I think the idea of eating so many fruits and veggies was daunting until I realized there was such an easy way to visualize it. Half the plate. Simple.

2. Exercise is a tough one. I’ve tried lots of exercise programs over the years but they never stick because they start off too difficult and there’s too much at once. Today I realized I can split it up throughout the day. There’s no reason I have to do 30 minutes of exercise all at once. I can do 3 minutes 10 times a day. 3 minutes an hour. That’s no trouble at all. So I’m doing 2 minutes on my physical therapy trampoline, 30 second plank, 15 squats, and 10 crunches every hour from 9 to 6. I came up with the numbers by listening to my body. I can reach that many seconds/repetitions without wanting to die, but I can still feel the burn a little bit. It’s not a lot but I imagine it will build up over time since I’m extremely out of shape right now.

I guess the real takeaway is that chances are you’re making excuses. If something that improves your health is too difficult or boring or daunting to do, find a way to make it work. There’s not one way of doing things that works for everyone.

submitted by /u/ceramicthumb
[link] [comments]

source https://www.reddit.com/r/loseit/comments/gexgdf/its_so_easy_to_lie_and_tell_yourself_that_its_too/