Let's start with something uncomfortable.
For most of my life, I was the guy making these excuses. I believed them. I defended them. I repeated them. And when someone else said the same thing, I agreed with them.
What I didn't realize was that we were reinforcing each other's habits.
Someone would say eating healthy was too expensive, and everyone around them would agree. Someone else would say they had bad genetics, and we'd reassure them that there was nothing they could do. We'd share our reasons for not changing, validate one another, and walk away feeling better about doing absolutely nothing.
We weren't necessarily lying to each other intentionally. We were perpetuating a shared delusion.
I spent the first 35 years of my life doing this. I started at 480 pounds. I know what it's like to believe every single one of these things because I believed them myself.
So let's talk about the ten biggest lies and excuses that keep people overweight, and why it's time to stop accepting them.
1. "It costs more to eat healthy."
This one drives me crazy because it's often repeated as though it's an established fact.
Does healthy convenience food cost more? Absolutely. Prepackaged health meals, specialty protein products, and expensive diet foods can get ridiculously expensive.
But that's not what eating healthy actually requires.
Chicken, rice, beans, eggs, potatoes, vegetables, oats, and other basic ingredients are some of the most economical foods you can buy. You don't need expensive supplements, organic everything, or a refrigerator full of specialty products.
The problem is that we've confused healthy eating with expensive health food marketing.
Start with ingredients instead of products. Learn a few basic meals. Buy in bulk when it makes sense.
Eating healthy doesn't have to cost more. Sometimes it costs considerably less.
2. "I don't have time to meal prep or cook."
Really?
You have time to drive to a restaurant, wait for a table, order, eat, and drive home?
You have time to sit in a drive-through line? Wait for DoorDash? Scroll through menus trying to decide what you want?
But you don't have two or three hours a week to prepare food?
I used to make this excuse, too.
Here's the reality: A couple of hours of meal preparation can eliminate an enormous amount of daily decision-making. You can have meals ready to go for several days, and you don't have to figure out what you're eating every time you're hungry.
You don't need to become a chef. You need a few meals you know how to prepare consistently.
I'm a chef, so I enjoy cooking, but you don't have to enjoy it. You just have to recognize that feeding yourself is a responsibility.
3. "It's in my genetics."
Genetics matter. They influence appetite, fat distribution, metabolism, and your susceptibility to gaining weight.
But genetics are not a life sentence.
When I started learning about fitness and eventually became certified, I discovered something I never would have expected: I actually had genetics that favored building muscle and developing an athletic physique.
I had spent decades believing my genetics were working against me. I simply hadn't learned how to use what I had.
You might have a genetic predisposition toward gaining weight. That doesn't mean you cannot improve your fitness, build muscle, improve your health, or lose substantial amounts of body fat.
Your genetics influence your starting point. They don't automatically determine your destination.
4. "I have a disability or medical condition that prevents me."
This one needs some honesty.
There are legitimate medical conditions, injuries, disabilities, medications, and physical limitations that make weight management and exercise more difficult.
I'm not dismissing those.
But there's a tremendous difference between something making your journey more difficult and something making your journey impossible.
Thyroid disorders, spinal stenosis, joint problems, and mobility limitations deserve proper medical attention. They may require modified exercise, treatment, or professional supervision.
But many people with these conditions can still find ways to improve their health and fitness.
Look at adaptive athletes. Look at people with spinal cord injuries who participate in strength training. Look at the countless people who exercise despite physical limitations.
They aren't waiting for perfect circumstances. They're finding what works within their circumstances.
Your disability may change how you approach fitness. It doesn't automatically eliminate your ability to participate.
Stop confusing a limitation with a prohibition.
5. "I work too much, and I don't have the energy."
I used to work, come home exhausted, sit down, and convince myself I simply didn't have the energy to do anything else.
What I didn't understand was how much my physical condition was contributing to that exhaustion.
Poor sleep, excess weight, inactivity, stress, and metabolic health problems can all contribute to fatigue. Being out of shape can create a cycle where you have less energy to be active, and being less active makes it harder to improve your energy.
Exercise can help break that cycle.
You don't need to start with an hour of intense training. You don't even need a gym.
Start with a walk. Start with ten minutes. Start with something you can repeat.
You may be surprised by how much your energy changes as your fitness improves.
You don't have to wait until you have energy to start building it.
6. "I'm too depressed to work on myself."
I understand this one more than most people might realize.
Before I started my transformation, I was taking antidepressants and anti-anxiety medication.
I wasn't happy with my life, my physical condition, or the limitations I had accepted as normal.
Physical health and mental health are connected. Poor physical health can contribute to depression, and depression can make it harder to maintain healthy habits. They can reinforce each other.
Improving my physical health changed my life in ways I couldn't have anticipated.
But I want to make something clear: Depression is a legitimate medical condition. It isn't something you can simply exercise away, and nobody should discontinue prescribed medication because they're starting a fitness routine.
What I'm saying is that taking care of your physical health can become one important part of taking care of your mental health.
You don't have to wait until you're mentally in the perfect place to start making changes.
Sometimes taking that first step helps you get there.
7. "My body just doesn't burn fat."
