Exercise vs. Excuses

I'm a major sports fan in general and the past few months have been busy for someone like me. There's been the IIHF World Championships held in Finland and Sweden in May, UEFA Euro Cup held in Ukraine and Poland in June, European Championships in Athletics held in Finland in June - July and the Summer Olympics held in London in July - August. Exhausting stuff, especially since Finland is in the Eastern European time zone, meaning that the broadcasting for example from London 2012 continued until the early hours of the next day... In 2016 the Olympics will be in Rio de Janeiro, now that will be challenging!

After the 400 metres qualifying rounds there were pictures shared on Facebook of Oscar Pistorius, a truely inspiring South African Olympian. Oh yeah, he's also a double-amputee, in case you didn't know.

http://mpsportsmedia.com/blog/oscar-pistorius-qualifies-for-the-olympic-semifinals-what-an-incredible-story/

One text on Facebook read: "I am Oscar Pistorius... 2012 Olympian. I just made it to the semi finals in the 400 meter run with a world class time of 45.44. BTW... I have NO LEGS. So... what was your reason you can never make it to the gym??" (www.FindingYourHero.com)

Another one read: "No you're right; it's too cold to go for a run today." (www.motifake.com)

Isn't it true that it is so easy to come up with so many excuses for not going to the gym / run / walk / do any sport at all? Trust me, there are so many that I have used myself! I think the most common have been:

Excuse 1. "I don't have time." (Yet I seem to have time for Facebook, randomly surfing the net, etc.)
Excuse 2. "I'm still sick" or "I think I'm getting sick." (Even if I have actually been sick I don't really know when it's safe to start exercising again and my motivation goes out of the window while waiting.)
Excuse 3. "I'm too tired." (Even if I have slept well, I'm constantly tired - maybe it's just called laziness or boredom)
Excuse 4. "I'm on a holiday and it's OK to be lazy" (luckily this only happens couple of times a year)


This battle of Exercise vs. Excuses is where having a Personal Trainer is most useful for me: 

Solution 1. PT tells me how much of what exercise I need to do on each day or how many times of what exercise per week - and I simply schedule it to fit my daily/weekly plans. And stick to it, since I have to report it to her.
Solution 2. PT asks me for how long I have had fever, tells me until when I should not exercise and then tells me when to start and on which activity level. Back training in no time!
Solution 3. Scheduling the training PT wants me to do right after my workdays - no time to hit the couch - or the computer chair - at home in between.
Solution 4. PT gives me a training schedule also for holiday weeks. No slacking off!

Speaking of no slacking off and the Olympics... Jessica Ennis, I salute you. And your abs.

http://www.itv.com/news/story/2012-08-03/london-2012-olympics-jessica-ennis-in-heptathlon-event/

 That's it, back to gym for another session. Gotta get me those abs!