The Anti-Resolution

So it's here again: New Year's Resolution time.  Gyms will swell with new exercisers.  Classes will be packed to capacity.  Janet Jackson, Jennifer Hudson, and Mariah Carey beckon to us from commercials to come try their preferred method of weight loss.  It's a new year and the time has come when a lot of folks will resolve to make a new start on their health and fitness.

The problem with New Year's resolutions I've found is the negative stigma they hold.   In the bad ole days, I'd go off Roman style during the holidays, eating whatever I wanted and telling myself in the back of my mind that it was okay because January 1 was coming for me to redeem myself with a new outlook on eating and exercise.  Then, after ringing in the New Year, resolution time would rear its ugly head and I would become resentful...all that fire and fury I'd been storing up towards changing my life would pilfer out in another unsuccessful attempt.

Last year at this time I decided to not make a New Year's resolution but to instead head into 2011 with resolve to maintain my new healthy lifestyle.  And let me tell you, some amazing things can happen in a year if you just keep one foot in front of the other, moving always forward.  In the twelve months that were 2011, I completed my first two hour Zumba marathon, flipped a 367 pound tire in 100 degree heat 18 times, did my first 5K and was in the gym five days a week, every week.  And those were just the high lights.  There were many other small but amazing victories along the way that made every sore muscle worth it.

So what I'm going to do to start 2012 is to not make a resolution, but rather to move forward with resolution. It's a kind of anti-new years resolution because most of the time those don't last.  What does bring lasting change is the satisfaction that putting in the work every day and doing what is good for your body gives you.