Every person's body is different. We have different metabolisms, different energy requirements, different hormonal responses, and different genetic predispositions.
But your body absolutely can use stored fat for energy.
Fat loss generally requires a sustained calorie deficit: consuming less energy than your body uses over time.
That doesn't mean starving yourself.
In fact, an excessively aggressive deficit can make things harder. You can lose muscle, experience greater fatigue and hunger, reduce your daily activity, and make the process much more difficult to sustain.
You need an appropriate calorie target, adequate protein, sufficient nutrients, and a reasonable balance of carbohydrates and fats.
This is where nutrition education matters.
You can research your nutritional needs yourself, or work with someone who is appropriately certified in nutrition to help establish your calorie requirements and macros.
You don't need a magic metabolism. You need to understand the one you have and learn how to work with it.
8. "I can't afford weight-loss surgery or medication."
This is another one I used to believe.
We've reached a point where weight-loss medication and surgery are frequently presented as though they're the only realistic solutions to obesity.
They're not.
They can be legitimate and effective medical treatments, and some people benefit tremendously from them. But they aren't prerequisites for making progress.
I went from 480 pounds to under 300 without weight-loss drugs or surgery.
I didn't have access to some secret treatment. I didn't have a magic supplement. I didn't have someone doing the work for me.
I learned how to eat, how to exercise, how to build muscle, and how to create habits I could sustain.
You don't have to be able to afford surgery to start improving your health.
And if you need medical treatment, that doesn't make your efforts any less meaningful.
9. "Society wants me to stay fat."
Let's be honest about something.
Society isn't sitting in a room plotting to keep you overweight.
Businesses want to make money. Companies sell what people buy. Restaurants market convenient, appealing, calorie-dense food because it sells. The fitness industry sells products and services because people want solutions.
There are absolutely environmental and commercial influences that make healthy choices harder. Advertising, food availability, convenience, and pricing all matter.
But you still have decisions you can make.
You can decide what groceries you buy. You can decide what you eat most often. You can decide whether you take a walk or spend another evening on the couch.
You can also recognize that your relationship with food may have become compulsive or emotionally driven.
If food has become your primary source of comfort, reward, or stress relief, you may need to approach that relationship with the same seriousness you'd give any other destructive habit.
You cannot control every influence around you. But you can start taking ownership of the decisions within your control.
10. "I'm fat and happy."
This might be the most important one.
I used to tell myself I was happy. I'd convince myself that I was comfortable, that I didn't care what anyone thought, and that I was perfectly content with my life.
But if I was so happy, why was I constantly making excuses?
Why was I avoiding activities? Why was I uncomfortable in situations that other people didn't even think twice about? Why did something as simple as standing for more than a few minutes become a challenge?
I wasn't living the life I wanted. I had simply learned to accept the life I had.
And there's a difference.
Can someone be overweight and genuinely happy? Absolutely. Happiness isn't determined by a number on a scale.
But if you're using the phrase "I'm fat and happy" to avoid confronting something you know is making your life harder, you owe yourself some honesty.
You don't have to hate yourself to want something better for yourself.
You don't have to be miserable to justify making a change.
You just have to recognize that you deserve more than simply getting comfortable with your limitations.
Here's the part that should give you hope.
All ten of these excuses have something in common.
They make change seem impossible before you've even attempted it.
But something incredible happens when you finally take that first step.
You start learning how to prepare meals, and suddenly the expense and inconvenience of eating healthy become much less intimidating.
You start exercising, and eventually you have more energy to do the things you used to avoid.
You begin understanding nutrition, and food stops being a guessing game.
You start getting stronger, moving better, and accomplishing things you previously thought were out of reach.
The obstacles don't necessarily disappear overnight. Some require medical attention, accommodations, or ongoing support. But you begin discovering solutions instead of collecting reasons why you can't.
And perhaps most importantly, you start developing a relationship with yourself that isn't built around disappointment and broken promises.
I spent the first 35 years of my life believing every excuse on this list. I started at 480 pounds. I had convinced myself that this was simply how my life was going to be.
Today, I'm under 300 pounds.
I didn't use drugs. I didn't have surgery. I didn't have some extraordinary advantage that suddenly appeared.
I finally decided to stop accepting the reasons I had been giving myself.
I started with one step. Then another. And eventually, those steps became a completely different life.
I have a body that no longer feels like it's betraying me every day. I can walk distances I never imagined walking. I can do things that used to be completely out of reach.
I have a life I genuinely didn't think was possible a year ago.
And I want other people to experience that.
That's one of the reasons I started Phoenix Training.
I don't want people to spend decades believing the same things I believed. I want to help people understand their bodies, learn how to take care of themselves, and discover what they're capable of.
So stop lying to yourself.
Stop making excuses. Stop enabling your own habits, and stop enabling the habits of the people around you.
You don't need to hate where you are to want something better. You don't need to have everything figured out. You don't need to be perfect.
You just need to stop convincing yourself that you can't.
Your life is still yours to change.
It's time to start living it.
Phoenix Training | Rise From Where You Are.
If you're ready to start but don't know where to begin, reach out. I'm happy to help you figure out your nutrition, fitness, and a realistic starting point. You don't have to figure everything out alone.
