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Summary
On episode 368 of 40+ Fitness, Coach Allan goes solo to call out the lies we tell ourselves at every stage of the wellness journey: getting started, staying on track, and even after we succeed.
He breaks the lies into three groups. Getting-started lies delay action (“I’ll start tomorrow,” blaming genetics, avoiding weights for fear of “bulking up,” using an injury as a blanket excuse, or believing you have to exercise to lose weight). On-the-journey lies excuse backsliding, from “this time is different” without any real change, to treating one cookie as an excuse to blow the whole day, to rewarding a hard workout with a food “treat” that erases the benefit.
Success-stage lies are just as damaging: believing a number on the scale will finally make you happy, calling yourself a failure the moment progress slows on a plateau, or assuming a goal reached means the journey is over. Allan’s angle throughout is self-awareness: you cannot fix a lie you have not noticed yourself telling.
Links
- https://40plusfitness.com
Key Takeaways
- “I’ll start tomorrow” is a lie. There is no better time than right now. Pushing your start date to Monday, the first of the month, or “after this trip” is just a way of avoiding the decision you have already made in your head.
- Genetics are not why you are overweight. Some people are built to carry more body fat than others, and real medical issues like thyroid problems or medications can drive weight gain, but no one is genetically destined to be obese. Everyone has the genetic potential to be healthy, fit, and happy.
- “I don’t lift because I’ll get bulky” does not hold up. Without performance-enhancing drugs, without training at a bodybuilder’s intensity, and especially after 40 when the body’s muscle-building potential drops, significant bulk is not a realistic outcome. Lifting protects muscle mass, bone density, and strength, all core to staying well.
- An injury rarely rules out training entirely. Even a doctor’s restriction on leg work still leaves walking, the elliptical, cycling, or upper-body lifting on the table. Most of the time the injury is not the real barrier, the lack of motivation is, so work around it instead of using it as a blanket excuse.
- You do not have to work out to lose weight. Allan points to Todd, a guest who lost over 323 pounds through diet alone because his body could not tolerate exercise at the time. Training supports weight loss, but you will never out-exercise a bad diet, since burning back a single fast food meal takes an absurd amount of exercise.
- One cookie does not blow the whole day. Each food decision is independent. Donuts at the office have nothing to do with what you order at dinner. Treating one slip as permission to keep sliding turns a single decision into a lost weekend.
- A treat after a good workout is not a reward, it is a setback. Congratulating yourself for a hard training session with dessert or a favorite snack cancels out the progress the workout just created, even though it does not feel that way in the moment.
- A plateau is not failure, and reaching a goal is not the finish line. Slower progress is a normal part of climbing, not proof you have stalled for good, and quitting is the only thing that actually makes you a failure. Once you hit a goal, pick a new challenge instead of assuming the work is done, since old habits creep back fast once you stop paying attention.