Why am I so lazy?

jccst9
jccst9 Posts: 58 Member
in Motivation and Support
It's no secret why I don't get as much exercise as I should. I'm lazy! I use my 50-55 hour work week as an excuse to go home and veg out instead of going for a walk. I also find that when I want to stroll the neighborhood for exercise, it's a 95% probability that I won't go unless someone else goes with me. Co-dependency? Maybe. An excuse to blame someone else for my inactivity? Probably. Last night, instead of picking up my Shake Weight, I stared at it for a few minutes and proceeded to watch a rerun of "How I Met Your Mother" where a guy I went to high school played Jason Segel's brother. Why couldn't I do both?

I'm sure there's a lot of factors impeding my ability to lose weight on my own without resorting to surgical procedures or any kind of crazy diet pills. Why are you lazy? What do you do to combat it? I'm not quite at the hopeless point yet, but I'm just a few pushed-off workouts away.
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Replies

  • marycmeadows
    marycmeadows Posts: 1,691 Member
    I used to consider myself lazy.... Now I have to MAKE myself take rest days..... somehow I still find time to veg in front of the tv AND work out..... We make time and find time for what's important to us. Obviously working out/losing weight/living healthy is NOT important to you at this point.
  • princessage117
    princessage117 Posts: 171 Member
    Exercise begets exercise, eating healthy begets eating healthy, drinking more water begets drinking even more water......
  • Jexebel
    Jexebel Posts: 67
    You don't want a change badly enough yet. When you want it, REALLY want it, you'll do it.
  • princessage117
    princessage117 Posts: 171 Member
    Have your exercise clothes ready on your couch or bed when you get home, or change before leaving the office, you have to make it a habit
  • PhilyPhresh
    PhilyPhresh Posts: 600 Member
    I used to be the same way. I would get home from work and just want to sit on the couch because I was tired from working for 10-12 hours and I never wanted to get out and do anything. Now, I get pissed if I don't make it to the gym because I love it so much! lol. I will also sometimes go for a jog for the first half of my lunch break. I think this helps because I am not feeling all tired when I have only been here for 4 hours and taking a nice jog before lunch (especially on beautiful days) is amazing!
  • starcatcher1975
    starcatcher1975 Posts: 292 Member
    Best thing to do is just to start. Do something, anything. You're right- after a few more pushed off workouts you *might* not have the desire to do it anymore at all.

    I'm lazy (yeah, I admit that) so I force myself to exercise in the morning. I make myself get up early so I can get it done and over with and I don't have excuses to not do it. Now it's habit. I get upset if I don't get a chance to workout. (OK, this week isn't a great example but in almost 6 months this is the first week I haven't felt like doing anything so I think I'm doing pretty damn good) The only thing I can't do early is my weight training with my trainer. That I do right after work on Mon & Wed. Since I work at a university and he is a trainer at the fitness center on campus (which is free-bonus!!) I have no excuses for missing a session.

    However after this week I'll probably skip the trainer and just continue weight training on my own. Which will mean more early mornings for me, but the results will be worth it in the end.

    You have to want it. And you just have to start.
  • xaniza
    xaniza Posts: 250 Member
    I was lazy, then I stopped being lazy and lost a bunch of weight, then I started being lazy again. I'm having a hard time getting out of this funk!!! I think it might just be that I feel like I'm done, even tho I'm soooo close to where I really WANT to be, I'm having no problem accepting where I am right now.

    As far as not going to the gym or out for a walk unless someone goes with you, the biggest thing that I learned is that NOBODY wants it as much as you do. Not your best friend, not your mom or dad, not your brother or sister. When I figured that out, I dropped some lbs and my friends who had said they'd go with me and never did were jealous =)

    If you want it, you'll do it. Depending on how much you want it is how much effort you'll put in. Good luck!
  • ninerbuff
    ninerbuff Posts: 48,990 Member
    I'm lazy too. I just REFUSE to be overweight.

