The Excuse Detox: How to Finally Make Your Health a Priority
From procrastination to transformation: A step-by-step guide to prioritizing wellness.
It’s over a week into 2025 already! Are you still ticking all the boxes you promised yourself you will do in 2025 every single day? Or have you fallen off the wagon already?
I used to tell clients, “Don’t make a change unless you can make it your lifestyle.”
The logic seemed airtight. Why set yourself up for failure? If your job has you working late into the night, promising yourself you'll eat dinner before sunset feels like a trap waiting to spring. So, the advice was simple: Don’t fight against the tide of your lifestyle. Work with it.
But then, the more client calls I took, the more I realized how easily our thoughts can fool us.
People were using their “lifestyle” as a cover story for bad habits.
"I'm too busy."
"I don't have a cook."
"Carrying food to work? Impossible."
What I realized is that our minds are the greatest storytellers. They spin narratives so compelling that we believe them without question. You’ll convince yourself that your situation is uniquely impossible, and that change is a luxury only other people can afford.
But here’s the thing: Nutritional laws don’t care about your excuses.
If you eat late at night, you’re opening the door for chronic diseases to come waltzing in.
If you sleep late, your circadian rhythm goes off-key, and guess what happens? You wake up feeling like a zombie, diving headfirst into sugar cravings by 11 AM. It’s science, not a suggestion.
So now, I’ve flipped the narrative.
My advice has evolved: Make healthy changes and find a way to make them your new lifestyle. Period. No arguments. No negotiations.
The Art of Non-Negotiables
Think about it this way: If your boss tells you a report is due at 5 PM, you don’t argue. You don’t list excuses. You deliver. Why? Because it’s non-negotiable. Now imagine if your health had the same priority.
If your job keeps you late, then hire someone to cook and deliver meals to your workplace.
If your mornings are a chaotic blur, prep your breakfast the night before.
The point is: Your health is not a side hustle. Treat it like your main gig, because without it, there is no gig.
Eating before sunset? Non-negotiable.
Getting 7-8 hours of sleep? Non-negotiable.
Moving your body every day? You guessed it—non-negotiable.
But My Life Is Different…
I hear you. Your life is uniquely busy. Your challenges are extraordinarily complex. And yet, the laws of biology don’t have special clauses for your situation.
If you’re too busy to cook, technology and services have made it easier than ever to outsource meal prep. If you can binge an entire Netflix series, you can spend 20 minutes preparing meals for the next day. If you’re scrolling through social media in bed, you can—brace yourself—turn out the lights and go to sleep instead.
The Quirk of Change
Here’s the funny thing about change: The hardest part is deciding it’s non-negotiable. Once you do that, your mind stops playing tricks on you. The excuses evaporate. Solutions appear.
You’ll realize that eating before sunset doesn’t require a lifestyle overhaul—just a little planning. Going to bed early doesn’t make you boring; it makes you functional. And bringing food to work isn’t a hassle; it’s an investment in your future self.
Takeaway
Stop asking if you can make a change. Ask how you’ll make it happen. Decide what’s non-negotiable and work backward from there. You’ll be amazed at how adaptable your “lifestyle” becomes when you stop letting it boss you around.
Your health is not a nice-to-have. It’s a must-have. Treat it like one.
Trust this helps!