Just LUCKY
“You are so lucky to have time to work out. I wish that I wasn’t so busy so that I could work out too.” This is a statement that a friend of mine said to me on the phone a couple of days ago.
Although this wasn’t the first time I heard a comment like this from a friend, I couldn’t help but get a little irritated by it for a couple of reasons. This friend works a 9-5 job at an insurance company. She’s married, but has no children. She enjoys her job and is financially stable. She always tells me how she desires to be fit. In fact, over the past couple of years, she’s jumped into fitness programs a few times, but has never stuck with a regimen for very long- often citing that she just doesn’t have the time. Along with these “no time” complaints, she often tells me what happened at last night’s Happy Hour and on her late-night sitcoms. From our conversations, I’ve also gathered that she has plenty of time for reading and watching the latest celebrity gossip . She says that her job and her responsibilities, like the scrap booking club meetings she hosts, consume too much of her time. The way she chooses to spend her free time is not a concern of mine- it is completely her business. This is not what bugs me at all. The irritating factor is that she calls me “lucky” for having the “time” to workout. The truth is my consistency in training has nothing to do with a surplus of free time at my disposal. While I’m not married and have no kids, I don’t have a carefree life with tons of “time” on my hands. In fact, in order to workout before going to work (where I put in 12+ hour days), I often wake up before 4 am. In addition, over the past couple of months, I’ve moved to a new city in a different state, bought my first house, and started a new job. Yet, despite the long hours at work and all of the stressful and time-consuming changes in my life, I’ve kept my training consistent, working out 6-7 days a week. In light of these circumstances, I feel that I am just as busy as her. That is why I became frustrated at the comment.
However, after the conversation was over, I did some thinking and I came to a conclusion of sorts. What I decided is that she probably made the comment to help herself feel better about the fact that I work out consistently and she doesn’t. Calling me lucky to have the “time” makes my workouts a function of good fortune rather than deliberate hard work, dedication, and prioritization. This conclusion eased the frustration I was experiencing. That being said, my irritation could be have been avoided if she had said I was lucky to have the determination, dedication, and desire necessary to maintain my training regimen rather than just the “time” for it.
September 11, 2007 at 1:20 pm
AMEN - It is your dedication to your body and health that allows you to find the time.
I don’t understand people that can’t find the time. I work 10 hours a day and am often called at night. I go to school in the evenings and still manage to get to the gym 5 days a week.
People just love to make excuses instead of results. You just keep doing what your doing.
September 11, 2007 at 1:46 pm
you’re dead-on in your assessment. BTW: you’re lucky to have that kind of insight
maybe just lucky all around lol
September 11, 2007 at 4:29 pm
I used to let these kinds of things frustrate me as well until I realized something. People prioritize and do those things they WANT to do. Everyone makes trade offs. If you trade your fitness for the book club, your favorite sitcom, or sleepy time then I’m fine with that. Everyone’s priorities are different.
September 11, 2007 at 7:16 pm
Yet another blog to comment on:) Well, you know nursenic, I hear that all the time. Believe it or not I used to be in a lot better shape. I use to constantly get that. People swear that they don’t have the time to workout, but you can analyze their lives and find plenty of time. Of course they don’t want to hear that! I actually became one of those people and when I looked back, I realized that they were all excuses! That’s all it is excuses, excuses, excuses….I had 21 hours of class last semester plus ROTC activities and traveling back and forth to see my hubby and I can still think of time where I could have worked out!
September 11, 2007 at 10:50 pm
Your friend made that statement without even asking for the facts….Ignorance is bliss! And I can’t suppose I would waste another moment trying to analyze what could possibly be going on in her head. She’s justified to herself as to why she doesn’t workout….and in order to make herself feel better, she has made certain assumptions about you….Things must be peaceful in her world.
September 12, 2007 at 7:05 am
I used to think I didn’t have time and put working out off for other things. The result was that I stopped working out for about 14 yrs. I started again about a year and a half ago. I come home from work and work out 6 days a week, and also cardiac on Sundays, so actually 7 days. I let nothing stop me, except for funerals, or things like that. In order to be successful, the work out has to come first, and everything else has to wait or not be done. In the year and a half I’ve only missed 4 workouts, and the results have really paid off. I’m 55 lbs lighter and my strength has greatly improved among other benefits. Either make the time or don’t even bother thinging about starting. If you decide to skip a workout to go out with friends, or because you just don’t feel like it, or whatever, you’ll skip one, then two, and soon you won’t be working out at all because you will think you have "no time".
By the way, your blog is very good nursenic.
September 12, 2007 at 7:27 pm
those who are unmotivated and unwilling to change their "normal" life styles will never experience anything new or reach any goals in life. If you want something you will MAKE time. Obviously it sounds like excuses which I hear all the time from people I know.
September 12, 2007 at 7:41 pm
Lucky? Heck No! Determined!!! Good for you! *smile*
~DawnMelanie
September 16, 2007 at 8:35 pm
she’s lazy…period, lol. OR, she doesn’t really want to be fit!
September 16, 2007 at 8:44 pm
heh,
I am married with two kids. I give up my lunch hour every day so that I can take my kids from their regular school to Japanese school. My sons soccer practice starts at 3 pm Wed. & Fri. where I take him and pick him up at 5 pm. We (the wife & I) help or kids with homework and still manage to get a hot cooked meal on the table nightly. I generally don’t leave for the gym until 8 pm when the kids are getting ready for bed. I have no time or patience for people that tell me they don’t have time to work out.
Frankly, I think they are full of baloney! I have time because I make time…
Good for you for being dedicated.
Aloha,
Don
September 17, 2007 at 2:13 pm
Hi Nursenic,
I hate when people say that! I am married with no kids yet but I have friends who have 2 or 3 kids who say "oh you are so lucky, you don’t have any kids so you have all of the free time in the world to workout" or your thin you don’t need to workout anyway or you can eat whatever you want and not gain a pound. It is so annoying! and I completely understand where you are coming from. It would be nice to hear them say something nice but instead all I hear are complaints about how frustrated they are with their body. I think it is just a way for them to make themselves feel better and make me feel like crap. Just keep up the good work because your new progress pics look great!
September 27, 2007 at 8:07 am
Yep, Thats an excuse. My job is be a work 0530 get home about 1700-1730 Gym 1800-1930 get home about 2000 that gives me about 2 hrs to relax and go to bed. No excuse
October 1, 2007 at 11:05 am
Lucky? Hmmm if the president can find time to work out why can’t any of us? This isn’t meant as political statement, it is just a fact the W works out everyday for at least 1 hour. So if he can do why can’t we all. Just a matter of priorities, your friends are not on fitness, and yours are!