NO EXCUSES! exercise (part one).

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OK, People. Im passionate enough about this exercise that Im willing to put my misfit heart on the line and admit Im really hoping  lots of you choose to join in.

You may choose to do it the way that I did.

You may choose to do option two below.

I just hope you choose to do it.  Ive done it a few times in my life— with myriad situations—and each time it has served to both challenge and refocus me.

What is this “it” you ask?

I give you the No Excuses! tee shirt exercise (part one).

What you’ll need:

  • A plain white tee (if youre me & have lottsa excuses I recommend a largelarge tee)
  • At least one Sharpie
  • A close friend (for option one anyway)
  • To be ready to be brutally honest with yourself & prepared to experience some raw uncensored honesty as well.

Option one:

For the sake of this blog-post the No Excuses! exercise will focus on what is holding us back from our exercise goals?

(If you click on my picture you’ll see the tee I did this weekend addresses a different subject matter.  I urge you—-should working out NOT be something with which you’re currently struggling—-try this exercise with anything that’s currently a life-challenge for you.)

Call a close friend/partner/family member/spouse (really close as this gets kinda intimate) & invite them over.  Choose someone you’ve found to be a cheerleader in your life as you work on carving your healthy living path.

Hand this supportive-person your Sharpie(s) & ask him/her to scrawl on the tee all the excuses/rationalizations she’s heard you make over the daysweeksmonthsyears with regards to why you ‘cant’  to stick to your exercise habits/healthy living goals.

Ask her to be loving but honest (this is repeatedly the most difficult part for me.  Ive never had an excuse written I didnt know—deep down— I was making, yet seeing my words in print is still never easy).

Option 2:

I know at times I’m  not in a place of wanting to hear what other people think (Sorry Ren Man) or not feeling strong enough to see reflected in writing what others hear me saying (When I feel this way I define it as “feeling fragile”  as in “Ren Man I cant hear what you’re thinking about XYZ right now. I.Fragile”).

If youre in that place I still urge you to try this exercise.

There’s something powerful to me about placing pen to paper Sharpie to cloth.

My excuses feel simultaneously less daunting and more real.

I encourage you to make some YOUtime, grab your tee & pens, & scrawl as many reasons as you can think of why you arent currently achieving *your* exercise goals.  Dont stop. Dont self-edit. Dont over-think.  JUST WRITE.

Whichever approach you choose after you’re done spend a few moments looking over your teeshirtcreation (and remember this is only our first part).

Are you surprised by what you see (if you chose option one: by how others hear what you say)?

Are you encouraged (do your excuses seem pretty d*mn conquerable now that you’ve written em down?) or discouraged (be honest. are you now thinking “HOLY CRAP IM MORE FRUSTRATED THAN EVER! IVE COVERED BOTH SIDES OF MY TEE!” Ive so been there…)?

Are you thinking: MizFit.Crazy. There’s no way in hell Im ruining a perfectly good white tee.

Please to hit us all up in the comments (and please to mark your calendar for part two of our tee’perience on 4.26)

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Comments

  1. I’m doing this this week. No excuses. I will go and buy a tee tomorrow (when I buy the Boy our anniversary present) and I will ask him to do one day and I will do the other side.

    I’m not limiting it to exercise or health goals. This is going to cover it all. No more excuses.

    You rock Miz.

  2. I am SO going to do this! Unfortunately I don’t really have anyone close enough to be able to call to come do it with me … but (also unfortunately, I think) I know my excuses …
    I have a feeling this will be the perfect shirt for me to wear during my cruiser challenge! Thanks!

    (Shameless challenge plug time: tinyurl.com/y4rndwr)

  3. Very good idea! I love it!!

    I’ve really increased in my exercises, but I can honestly say the “can’t do it” words still come out of my mouth when it comes to pushing myself to the limit.

    I might try this, I like it.

  4. I LOVE THIS IDEA.
    My BFF and I are great supports for each other and this has me also wondering if we are accidentally fabulous enablers.

    She knows all my excuses and allows me to make them repeatedly.

    I am definitely doing option one with her.

  6. So many questions:

    Do you wear this so others can see?

    Do you force yourself to debunk your excuses later?

    Do you feel volnerable when someone is writing on you what you have been heard to say repeatedly?

    I like this concept and it also intimidates me.

  8. I just texted my BFF and she is coming over this morning.

    (and yeah. I’ve never used those 3 letters before but liked how it read in Hannah’s comment LOL)

  9. You come up with the coolest ideas. Don’t have any white eet’s handy but it’s certainly a great reminder to confront excuses. Though there are so many issues where this is relevant I’m not even sure where to start!

