New Year’s Resolutions Starting Early?
I was at my gym this morning (the day after Christmas) and it was packed!! That doesn’t normally happen until the day after New Year’s. Usually, the first three weeks of January at my YMCA (and probably gyms all over the United States) are awful — no parking, overcrowded childcare, waits for treadmills, etc. Then around Jan. 21, it goes back to normal. So I’m wondering if people are making their New Year’s resolutions early.
Speaking of resolutions, quoters of statistics often say that a full 30 percent of New Year’s resolutions are broken by the end of January. This article says that less than 30 percent of New Year’s resolutions ever achieve success. If the waning crowds at my YMCA in late January are any indication, these numbers are probably pretty accurate.
So what can you do to make your New Year’s resolution stick? I’ve put a few links at the end of this post to some articles that I think are worth reading on this topic. Last year, I took a friend’s advice and made some SMART goals, which I wrote about here. I don’t think the approach worked any better for me, but I’m going to try it again this year. I really, really, really need to incorporate some strength training/toning into my exercise routine. I run ALOT because I love it. It’s my “drug of choice.” But I keep getting flabbier and flabbier. Running doesn’t tone and it doesn’t make you stronger — it simply burns calories and gets those endorphins flowing.
My husband, teen and I also are doing a weight-loss challenge. I won’t share any numbers, but each of us is trying to lose 5 percent of our body weight. The first one to the goal gets a $50 mall gift card, paid for by the other two. We’re still working out the details of this challenge, but I’m hoping we can keep each other accountable.
I will say this — my most successful New Year’s Resolutions have been the ones that I’ve really thought through and written down IN DETAIL. That’s linked to the whole SMART goals thing, and I neglected to do that last year. So, before January 1, I’m going to write down the details regarding how I’m going to go about achieving my New Year’s resolutions this year. How about you?
Additional New Year’s resolutions articles/posts:
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