In my quest to optimize health options for my patients and encourage proper nutrition, fitness, and lifestyle choices, I came to the realization that many have substantial barriers to making optimal choices leading to success. Numerous barriers exist such as time, kids, work, finances, injury, momentum, etc. Like all scientific processes however, I want to collect specific data. I’d like your help in determining the top 10 barriers to better health and fitness.
I counsel patients a great deal on specific goal setting, or as I call it, GOAL TENDING. I believe that if we can identify a problem, we 
can develop and implement specific small goals to overcome stagnation.
Achieving goals builds momentum.
Momentum leads to change. Change leads to improvement if the goals are so intended.
Please forward to as many friends, family, and co-workers so we can gather as much data as possible.
Remember it’s a scientific process, I’m going to catalog the responses, sort and determine trends. Thanks in advance!
Comment by Maria M. Thorne
Wow, as I am typing these they all just sound like excuses, but I am curious to see where this goes, so here are some barriers that I came up with in no particular order:
1. fat genes!
2. old habits are hard to change
3. conflicting dietary information is everywhere
4. slow or no progress with weight loss results in lack of motivation
5. hectic lifestyles, lack of time
6. money
7. exhaustion
8. pain
9. feeling like there is no one to reach out to
10. underestimating one’s own abilities.
Comment by David Francis
I’m addicted to sugar! And I justify it because I exercise a lot but I know that it will come back to bite me in the long run. And now for my excuse…My wife brings home or bakes the sweets and then I end up eating them all. It’s all her fault 🙂
Hmmm, this is interesting. What are my barriers? Like Maria, they really just sound like excuses. But, here they are. Also, in no particular order. I hope this helps your project.
1. STAYING motivated
2. lack of weight loss success leads to discouragement
3. who is right? what IS the right way to eat to achieve success
4. not allowing family stress to influence my eating (emotional eater)
5. eating right takes more work, leading to burnout
6. plain lazy, don’t want to do the work and convincing myself I am okay the way I am
7. it runs in the family, my mom and her sisters are all heavy, why should I be exempt from that
8. old knee injury that just acts up sometimes, (like I said, an excuse because the doctor told me to exercise and strengthen it to make it stronger.)
9. affordability – exercise programs AND healthy food at the grocery
10. feeling pretty much alone in the process. I live out in the country. Exercise is going to have to take place at home. It is not cost-effective for me to drive 30+ minutes somewhere to work out and drive home. I homeschool, so that option does not fit into our day.
Thanks for the feedback. I’ll categorize these comments and continue to add them to my totals. For several of your barriers it seems time constraints and motivation ranked high. Read through a recent blog on Goal Tending. I firmly believe change becomes “impossible” because the process is too big. Small gradual steps towards larger goals pays off. https://nrgtribe.com/goal-tending-2/
We’re here to help!!
Thanks for submitting we at the Tribe look forward to hearing from you!
Like others who have posted comments, my barriers seem like excuses. I agree that slow or no progress on weight loss is discouraging. It is hard to do the work of eating right when nothing changes noticeably. Social occasions with friends put temptations in the way. They seem to eat whatever they want, wherever they want, but I have limited choices. I still want to have time with friends, but eating out leads to poor choices too often. I have increased my exercise level, but it is not evident at this point if any change in my body shape is happening. My belly seems to be larger rather than smaller. It seems as though the underlying muscle on my belly is stronger, but there is still a layer of fat on top of it that won’t budge. Belly fat is the worst. The comments about conflicting diet advice are a ditto from me. I used to subscribe to Prevention Magazine. I dropped it when I got frustrated with the various conflicting articles and advice on weight loss. It seems everyone has a opinion about it, but no one has a solution for it. One month it is a low-fat diet. The next month it is a high-protein diet which includes lots of meat. It is confusing. Trends seem to wave back and forth like a pendulum.