FOOD FOR THE SPIRIT--Excuses Impede Progress

I LOVE the thought I posted the other day from President Uchdorf and have decided that it is my new personal mantra: "Excuses impede progress." I am the Queen of Wonderful Excuse-making, so when I read this quote, it really impacted me deeply. Later that evening, I took the time to sit down and make a list of the excuses that have been running through my mind as the reasons I am still not losing weight. I thought maybe it would help if I posted this list:

1. I do not have time to do the things I need to lose weight. Oh, this one feels so true. Tyler and I are working 80 hours combined each week, not counting occasional work my little photo side biz or church callings. Seriously, the only time I have, I use for cleaning the house and taking care of the chickies. I really, need to start meal-planning, do more Crock Pot cooking, keeping healthy snacks on hand. I have been too tempted to run to Papa Murphy's here, McDonald's there and it is showing in my waist-line. As far as exercise goes, I think I need to couple my rare quality moments with the kids somehow with active activities. I'll keep working on this, but the whole time issue, I think, remains my biggest obstacle.

2. I do not have enough physical or mental energy to lose weight. At the end of a long, hard work-day, seriously, all I really want is a cup of milk and a large stack of Oreos. Sometimes thinking of the amount of weight I still have to shed, simply does me in. I feel as if my bucket of priorities is already overflowing. I need to look at things with a "one-choice-at-a-time" mentality. And I need to record EACH success I achieve, no matter how small. I think I may start a notebook of some of these little successes. :)

3. I do not have enough money to eat healthy or go to the gym. I am realizing that I need to do WHATEVER it takes to keep my body healthy. If this includes a lot of legwork in preparing shopping lists, coupon clipping, etc., so be it. Besides, the junk food I've been eating is more expensive in the long run and keeps me wanting more. And walking, jogging, climbing stairs, and using my elliptical machine are FREE, so I don't really need to go to the gym anyway. And the more I look at how close I am to developing diabetes, the closer I am getting to big-time medical expenses. In reality, investing a little cash on my health is a great idea, given the big picture.

4. I'm just genetically pre-disposed to be overweight. There is a lot of truth to this, of course, but there is MUCH I could be doing to battle the seemingly inevitable. In fact, I should fight even harder, given my family's medical history.

These are probably my top four excuses. I am done, done, done with leaving things up to fate or chance. A good friend once told me that one of the cool things about life is that you get to draw your own map. You get to decide which way and when to travel. I'm packing my suitcases, and I'm heading out of Excuseville on a trip to Makeithappen. (This may be the cheesiest line even written on my blog). Anyway, I'd love to hear some feedback on this post. Do you have any excuses that you cling to, regarding weight issues or anything else? Have you found ways to ignore the excuses to make things better? Do share!