  10. Very cool that we can click on your pic and read your shirt.

    Now, will doing this get me your quads?!

    I have so many excuses why *I* am not working out right now I might need two tees.

  13. I am back and DONE (should I email you a photo?).

    I thought it would depress me that I have so many excuses at the ready all of the time and it didn’t.

    I already realize that my excuses are ones I can over come.

    I am actually wearing my shirt to Zumba tonight!!!!!

  14. GREAT MOTHER OF MERCY. I love my early morning (my early morning 🙂 I know for some of you it may already be tomorrow?) peeps and CAN NOT believe one of you has already done the tee.

    and has the chutzpah (as my people say) to wear it out of the domicile.

    hmmmm…perhaps that would be the ultimate in accountability for me as well.

    more after I wrestle my morning into submission.

  16. This idea is fantastic! Thank you for sharing and tonight is girls night at my house, so my friends may be doing this (at least for me!)

  17. BRILLIANT idea – love this and will do it this week. Not sure if I can coordinate schedules w/ my fave workout buddy, but will do it myself if I must. Forwarding this post to her. Thanks for this.

  18. I have book club tonight.
    I wonder what the others would think if I brought a package of hanes beefy tees instead of dessert?

  20. BRILLIANT!!!

    We used to do this at work as an exercise for my team, but it was geared towards positive things you thought about another person…

    The effects were dramatic, especially for the team members with low self-esteem….They would see their t-shirt with, “Excellent person to work with, Soooo SMART!” and you could see the emotion behind their eyes…

    My teams were always very close and always had each other’s back!

    Going to buy 2 t’s tonight for me and my BFF…

  21. love that you brought that up Jenn as I got a ton of emails this weekend asuming that’s what we were going to do.

    I didn’t go that route for 2 reasons so many of us have done the affirmation tees or lists & because I’m a misfit.

    More the latter than the former.

    Shocking I realize 😉

  22. I like the notion of being brutally honest with ourselves in this way. I also JUST got rid of a bunch of old clothes, so I don’t want to mess up a perfectly good white tee (one of the few that I still own) 😉

    But I’m thinking that this would be a great exercise to extend into my (our!) daily lives… just making a point to BE AWARE and THINK about it every time we make an excuse. Why the excuse? What’s behind it? What would happen if we DIDN’T make the excuse?

    I like.

  24. How about options 1 and 2? I think it might be interesting to have me and the wife fill one out for me (and vice versa) just to see how they match up. AKA…so I can CHECK MYSELF to see if I’m really being honest 🙂

  28. What a clever idea. Not sure I’m ready for the truth. 😉

    This is actually perfect timing. I was doing great with exercise then I stopped because allergies knocked me off my feet. It’s tough to get back started again. I guess exercise is kind of like a freight train: once it stops it takes a lot of effort to get them back going.

    I’ll have to see if I have a white tee shirt for hubby to mark on. If not, I’m going to ask him to write my excuses on a piece of paper then I’ll put it on the fridge. I’m sure he’s heard some good ones lately. 🙂

  29. Since I’m pretty much a beast on the exercise front, I think that I’m going to spend some time and think about non scale victories…

  30. Brilliant. I use a whole bunch of old t shirts mainly to exercise so I have NO problems writing all over them. I think I’m going to write “NO Excuses” on them and/or other motivational sayings. I exercise in my garage right in front of 3 large mirrors. I need to re-inforce this.

    Of course, you are a genius. :o)

  31. I really like this exercise….I gotta find a tee! I have a whole box of pretty colored sharpies!!! 🙂

  32. I loooooooooveeeeeeee this! and of course I’m gonna do it. Since I am wallowing in excuses right now, ie I can’t find my ankle brace!! But I guess it is hard to find if I am lying in bed with my laptop. HA. When is part two??
    Next monday!

  33. Are you thinking: MizFit.Crazy. There’s no way in hell Im ruining a perfectly good white tee.

    Hee! YES.

    But the exercise seems like a good one, so I’ll type it out, print it out and paste it to my nightstand. Compromise. 😉

  35. Oh My Garsh!!!! There you go again!!! Making me TAKE IT TO THE NEXT LEVEL!!! Okie Dokie!!! Im in!!! I will Buy supplies and grab my Loved one and…. JUST DO IT!!!! Thanks Angel!!
    Love You Lots
    Dr. Mo

  36. I can see how this would have a profound influence on the areas where I am falling short.

    Thanks.

