It is resolution season and everywhere you look there are people spouting off about how this year they will be <fill in the blank with resolution no one will actually keep>. I mean people have the best intentions to keep their resolutions and actually make positive changes in their lives, but how many people actually manage to do what they resolve to do. It is a lovely idea that has really bad follow through.
The one resolution that always seems to be screamed the loudest is the one for eating right and getting fit in the new year. Something about January first and coming off the carb and sugar fest of the holidays makes everyone diet and fitness crazy. Everyone says they are going to work out and lose weight. It is a thing.
Going to the gym at this time of year is just insane. My normally busy gym is now packed with people who will come religiously for about a month and then not resurface again until next January. Not that I really have room to talk, I haven't been to the gym since like August. Still I know that if I were to go tonight after work I would stand and wait to use any of the machines.
All in all I find it annoying. There is nothing that makes me want to sit on my couch and eat an entire pizza and pint of ice cream by myself more than being swamped with people talking about losing weight and being healthy. Something about it kicks in my spite and makes me just want to be contrary.
Ohh you are all going paleo for a good cleanse? Here watch me eat some pizza. Ohh you are giving up processed foods and eat whole? Here watch me eat a twinki. Ohh you are running twice a day plus an hour at the gym? I am going to go watch an entire season of Big Bang Theory in one night.
It took me a very long time to get on the being healthy wagon. I spent literally years being told I had to lose weight, I had to eat better, I had to work out. Of course these opinions were coming from friends and family and sometimes random strangers. Not that they weren't concerned for me and had good intentions, but it really didn't make me want to do any of those things despite knowing they were right.
I didn't start at New Years. I didn't make any resolutions. I just did it. One day I woke up and decided it was time. I gave up sodas. I started tracking my food. I started working out at the gym and at home. I started taking the stairs. I started eating more fruit and less chips. I stopped keeping junk food and snacks in the house. I started slowly making the right changes in my life for the best reason; because I wanted to.
It has also been a struggle not to focus on the numbers. I don't want to judge my progress on the number on the scale or the size of my jeans. That isn't what this is all about. I mean don't get me wrong, I do a little dance when the scale goes down or I realize I need one size lower in jeans. I am only human, and very much a woman, and my ego loves these things. The point of this though is to be healthy and feel better. The smaller jeans size is the bonus to the journey.
So I applaud people for attempting to use the New Year as a kick start to a healthier lifestyle and I truly hope that they can manage to meet their goals. I just hope that their goals and resolutions are set on a desire to do it for themselves and not because it is the thing everyone else is pushing right now. Don't drink the kool-aid because everyone else is, drink it because you want to.
