1) I don’t have time to workout

This is the ultimate excuse. You make time to watch your favorite TV show, go out to that nice restaurant, or maybe just McDonald’s. You make time for the things you want to do. So make time to work out! You’re busy yes. But as I said, you make time for the things you want to make time for. You don’t’ have to go to the gym and spend 2 hours on the cardio machines. Just get a fitness video or a couple of weights, take a walk with your dog, it will help, and it’s worth it.

If you don’t feel able to build up your workout sensibly by yourself, personal training can help to teach you what you need. One of the most significant advantages of training in your home gym is that you save yourself a trip to the gym. Often 1 hour is already lost by traveling to and from the gym.

Home Gym Equipment

• Once you have set up your little studio in the basement or garage, you don’t have to travel to the gym, and you can start training right away.
• In addition, you are not distracted by people during the workout, and you can complete your program faster.
• You don’t need much more than a barbell with weights and a pull-up bar for an effective workout at home. With this training equipment, all muscle groups in the body can already be trained.
• Start planning your daily routine better and stop just living in the day. If you plan the upcoming tasks well for the next few days, you will rarely find yourself in a situation where you have to skip a workout.
• Plan a fixed period where you do not make appointments and do not meet with friends. This time is reserved solely for training.
• Make it an iron law to cancel your training only in emergencies and only if you can make it up a day later.
• Do you want to achieve tremendous possible success in the least amount of time? Then cancel the endurance training and concentrate on strength training. If it is only possible for you to train two times a week, then do exercise in this time to achieve the fastest possible results.
• Endurance training only improves your endurance. On the other hand, strength training builds muscle, improves your endurance (provided you do basic exercises), and burns a considerable amount of fat.
• It’s not just about using your current free time wisely, but about creating more free time by eliminating unnecessary time wasters. You do things just because you are used to it and rarely question the sense.
• Are you used to sitting in front of the TV for 4 hours in the evening? Three hours should be enough and is more than enough. You already have one hour more of a lifetime per day and 7 hours per week.

Do people often talk to you in the gym? Tell them directly but politely that you don’t have time to talk today and that you are only here to do your workout.

2) I keep junk food around for my kids

Throw it away. You know they really shouldn’t be eating it either. Junk food typically is loaded with sodium and fat. This sodium makes the junk food addictive in nature and once you start eating it, other foods just don’t taste as good. The best course of action is not to buy it at all, keep it out of your house, and eventually, the cravings will go away. Instead, you can substitute junk food for health nuts and fruits like grapes. Make sure you are eating the unsalted versions for the best results.

The next time you’re tired from work late at night, resist the temptation to grab a quick fast-food meal from the snack bar around the corner or just pop a ready-made meal in the microwave. Researchers have found that not only do these meals lack nutrients and contain too much fat and sugar, but junk food also harms the body by eliminating important intestinal bacteria.

Why does the intestine need bacteria?

The intestine is the largest organ in our body: at eight meters long and with a spread out area of several hundred square meters, it is a hidden giant. And it plays more than just an important role: digestion and excretion, nutrient utilization, but also the immune system are at home here. 70 percent of the defense cells are located in the intestine.

In order to utilize food, divide the numerous ingredients into friend and foe, and ward off harmful substances, we need bacteria as active helpers. However, they are not all the same; there are a wide variety of specialists, so that a diverse intestinal flora is more effective than a one-sided one.

A healthy intestinal flora makes us strong

If the intestinal flora is healthy, we are efficient and have a robust immune system. Then digestion and detoxification function, and this can be seen, among other things, in our skin – and in our figure. Scientists have found that the composition of the intestinal flora also determines our culinary preferences and weaknesses – some microbes love broccoli, while others have a thing for chocolate. No wonder that the intestinal flora has now become the focus of interest when it comes to fighting the growing obesity problem.

3) I’ve tried before and I am incapable

If you fail the first time, try try again. You have failed before either because of the wrong application or the wrong information, most likely a combination of the two. So just because Atkins didn’t work like you thought it would doesn’t mean another diet plan and reasonable exercise plan won’t. So pick yourself back up and keep trying. You will find something that works best for you soon.

I drank milk with only 0.1 percent fat, and I ate low-fat yogurt, low-fat cheese, and low-fat ready meals. The main thing was low fat. That had to be right; I wanted to lose body fat after all. It’s one of the great fallacies that most people succumb to, even though they could have known better long ago. They would rather eat a 0.1 percent yogurt than an avocado, considered too fatty.

