I hope everyone had a joyous Christmas and had some good runs with any presents that improved your running. It seems between Brown Santa and Blue Santa many families had a good Christmas to celebrate. This community is great at stepping up and helping others.
The next holiday on the schedule is New Year’s Day in just a few days. This is a hard one to follow for an exercise program if you are a football enthusiast. Between big meals and allday football bowl games, it is difficult to schedule a workout. The best opportunity is early morning before things start to happen. Even trying to schedule a workout at halftime of the game is hard because more than one station has a football game, or a basketball game, or a soccer game, to watch during the halftime.
The tradition with the new year is the practice of making New Year’s resolutions. The start of a new year is a great time to start a new lifestyle change as well. I usually make some resolutions but most are forgotten two weeks later unless I write them down in a place where I see them every day.
There are two types of resolutions for people to make. One is a negative resolution and the other is a positive resolution.
The negative resolutions are quitting habits that have a negative effect on you. Examples of a negative resolution include stop smoking, stop excessive drinking, stop eating boxes of candy, stop eating large meals that add pounds and inches to the waist, and get off the cell phones and laptop games for hours in the day.
The positive resolutions are more in the line of start a walking or running program, start exercising for improving strength, start eating a much better healthy diet, start repairing those necessary places around the house that you have been putting off, and start each day with a positive outlook on things.
The one problem I hear about or see with other individuals is that if there is an interruption in the resolution that causes a stop to it, the person thinks that it is the end of the resolution. There is no rule book that states that if you stop your resolution that you can’t start over again. You made the resolution for the new year and that includes your resolution for the entire year. If you need to put an escape clause in your New Year’s resolution that you are permitted to continue the resolution even after a brief pause in it, that may work. The new year didn’t stop when you broke your resolution so you just need to pick up where you left off and continue on for the rest of the year.
My resolutions are usually the same every year and most were easy to follow because I made resolutions to keep doing what I was already doing. Whether it was going for a walk, a run or a bike ride, that was something I was active in already. This last year has seen a change in that routine. Maybe it is old age and that after so many years of running, lifting weights, riding my bike and watching my weight that those active practices have been replaced with too much sitting around and putting on weight around the waistline.
The resolutions for this year are to get back to doing those active routines that were a part of my lifestyle. I don’t need to enter any marathons again (this year), or lift those heavy weights like in the past, but I will try to make sure I get a few good walks or jogs every week, get the rust and cobwebs off the weights, and pump up the air in my bike tires.
Instead of watching Facebook stories, that time can be learning to play the guitar better. I will still be terrible at the guitar but it is a great pastime to keep me entertained.
I need to print out my resolutions in big bold letters where I can read them every day.