    A.C.E. Certified Personal and Group Fitness Trainer
    IDEA Fitness member
    Kickboxing Certified Instructor
    Been in fitness for 28+ years and have studied kinesiology and nutrition
  • ewoodward11
    ewoodward11 Posts: 4 Member
    Surgery and diet pills will not work. That is the easy way out. You have to want it and put in the work!
  • LiveLaffLoseLove
    LiveLaffLoseLove Posts: 104
    I am the same way... I sit on the couch and look at the things I COULD be doing and watch things I have seen 100s of times to avoid working out.... I also use the work too many hours and come home and continue to work (dinner, homework, kids, etc.). So I thought about the morning before work... well I hate mornings as it is, but the other morning I was wide awake laying in bed, listening to my son get ready for school and thought about the good 30 minutes I could get in before getting my youngest up and how cool it would be to post a great work out and continued to just lay there.... I think it is lack of motivation on my part. I need to feel inspired! How to get out of this rut????
  • lindalee0315
    lindalee0315 Posts: 527 Member
    I started exercising regularly a long, long time ago. With the exception of being pregnant and for awhile after my son was born, I exercised nearly every day. It was very hard to start up initially and very hard to re-start after I had gotten out of it regularly. What worked for me was my own personal mantra. It sounds hokey, I know, but when my alarm would go off and I would be tempted to hit snooze, I would say to myself, "Fit or Fat?" I would drag myself out of bed and exercise. After a couple of months, it became routine. I find it harder to force myself to exercise if I wait until later in the day. For me, I just hate taking two showers, reapplying all the cosmetics, redoing my hair, etc. If I oversleep now (like I did today), I repeat something one of my MFP friends wrote: "I really regret that workout. Says nobody. Ever." Good luck. Now, I have to force myself to take rest days. I hate not working out. You'll get there. You just have to find the formula that works for you.
  • itsuki
    itsuki Posts: 520 Member
    You can totally be both. When I get home, it's plop on the couch with video games and TV.

    I balance it, though, because before I get home I've been at the gym, and before I go to work I run. So I get my exercise in, but when I'm done, I enjoy my couch potato status. I'll go for walks and do active stuff for fun on the weekends, but after a long day (get up at 4, run, get to work by 8, work 'til 5, get to gym at 6, get home by 7:30), I've earned my laziness. :P
  • stardancer7
    stardancer7 Posts: 276 Member
    I'm lazy too--that's why I've decided to ditch all this fat. Don't want to have to carry it any more.
  • Esther50
    Esther50 Posts: 252
    I know where you are at. I was like that, in a way still am. It would be so easy for me just to go home and veg on the couch watching tv. This is why I don't go straight home, I go straight to the gym.
    By the time I am done and going home, I have a little more energy (weird even if I am tired from workout).
    I eat my dinner, clean kitchen etc, etc, etc. THEN and only then can I veg on the couch.

    I will say, I cannot, and I mean CANNOT go home first. Once I am home, I am home and going to the gym is out. So I never go home until I have had my workout.
  • Jellyphant
    Jellyphant Posts: 1,400 Member
    I used to consider myself lazy.... Now I have to MAKE myself take rest days..... somehow I still find time to veg in front of the tv AND work out..... We make time and find time for what's important to us. Obviously working out/losing weight/living healthy is NOT important to you at this point.
    Totally agree with this. Sucks but it's true. I definitely struggle with putting weightloss first. Just gotta get those priorities straight! :flowerforyou:
  • flobeedoodle
    flobeedoodle Posts: 176 Member
    "Many studies have found that people perform relatively poorly on tests of self-control when they have engaged in a previous, seemingly unrelated act of self-control." ( http://www.apa.org/monitor/2012/01/self-control.aspx )

    You are working 50-55 hour weeks, that's a lot. It's not surprising that you don't have any resources left to push yourself to work out after pushing yourself to work. It doesn't mean you have to give up; other studies have found the will-power is rather like a muscle that can improve in strength with practice. The article I quoted has some interesting suggestions for exercises to improve will-power. Learning about ego-depletion was a sort of bellwether for me; once I understood this mechanism explicitly, I began to be able to shape my own behavior more intentionally, and start working to become the person I want to be.
  • NorthWoodsLee
    NorthWoodsLee Posts: 92 Member
    Exercise begets exercise, eating healthy begets eating healthy, drinking more water begets drinking even more water......

    Exactly right. I was extremely inactive for years and could not get myself motivated to exercise, despite telling myself often that I'd get started "soon." But when I committed to changing my lifestyle permanently in late May, I started walking briskly, then soon adding other forms of exercise. Now I love to exercise and do something almost every day - run/walk/lift/swim/bike.
  • happythermia
    happythermia Posts: 374
    Here is what I did.
    I focused on my diet - period.

    I didn't like exercising, or sweating or moving for that matter lol! And when the weight started coming off, it was just sort of this weird natural progression into activity. But you've got to find an exercise you like. Eventually I'd like to get into weights, but I'm not into it now, so I just do yoga and walking.

    Take it all at your own pace! But don't give up :)
  • drmerc
    drmerc Posts: 2,603 Member
    I'm lazy too--that's why I've decided to ditch all this fat. Don't want to have to carry it any more.

    This
  • Ketomaniac9
    Ketomaniac9 Posts: 108 Member
    Im lazy as hell but I try to go to the gym for at least an hour 5 days a week.. I usually just go back home and plop on the couch and use the computer till bed.. I need to start reading books lol.
  • Homer3D
    Homer3D Posts: 318
    I do think it is easier to work out when you have someone to work out with, but you need to find motivation in yourself.