Low-fat products are a prime example of how the industry plays with our diet. First, nutrients that are not in fashion are simply removed from foods. However, something is missing – for example, flavor, because fat is a flavor carrier. No problem that is compensated for by sugar. Low-fat yogurts are, therefore, usually sugar bombs. This is a terrible trade-off, especially since fat has a satiating effect, while sugar fuels the appetite further.

Today I know: fat does not make you fat. So instead of industrially manufactured low-fat products, I now eat mainly natural foods and like to reach for avocado.

Fat has been demonized for decades. Carbohydrates not quite as long, but low-carb is currently on everyone’s lips. I followed along nicely and ate as low-carb as possible for a while. The industry also has solutions for this, such as low-carb muesli (already much more widespread in the USA than here) or protein bread. In exchange for the carbohydrates, they drive up the fat content again or increase the proportion of proteins. Something must still be contained in the products. There are only three macronutrients: fats, carbohydrates, proteins. Depending on the emotional state of the clientele, the respective proportion is reduced or increased. But it all helps nothing. People are still getting fatter.

My answer is the same as the low-fat craze: eat real food. Real food contains fats, carbohydrates, and proteins in precisely good amounts for us.

Well, sure, in addition to low-fat and low-carb, I’ve also bought into the protein hype. After all, there’s nothing else left when fats and carbs are demonized.

What’s the easiest way to consume lots of protein? The industry has answers for that: There are protein powders for shakes, protein bars or protein bread, for example.

The road to the bars was not far, especially since I was in the U.S. shortly after reading it, and there are whole shelves full of protein bars there. At any gas station store, you are spoiled for choice. I ate them almost every day and replaced whole meals with them. An authentic meal would have tasted better and been healthier.

The nutritional quality of industrially produced protein bars is not comparable to real food quality. I don’t know if these proteins did me any good at all, other than a lot of sugar to serve them with. Now I haven’t touched a bar in a long time. I threw the last ones away at some point. Instead, I eat real food that I prepare myself.

4) I have too many social events

Of course, you can. Are they going to take offense or even notice if you don’t eat that extra mini hot dog or other appetizers? Are they going to care if you don’t partake in several drinks at the open bar? Stop worrying about what others may think, and time to focus on yourself. No. Nobody cares. Nobody will be offended—practice self-control.

One of the most common reasons weight loss does not work out is that expectations are too high or schedules are too tight. To lose weight in a sustainable way, it is recommended to lose no more than 0.5 to three pounds per week. With 20 pounds, you need three months and 40 pounds for half a year. You should be prepared for these periods because losing weight takes time. So do not become impatient and do not put yourself under pressure. Also, look at each day individually and anew, because losing weight sometimes goes faster and sometimes slower.

The basis for losing weight is a calorie deficit. That is, the body must consume more energy than it takes in. Although some diets promise otherwise, the calorie deficit remains the basis for losing weight.

How much energy the body consumes and needs is not always easy to assess. Not everyone’s metabolism is the same, and life circumstances also influence energy requirements. However, calorie calculators give an initial idea of how high your energy requirements are.

It is also difficult to estimate how much energy is really contained in food. While 1 kg of broccoli has only about 330 calories, two small pieces of pizza, each weighing 100 g, add about 360 calories. In other words, a food with five times the weight has fewer calories than another. If losing weight doesn’t work, even though you already eat a healthy and balanced diet, you may not yet have the right feeling for the foods you consume.

In that case, it can be helpful to count calories now and then for a few days to get a better feel for your diet. There are also a variety of useful apps for this purpose.

If losing weight doesn’t work out or the weight stagnates at a certain point, this can also result from losing weight too radically. Especially with “flash diets,” the body loses a lot of water, which can lead to a stagnation of weight loss. In addition, the body also lowers its basal metabolic rate when there is a drastic under-supply of energy, for example, by slowing down the metabolism and breaking down muscle.

These things make losing weight after a certain point sometimes considerably more complex and make flash diets the primary triggers of the well-known yo-yo effect. This can be prevented with a moderate deficit of about 500 to a maximum of 1000 calories daily. Those who also want to build up muscles while losing weight or generally do a lot of sports should proceed even more slowly and not be in deficit by more than 500 calories daily.

