Fitness Excuses: How to Avoid Them and Get to Work!

If you're like most women, you've probably thought of at least a few fitness excuses that lead to skipped workouts or avoiding exercise altogether.

It's time to drop those excuses once and for all!

Knowing more about ways to negate fitness excuses, get in shape, and lead a healthy lifestyle is important for your overall health and wellness!

Here are 8 common fitness excuses for women — and 10 ways to avoid them!

Hit a weight-loss plateau or lost all your motivation to workout? These 16 tips will help you regain your motivation!

Common Fitness Excuses for Women

You're probably familiar with common fitness excuses many women come up with.

In fact, you've probably used many of these excuses yourself at some point during your lifetime.

Medical Problems

Having a medical problem, such as arthritis, an injury, chronic pain, diabetes, or heart disease, might seem like a valid fitness excuse to avoid workouts.

However, just the opposite is true in many cases.

If you have a chronic disease, regular exercise can often prevent complications associated with your disease or reduce unpleasant symptoms.

Ask your doctor which exercises are safe for you based on the type of medical condition you have.

Your provider may recommend altering your workouts to accommodate specific injuries or medical problems.

Injuries

If you're injured, see your doctor about ways to treat the injury and complete alternative workouts.

For example, if you're unable to walk or run because of an injury, your doctor might give okay you to swim, bike, row, or use an elliptical machine until your injury heals.

If you have an upper-body injury you can likely still walk, bike, climb stairs, or do squats.

If you have a knee or ankle injury, consider upper body strength or abdominal exercises.

However, always get your doctor's permission before exercising with an injury.

No Energy

A common workout excuse in many busy moms is lack of energy.

Rather than skipping workouts because you feel tired, try to find the root cause of your fatigue.

Examples include lack of sleep, low thyroid levels, other hormone imbalances, a chronic disease, and being overweight or obese.

Ask your doctor for help if you need it.

To reduce fatigue, aim to get at least 7 hours of sleep each night, have your thyroid and estrogen levels checked, eat healthy foods, and lose weight if you're overweight.

Even if you don't have the energy for intense exercise, at minimum go outside for a walk every day or find other ways to keep your body moving.

Work up to moderate- or high-intensity workouts, or longer-lasting workouts, over time.

Surgery

Recovering from surgery is a common reason to skip workouts.

In fact, your doctor may recommend you avoid physical activity for a short time after surgery.

But staying as active as you're allowed to post-surgery can improve blood flow, enhance healing, and reduce the risk of blood clots – even if you simply walk around for 10-15 minutes several times during the day.

Always follow your doctor's instructions pertaining to post-surgery exercise and begin slowly, but don't skip physical activity entirely unless your doctor tells you to.

A Busy Schedule

Just about every mom has a busy schedule, though some schedules are busier than others.

The good news is that despite having a hectic lifestyle, you can always make time each day for yourself and your health.

If you have young children at home or you work full time, get creative with your exercise schedule to ensure you take time for yourself.

Work out or walk during your lunch break, or consider at-home workouts for women.

Wake up 30 minutes earlier each morning to get in a quick workout without leaving the comfort of your house.

Or, simply sneak in 10- to 15-minute exercise bouts throughout the day to enhance your metabolism, energy levels, strength, aerobic fitness, and mood!

Starting a Family

If you're pregnant or have a baby or young children at home, lack of sleep and chronic fatigue might be some of your fitness excuses.

However, avoiding exercise can take a toll on your energy and overall health over time.

Aim to get outdoors for walks when you can, or complete at-home workouts.

Try to get at least 7 hours of uninterrupted sleep each night.

If you can't because of having a baby or young children at home, sneak in a nap whenever possible to reduce your risk of fatigue.

Eat healthy foods, take dietary supplements for women, and ask for childcare help from friends or family members when you need it.

Lack of Time

As a busy mom, a top workout excuse might be simply not having enough free time in the day for exercise.

If time constraints make working out difficult, develop a daily routine and stick with it.

Add exercise to your to-do list or daily schedule.

Even if you have just 20 minutes a day dedicated to staying active, it's better than skipping physical activity altogether.

Sneak in walks or stair climbing breaks whenever possible, and stand instead of sit while working at your computer.

No Motivation

Getting and staying motivated for workouts is often half the battle when it comes to exercise excuses.

If you struggle to have the willpower for regular workouts, find someone to exercise with.

Or, join the Fit Mother Project healthy living program for women to gain motivational support from health experts, health education, custom meal plans, fat-burning workouts for women, and much more!

10 Ways to Avoid Fitness Excuses

There are numerous ways you can avoid fitness excuses and focus on getting back in shape.

Do At-Home Workouts for Women

It might be difficult to find time to spend at a gym or pay for childcare if you have young kids at home.

Fortunately, you can get just as good of a workout without leaving the comfort of your house.

Consider Fit Mother Project free weight workouts or jog, run, or bike outdoors.

Go swimming, play tennis, or walk while your kids bike or ride in a stroller.

Get a jogging stroller to get in shape quickly with your little ones by your side.

Other at-home exercises to consider include rope jumping, stair climbing, online yoga or Pilates classes, and using your own body weight as resistance (pushups, sit-ups, squats, lunges, etc.).

If you prefer to exercise indoors, invest in a home treadmill, stationary bike, rowing machine, or an elliptical machine to burn calories, become lean, and get in shape quickly.

This video will help you create your own home workout plan for weight loss and toning!