    For me it was my dad. Not that he directly got me to work out but because he was the opposite. High blood pressure runs in my family and about 6/7 years ago due to a lack of exercise and poor diet, my dad's kidneys started to fail and then went on dialysis 3 years ago. In late 2007, I went in for a routine doctors appointment and he noticed my BP was high as well and that if I didn't get it under control my kidneys might fail as well when I got older (knowing the family history). Vowing that I would never go on dialysis, I changed my eating habits and exercised more. I went from a guy that would get winded going up the stairs to completing a half marathon. Every year I check my BP and get my kidney functions checked. Doctors are very happy to tell me that if I keep this up, I will NEVER go on dialysis.

    I understand that working long hours can hinder your motivation, but if you have 30-60 minutes of free time to watch TV, be on the computer, etc...you have time for a quick 30 minute jog or bike ride. And I work anywhere from 10-16 hour days (longest day I worked was 23 straight hours).
  • Yanicka1
    Yanicka1 Posts: 4,564 Member
    The more you do it, the easier it get.

    One day you will have to stop choosing what you want right now of instead of what you really want.
  • Rachelle_Ohh
    Rachelle_Ohh Posts: 146 Member
    Honestly, do it as SOON as you get up in the morning, have everything set out for you and just DO IT! It was the only way I could get myself to go 6 days a week (I take Saturday off b/c I have too much work and my internship duties that day and you need at least one rest day).

    I view my rest day like a cheat meal/day.....go through the other 6 days like a champ and moderately go off on the 7th.

    What also helped me was investing in a fancy gym membership (one with a spa and awesome rewards). I figured, instead of going shopping on payday, get my body right and deserve my nice clothes/makeup/etc. Plus, it's so nice, it makes me want to work out everyday, all day! :P

    It really works!!!!
  • samntha14
    samntha14 Posts: 2,084 Member
    I was the same way. Then I got sick and when I wanted to move and do things I couldn't. That was a really sucky feeling. Turns out I'm hypoglycemic and I have a sleep disorder. The ONLY way to fix either was with diet and exercise. The first time was the hardest. I wanted someone to go with me because of my own poor self image and insecurities. I went the first time and kind of hid in the corner. Each time it got easier and easier still. Now I feel weird when I miss a workout. Sometimes, you just gotta do it. Make a plan, tell others your plan, and get it done. Set it on your schedule and mark your calendar. It will get easier I swear.

    Oh, and I bribe myself. sometimes it's a new book or time to read or time to myself or something else I really want. And I pay for a gym membership too. I'm am far more cheap than I am lazy. If I'm paying for I make sure I go. LOL.
  • jenillawafer
    jenillawafer Posts: 426 Member
    As much as I hate it, I exercise early in the morning. That's after working 12:30p.m-10:30p.m 5 days a week. I limit myself to four days per week so I don't get burnt out though. Try to get to bed a bit earlier, so you're well rested! You've got to want to do it for yourself.
  • savnicolee
    savnicolee Posts: 7 Member
    You just have to kind of slap yourself in the face with some reality, or look at pictures of your goal body, or ANYTHING that reminds you of why you're doing anything in the first place. Because once you get over the motivation slump, you won't even think twice about it. And it is so worth all the trouble to get to that point. Every day it gets easier. You just have to push yourself in the beginning, and don't give up :)
  • thistimeismytime
    thistimeismytime Posts: 711 Member
    You can have excuses or results. Never both.

    You are only what you TELL yourself you are! Stop telling yourself that you're tired and lazy, and start telling yourself that you're strong, capable, resilient, and amazing!!! You'll never change your body until you change your MIND.
  • thrld
    thrld Posts: 610 Member
    A lot people workout first thing in the morning, so that nothing 'comes up' to prevent/discourage them. Sounds like you might benefit from that -- if you don't schedule your workout, you are more likely to blow it off.
    Or you can make rules. Mine is I must work out a minimum of 2 days to take a recovery day, and I can't take 2 recovery days off in a row. Or if you are really finding it difficult to get yourself to work out, then perhaps you need to change the workout -- like bicyling instead of aerobics, or C25K instead of 30DS, etc. Some people do better when working out with a partner, or on a team because they feel obligated to show up. Ultimately you have to make the choice -- "Working out is tough. Being out of shape is tough. Pick your tough"
  • gramacanada
    gramacanada Posts: 557 Member
    Walk in place while you watch TV. It doesn't interfere with the show at all.
  • wrinju
    wrinju Posts: 93 Member
    "Fit or Fat?"

    I love this!

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