5) I travel a lot and don’t have the time

So you can’t eat healthily and go to a hotel gym while you’re traveling? Can’t you walk around the city instead of taking a taxi everywhere you go? Fruits and veggies are available everywhere, and soups are available everywhere. Healthy foods, in general, are functional everywhere, not just in your home state or city or even in just your house. This is no excuse, and you can seriously make time for your goals if you are truly serious about changing for the better.

If you want to stay healthy while traveling, you can’t avoid preparing accordingly several weeks or even months in advance. This preparation includes three things in particular:

Depending on where you are going and how you plan your vacation, getting vaccinated against certain diseases makes sense before you start your trip. For example, if you are a pool or club vacationer, fewer vaccinations will probably be necessary than if you like to go into the jungle and explore the wilderness.

Good to know:

For children, vaccinations against travel diseases such as malaria and dengue fever are vital against pathogens that can cause diarrheal diseases, such as cholera. In addition, anyone traveling with the little ones should think carefully about which regions are worth visiting.

Basically, for all possible trips, vaccinations against

• Diphtheria,
• tetanus,
• polio,
• Hepatitis A,
• hepatitis B and
• typhoid fever
• and for long-distance travel, vaccinations against rabies, Japanese encephalitis, yellow fever, and cholera are recommended. Furthermore, unique vaccination maps help find the recommended vaccinations for the desired travel destination.

Most of the common ailments during travel can be treated quickly with the proper medication. However, having these medications on hand immediately is often crucial for the illness. If traveling within Europe, you can expect to get the medicine you need quickly in most countries, but things are often different in more distant lands. Not only are pharmacies in Asian countries such as Laos or Vietnam not always stocking the exact medicines you are used to in your home country for certain symptoms, sometimes the medicines are even counterfeits or at least offshoots and copies of medicine that are of significantly poorer quality than you are used to. This can be the case, especially with smaller official pharmacies, as the state monitoring systems are sometimes much worse than in Europe.

Therefore, it makes sense to have a small first-aid kit in your luggage – in case of traveling with children, and a special first-aid kit is suitable for children. In addition, electrolyte mixtures and medicines against diarrhea and nausea are essential. Because especially in the case of diarrhea, many minerals are often washed out of the body, which it needs for critical metabolic processes. Through electrolyte mixtures, which contain especially the two most essential minerals (mineral salts and sugar) already in the right proportions, the need for vital substances can be covered again.

However, among the crucial things that belong in every travel luggage are medicines and, for example, a credit card that secures the purchase of those medicines.

The family doctor usually has one helpful tip ready for trips to distant countries. Therefore, it is still recommended to visit the doctor in preparation for any significant trip and tell him about the upcoming plans. He can carry out an all-around health check and give further advice on the first-aid kit or, for example, on the so-called international patient card. This multilingual form facilitates communication with clinics and doctors abroad and the procurement of desired medications. In addition, to address data, this card records the diagnosis of certain diseases, their medicine, concomitant diseases, allergies, and risks, as well as the data of the attending physician.

What should I better not eat?

When traveling, part of healthy eating is knowing where, how, and what can and should be eaten. But, of course, there are no guarantees anywhere that a particular ingredient or some other circumstance won’t cause your digestion to go haywire suddenly, and you’ll spend the next three days on the toilet. Unfortunately, such things are always to be expected. Nevertheless, you can prevent it as consistently as possible by avoiding particular foods and drinks. These include, above all:

• oysters and other raw seafood
• raw fish
• raw meat
• raw vegetables
• ice cream
• ice cubes
• food that has been kept warm for a long time
• tap water
• unpasteurized milk
• frozen products

The foods mentioned above are hazardous because pathogens spread quickly or cannot be killed by cooking or other preparation. In addition, double caution is required with ice cream. Tap water is usually used for this purpose, and its purity is often not guaranteed in faraway countries. While the digestion of locals can sometimes handle such foods better, tourists should avoid them in their interest.

Where can I eat, and what should I look out for?

Although many travelers intuitively gravitate toward restaurants rather than street kitchens when it comes to eating safely and healthfully, the former can sometimes pose more risk for an upset stomach or worse. This is because while in a restaurant, you have no guarantee that the kitchen will be sanitary. You can first get a visual picture and look closely at the ingredients with street food.

