The Christmas celebrations are over, the big sale shopping day after Christmas is in full swing, and next up is New Year’s celebrations. I could never quite understand the big sale after Christmas thing where people buy gifts for Christmas 2020 because of a great low price. I am one of those individuals where the week before is almost early shopping for gifts. Buying one entire year early and finding someplace to store them — and remembering where you hid them — is a real challenge.
The one thing that always appears the last week of the year is making New Year’s resolutions. There are articles in newspapers, magazines, on television, in the comic strips, and idle conversations where people ask each other what they made for resolutions for this year. Some people take the idea of starting the New Year with a fresh outlook as a reason for making New Year’s resolutions. A large majority of people make resolutions that will be forgotten in two weeks. But, there is always a chance that maybe this year will be different and the changes mentioned in the resolution will make the coming year a better one.
Reports mention that the majority of resolutions are health related. These include things such as stopping smoking, easing up on alcohol consumption, going to the gym for a workout, losing weight, and running a marathon this year. Resolutions like this are very beneficial and go a long way toward a healthy year. The major problem is that many of the “bad habits,” such as smoking, are addictions and very difficult to change. Even changing from a sedentary lifestyle to a more active lifestyle, like going to the gym, or running every day, is a lot harder than it sounds. A good example of changing lifestyle from sedentary to active is when a person buys a piece of exercise equipment for Christmas and thinks that this is the best way to become active. The stationary bike, or weight set, or treadmill, is right there in plain sight every day for you to use. How successful this method is for changing to an active lifestyle is best demonstrated by spring garage sales. You can now buy that piece of exercise equipment at a rock bottom price. I have even been given an abdominal exercise apparatus for free if I will just take it away. I have an Olympic weight set of over 300 pounds, an exercise bench, dumbbells, and racks for weights for around $40. The New Year’s resolutions for many individuals turn into “White Elephants” taking up space and reminding that person that they need to use the equipment. The guilt of seeing, and not using, the equipment is best served as a garage sale item.
The best way to succeed at changing to an active lifestyle is to find a partner that is already in an active lifestyle. They will be active whether you come along or not. They will call you and set a time to meet with you for a run or workout. The gym versus home workout is best resolved by the fact the gym does not have fridges, television shows, telephones, and other forms of disruptions. The only people at the gym are working out and expect you to follow along. Having a person that is knowledgeable about lifting weights, and can do a demonstration of how to do an exercise correctly so you don’t get injured, is a real benefit. Gym owners that sell a person a year’s membership say that the average length of time that people quit going to the gym is less than two months. Those that have a personal trainer, or a training partner, have the best chance of succeeding. After a period of three months, a person will see dramatic changes in fitness and will have the best chance of staying with that New Year’s resolution they made back in January.
For runners, the hardest part is the first mile. It continues to be hard until three miles. Once a person gets to the point that they can run three miles it becomes much easier. To step up from three miles to five miles is much easier than trying to get to that first three-mile distance. After being able to run five miles the idea of entering a 10K race is not that intimidating. A few 10K races under your belt, and the half marathon distance becomes an achievable challenge to think about. As with the training partner at the gym, the same is true with having a partner in running as the best way to make it work. I was “tricked” into running the first Capital 10,000 by a co-worker. After the race, he suggested we try a marathon next. I told him as politely as I could that was never going to happen. But, as a running partner, I went along with his runs as he trained for his marathon. Without even realizing it I was soon running distances of 10-12 miles. He ran the Dallas White Rock Marathon in December and next thing I knew I was registered to run the Houston Marathon in January. That is the effect that a training partner can have on succeeding on any fitness New Year’s resolution.
The key to any resolution you make is how serious are you about the resolution. If you really want to change to a healthy lifestyle then lay the groundwork to make sure it happens. It may not be as easy to keep that resolution as it was to write it down on paper, but the end result will be well worth the time and effort.