Make a Daily Schedule

Create a routine and stick with it as much as you can.

Plan specific time increments throughout the day in which you can be active.

You might wake up at 6:00 am, exercise from 7:00 to 7:30 or 8:00 at home, and begin your day after eating a healthy post-workout meal or snack.

You might exercise for 30 minutes on your lunch break, right after work, or when your kids take a nap if you have young children at home.

Set Fitness and Health Goals

Studies show that goal setting can promote healthy behavior changes.

Set goals pertaining to your body weight, number of minutes exercised, calories burned or consumed, steps taken, and more.

Consider using a fitness tracker or health app to set goals and track fitness progress over time.

Doing so can help you stay motivated and avoid common fitness excuses in women.

Learn to effectively achieve your goals by starting to simplify your weight loss journey!

Get a Health Coach

Research shows that having a health coach can keep you motivated and on track with health and fitness goals, as well as reduce your risk of developing chronic diseases and their risk factors.

When you sign up for the Fit Mother Project, you receive online health coaching support from medical experts, as well as social media group support from other busy moms.

Having the motivational support needed to stay healthy can drastically improve your chance of avoiding fitness excuses.

Track Health Parameters

Tracking your health parameters is an excellent way to eliminate fitness excuses, stay motivated, and make healthy changes you can stick with for a lifetime.

Parameters you can track at home, or with the help of your doctor, include:

• Bodyweight
• Waist circumference
• Blood pressure
• Cholesterol
• Triglycerides
• Blood sugar
• Thyroid levels

You can also track your water intake, calorie intake, and minutes of physical activity you complete each day.

Track these or other health parameters over time to see the beneficial effects of regular exercise.

Studies support daily weigh-ins as an effective healthy weight management strategy.

Weigh yourself at the same time each day, such as when you first wake up each morning.

If you'd like to lose weight, aim to lose 1-2 pounds per week until you reach your goal weight.

Looking for signs you're a healthy woman? Try these 7 health tests you can do at home!

Find a Workout Partner

Find someone to work out with to stay motivated and avoid exercise excuses.

This might be a friend, spouse, sibling, coworker, or even your kids.

Choose in-person or online exercise classes with other people to avoid boredom, keep you accountable, and offer an opportunity for social interaction to make exercise enjoyable.

Make Home Workouts Fun

In addition to completing home-based Fit Mother Project workouts, consider exercising outdoors or getting at-home cardio machines.

Examples include treadmills, elliptical machines, rowing machines, or stationary bikes for days it's raining, too cold, or too hot to exercise outside.

Indoor cardio isn't the most exciting type of exercise for many women, which can incite fitness excuses.

To avoid the monotony of at-home cardiovascular exercise, place your exercise machine in front of a television so you can watch your favorite movie, show, or the news and make aerobic workouts fly by.

You can also complete at-home strength training workouts in front of a TV to keep you entertained, so you can avoid boredom as a fitness excuse.

Consider online workout classes or videos to make home workouts more enjoyable.

This workout includes fun animal exercises that are great to do alongside your children!

Keep a Daily Journal

Keep a daily journal or planner so you can plan daily activities and track the number of minutes you spend working out or completing activities of daily living.

Examples include planned exercise, walking your dog, playing outside with your kids, shopping, doing yard work, or completing house chores.

Start slowly. Increase the number of minutes you stay active, the number of calories your burn, or the number of steps you take over time to get into better shape.

Set health and fitness goals, and reward yourself for meeting them!

Choose Exercises Your Enjoy

There's no one-size-fits-all exercise plan for women.

Rather than coming up with fitness excuses, choose workouts you enjoy doing – or even look forward to completing!

All exercise is healthy exercise, so don't feel guilty if you're not a marathon runner.

You might join a tennis league, try a water aerobics class, run outdoors, or bike or lift weights at home while watching your favorite TV show.

Rollerblade skating, swimming, kayaking, golfing, and paddleboarding are fun activities you can enjoy with your family outside in the summer.

Examples of calorie-burning winter activities include snowshoeing, cross-country skiing, ice skating, sledding, and snowboarding.

Change up your workout routine often to avoid boredom and work out with friends or family whenever you can!

Join a Women's Health Program

Joining a women's health program, such as the Fit Mother Project, offers you the education and motivational support needed to avoid fitness excuses, get in shape, and stay in shape for a lifetime.

It helps you reduce disease risk factors or better manage a chronic disease.

Upon joining you receive unlimited fat-burning workouts, custom meal plans, online health coaching support, recipes, newsletters, social media support, and much more!

FM30X offers you the chance to achieve your goal weight and maintain it for a lifetime.

Find out how YOU can live a long and healthy life with this one simple philosophy.

No More Fitness Excuses!

By eliminating common fitness excuses in favor of healthy lifestyle changes that keep you motivated, happy, and healthy, you can drastically improve the qualify of life for you and your family.

Change your mindset.

Think of the many benefits associated with regular exercise.

Examples include more energy, increased self-confidence, a stronger immune system, and a lower risk of disease.

Setting a good example with physical activity can improve the health habits of your kids too!

No more fitness excuses!

Sign up for the Fit Mother Project or a free meal plan and workout to begin your journey toward a healthier life today!

*Please know that weight loss results & health changes/improvements vary from individual to individual; you may not achieve similar results. Always consult with your doctor before making health decisions. This is not medical advice – simply very well-researched info on fitness excuses.