In general, it is essential to look for visually healthy and good food and pay more for it if necessary. Extremely cheap food in already-cheap countries should arouse your skepticism. And the attitude of wanting to spend very little money on food while traveling should also be reconsidered. If you can’t afford a decent meal once you’ve financed the flight, accommodations, and local travel, you should consider resorting to financial assistance, such as a loan, if necessary. An overview of the possibilities and areas of application of various types of credit and which, for example, come into question for a long-distance trip helps with this.

Everyone will confirm that a particular financial cushion for the journey is essential, which was already longer on the way. And no matter how much more you ultimately spend, there’s no such thing as too much if it’s done with health in mind.

6) My friends, it’s peer pressure

Are you your friends? No. You have to communicate with them. Otherwise, how can you really expect them to know that you are dieting, know that you need extra help and support. You have to communicate. Consider joining groups local or in cyberspace to find supportive people that can act as a support structure. Repay the good karma by being that backbone for others when you’ve made some solid progress.

Avoid convenience foods

Convenience foods contain too much fat, salt, and sugar in many cases. They are only satisfying for a short time and quickly put a dent in your hips. Many simple recipes don’t require you to spend half the day in front of the stove and are beneficial to your health. Unfortunately, healthy weight loss will not be possible without some effort in the kitchen. Lots of fruits and fresh vegetables should be on your menu. To absorb essential nutrients, you should also not overheat the food. It makes sense if a part of your meals is based on raw vegetables. That is, if possible, from ingredients that have not been heated. This could be a delicious salad with avocado, cucumber, tomatoes, sprouts, and fennel. A good mix of cooked and raw foods is certainly not a bad start. Green smoothies can also support you well in this.

Alcohol only in moderation

Alcohol has a lot of calories, which you can quickly save by consuming in moderation. A small beer comes after all on 110 calories. On a friendly evening, 10 of them are drunk fast. A 0.5 liters wheat beer comes likewise on over 260 calories. Also, carbs. It does not look essentially different. A 200ml glass of white or red wine comes depending upon the sort, likewise on 130-140 calories. Alcohol also inhibits fat burning and is only recommended to a minimal extent.

Lose weight vegan without sweets

Sweet stuff also tastes Vegan like. However, one can decrease with it only with difficulty, and therefore you should do without it as far as possible. If you need sweets, then eat rather a little fruit, or 2-3 dates, which you distribute over the day. Dates contain many sugar and calories, but the blood sugar level rises only slowly, so you do not store fat so quickly and stay satiated for a long time. However, it would be best if you did not overdo it.

Exercise should be at the top of your list

Yes, I know. The sport that helps with weight loss is sufficiently well-known. Nevertheless, one cannot say it often enough. If you want to lose weight vegan, you need a calorie deficit. So you have to eat fewer calories than you would need throughout the day. Sports can help achieve this quickly and healthily, as long as you don’t exercise too excessively. I consider 3 hours of exercise a week to be a perfect dose for most people. For example, start with the little things. Don’t use the elevator. Take the stairs. Don’t drive to work, but ride your bike, if that’s possible for you. Go jogging regularly, or to the swimming pool. You will see that you generally feel better when you exercise regularly. You will inevitably build more muscles, which will also mean a higher calorie turnover per day.

5. forget your weight

This is not entirely true. But still, the scale can be deceptive. For example, if you do a lot of sports, you may also gain weight even though you look leaner and more toned. This is because muscles are heavier than fat. But even those who abstain from sports should not go crazy and step on the scale every day. Our weight can quickly fluctuate by a few kilograms per day. This depends, for example, on water retention, etc. Instead, you should choose a fixed day in the week and climb on the scale before breakfast. Tumbling pounds can be a motivation. But if you don’t need that, you can do without the stress of the scale. After all, you can see the changes in your body in the mirror.

7) Rebel against my family nagging

If you lose weight, you are not doing it for them. They aren’t going to benefit. People aren’t going to look at them differently when they go out, their health is not going to improve if you lose weight, all of those things are things that you will benefit from. So stop being a rebellious teenager that just ends up sabotaging themselves.

The bottom line is that you might be making these excuses, but you are lazy, and this behavior will not help you reach your goals. Make time for yourself, eat the right foods and remove the negative influences from your life that are holding you back. You have the power for authentic, super positive, life-changing progress, and you need to get over yourself. Hashtag truth, but maybe this is what you need right now. Best of luck, and I know you can do it if it’s any consolation.