Hey, everyone! This is your Slim Body Coach, Josh Bezoni, with this week’s Slim Body Minute. And first I want to start off by saying that I am really excited. I am excited because in the eight days prior to July 4, I set a goal of losing five pounds in eight days. I had recently gained weight because of a family vacation--I guess you could call it--and I achieved that goal. So I lost five pounds in eight days before July 4, and dozens of other people worked with me and they also achieved this goal of losing five pounds before July 4. And I just want to congratulate everyone who got involved, and I know everyone is really proud of themselves for losing the weight and for taking action, and I am also proud of them. So I wanted to start off this week’s Slim Body Minute with that information. And if you look in my journal you can see exactly how I went about doing that and what I was eating and how I was exercising and what supplements I was taking and all of that good stuff.

So with that in mind, moving on to the next piece of news here--last week’s winner. I asked everyone to write in Slim Body Coach, either in the journal or in the forum, and let me know your specific weight loss goal because it is so important to have your weight loss goal written down. If you do not know what you are trying to achieve, most people never achieve it. And with that in mind, here is what “LPNBrown50” is her screen name, wrote. She wrote, “Hello, my name is Mary. I just listened to your goal of losing five pounds in eight days. Well, my short-term goal is to lose three to four pounds per week for the next two months. That is a total of 24 to 32 pounds in two months’ time. I plan on doing this by keeping a food diary. I plan on using your Slim Body Matrix Shakes. I plan on exercising for one hour in the mornings and then for 30 minutes in the evenings. I plan on watching my portion size more closely. I plan on drinking my eight to ten glasses of water per day and to include resistance training in my exercise routine. I also plan on using your Slim Body XP supplement on a daily basis. Then I plan on slowing down for one week and starting my vigorous routine again and keep repeating this process throughout until June 2007. My long-term goal is to lose 192 pounds by the end of June 2007. I currently weigh 340 pounds. My goal weight is 145 pounds. That means I have to lose an average of 16.25 pounds per month. I am committed to quit hiding behind all of this fat and start taking care of me for a change. I am an R.N., which is a registered nurse, and I have worked practically my whole life taking care of everyone else but me. I am now 50 years old and I think it is time to stop making excuses. I know if I do not do something I will not be here much longer. Signed, Mary A. Brown.” And that is really powerful. And she really spent a lot of time breaking down exactly what she wanted to accomplish and why and how she was going to do it. Just having a goal is not enough. You have to have a plan also. And you can get a plan for free by getting my Slim Body Secrets ebook, which is found at SlimBodyCoach.com. So with that in mind, Mary wins $50.00 in GNS products, any product she wants. And in just a minute I am going to give you information on how you can be this week’s winner to win $50.00 in GNS products.

So with that in mind, I am moving on to this week’s Slim Body Minute. And I want to start off by basically reading you something. It is just a quick little sentence here. And it says the only thing standing between you and your weight loss goals are the excuses you come up with for not making these goals. So, again, the only thing standing between you and your Slim Body goals are the excuses you come up with for not having them--now that is really, really important. And this week’s Slim Body Minute is all about excuses and rationalizations. You see, I have been doing this for a long time. I have been doing this for 15-plus years. And I have heard every excuse in the book. And I have probably used every excuse in the book when I was trying to lose weight and when I am trying to lose weight. It is amazing how we will come up with excuses and really keep ourselves from our weight loss goals. And here are some of the excuses I often hear. Here is the primary one, “I have bad genetics, everyone in my family is overweight.” A lot of people use that as an excuse, and then they eat whatever they want and they do not exercise, and they do not take supplements. And they use that as an excuse. And the fact is, they could be in great shape no matter what their genetics. Here is another one, “I am already doing everything right and I cannot lose weight, so why even try.” I have heard that so many times in the past. It is about ready to drive me crazy when I hear it because when I work with these people I found out that they are hardly doing anything right. They are not eating the correct portions. They are not combining their foods properly. They are not exercising. They are not being consistent. They might exercise for three or four days, and then they quit. And then they do it again for a day, and then they quit. And it keeps going back and forth so they are not being consistent--and so that is an excuse.

And, again, if you need a plan to follow, go to SlimBodySecrets.com--my free ebook. I am going through menopause is another excuse. I just quit smoking is another excuse for gaining weight or for not losing weight. The truth is when you go through menopause and you quit smoking your metabolism does slow down. So what you have to do is, you have to counter react that. You have to stop eating junk food or high calorie foods, replace it with nutrient dense, healthy foods. And you have to start doing tricks to speed up your metabolism like exercising first thing in the morning on an empty stomach. And there are dozens of tricks you can use to speed up your metabolism in my ebook. So those are excuses, I have seen people go through menopause and be in better shape than they were beforehand. I have seen people quit smoking and gain or lose weight--so it is all excuses.