  37. Good idea. Not sure I could handle someone else listing my excuses, though…I’ve been beating up on myself pretty hard lately and this might just send me over the edge. I will file this away for a time when I am stronger.

  38. I did this early this morning after seeing you post.

    I came back to share that it did not depress me as I thought it might and now want to address my comment to Shelley if that’s ok?

    I wasn’t feeling strong at all and in a self-destructive way I decided to try this TODAY because I decided I could not feel any worse.

    I was entirley amazed that writing out my excuses made them less powerful and feel far less overwhelming.

    I am back from the edge.
    wow. That is how this exercise impacts me as well. What feels overwhelming and like valid reasons for me to “not do” or to fail seem far far less so when I have them in tangible form.
    Good luck Shelley and thank you Miz.

  39. This is a great activity. I think I can apply this in many different ways. I might just start an excuse board in my gym and see what happens. Every time I come up with an excuse or one of my clients I am going to write it down.

    We have to get rid of the excuses if we really want to accomplish something.

  41. Interesting timing on this! I really want to kick up my exercise a notch or two after vacation. I am training for the c25k. but I think my cardio has decreased since starting this process. I also need to get back on track with my strength training workouts. I need to buy a shirt and some sharpies….

  44. yep.saying it. Please to credit me if you use this exercise with paying clients as Im incorporating it in a soontobereleased joint venture.

  46. I will try this as well. I am curious to see what the next step is. I will ask my husband about excuses I think I know what they are but another perspective can be truly enlightening!

  47. Cute–excellent, actually. May do it a few months down the road.

    I was so ready to do this when you posted about Sharpies, but honestly, I don’t want to memorialize why I don’t exercise. I don’t want it in writing. Because that’s pretty much the only reason I don’t work out. (For readers of comments, I’m facing surgery and have pain issues. I live that and don’t want to see and wear it.)

    I will try to come up with another t-shirt idea, though, and do that — as soon as I get a t-shirt. Couldn’t travel to the store this weekend.

  48. I’m looking forward to doing this exercise. Like Bea mentioned (#13), I was thinking this would be a fun conversation starter at the gym, especially if I include humorous ones like, “My dog stole my gym socks.” (Which is true; we have a corgi mix, and she likes to steal our socks.)

    I have to echo what Aubry said (#40). When I was starting out, I had a lot of limiting thoughts and beliefs about exercise. When I’d hit a roadblock in my thinking, I’d often mention it to my husband. He’s not into fitness, but he’s a wise person, so he’d often hit on a solution or an idea or even a simple observation that would help me. I don’t always want a listener to be a problem solver–and I try to be specific about what I need up front–but the problem solver’s perspective can be helpful.

  50. I’m SO in. I will go with option 2. My excuses are my own and it’s time I face and confront them. I own them and it’s up to me to deal with my own demons. This is a great idea Carla!! Thanks so much!!

  52. This was SUCH a good idea. My excuses are SO much less daunting in technicolor sharpie. In fact, they’re pretty funny!

    Can’t wait for part two! Going to put my gym clothes on and go to the gym now! Heh heh!

  53. I hope you don’t mind if I share this with a group of women I know. I will give full credit to you and shout out loud for them to check out your blog. This is just too good not to share!

  58. I love this … and I’m going to do it this weekend. As long as you are here when I lose my shizbot ’cause … well, this could be painful!

  60. I love this idea. I will be joining in…I’m tired of my excuses…I know I have many. Thanks for sharing such a wonderful idea!

  61. Damn, very nice website. I actually came across this on Ask Jeeves, and I am happy I did. I will definately be returning here more often. Wish I could add to the conversation and bring a bit more to the table, but am just taking in as much info as I can at the moment.

    Thank You

    Dog Toys and Clothes

  62. Hi Miz!

    Thanks for the supportive comments you’ve been leaving on my blog…I know you “get it”!

    BTW how do I follow you to get regular updates on your posts? Is it only via e-mail?

    You are a great inspiration, lady!

  63. THANK YOU for visiting my blog and leaving such a heartfelt comment.And when I read beep beep I almost hurt myself! That was PERFECT!!!!!! Again, THANK YOU! I JUST got on your blog and I am going to go spend… it looks like hours reading every single thing on it. OH! How I have to lose this 50 pounds that has been making my life miserable for 20 years. I’m not attached to it, I won’t be sad to see it GO! It doesn’t make me feel pretty!
    Kristin

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