I don’t want to exercise. I just don’t. The treadmill is steps away from me. It would take all of 17 seconds to put my shoes on, and just walk.

Instead, I stand in my kitchen scrolling through my Facebook feed, and when I look up, I’ve wasted ten minutes, which is ten minutes I could have spent walking. Which is a whole lot better than zero minutes.

The really silly thing is, I know I would actually enjoy it if I just started. I have a great playlist, I know I feel really energetic and happy afterwards, but for the life of me, I can not make myself just start walking.

So instead, here are my top 5 reasons for not going for a walk…

Googling the perfect exercise plan so that I can then not do it

If I’m going to go to the effort of exercising, I want to make sure I’m doing the workout of all workouts, so I make the most of my time. I’m busy, you know? I might only have fifteen minutes in a day for exercise, so I have to be well informed!

And then, I’m going to download the exercise plan, and then stare at it on my desktop, feeling a huge sense of accomplishment for how great it will be when I do this.

Which, of course, I won’t do, because I will realise that decluttering my Tupperwear supplies is far more important.

2: I have to have an amazing diet to go with it

Lets face it, everyone knows that being healthy is 90% diet, 10% exercise. So I need to get my diet perfect first. I should shop at the farmers market. Hey, you know what would be great? My own vegetable garden- fresh organic produce straight from my yard.

Lets see, what can you plant this time of year? In fact, where could I even have a garden? Better Google crop rotation.

Then, instead of doing anything about any of this, I’ll just grab groceries from the supermarket, making sure I’m hungry when I go, so that I fill my trolley with ice cream and chocolate.

3: I should probably get new shoes

They are a few years old now, didn’t I read somewhere that it’s really bad to not replace runners every year? I’ll go get some new ones on the weekend, and then invite a friend to meet me for coffee while I’m at it, multitasking!

Except I’ll then feel weird about getting the runners while she’s there, because I don’t really want to have that conversation about why I’m buying them, am I trying to lose weight…. Well, just coffee is a good plan! I haven’t seen her in ages, I’m a bad friend, better put aside a few good hours to really catch up.

4: I don’t have enough containers

 My decluttered Tupperwear supplies means I kept only the nice new ones, I should really get some more- ones I can use to dish out perfect portions for meals and snacks. Lets see, surely there’s a forum somewhere that will tell me the best containers to get.

While I’m at it, if I’m going to be cooking healthy meals I really need a new non-stick fry pan. I wonder if there are any exciting healthy cooking classes I could sign up for?

Wait, doesn’t my car need a service this month? I’ll just start all this next month with my next pay.

5: I have to wait until the other half isn’t here

Because, if he sees me get on that treadmill, he’s going to comment on it- something along the lines of “well, well, well, finally using that treadmill that you absolutely had to have but has been collecting dust in our living room for the past four months…”

Yeah, better to wait until he’s out.

So there it is, one fantastic list of ways my brain was creatively procrastinating, which has made me feel like I’ve made great progress on my health and fitness, while actually doing absolutely nothing.

If, like me, you struggle to get yourself in the right headspace sometimes, why not check out the mindset workshops offered at OnTrack as part of the proven program.