Here is another excuse--I do not have time. Well, one thing that is equal in all of our lives is time. We all have the same amount of time in a day, and it is all in how you use it. And saying you do not have a lot of time is a big excuse. I see people that watch a lot of television, or talk on the phone a lot, or work on the computer a lot, and the truth is that if you are watching TV or wasting time you can always exercise during that TV time. And there are a lot of other times where a little time management could go a long ways. Besides, even 15 to 20 minutes of exercise a day, first thing in the morning if you just get up a little earlier, is the best thing you can do. Another little area here another excuse is--I am destined to be overweight. That is not true. And here are some other excuses or rationalizations that keep all of us from getting the body we want. People say, “I exercised today so I can go off my eating program and treat myself.” Well, that is not true. A lot of people when you exercise you burn a couple hundred calories if you did it intensely. But then when they treat themselves they take on two, or three, or four, or five times the number of calories they just burned. So I have used that excuse before, too. I have said, “Man, I had a really great workout today. I deserve to treat myself.” Well, we have treated ourselves in the past. That is what got us overweight.

So now we need to show a little discipline and treat ourselves by not overeating. That is really a treat, because the biggest treat is at the end of the rainbow when we lose all of the weight and we feel great about ourselves and we have more energy and we feel attractive and we are healthier. So treat yourself by not overeating on junk food. Here is another one, another excuse or rationalization I get--I do not need to prepare, plan or track my eating and exercise program, I can get results just by winging it. And I have talked about this in the past, and this is so untrue. If you fail to plan, plan to fail. And that is so true. If you just go through your eating and exercise program and wing it you will not get the kind of results you can get if you plan ahead of time, have your food ready ahead of time, follow a program like my Slim Body Secrets and track your results at SlimBodyCoach.com, in the eating and activity tracker. You hold yourself accountable, and it is so important. The next one is, “I feel fine being overweight. It really does not bother me.” I have heard people say that in the past too, but then I also see them buying products to lose weight and I see them starting and stopping diets. So they are really just being dishonest with themselves. Their extra body fat really does bother them. And it is better to just realize that it does and use that frustration to propel you to lose the weight.

Here is another one when people have followed my plan in the past. They say, “I can change the plan dramatically and still get the same results.” So, for example, instead of having five mini meals a day they just eat two. And instead of exercising daily, they just exercise twice a week. And instead of taking the supplements as recommended on the bottle, they just take them every other day. And then they send me an email and say, “Josh, it is not working.” Well, if you do not follow the plan of course it is not going to work. It is like if you are following directions on a map and you do not follow the direction you are not going to end up getting to where you want to go.

The next excuse I often get is, “I can skip exercise today and do more tomorrow.” I hear that all of the time. And then what happens, is over a month’s period they have missed 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 12, 15 exercise sessions and they are not getting results. So do not make that excuse. Another one I hear is, “I will start tomorrow or when it is more convenient.” You know, a lot of us get busy. And that is life. That is what happens. But there is really no better time to start then now because life is never going to get any more less busy, let’s put it that way. You know, we think oh, in a couple of months the kids will be back in school and then I will start then. Well, the truth is that you will be super busy then with school activities, as well, or, if you are waiting for the football season to get over if you are a guy, something else is going to take its place. So, might as well start now. Procrastinate on procrastinating is what I always say. Successful people do what unsuccessful people will not--that is important, and I want to read that again. Successful people do what unsuccessful people will not. And when it comes to weight loss that means being consistent about following a plan. Here is another important thing to remember. People say as an excuse that they do not need support or motivation to lose weight. And that is the biggest fallacy out there. The truth is that you need a whole lot of support and a whole lot of motivation to reach your weight loss goals. So that is why I send out these Slim Body Minutes, to give you the inspiration and motivation and support you need and the knowledge you need to be successful because I really want you to be successful. And that is why the people who are having the most success with this program are also getting involved at SlimBodyCoach.com. They are chatting with other people in the forums and in the journals across the country and they are getting a lot of support and motivation that way. So I encourage you to do that.

Your assignment this week, and everyone who does this little assignment their name will be thrown in a hat for $50.00 worth of GNS products. So there is a little motivation there for you to get involved. And it is to click on the link below that either goes to my journal and my forum and write down three of your favorite weight loss excuses or rationalizations. You know, I have named a lot of them here. And once you write these down and realize that you do have weight loss excuses and rationalizations you can make a promise to yourself to stop using them. Stop making excuses like, “I will exercise tomorrow”, or “I exercised today so I can treat myself by overeating”, and all of these other excuses we use. So write down and really think about it--What are three of your favorite often used weight loss excuses. And once you do that, your name will be thrown in the hat for $50.00 worth of GNS supplements. I really appreciate your time, as always, and I do believe in you and I believe that you can make this weight loss transformation and feel better about yourself. And that is what I am here to help you do. So with all of that information, I went a little long today, but I hope you enjoyed this Slim Body Minute, and I will talk to you soon. Take care.

Post your three favorite often-used weight loss excuses at the Slim Body Coach Forum by clicking here.

Or at the Slim Body Coach Journal by clicking here.